it's a great interview, and what's striking is that at the end of the day both klein and coates believe in winning people over. the difference is that coates thinks you do this by telling them the truth, and klein thinks you do it by empathizing with them and recognizing their concerns as Real

Beware! Socialism is taking root.

Cambridge trip is coming to an unplanned abrupt end for reasons out of my control, but I’ve enjoyed my couple days. A mini photo dump

What a pleasure it was to hear Peter Mandler reflect on his career and the field over the last 50 years. A real privilege to get to attend.

Rather surprised to see a review of the volume I co-edited with Dr Heather Laird seemingly many moons ago show up in the latest Irish Historical Studies. A very generous review - bravo to all the contributors. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Somehow, I had never seen this 'poem' about O'Connell published in the Times. Can't underscore how deeply he was hated by a section of England's governing classes. Some incredible rhymes in these 38 lines. 🗃️ "Scum condensed of Irish Bog! Ruffian, Coward, Demagogue! Boundless Liar, base Detractor!

Cambridge seems a lovely town but so far it has shockingly bad coffee, which is surprising given the environs.

Got a revise and resubmit with three incredibly reasonable, helpful, engaged reviewers' comments in under 3 months from submission. I'll take it!

If this intends to make it legally compulsory for every adult in Derry to carry something called a "Brit Card", then I'm willing to offer some high-paid consultancy on why this plan might be flawed.

Hello, Mr Cambridge Fox 🦊

Americans ruining things: "The Yankee *twang* and all the usual go ahead ways are so utterly out of keeping with the surrounding. Fancy a splendid avenue of tropical vegetation permeated by scores and scores of telephone wires. ...Picture this in the mountain wilds of Glenties & Gweedore."

"The highest mountain at the end of the valley is 2449 feet, just the same as Slieve Binnian in the Mourne Mountains. ... It is surrounded by banana, hibiscus and orange trees and looking down to the sea whose beach was bordered by palms [and] reminded me much of Cushendun."

"Mother, I drove out from Honolulu 4 miles to a beautiful place called the Manoa Valley, reminding one somewhat of Glengarriff"

I think University of Cambridge library may be the most confusing library I've ever had the pleasure to visit, with its Alpha and Beta stairwells, its various wings, and North/South/East/West reading rooms. ...or the 4:15am wake-up is catching up with me.

Mick Herron is hilarious but seldom more so than when he has his Roddy Ho in full flow.

For being 'digitally native' and savvy with tech, it is amazing how many first year students are completely unable to find basic information about assignments, their profile, etc. on Canvas. What does that say about the navigability of Canvas?

Lots of things to think about from that experience. I went in hoping students would appreciate the 'level' playing field of just their readings and assignments - that wasn't necessarily the case. On the positives (+): students felt like they read closer and were more able to discuss the readings

All of this sure sounds familiar.

Ah sure, when you put it that way it sounds like a really difficult question to answer. (From an 1827 HoC Inquiry into Emigration)

Today, students in my third year module on Ireland and Empire are doing a 'reading response' in class – this will be the first time I've done an in-class assessment in over 10 years. I am genuinely curious to see how it plays out.

Year 3 of coordinating a core module for 300 First Year Students, and I've still yet to come to terms with the amount of administrative work it sucks out of me. Must have sent at least 40 emails today on that topic alone, sorting timetabling issues, etc. 🫠

University of Cambridge library access demanding the answer to a trick question.

Yesterday, I had the privilege to speak to a bunch of Canadians whose families left Ireland on an assisted emigration scheme 200 years earlier. It felt like a real privilege to talk to them not just about history but about **their** history. Learned lots, too.

Oh Arsenal.

I’m heading to Cambridge for the first time ever later this week. Any good food or pub recommendations or other things I “must” do? Hoping to catch at least one Evensong if opportunity allows.

LOL

The key problem with what Ezra Klein says here is that he fails – or is unwilling – to grapple with the fundamental reality of the political conflict: The movement that dominates today’s Right fully rejects the very idea of “living here with each other” as equals. That’s their defining position.

Nothing quite as dependable as an institution (oh, I don't know, say, a University) paying loads of money for a new piece of software meant to "improve efficiency"™️, which actually creates massive inefficiencies and balls up previously well running systems.

Excited to release the conference programme for 'Ireland and the American Revolution: 250th Anniversary Perspectives'. There are only a few tickets left, so if you would like to attend I would suggest getting one as soon as possible. Attendance is free but booking is essential.

In 1843 71,000 people lived on the Trinity College Estates which covered 190,000 acres or 1.25% of Ireland. Most of them originated as land grants made as part of the colonial plantation of Munster and Ulster. The history of these lands and the people who lived on them is part of the TCD story

Historians must 'tell...an uncomfortable story & explain why the discomfort is part of the truth we need to live well and live properly. A well-organised society is one in which we know the truth about ourselves collectively, not one in which we tell pleasant lies about ourselves.'Tony Judt

Quelle belle ville!

Bordeaux is class. Our first European adventure as a family since we moved to Ireland. The briefest 48-hr escape.

Bravo, Des! Apart from the way this focuses on the mixed messaging students receive about the fundamental purpose of university education, it clearly highlights that there is a labour and resources crisis coming down the track for our chronically underfunded third-level sector.

- you clean up that banksy? - sure did, your honour, leaving a perfect, permanent outline, imbuing the work with real fuckin gravitas while making its point better than the artist did himself just like you asked

New in 'Transactions of the Royal Historical Society' 'Irish Catholic Recruitment into the British Army during the American Revolution: A Case Study of the 46th Regiment of Foot', by Sadie Sunderland bit.ly/4m80z84 What can Irish recruitment tell us about the complexity of the C18th military? 1/2

SSNCI members are now starting to receive their FREE copy of our latest conference volume: New Perspectives on Conflict and Ireland in the Nineteenth Century edited by Paul Huddie, Cathal Billings, Arlene Crampsie www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/book/10....

Student: "I am not sure I want to take your module. I heard you failed a student last year in HIXXXX" Me: "I believe you mean to say the student failed a module they took with me". A subtle but important distinction, I think...

First day of term; thirteen weeks till sabbatical.

Looks like I missed a helluva game.

Let's try this for a third time... Baron Von Kartoffel [Baron Potato] (Is it obvious that it is the night before the start of term? 🫠)

A small thing I love about archival research are all the little accidental discoveries. Called up a pamphlet on the Queen's Colleges at the NLI, bound in a volume w/ other pamphlets - and there I come across: "The Germans in Cork being the letters of the Barn Con Kartoffel and others".

Smash-mouth football from Ireland and it paid off.

So bummed to be missing Sounds for a Safe Harbour next weekend. It is such an amazing festival.

There's something wonderfully restorative about a day of reading and research in the @nlireland.bsky.social. ...the train to Cork? Not so much.

Friday afternoon killing time before the train back to the PROC. …uh, did I do it right?

In order to improve impression of Queen's Colleges with the Catholic Church, Sir Robert Kane (UCC's first President) had his inaugural address translated into Italian by the TCD Professor, Signor Basilio Angeli. But the translation was so bad that TCD fired Angeli for being incompetent.

Surprised opening this letter, out pops a pressed flower from 1895. 🗃️

Ah Cork, yer alright. Morning train to the city of the Dubs.

Academics are under unrelenting pressure to accept the narrative of the inevitability of #generativeAI & to embrace it in teaching & learning. We resist - because it is ecologically destructive, ethically corrupt, & because it undermines the thinking abilities that make us both human & intelligent.