2,500-year-old gold torque stolen in daylight museum raid! Thieves raided a museum in Châtillon-sur-Seine in broad daylight Friday, making off with a 2,500-year-old gold torque of the 'Lady of Vix'. 👉 www.lefigaro.fr/culture/patr...

This hegehog family were discovered by terriers under our front steps: Fab Reg.Charity/Wildlife Rescue Cork arrived & took them to safety! WRC rescue & rehabilitate orphaned/ injured wildlife & this mother (snout peering out of red box) was feeding 3 hoglets: eyes still shut as under 2 wks old.

This is brilliant, it'd be great to have them rolled out in Irish urban areas!

Sally Luxmoore@sallyl.bsky.social · 3mo ago

A short youtube video about it: youtube.com/shorts/2ikEs...

Sustainable post on its way. This could see a rural revival the way things are going with fossil fuels!

Brian Groom@groomb.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Postman at Diffwys farm, west Wales, 1955, photo by Geoff Charles. It took David Lewis Jones nine hours to complete his round in remote mountain areas between Tregaron and Abergwesn, though he only delivered to eight houses (People’s Collection Wales).

Watching some of our adorable swallows return this week reminds me of my dear late mother who unfailingly noted the dates they came & went, left her shed door open for them & knew about all the other Irish migrant & native birds too...

People used protective marks by doors, windows & hearth openings, with symbols like Hexfoils or Daisywheels or the Sawtooth star motif, seen in this Maltese wrought iron balcony & fan light (& lozenge shapes & serpents). Hexfoils were common in Spain & Italy as well as GB & of course Ireland.

HEGSETH CONDEMNS RARE WHALE SPECIES TO EXTINCTION I have a passion for the whales of this planet planet and saving them. It makes me sick to my stomach to read this. I’ve met many whales over the years - they’re truly extraordinary creatures. www.vox.com/climate/4844...

If these whales go extinct, we’ll know who to blame

Just 51 of these whales are left on Earth. Trump officials may have just doomed them.

vox.com

Fascinating to observe various protective hexfoil motifs in the Grand Marshall Palace's Armoury, in Valetta, Malta. Carefully detailed on a c.1700 flintlock gun stock & also, less meticulous yet obvious, repeatedly on gilt copper c.1550 Ottoman armour and shields.

Butter packed & sold in 56lb flat packed pine boxes had tapered bases & lids c.1880s-1970s. @buttermuseum.bsky.social Imaginatively repurposed with textile covers & comfy lidded seats, a woven rush 1 is uniquely good & the skillfully woven basket matches! Have you got one too? @corkup.bsky.social

& on the subject of resourcefulness when I photographed this built-in press I found pencil-sized holes inside the panels: trademark of Naval Shipworm activity, so boards salvaged from the sea often resurfaced as vernacular furniture. This interior's sadly long gone, early oilcloth on the stairs too.

Here's another lovely example of 'natural knee' furniture, but cleverly using most of a tree for an Inishmaan 'thistle' to dry children's clothes by a fire in my latest book @corkup.bsky.social Irish Country furniture & furnishings 1700-2000 (2020) S. Coleman's sketch for IFC @duchas-ie.bsky.social

The same tiny Irish coastal home has ceiling boards frugally rescued from the sea. Deep pencil-sized holes are from Toredo or Shipworm which only burrows in wood immersed in seawater. So this timber was cut after salvage exposing the holes & it's rare to see it despite centuries of paint.

I'm researching wooden things Irish people made from natural tree forms so this strong hook needed no glue or joints & was nailed up to a joist over a hearth for drying things like clothes or salt fish. It's a rare survival of skilled labour-saving choice of a shape, from a tree, in a tiny home.

It's exciting working with Galway Co. Council to discover apotropaic dot & circle marks, on a huge vernacular armchair, with grained paintwork & great potential for conservation, plus many more treasures.

Traditional vernacular kitchen tables frequently had long double stretchers underneath, sometimes mentioned as a place to lay out a corpse, or to place shoes or boots (which can be seen here) but it's rare to find photographic evidence.

Brian Groom@groomb.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Camera-shy young girl stays close to an older woman, possibly her grandmother, on Inis Meain, Aran Islands, Ireland, 1924, photo by Swedish folklorist Carl von Sydow (National Folklore Collection, UCD).

I'm looking forward to this IPMAG event in Waterford this weekend. I'll be presenting 'Apotropaic marks & protective graffiti in Irish Material Culture' 11am Sat. Check this out! IPMAG XXVI Death & Superstition in Post-Medieval Ireland - allevents.in/waterford/20... allevents.in/waterford/20...

Centred on a beautiful hexafoil: like so many others, deliberately off centre...

Ennius@enniusredloeb.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Yemen is much in the news these days. Here is a carpet page from the 'Sana'a Pentateuch' with verses from the Psalms in micrographic designs of fish and mountains BL Or 2348; the 'Sana'a Pentateuch'; 1469 CE; Yemen (Sana'a); f.39r

President Catherine Connolly has welcomed Greta Thunberg to Áras an Uachtaráin on a courtesy call. The Swedish activist is in Dublin for a fundraiser for Palestinian relief at Bohemian Football Club this week.

Rome's peppered with hexafoils in mosaic floors @hexafoils.bsky.social even cut into stone drains & and all may be protective like the octagonal graffiti in the Colosseum #RIADawson @antiquaries.bsky.social @corkup.bsky.social #Apotropaois @varchgroup.bsky.social

Spotting historic stone circles in Rome: carved in hands, mosaic floors, and the amazing Pantheon dome...

Hugely enjoyable afternoon with a happy group of wreath making pupils taught by brilliant Ruth Fortune who grows all the organic materials we incorporated (& forages some of the moss etc). Her indoor wreaths (2 here) are spectacular & can be posted out #sustainable #organic #local #creative #craft

www.irishexaminer.com/food/arid-41... It's exciting to see this win again & huge convivial congratulations to all involved! @ria.ie @thebuttermuseum.bsky.social @irishcookbooks.bsky.social

Irish food history book wins best of the best award at ‘Oscars’ of food publishing

Irish Food History: A Companion is an edited collection of 28 chapters covering the story of food, drink and gastronomy in Ireland from the Ice Age to the present day

irishexaminer.com

#StaircaseSaturday Breathtakingly lovely. The Palladian 'Tulip Staircase' in Inigo Jones' Queen's House in Greenwich - the first unsupported spiral stair in Britain. Commissioned c.1616 by Anne of Denmark, Queen to James I. Completed c.1635 for Henrietta Maria, Queen to Charles I.

Thanks to everyone who joined us last night for the launch of Irish Dressers and Delph by Meredith Chesson. Our launch speaker Professor Diarmuid Ó Giolláin spoke beautifully about the way communities and individuals make homes out of houses. Out now: www.corkuniversitypress.com/978178205067...

Yet another reminder that the fight for #climate action is also the fight against fascism and genocide. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

Israel accused of detaining Greta Thunberg in infested cell and making her hold flags

Activist tells Swedish officials she has been subjected to harsh treatment, including insufficient food and water

theguardian.com

Red, rounded, autumn tempts me into the damp outside

Projections of U.S. President Donald Trump, Britain's Prince Andrew and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein were put on display against the walls of Windsor Castle while Trump was in Britain for a state visit.

Brilliantly inspiring presenters for today's symposium in Uni College Cork, for example Prof Claire Connolly MRIA, Feargal Keane & Eoin Reardon who brought some of his vernacular-inspired furniture: celebrating 100 yrs of publishing by Cork University Press @ucc.ie @ucclibrary.bsky.social @ria.ie

We use a Victorian Gardener's pruning tool called a 'long arm', to cut hard-to-reach brambles etc. Neglecting to store it in the shed, it was lent in a porch where 'swallows against neat gardens' moved in reminding us to continue our rewilding plan, instead! Long arm will stay put til Oct. now...

We need to force the Gaza Legal Case to the top of the national conversation. I just shared this video to get everybody talking about the Gaza Legal Case and the Irish government's role in facilitating genocide. Will you do the same? action.uplift.ie/campaigns/ga...

Gaza Legal Case - share the news

We need to force the Gaza Legal Case to the top of the national conversation. I just shared this video to get everybody talking about the Gaza Legal Case and the Irish government's role in facilitatin...

action.uplift.ie