After E2 I am confused as to #Scandal relates to Les Liaisons Dangereuses. The Valmont who repulses and fascinates me is not in this version. How will I both love & loathe his later suffering if I feel sorry for him already?

Aoife Bhreatnach@aoifeb.bsky.social · last wk.

Obsessed with Les Liaisons Dangereuses in all its forms but a kdrama version featuring JCW? I might expire.

We're having an online launch event for Beyond Modernism: noncanonicity in early-twentieth-century British literature, at 6pm UK on Monday 12 October. Speakers will include the editors, @nicholasbirns.bsky.social, @rsazzad.bsky.social, Chris Hopkins, +... Sign up: forms.cloud.microsoft/e/Mjsn26ZMek

Ed Sheeran having his show at Robert Kraft’s stadium canceled due to weather is not just funny, but cosmically hilarious.

The more I look at it, the more this graph at the end of my most recent Gist explains the behaviour of so many of Ireland's political parties. SF, for example, simply can't deal with 50% of its supporters looking to strengthen institutions while the other 50% want to blow them up.

Wearing number 19, Natalie smiled for photos with a scarf reading An Phalaistín, designed by Dublin artist Spicebag, over her shoulders. Two years later she is sitting in an Israeli jail. She faced her sixth court hearing yesterday evening. www.ontheditch.com/we-are-livin...

Palestinian footballer who played Bohs stuck in Israeli jail

“We are living a nightmare,” her father told The Ditch.

ontheditch.com

Very funny but true #speirgorm

"Fully restored in 4K and cut to Ken Russell’s specific direction, Ken Russell’s The Devils is the first publicly released version of the film as intended by the filmmaker." Can it really be true? they found the missing bits? sign me up! www.bfi.org.uk/news/ken-rus...

I hope that someday I write a book worthy of the praise provided by the AI-written spam emails that offer to advertise them for a fee.

Irish people live in fields.

One of the most enduring characters of the last 40 years in cinema is a guy called Hannibal who is a cannibal.

horror Ewacui@ewacat.bsky.social · 3d ago

if you ever struggle with names when worldbuilding just remember there's a whole massive mountain range called The Rockies

I was at a wedding with a bunch of industry folk (mostly editors) a few weeks ago. People I hadn’t seen since I left the industry, and with well established careers cutting tv & features. I had 5? 6? Conversations with people who wanted to know how I transitioned out of the industry.

Willard Foxton@willardfoxton.bsky.social · 4d ago

I think it's absolutely mad that today there's a *national news story* about 400 oil platform workers losing their jobs, and the government being blamed. 25% of the UK TV industry lost their jobs in the last 4 years and we never hear a peep about it! Some jobs are 'real jobs' I guess.

'Row' over monuments to Irish Travellers in a Sheffield graveyard ('haunted crazy golf' aside, comments on FB about them are actually quite positive). metro.co.uk/2026/09/21/b...

Row erupts after 30-tonne memorial appears next to headstone of 'traveller king'

The gaudy memorial for Michael Collins stands just metres from a similar shrine to his brother.

metro.co.uk

Drawing created by Paul Davidson c.1967, in the art therapy studio at Netherne Hospital, where he was compelled to live. This is one of a small number of his surviving works & no biographical information is currently known to us

I think this is worse than plagiarism. At least plagiarism involves some human effort and probably some guilt.

Jeff Sharlet@jeffsharlet.bsky.social · 4d ago

The provost of Dartmouth, at which I teach, has been using AI to write both academic papers & national op-eds, according to brave reporting by @thedartmouth.bsky.social. Many students are already bitter about AI. This leaves us as faculty no ground to stand on. www.thedartmouth.com/article/2026...

It's mildly hilarious to me that when I google DORA looking for Defence of the Realm Act, I get DORA Digital Operational Resilience Act instead.

My talk at Dublin Fest of History is sold out (!) but you can find me talking about censorship here for @dublincityheritage.bsky.social #SpéirGhorm #Speirgorm 🗃️ #Censorship www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-Ho...

'Manuals of Immorality': Censoring Publications in Twentieth Century Ireland | Dr Aoife Bhreatnach

YouTube video by Dublin City Heritage

youtube.com

Have to say there's something a bit ironic about writing a while piece about how the new cartographie representation reminds us how small Ireland is and how it is not tve centre of the world but then only talking about the maps implications for Ireland. www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2026...

Fintan O'Toole: The new map of Earth is a wake-up call for Ireland

On the Equal Earth map, Ireland suddenly looks a lot more northernly and a lot less central - no longer the much-vaunted ‘island at the centre of the world’

irishtimes.com

The 1954 British production THE PURPLE PLAIN cast a Burmese actress (from Burma!) to play the Burmese lead role. Okay, so Gregory Peck plays a Canadian but still… 🤪

Goldstein (still not a pseudonym)@goldstein.latinsky.app · 4d ago

I guess that explains Goldstein too. It was the nineties and Jews simply did not exist in the UK. There was no one to ask.

Historically, automation tech has commonly made more work for people: the issue is WHICH people. Whether as an excuse for owners to increase the requirements for expectations in a given day, lessen the labor expected of men while raising the expectations for women, etc. "AI" isn't exceptional.

"In a wide ranging statement, Mayo LGFA concluded by asking for everyone involved in Gaelic games around the country to, "ask your county board when its Integration Committee is holding its first meeting, and ask to see the minutes". #spéirgorm www.rte.ie/sport/womens...

Mayo LGFA calls for firm timetable on integration

Mayo LGFA has called on the integration of all three Gaelic games organisations to happen quickly as the fallout from the resignation of Mary McAleese continues.

rte.ie

Hmm. It doesn't feel like much has changed.

Mark Henry@drmarkhenry.bsky.social · 5d ago

Ireland is the 10th most gender equal nation in the world. 🇮🇪 The country has seen sustained progress over the past 20 years, driven by steady gains in economic participation and political representation while maintaining full educational parity, says the World Economic Forum. 👏

Beoga records, merch and tickets: www.beogamusic.com/store Aaron Rowe records, merch and tickets: www.aaron-rowe.com#merch

Ciara | Ciaraíoch 🎨@ciaraioch.bsky.social · last wk.

Beoga and Aaron Rowe pulling out of Sheeran's tour is so admirable. Putting principles in front of career is incredibly brave and I hope they get huge support because of it.

Time for another feature doc on 'aren't we great all the same, us little Irish people with our big jobs abroad' that ignores any of the political/moral stuff

Adrian Weckler@adrianweckler.bsky.social · 4d ago

An Irish priest has become a spiritual, ethical and moral advisor to Anthropic and other AI companies, amid talk of doom. Fr Brendan McGuire, from Bray, has a parish in Los Altos, in the heart of Silicon Valley. Used to be in tech himself. Late vocation. Now he says mass and advises LLMs.

If this was my writing mantra, I'd never do a thing

Jean Rhys@msjeanrhys.bsky.social · 4d ago

This time I must not blot a line. No revision, no second thoughts. Down it shall go. Already I am terrified.

A king can't tell a lie - the holy oil will burn a hole in his forehead if he does. (honestly would prefer if Brits said this out loud instead of their unspoken weird demi-god monarchism)

Unofficial BBCNews (UK) Bot@bbcnews-uk-rss.bsky.social · 5d ago

Laura Kuenssberg: I asked Earl Spencer who we should believe, him or the King?

At the same time that the Minister for Justice is trying to cut off our access to the economic engine of immigration, the Minister for Finance is warning about the very demographic problem immigration is solving. While ignoring its existence.

Simon McGarr@tupped.bsky.social · 6d ago

The thing the Minister for Justice is trying to stop us have is the thing that is keeping us going.

This is what the Rapture is?! I presumed it was just end-of-the-world Christian stuff. Eye-opening 🧵

Dr Jo Kershaw@mthrjo.bsky.social · 5d ago

However, there’s something particularly damaging about the Rapture, because it teaches that “real” Christians* will be snatched straight to heaven and then there will be ten years of Unpleasantness while the Antichrist rules the earth, followed by a judgement of those left. * not me, not the Pope

Keep politics out of music, like in the old days when Tchaikovsky wrote the 1812 Overture about how nice the weather was that year, or Beethoven composed his “Emperor” concerto in honour of his favourite kitten, and Dylan sang A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall, all about the fun of splashing in puddles.

This genuinely made me laugh out loud today

"Enforcing soldier masculinity through mandatory morning-boner checks" is the sort of thing an unsubtle satirist might make up about Russia.

MeidasTouch@meidastouch.com · 7d ago

NEWS: The Pentagon has announced mandatory low-testosterone screenings for male troops 30 and older, including screening for symptoms such as “reduced libido, loss of spontaneous morning erections, erectile dysfunction,” and other symptoms.