"A mural of the Statue of Liberty in shame" by JDL Street Ar in Lille , Roubaix France 🇫🇷

Holy shit, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell corrected the orange felon’s lies on live television without hesitation. This is how you do it.

Here's Ireland's attempt to recruit researchers from abroad. Improved funding opportunities for researchers already here doesn't seem to have occurred to them... www.researchireland.ie/funding/glob...

The fairy tales illustrated by artist Eric Winter (all first published between 1964 - 1972)

Fun new @chaski85.bsky.social project! We’re working on a flute/lever harp transcription of Madame Dussek’s Cm harp sonata. Totally works & is So Much Fun! It’s for a concert that’s especially dear to our hearts. Once the date is finalized I won’t stop talking about it.😎

Please sign to support the future training of musical instrument makers chng.it/zgM4brHjcw

My new book, Béara: Rescued Folklore - 4th in the Rescued Folklore series - is available from 31 March 2025. More here: www.mike-baldwin.net/folklore

Really glad I asked for extra-long legs for my Pilgrim Skylark harp. So much easier to play standing up with a dodgy back.

Car park with a view. #Schull #Cork

The hills of West Cork are as stunning in a late-night rainstorm as on a sunny day.

Great to see one of Craxton's shepherds here. One of last year's highlights was the Craxton exhibition at Pallant House, to which we lent two items from Britten and Pears' collection (more details on the Pallant House blog at pallant.org.uk/perspectives...).

Dunbeacon stone circle and nearby Coolcoulaghta standing stones near Durrus, West Cork, Ireland. #standingstonesunday

advance copies have arrived and if it looks like i’m trying to hug it, that’s because i am 🥹

This is such a wonderful book, I loved reading it, and you can soon hear @moudhy.bsky.social on an upcoming episode of You’re Dead To Me 👇📚😁

This autumn/winter I'm going to be doing some solo ghost story shows. Just me, a single light and the darkness - a celebration of 10 years of @tbodal.bsky.social. I want to come to bookshops, libraries, chapels, halls, wherever. If that's your venue or space, please drop me a line and let's chat? 👻

I stand by this.

All I want is a manor in the Scottish countryside, the ominous rumble of thunder in the distance, an Agatha Christie novel, a kettle on the stove, a vintage armchair, an emotional support owl, and a basket of freshly-baked pastries.

Instrumental podcast fundraiser 71% reached #podcast #musicalinstruments #musicology #organology #ethnomusicology #orchestra #musicalinstrumentmakers #history #culturalhistory gofund.me/fcf7d14d

40 South Street, Dorchester, a listed building where Thomas Hardy apprenticed as an architect, has been lost to fire. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

"The Dance of Death," German oil painting, 18th century. It depicts living people from all walks of life encountering skeletal figures who force them to engage in a deathly dance. I talk about funerary customs from "ye olden days" on R4's BEST MEDICINE. Listen here: www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

🔊 #NowPlaying#NowPlayingon BBC Radio 3's #ClassicalLive Tara Viscardi & Tara Viscardi: 🎵 Midnight over Glanmore Lake #BBCRadio3 #TaraViscardi ▶️ Track on #Spotify:

Notre Dame in Paris re-opens this wkd. I'm a cathedral nerd. Here are some things that you might not notice about it – just from that one photo. THREAD. 1. You can see straight down the nave to the apse. No medieval English cathedral has that.

Order now in time for Christmas. My favourite story? On 27 November 1888 the Bull Rock lighthouse was destroyed in a storm with 5 men inside. Family and friends waked the men assuming all died. Spoilers: everyone survived. Rescue took weeks. #Folklore #Books #Irishbooks #Irishfolklore #christmasgift

Béara: Rescued Folklore. Out now. #newbooks #folklore #Ireland

I’m on a BIG filming adventure, bringing you something WONDERFUL soon!! Can’t say any more, but look what I’m seeing 👀👀👀

Chris and Simon ring the changes on bell folklore in their latest #BoggartandBanshee episode, with 'Hells Bells: Polts, Underground Cities and Supernatural Disinfectant.' Ding-dong merrily on high (and low)! www.buzzsprout.com/admin/185964...

Looking for a Christmas present? These are great... and I'm not biased. #Books #folklore #harps #WestCork #Ireland #Christmas

This is the stage I’m at with the next book… 😂

The House of Commons Library is a national treasure, and this looks like a really valuable primer, by David Torrance, on how laws are made, where powers are exercised, and what we need to know if we want to understand how (and by whom) we're governed. commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-bri...

I've recently been working on a new podcast on the cultural and scientific history of musical instruments, named 'Instrumental.' I have interviewees ready but now need to buy recording equipment. If you’d like to know more or maybe help please visit gofund.me/89f2efc9 Thanks Dr Mike Baldwin

Out in paperback this week in our Routledge Studies in Eighteenth-Century Cultures and Societies > Enlightened Nightscapes: Critical Essays on the Long Eighteenth-Century Night Edited By Pamela F. Phillips www.routledge.com/Enlightened-... #skystorians 🗃️ #c18th #c19th

Folklore. So ... my co-authored major book with @cerihoulbrook.bsky.social is nearly finished! "British Folklore: A Journey Through the Past and Present" It's been a real challenge to survey, research, and analyse such huge amounts of material. But we've enjoyed it. More anon...

I am thrilled to share the cover of my forthcoming book, I Have Avenged America: Jean-Jacques Dessalines and Haiti’s Fight for Freedom (June 2025 @yalepress.bsky.social) The stunning painting is by Haitian-American artist Ulrick Jean-Pierre (ulrickjeanpierre.com) yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300...

Got a bad cough? Snail water or soup was a common cure. In 1678 physician Gideon Harvey criticised the "London snail water" currently on sale. His was better: "the cool, clammy, and glutinous substance" cooled consumptive fevers and acted as an expectorant. Yummy.

Stop sniggering at the back!

Today I’ve coughed, rattled and slept. I’ve drunk a few pints of Lemsip, and I’ve finalised the cover for Béara: Rescued Folklore, for the printer. Despite ancient folkloric advice, I’ve not resorted to sucking on a frog to cure my ailments. #Folklore #newbook #Ireland

The word “dildo” arose in 16th Century England, and for decades was used as a filler word in songs, much like “la dee dah” is used today. The result is a couple of old English tunes for lute and countertenor that use the word “dildo” extensively, like this one by Thomas Morley.

With Béara: Rescued Folklore, (my new book) flying the nest, my thoughts now turn to finishing The Gaelic Harp in Folklore. Here’s a woodcut from Derricke’s The Image of Ireland. Note the harper in the bottom right corner and the arse-baring jesters entertaining the king. Bums have always been funny

The moment you regret following a medical historian on #bluesky👇 This image of bloody diarrhea is from a book by John Arderne written in 1370. The National Library in Stockholm houses the five meter long parchment script. Arderne is most famous for describing how to operate on anal fistulas.

There are lots of upsides to being an SEN teacher. It can be a lot of fun. However, I’m not enjoying this snot-laden, chest-wheezing cough-fest gift from my students. If I make it to school tomorrow I will be handing out detentions.

The ring of Brodgar, on an unusually sunny day in Orkney #StandingStoneSunday

Cúil cuallachta standing stones near Durrus in West Cork. These places always make me think of how populous the area must have been in prehistory compared to today. What I wouldn’t give to spend one day in prehistoric Dunbeacon.

Proud to have played with fab 🤩 🎻 Dexy's violinist Helen O’Hara since my first record ‘ Ancient Heart ‘.She played on ‘ Good Tradition’ my first single & even though Helen took a few years off to raise her family she is back & playing better than ever . Can't wait for you to hear it 🙌 #newmusicalert

Interested in art history? There are over 60 in-depth, fully-illustrated articles on art, history and social change in the Journal of Art in Society, with topics ranging over all time periods and art styles. It’s freely accessible, and there’s no requirement to sign-in artinsociety.com

Gaelic lore, the Northern Lights are said to be the wonderous fights of the celestial warriors in the night sky.  These combatants are known as  Merry Dancers or the Nimble Men. #folklore discoverhighlandsandislands.scot/en/story/the...

Over 60? Writer? This is for you

Book just got real. First look at the covers. #ClassicsBluesky #ArchaeologyBluesky #RomanBluesky