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Claire Mitchell

@clairemitchell.bsky.social

writer, mamaí, history and politics, Belfast/County Down, she/her. 📖 The Ghost Limb: Alternative Protestants and the Spirit of 1798 www.clairemitchell.net

683 Posts3488 Follower1490 Folgt
Lee Hurley@hleehurley.com · 2w ago

150,000 marched yesterday in London for trans rights. Opened the Sky News app. Scrolled and scrolled. Nothing. BBC News app. Nothing. Guardian app. Nothing. This is what actual silencing looks like.

Claire Mitchell@clairemitchell.bsky.social · 2w ago

Just spotted that this from last year is open access now - The Republic of Newtownards. It imagines the good version of a reunified Ireland. It's in An Clogán, a new socialist republican magazine - well worth checking out the whole thing. www.anclogan.ie/the-republic...

The Republic of Newtownards

A republic is more than identity or law, writes Claire Mitchell, author of The Ghost Limb. Seeking a republic giving real power to people, she finds hope in community initiatives in her hometown of Ne...

anclogan.ie

Claire Mitchell@clairemitchell.bsky.social · 2w ago

In the 10 years since Brexit, my political imagination has increasingly detached from the UK. To the point where Andy Burnham is new PM today and I'm meh, that's nothing to do with me. Except of course that just isn't true :-/

Luke Butterly@lukejbutterly.bsky.social · 3w ago

Last week there was a joint session by the NI Affairs and Home Affairs committees into the recent riots in Belfast. Davy Beck (PSNI) said "this is the third year in a row" of "atrocious violence and racism." The initial protest calls "had a clear anti-immigration and extreme right-wing theme."

Claire Mitchell@clairemitchell.bsky.social · 3w ago

How to be real about the hate and harm that happens around the Twelfth July, while honouring the experience of so many Prods, for whom the Twelfth actually is a family day of craic. The annual head pickler.

Claire Mitchell@clairemitchell.bsky.social · 3w ago

The Ghost Limb is on RTÉ radio tonight! A four part documentary series, about the story of the book and its afterlife. Hopefully on the Docs on One podcast in due course. A labour of love from producer Dónall Ó Maolfabhail from Scun Scan Productions. www.rte.ie/radio/radio1...

The Ghost Limb - RTÉ Radio 1

Northern Ireland Protestant author, Claire Mitchell, frustrated at having no place to call home, embarks on a historical and magical journey, to heal what she calls her Ghost Limb.

rte.ie

Claire Mitchell@clairemitchell.bsky.social · 2y ago

I've been doing that Irish thing of being too embarrassed to say hello, would you like my book? It's The Ghost Limb: Alternative Protestants and the Spirit of 1798. A tribe of 20 modern day northern dissenters go walking around the sites of 1798, asking what this politics could mean for today.

Pic of me and my still new-ish book, The Ghost Limb: Alternative Protestants and The Spirit of 1798.
Claire Mitchell@clairemitchell.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Very interesting analysis, especially around dynamics in the wider republican movement.

Louth For Ever 🦋@louthforever.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Follow-up to “The Blockade Is the Message” is up. 3 collapses in a weekend the blockade ended: 📌a gov’t that found €750m for a tractor but not €100m for disability 📌an opposition that filed the right motion on the wrong grounds 📌a tradition claimed by people it was built against 🔗 shorturl.at/j7lWA

Jan Rosenow@janrosenow.bsky.social · 4mo ago

France 🇫🇷 doubles electrification support to €10bn/year through 2030 — EVs, heat pumps, industry. The reason? The Strait of Hormuz crisis making fossil fuel dependence impossible to ignore. Geopolitical shocks don’t just raise prices. They change what’s politically possible.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

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Paul Price@swimsure.bsky.social · 4mo ago

“The reality is that we don’t have any food security in Ireland because the vast majority of what we consume is imported and the vast majority of what we produce is exported” – Emma Howard, economist, Technological University Dublin. Another excellent article by @codohertynews.bsky.social

Fuel protests reveal flawed relationship between farms, fertilisers and food

Farmers have warned of food shortages but Ireland imports most of what it eats

irishtimes.com

Catherine Coxon@catherinecoxon.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Fuel protests reveal flawed relationship between farms, fertilisers and food www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2026...

Tara Goddard@drtaragoddard.com · 4mo ago

I have a father and mother in law in Iran. I have a sister in law. A niece. She's 14. She likes silly pink headbands and purses and dresses, just like kids her age all over the world. There are 93 million people like her in Iran. People who do all the normal mundane life things as the rest of us.

Claire Mitchell@clairemitchell.bsky.social · 4mo ago

The Prod squad had an interesting day in the Oireachtas last week. The gist from all 3 of us being that we need to hurry up with unity specifics. A Farage (or a progressive rainbow) coalition at next U.K. election could bring a new timeline, and groundwork is urgent in this context.

GylesNaMopaleen@gylesnamopaleen.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Interesting insights from @clairemitchell.bsky.social who provides ‘Protestant perspectives on constitutional change’ at Leinster House (Irish Parliament buildings) in Dublin. irishborderpoll.com/2026/03/29/l... h/t @irishunity.bsky.social for highlighting it.

extract from article linked in the post. Liberal, Conservative and Left Wing Protestants are now Advocating for Irish Unity Below is the speech Claire Mitchell gave on ‘Protestant perspectives on constitutional change’ in Leinster House on Wednesday. I grew up as a Protestant Dissenter in a very religious and also very anti-sectarian home. My parents were involved in the charismatic reconciliation movement. We are Irish and have always supported reunification, which was very much a minority position for Protestants during the Troubles. I moved to Dublin in 1995 to study history and politics in UCD. I did a PhD in Politics with Professor Jennifer Todd, a post doc in the Institute for British Irish Studies, and then moved north again. I’ve have spent my entire adult life researching and writing about Protestant identities. Most of my work has focused on Protestant diversity. Taking apart stereotypes, and showing how groups like evangelicals or loyalists have huge amount of internal variety. Another central theme of my work is personal identity change over time. My most recent book was with alternative Protestants – modern day United Irishmen and women – who have moved away from unionism, especially after Brexit, and are now curious about Irish unity. 10% of Protestants in the 2024 Northern Ireland Life and Times Survey say that they would vote for Irish unity tomorrow. Many more are exploring and questioning. That is a big change. We’re in a moment of upheaval globally as well as locally, and it won’t surprise anyone that northern Protestants are reevaluating their politics along with everybody else.
ᚅᚓᚃ ᚆᚐᚔᚏᚇᚑ ᚃᚆᚑ ᚇᚔᚄ@ciara2001.eurosky.social · 5mo ago

Imagine moving to Ireland with a condition like diabetes and being told that, no, while you may have been diagnosed elsewhere, you have to wait 18 years for assessment to make sure you really have diabetes before you are prescribed insulin

Transgender people moving to Ireland put on long waitlist for vital healthcare until assessed

The Journal Investigates spoke to transgender people who moved to Ireland and couldn’t continue the care they received abroad

thejournal.ie

Sharrow 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🇮🇪🦄💙📚🎃@sharrow.eurosky.social · 5mo ago

The lack of continuity of medication is a serious issue here. O'Shea and his shower refuse to accept dx and prescriptions from other countries. People moving here are expected to stop medication and goin on the 18 year waiting list. the-beacon.ie/2026/02/17/a...