Serneul Skumpubes Illinois, Cook County, Birth Certificates, 1871-1953

Marco Rubio is reportedly saying Maduro will stand trial in US courts. Which means it’s now the US administration’s position that US courts can hold foreign presidents, but not the US president, accountable for crimes.

Ever relevant, this poem by Mary Oliver, especially today.

DeChristmasing is fraught with dilemmas

What am I going to do when there's no more Christmas cake for my new essential meal of mid-morning Christmas cake?

It means absolutely nothing to anyone concerned right now but here's what the United Nations says about kidnapping Heads of State. legal.un.org/ilc/texts/in...

Irish farm animals according to an AI 'history' site.

Out now! Open access in current issue of Renaissance Quarterly thanks to @ucdlibrary.bsky.social my thanks to everyone who helped me with this - but a special mention of the late Bríd McGrath for her wisdom, generosity and dedication to all the things that matter.

HOW?

Years ago I co-edited a festschrift with a colleague whose work was very different from mine, who could not grasp why or how what I did mattered to the field. I was remembering him today, and started thinking about the meta-question: why is it so hard to change dominant historical narratives. 1/

London in the good old days - before everyone's feet pointed forwards.

🗃️ The US attracted more foreign-born people from more places than any other nation in history. We need language to acknowledge that central fact of American history. But we also need language that goes beyond the idea that the United States is, or ever was, simply a “nation of immigrants.” 🧵1/10

Peig

My @rtebrainstorm.bsky.social post from a little while ago on Christmas baby names! www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2...

One of the first things a Farage government will do will be to make sure "the young are taught correctly about our history," and if that doesn't set off all manner of alarm bells then it should. (MAIL)

2026 is the year of the what? (🐎)

Happy New Year 🎉 New Year's Eve thoughts from the 1873 Diary of John Thomas, Royal Harpist 📝 'The Almighty be thanked for all his loving mercies during the past year & may he grant us his blessings during the coming year!' #Wales #HappyNewYear

Always worth a post

Learning Irish dancing just to reel something

Tile Satan smokes peacefully while scratching his arse. The Netherlands, 1625

orcas have the chance to do the funniest thing

Sheela na gig, of sorts.

**Top Ten Images of the Year · #8 of 10** Owl lovers unite! 🦉 Completely struck by this lovely depiction of an owl in the choir stalls at Wakefield Cathedral.

Callan's Kicks is like RTE's version of AI. Noone wants it but it's forced on us anyway.

Can't this pestilence just remain at home? In case you needed further proof that the US (and UK) are and intend to remain the manipulative puppeteers behind the very small far right in Ireland www.irishtimes.com/politics/202...

Oh noes, OpenAI think we're not the bestest of countries

Germany does much worse than this.

In relation to Ireland, Mr Bannon said: “I’m spending a ton of time behind the scenes on the Irish situation to help form an Irish national party.” “They’re going to have an Irish Maga, and we’re going to have an Irish Trump."

Israeli forces shoot and kill 11-year-old girl in Gaza City - https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/israeli-forces-shoot-and-kill-11-year-old-girl-gaza-city

497 years ago today, Henry VIII attended a meal with Cardinal Wolsey and the Papal Legate Campeggio, for which this is the menu (one of the few menus for meals attended by Henry) that survive. 1/8

I think a lot of people who don't often write (or who just don't care) understand how easy it is to spot "AI" text once you've been exposed to it. It's gotten to the point that I can look at a piece of "AI" writing and tell if it was written by ChatGPT or some other LLM. They have "house styles."

The Irish Examiner have a piece covering my US Pensioners in Ireland Interactive Map that shares some of their stories and images relating to them. You can read it below, thanks to Sean O'Riordan for covering it! www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-41...

Tweenage daughter, watching a show on fashion: 'I bet they'll make her wear something awful like skinny jeans'. Me: I always wear skinny jeans, am i totally out of fashion? Tween: They're fine on you. It's your Oldie aesthetic Me: *crumbles into dust*

Bruv

“Women in early medieval Ireland”, Online lectures by me, Lizzie Boyle, Charlene Eska, and Fergus Kelly seminar for Oxford Centre for Early Medieval Britain and Ireland youtu.be/ebQjYq-rT4c?...

Woo hoo! My essay on Catholic chapel-building in Ireland 1780s- 1820s is now available as #OpenAccess - so if you want to read it, you can just click right through. GRMA to the IReL agreements for that! www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

working at a university

Amish in Ireland accepting new members. www.newstalk.com/news/were-op...

The doom paInting goes across the walls over the chancel arch

Join me, @tomhulme.bsky.social & @paraickerrigan.bsky.social in Dublin on Jan 23 at the Irish Georgian Society to talk about my book, Love in the Lav! Tickets scanner.topsec.com?d=1962&r=sho...

If you're looking for some new music, here are two articles with great recommendations and links. 🧵 1. @thethinairmagazine.bsky.social's Top 100 Irish Releases of the year, with embedded bandcamp player for each. thethinair.net/2025/12/the-...

Love that a Facebook group for the town of Feakle, Co Clare, is called 'feakle matters'.

Watching a show in which Maya Rudolf plays a feckless billionaire and I was amused to see her handbag, which #SpeirGorm will recognise as the bag that helped sink a feckless presidential campaign

Did medieval people buy each other Christmas gifts? New Year's Day was the main gifting day, but little is known about everyday people's present giving. Our project on London's customs records has uncovered a wealth of affordable items imported around this time: gloves and hats to toys and rattles🧵

“The reason why Israel is suddenly recognising Somaliland, which has been a breakaway region for decades, is because they and the US are working on a plan to forcibly relocate Palestinians from Gaza to there-despite the risk to regional security” Julia McFarlane BBCNews apnews.com/article/isra...

What's the term for going cold turkey on cold turkey? Might need it by Monday or Tueaday. 🦃

Went for an evening stroll after a #StrangerThings marathon and, um...

'All my babies' midwives of #Georgia 1953 www.loc.gov/item/2017604...

How your email finds me

Jack B Yeats' Wren Boys, for the day that's in it #spéirgorm #dreoilín