Dug this out for a look this morning. My inscription on the front tells me I bought it in the Trinity book sale in 2007. Jill and Leon Uris - Ireland: A Terrible Beauty (1976). Nice images; shame about the weird (patronising, infantilising, wide of the mark) perspectives on Ireland and the Irish.

Bandcamp has formally introduced a new policy banning music and audio generated wholly or largely by AI from purchase on its platform. Bandcamp said: “With this policy, we’re putting human creativity first." buff.ly/mnjpUZA

County Clare views.

This was a great event - huge congrats to all those involved in organising. Lots of great papers and conversations, and a properly inter-disciplinary approach to these subjects. Will look forward to hearing more!

Daniel Gallen 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️@gallenator85.bsky.social · last wk.

We had an absolutely amazing day at our Queer Studies Symposium on Tuesday! So wonderful to see all of the brilliant research being done on LGBTQ+ topics. Our keynote panel was a particular highlight, with four longtime activists giving insights into their journeys fighting for LGBTQ+ rights.

Apropos a certain debate occurring in American politics at the moment, here's Jamaican PM Michael Manley explaining what 'democratic socialism' means - in 1977. www.youtube.com/watch?v=bREG...

Gil Noble- Michael Manley Interview 1977 Part 1.avi

YouTube video by GREG G

youtube.com

Brilliant analysis of the ins and outs of the FIFA crisis on today's @liberopodcast.com, with some helpful nuance on UEFA's role. "This is a classic case of [head of UEFA] Čeferin has worked out the best way to be a hero is just to find a bigger villain." youtu.be/hMzMTO9k9mI?...

How Infantino Tried To Sell The World Cup And Destroyed His Presidency | Libero 145

YouTube video by Libero

youtu.be

All these people with hot takes lauding UEFA for its stance against neoliberalism are in for a terrible shock when they read about the Champions League - not to mind its attitude to Israel.

Urgent! If you work in an Irish HEI, please sign and share this open letter asking the Dept of Justice to overturn its refusal of visas to Palestinian students who were supposed to be evacuated from Gaza to take up fully funded places and scholarships at Irish HEIs: openletter.earth/refusal-of-v...

The sunny south-slightly-east.

Unfortunately for the sport I love, the whole thing may have to be burnt down to remake it again. There was so much about World Cup 2026 that was rotten - too many teams, too focused on celebs, bending rules, the seeding system - but now it could get much worse. www.theguardian.com/football/202...

Fifa’s sales pitch revealed: more tournaments, more debt … but no mention of women’s game

Fifa’s pitch to persuade members to approve sale of World Cup’s commercial rights includes more tournaments, higher ticket prices and debt financing

theguardian.com

Thursday evening listening.

I guarantee you haven't experienced inertia until you've tried to get two children out the door to arrive at an event on time. Nor have you experienced world-ending anxiety - directed at you - until said children, by then in the car, perceive that they might be late for said event.

RIP Glen Hansard. Though I wasn't really a fan of the Frames, he and they hold an important place in the cultural history of the Celtic Tiger. There's a fascinating story to be told, linking the Commitments to the grunge/indie scene to which the Frames were central, on to the success of Once.

"I even fought to breastfeed him, but I was kept away from him, even when he was crying for me. No mother should ever have to endure that." Crucially, this happened in the EARLY 1990s. The past is less another country, than one which we still inhabit.

Deirdre O'Shaughnessy@deshocks.bsky.social · 2w ago

“Do not bury our history beneath concrete” www.irishexaminer.com/news/spotlig...

And, yes, I realise this is small beans in terms of the damage caused by AI, but it's sparked by the accumulation of minor frictions - ie people just throwing something together and not giving a shit that I have to read this nonsense... Which, in turn, is a structural issue related to how we work.

Kevin O'Sullivan@kevinkosullivan.bsky.social · 2w ago

One of the most annoying things about AI is that when colleagues use it, it produces verbose (ie waaay over-long) reports/responses. Which means, in turn, that I have to spend more time reading said reports/responses. It's no wonder Copilot constantly asks 'do you want me to summarize this?'

One of the most annoying things about AI is that when colleagues use it, it produces verbose (ie waaay over-long) reports/responses. Which means, in turn, that I have to spend more time reading said reports/responses. It's no wonder Copilot constantly asks 'do you want me to summarize this?'

Infantino claims "We experienced no violence, no incidents, 100% safety and security, only joy and happiness." Yet 80% of visa applications from African fans and journalists were rejected by the host countries (source: jonawils.substack.com/p/weary-thou...). www.theguardian.com/football/202...

Fifa president Gianni Infantino accuses critics of spreading hate at World Cup

Gianni Infantino has hit back at critics of the World Cup, accusing them of spreading hate and false narratives

theguardian.com

Well, there goes my annual joke in my lectures that, being from Louth, I wouldn't know what it's like not to have won an All-Ireland in X years. Super game of football.

RTÉ News@news.rte.ie · 3w ago

Mayo have ended a wait of 75 years to become All-Ireland football champions, beating Kerry 1-20 to 1-17 at Croke Park www.rte.ie/sport/footba...

Lee Keegan has just said on RTE at half-time of the All-Ireland final that Kerry were reminiscing with the referee.

📢 Job vacancy - Chair in Intellectual History We welcome applications from scholars working across a broad range of fields, including: 💠 History of political theory, political economy 💠 Knowledge systems and IT 💠 Postcolonial and intersectional thought 💠 Humanist, post-human, and planetary history

I rather like the French title of this :) journals.openedition.org/inmedia/4102

Emerging from the Darkness: Irish Rock, Modernity, and Anxiety 1979...

Introduction From the mid-1950s, when rock and roll first emerged as a transformational musical and cultural form, until the late 1970s, popular music across the island of Ireland followed a signif...

journals.openedition.org

Tuesday night listening. My favourite version of this song. Man, Janis Joplin can *sing*. youtu.be/fkGUt4QYc08?...

Janis Joplin - To love somebody

YouTube video by reggaegirl1982

youtu.be

Striking stat in today's FT in the context of new EU laws to control destruction of unused clothing. A very good example of how the capitalocene functions: extractive production matched by destruction in service of maintaining shareholder value, with no human benefitting from the actual products.

After all that, we got a very traditional World Cup final. Stodgy, boring, bad tempered, defined by a fear of taking a risk, but eventually the better team won.

Good man Wayne Rooney on the BBC: (thick Liverpudlian accent): "that was crap".

Well, that was horrific.

What I read on my holidays...

#OtD 19 Jul 1984 the Dunnes Stores anti-apartheid strike began in Dublin, Ireland when Mary Manning was suspended for refusing to check out South African fruit. She and 11 others went on strike for three years until the govt banned SA goods stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9108...

A man loses a rug, which was a key part of his interior design.

As Fran Healy once said, "What's a wonderwall anyway?"