Johnny Lowden ๐บ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ธ ๐ฌ๐ฑ ๐ฉ๐ฐ ๐ช๐บ
@johnnylowden.bsky.social
Priest in the Church of Ireland. Interested in History, theology, and nerd-culture stuff.
I served my curacy in Derry and I am ashamed to say that when I arrived I had no knowledge of this part of the city's history. About half of the parishioners had grown up in the city and left during the Troubles. Some had never set foot across the Foyle again. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Londonderry: New research examines movement of PUL community in city
The report explores the movement of some families from the Cityside to the Waterside between 1968 and 1998.
bbc.co.uk
The Creative Industries added ยฃ124 billion to the UK economy in 2023, but yes, let's not bother to fund any training and education in them. I mean, it's not like we're known for music, fashion, artists, filmmakers, performers. Make it make sense.
Margot Finn@eicathomefinn.bsky.social ยท 6d agoCreative & performing arts subjects received ยฃ16.8 million SPG 2024-25; ยฃ12.9 million in 2025-26; ยฃ O million in 2026-27. The University of Creative Arts will thus lose half of its government funding this year; Art University Bournmouth 40.7%, Norwich U of Arts 40.4% and Leeds Arts U 30.3%. 1/2
I agree strongly with this -- in that difficult moment, the possibility of collective effort was conceivable. Not everybody felt it, but many did. I think the political class did not like this one bit.
Dave Andress@davidandress.bsky.social ยท 4d agoCovid lockdowns demonstrated, in a deeply imperfect way, the possibility of large-scale social solidarity for a higher cause. That is a prime reason why so many powerful people want us to run screaming away from them into the comforting arms of selfish individualist competition.
In fifteen years, the UK has deleted coal power from their power system, halved fossil gas use, replaced most of that with wind and solar, and the country has not suffered the hellish blackout apocalypse conservatives and media outlets promised would happen. ember-energy.org/data/electri...
This is devastating news. I can't quite believe it. RIP Glen Hansard. www.independent.ie/irish-news/o...
Oscar-winning musician Glen Hansard dies in Dublin motorcycle crash
Renowned musician Glen Hansard has died overnight in a motorcycle crash in Dublinโs Lucan.
independent.ie
Last night I went aboard HMS Caroline, last (I think) survivor of the Battle of Jutland in order to play DnD with complete strangers. History's a funny old thing.
This is the kind of self-evidently true statement which will get Burrows sacked as UUP leader in about 5 minutes. www.irishnews.com/news/norther...
UUP leader admits his partyโs Stormont governments discriminated against Catholics
Ulster Unionist leader John Burrows has admitted his own partyโs governments discriminated against Catholics through gerrymandering and employment during its 51 years of unbroken rule at Stormont.
irishnews.com
Carrickmacross: Police 'intercept car with bomb on way to attack in NI'
Two people are arrested after a vehicle was stopped in County Monaghan in an operation targeting dissident republican activity.
bbc.co.uk
Johnny Lowden ๐บ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ธ ๐ฌ๐ฑ ๐ฉ๐ฐ ๐ช๐บ@johnnylowden.bsky.social ยท 2w agoThank God they were caught.
Spain with 16 shots/11 on target, and Argentina with 0/0 is a crazy stat.
A computer can no more 'know' that it exists than the minute hand on a clock 'knows' it's telling the time.
The Guardian@theguardian.com ยท 3w agoCould AI be conscious?
Pete Hegseth: "We need our warriors to embrace the Spartan mindset" U.S. Military: *suffers crushing defeat to the Persians*
Turns out, the Falklands are an amusingly bad topic for unwary take-havers. A colony whose 'indigenous population' were only ever other colonists or penguins, full of people who always wanted to be governed by themselves & UK, but invaded by a fascist regime whose failure pushed AR back to democracy
Nate O@nateo.bsky.social ยท 3w agoRegarding the Argentina team brandishing a banner saying the Falklands are Argentine: the fascist Argentine state, controlled by a military junta, invaded and occupied the Falklands; now, Argentina, under another fascist leader, continues to hold a grudge over their ineptitude
So If England lose, domestic violence increases by 38% If they win or draw its 26% It's gonna be a lose-lose for some tonight womensaid.org.uk/get-involved...
Football and domestic abuse - Womenโs Aid
For many, football means passion and pride, but for survivors, match days can bring fear. Explore how we can help change the score.
womensaid.org.uk
What kind of team thinks they've won once they go 1-0 up at 50 mins when Messi is on the pitch?
A natural follow-on from the 'Everyone is 12' theory of current events is that a certain subsection of 'Everyone' want the world to be an MMO.
That is the worst substitution decision of all time.
total and utter mystery what the primal social ethic of the early church was
Curtis ๐ณ๏ธโ๐@soccurt.bsky.social ยท 4w agoSo my guess is that buddy would say that this is a distinction without a difference, but I hate what the rich can do *because they're rich*. If Elon was just an irrelevant doofus with, say, $20 million and a virtual waifu, he'd still be miles richer than me but I'd be fine with him.
Amen, amen, amen.
Christian Century@christiancentury.bsky.social ยท 4w agoโBonhoefferโs words haunt me. I was given his poem by my first spiritual director in the 1990s. It is a classic in spiritual discernment. Now, as I prepare for a fresh, pretty frightening step into the unknown, Bonhoefferโs poem has come alive again.โ โ @revrachelmann.bsky.social
Simon, like so much evangelical politics, reduces love to a feeling and a sentiment. An affirmation that Musk is "a human being made in the image of God and worthy of love." A worthy sentiment! But love in the Christian tradition also, always, means material actions of solidarity and care.
A Christian Plan to Help Billionaires
There is no logical reason for people to live like this. We should help them.
sojo.net
It's the first time it's been in the United Kingdom *full stop*
The fundamental problem for Northern Ireland is the persistence of paramilitarism, until that is dealt with disgusting racism and islamophobia will continue regardless of what the OO or even the DUP say.
Worth mentioning: 11 July, the date they're planning on publicly burning a mosque effigy, is the anniversary of Srebrenica.
The Journal@thejournal.ie ยท 4w agoA man been arrested in relation to a controversial loyalist bonfire in Moygashel, Co Tyrone which has been topped with a replica mosque. The bonfire is one of around 300 across the North which will be burned on 10 and 11 July, ahead of the Orange Orderโs annual 12 July parades. jrnl.ie/7096014
"Christofascism "knows the cross only as a magical symbol of what Jesus has done for us, not as a sign of the poor man who was tortured to death as a political criminal... [it is] a betrayal of the disappointed, a miracle weapon in the service of the mighty." โ Dorothee Sรถlle
Right Wing Watch @rightwingwatch.bsky.social ยท 4w agoPreaching that God has assigned black people to "a civilizational station of subordination and dependence" due to the Curse of Ham, Christian nationalist pastor Dale Partridge calls for a "return to European Christian colonization of African nations." www.peoplefor.org/rightwingwat...
'I will make a statement on my future in public life at 2pm'
BrokenBanker@brokenbanker.bsky.social ยท 4w ago"I will make a statement on my future in public life at 2pm."
In about 4 or 5 hours we will have our first American claiming that the Trump intervention wasn't bad actually because they lost anyway.
