Tried to get Day 2 done before midnight, but Bluesky deleted it, and I was too frustrated to redo it. So here we go. Day 2, B: Has to be Babel, RF Kuang. The coolest magic system I have read. My only issue was that the queer subtext remained subtext. Those boys deserved to kiss. #BookChallenge

Ok this looks fun. Day 1, A: Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid I devoured this book in a long weekend and even then it was hard to pull myself away from it to do, like, life stuff. Intoxicating. Space. Lesbians. What more do you need? #BookChallenge #QueerBooks

I love an art break-out group. Had fun collaging at the UnConference on Reconceptualising Disability in Education, which took place @uniofgalway.bsky.social yesterday. Not quite sure where my academic path takes me post-PhD, but hoping to integrate more creative methods as a means of inclusion.

The genderd nature of this cost of living clash is wild “growing men cry” “lorry men” etc what about our majority female carers who don’t have time to express emotion and when they do are ignored #ireland #speirghorm

"But Ireland's susceptibility to oil price disruption was because the Government has been unserious about taking the uncomfortable steps needed to move the country to powering itself by renewable energy." In a nutshell.

Remember when they wouldn't pass the Occupied Territories Bill because it would violate EU rules? Was Israel violating international law and committing a genocide an insufficiently "acute" situation? #Spéirgorm

Since Nuremberg in 1945, international law has established that the "wanton destruction of cities, towns or villages, or devastation not justified by military necessity" is a punishable war crime. No serious international lawyer would deny that this is what Israel is doing in South Lebanon.

I’ve managed to string together my thoughts through the rage this week, please read & share 💭✍🏼 #Spéirghorm #IrishPolitics #Fascism 🔗 tinyurl.com/wak45j7d

Cannot help but feel agrieved at this tbh, the govt refused to give people with disabilities a €400 emergency payment, even prior to attacks on Iran, where disabled persons groups outlined disabled ppl were choosing between heating and eating. #Spéirgorm #speirgorm

The only way to durably protect hauliers - and the economy - against fossil fuel shocks is to support them to electrify trucks. Sales of electric trucks in China outsold diesel trucks last December. So far this year, only one electric HVG was newly registered in Ireland. #fuelprotests #speirgorm

Who gets means tested and who doesn't when it comes to State supports is worth a study.

The only way out of this that doesn't empower the far-right is progressive social policies that lift people out of poverty, reduce inequality, and build the infrastructure needed for us to leave behind the destabilising influence of fossil fuels. A rising tide lifts all ships.

Reflections on Government inaction... Did they reckon they would be out of politics before the proverbial hit the fan regarding continued reliance on oil? Oh, look: the consequences of inaction on a just transition to renewables and the unsustainable growth mentality in farming. #speirghorm

Down having a look at the blockade on O'Connell street and what strikes me most is that this is in reality a very small protest that looks big because of the size of the vehicles involved. There's a few dozen people standing around at most.

We import 84% of our fruit and veg. We can't live on meat and dairy alone. I'm fully in favour of better supports for Irish farmers and giving everything needed to help them to transition to actually putting food on our tables in a meaningful way, but we need to stop greenwashing our current system

This and selling milk powder in Asia is what goes through my head when I hear "no farmers, no food". Maybe, if only we produced food we actually eat rather than exporting milk powder combined with vegetable oil to nations where most people are lactose intolerant.

Like I get what he's saying but Ireland actually mostly exports high value luxury items like dairy and meat and ingredients like milk powder. We actually import most of what people actually eat

There is something very bleak about the threat of annihilation of an entire country filtered disproportionately through the lens of the cost of petrol and diesel. The energy crisis is real and serious but so is the threat to our shared humanity. www.rte.ie/news/ireland...

If you are travelling in Ireland today, check your route on the Transport Infrastructure Ireland page for delays from protests. traffic.tii.ie/search/aroun...

The latest episode of Philosophy Tube is about conversion therapy, why it’s still legal in the UK, and the ways the British government is implicated in it making it NHS policy. Proud to expose this stuff ✊ youtu.be/_S5w18sjYLk?...

The United States has always had a 'unique' approach to free speech. Personally, I'm not a fan of forms of speech that have been shown to psychologically harm those who have been subject to them. But, you know, the marketplace of ideas and all that /s.

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