They banned Twilight ....

Friends of the Earth Ireland have a handy template you can edit and sent to ministers calling for a moratorium on data centre development. Every action will count before we get to burning data centres out like the big houses in the 1920s: friendsoftheearth.ie/act/data-cen...

Disabled Women Ireland is preparing a submission on the new Cost of Disability payment, but your individual submission matters just as much. Public consultations rely on hearing directly from disabled people about the real costs they face. Adding your voice can help push for meaningful change.

It is a truth universally acknowledged... that if a homophobic or transphobic interpretation of a law is possible, some lawyer will do it. Imagine making the assumption that a law banning conversion practices exists for the protection of queer people. Imagine. timesofmalta.com/article/exga...

Extraordinary reporting by Mick Clifford in the Examiner (although a little bit of infantilisation going on). CW: pretty heartbreaking first-person account of an autistic person held on remand in Cork prison over Christmas. share.google/aeZG7ynn69VQ...

Hey, @micheal-martin.bsky.social, look, it's apparently this easy.

Doing some work at the moment that requires me to read through the US Supreme Court filings in Chiles v Salazar and the degree to which the petitioner cites the Cass Review is depressing...

'Data centres will take a third of power by 2030' Ireland's government wants to make us a digital slop farm. And in the process, almost certainly miss climate targets. Very few jobs or tangible benefits, but easily wowed and awed by big tech. www.independent.ie/business/iri...

It is done. PhD thesis submitted. Now I just need to defend it!

Update: reverted to an earlier version, saved multiple copies before converting to PDF. The word-processing gods have decided to stop tormenting me, as it seems ok... One last check needed!

Currently trying to submit my thesis. Converted to PDF, and the chapter headers went bananas. Fixed that. Then the numbering was off. Fixed that. Tried to lock it for editing so things wouldn't go crazy when converted to PDF. Now everything is highlighted purple. Why is everything purple?????

‘We're seeing eviction rates not seen in Ireland since the 1850s' - a headline out government should be ashamed off, but do they even care? A reminder - the 1850s was the period during and after the devastation of the Great Famine #spéirgorm www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2...

Tomorrow's Headlines The Telegraph: Starmer Next! The Guardian: Morgan McSweeney's Gone, Thank God! The Irish Times: Irishman forced out of UK Labour Role The Irish (Cork) Examiner: Having Completed Michael Collins' Work, and brought low the British Government, Macroom Calls it's Son Home

All of Michael Martin's statements these days are just "we can't deliver flood relief", "we can't deliver climate reform", "we can't deliver transport infrastructure", "we can't criticise the US" What can you deliver What is the point of you

I didn't believe it, but I've started doing an exercise routine designed by my physio. Apparently the trick is to push yourself just enough to get the benefit but not too much that you feel horrific. The joys of being a floppy person. We could label it but those are the terms my docs have used 😂

I have been reading for at least 45 minutes a day this month as part of a reading challenge. Sometimes it's hard to do the 45 minutes, but I'm really enjoying it! Fave read for January was definitely RF Kuang's Babel. Incredible book with such a clever magic system. #BookSky

Ah lads. Catherine O'Hara has died. What a horrible loss.

major case of shooting the messenger, when successive governments have done too little to: (a) cut ireland's emissions enough to make a fair contribution to climate action; (b) protect people and their homes from the climate change that's already locked in

Apparently, it doesn't matter if the United States is an authoritarian fascist regime murdering and disappearing those with the misfortune to cross paths with ICE. Our political representatives will still show up with the begging bowl filled with shamrock. Absolute moral bankruptcy.

Current goal: to submit my PhD thesis before the international legal order collapses. Existential dread is high.

A little peek into the making of one of my linocut illustrations for ‘Sinners’. Can’t believe this is a year ago, and still surreal to have my work on film. You can read more in detail in my portfolio over on my website. www.blockforest.co.uk #sinners #Illustration #Art #linocut #sinnersmovie

if you insult slime jesus you insult me www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...

🎵Come out La Migra goons In your stumbling platoons Tell your wives how you ate shit on ice for quotas Tell her how despite your guns all you ever did was run from the cold and frozen streets of Minnesota!🎵

Book #2 of 2026 is Babel, which @frankiegolucky.bsky.social has been trying to get me to read for a while now. I'm about a third of the way through, and it's an incredible book. I absolutely adore the magic system that RF Kuang has devised. #BookSky

Supporting the legal capacity of all persons with disabilities – in conversation with János Fiala-Butora In this 'in conversation with,' I talk to the lawyer and academic Dr János Fiala-Butora about his new book, Implementing the Right to Decide under the Convention on the Rights of Persons with…

She's got a plastic dress on, is Heathcliffe her dangerous crow boy?

📢 Ireland's List of Issues has been published by the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). 🔗https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=INT%2FCRPD%2FLIT%2FIRL%2F67787&Lang=en

First book of 2026 - Now She Is Witch by Kirsty Logan. A vivid imagined portrayal of what it might have been like to be a woman in medieval Europe, particularly during the witch trials. A gift from @frankiegolucky.bsky.social for our annual January book exchange. #BookSky

A plain and direct violation of the law of neutrality and Irish sovereignty by an aggressor state during an international armed conflict.

I think this feels particularly shocking because no matter how much you stretch the law this has absolutely no basis of legality whatsoever. No terrorists, no "threat" requiring anticipatory self defence. Nothing.

I was really pleasantly surprised by my reading wrap-up for 2025. I read 16 books, 6 books over my goal of 10. Finally feel like I'm getting over my post-2020 reading slump so that's exciting. #BookSky

For all the fretting about ‘the public purse’ by legal advisers to Government, they waste a lot of public money protecting their state-centric understanding of the public interest when it might be better for everyone if the state just spent public money on the rights it resists:

I wish OpenAi a very absolute obliteration in the new year

My reading updates have been few and far between of late, as I try to finish my PhD. One book I have been dipping into each month is Lia Leendertz's 2025 Almanac, which has been such a joy. 5 ⭐ from me, and I'm looking forward to the 2026 edition. #BookSky

Watching The Snowman (1982) and there's something beautiful and joyous in watching something entirely created by humans in this era of AI nonsense.

Not linking to the Guardian article suggesting that there is 'debate' 10 years after Ireland's Gender Recognition Act...looking for a story where there is none. Not every hateful trend gets followed. #TransRights

Question for the hivemind: Is there a stronger term than neurodiversity lite? I'm writing about something at the moment which tosses about the word neurodiversity but is using it as a cover for practices that basically discriminate against neurodivergent people for being neurodivergent.

What historians (and other scholars do) is create knowledge. We should use that phrase more and talk about what it means. I think we don't, and it's part of why AI enthusiasts are confused when we don't readily agree that our work can be replicated/replaced by their products.

Glad to see continuing coverage of this. Fascinating comment in the fourth last paragraph as to the lack of explanation for O'Callaghan's decision. Wonder if he's had a telling off for straying from Justice to Foreign Affairs...

Finally, up to date with #ResearchAdvent with Day 20 - Theory. I could write about theory for days. I think it's a remnant of my bachelor's degree being in Law and French, where I was exposed to a lot of theory. From Rousseau to Foucault, Olympe de Gouges and, bizarrely, the Marquis de Sade?

Day 19 of #ResearchAdvent was Analysis. Analysing law is my comfort zone, but there's not a lot of law about neurodiversity as a concept separate from disability. So, I had to broaden my methodology and opted for critical discourse analysis, focusing on discourse created by neurodivergent people.

Day 18 of #ResearchAdvent was Inspiration. It's funny; I had always thought of doing a PhD, but I struggled to find a topic that would keep me hooked for four years. Amazingly, lying on my parents' couch in January 2021, the idea came to me. Neurodiversity and criminal responsibility.

So, I'm in what I hope is the final stretch of my PhD, and I've Found it rather challenging to keep up with #ResearchAdvent this week. (This is my post for Day 17 - Found 😂)

The #WinterSolstice livestream link is now available Join us on 21 Dec @ 8:40 am to witness the solstice sunrise live from inside the #Newgrange chamber, weather permitting. Save the link now and be part of this extraordinary moment. 🔗www.gov.ie/solstice#WinterSolstice#Newgrange#ShareTheSolstice

Deeply disappointed that our government voted against removing the 3 day wait on abortions yesterday. But very curious to see what yesterday's successful EU parliament vote on abortion access will do, it also calls for no waiting period.

Who. Who asked for this? Who thought this was a good idea? Doesn't it defeat the entire purpose of conducting research? Instead of asking people questions, here are some statistically likely responses. How.. just... I can't.

Ok, Day 16 of #ResearchAdvent - Change. Deciding to start a PhD marked a career change for me. For my sins, I had been a civil servant (in foreign affairs). However, I'm the nerdiest of introverts, so it wasn't sustainable. Hoping the career change decision works out!!!

Really glad to read this article by Liam Herrick on the apparent dramatic reversal of Ireland's approach to human rights protection last week by Jim O'Callaghan. Did Cabinet sign off on him signing the Danish statement or was this a solo run by O'Callaghan?

Can we commission CMAT to write a song about Jim O'Callaghan #spéirghorm