I will be advertising a funded PhD studentship shortly, for a project on adding psychological theory (social identity) to modelling of epidemics ( @leverhulme.ac.uk funded, with Marijn Stok). The studentship will start in January 2027. Get in touch now for informal enquiries.

Social constructs are just something big academia invented to sell more social constructs

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...

Another cautionary example for those of us who have to teach survey design every so often.

Katherine Nolan@dochara.com · 6d ago

Ireland Thinks poll. Why are kids cycling less? Um, the answer I want to give isn't there.

Oh God, now this one has me feeling the years. Somehow the fact that it’s 31 years rather than 30 makes it worse. #Spéirghorm

WHAT A FUCKING RECORD@whatafuckingrecord.bsky.social · 6d ago

31

Time to form the Ancient Mystic Football Governing Society of No Infantinos

I finished @jonawils.bsky.social’s ‘The Power and the Glory: A New History of the World Cup’ the other day. It does seem like Infantino has read the closing paragraphs and thought “well, challenge accepted”.

Enjoy it while you can because this (gestures vaguely around) will die down after the weekend when all the academics have their annual “aagh, it’s August, and I have none of my summer writing done - I need to get off the INTERNET!” freakout.

Cethan Leahy@cethanleahy.com · last wk.

Hah, people are now having arguments about the very notion of criticism. This is excellent stuff.

If any of you think the controversy around the Odyssey was bad, just wait til the film version of North arrives.

Conor@ernekid.bsky.social · last wk.

Seamus Heaney Cinematic Universe.

I'm calling on Jim O'Callaghan to approve visas for students from Gaza who have been granted scholarships to Irish universities. Will you add your name to the petition now? my.uplift.ie/petitions/vi... @uplift.ie

Visa for Gaza students

I'm calling on Jim O'Callaghan to approve visas for students from Gaza who have been granted scholarships to Irish universities. Will you add your name to the petition now?

my.uplift.ie

We should be livid. The article says students are asked to do everything with originals via post (no email when there's no functioning post service?!) and failed for "insufficient evidence of strong obligations to return to your home country". What would that case look like in Gaza right now?!

RTÉ News@news.rte.ie · last wk.

Sources within the universities say the refusal rate this year is in marked contrast to last year, when more than 80 Gazan students left Gaza in an evacuation organised by the Irish Government.

I used to have a slide in one of my lectures about the authoritarian/authoritative/permissive/uninvolved parenting style classification and I had to take it out because I just couldn’t manage the dissonance with actually being a parent. Now if there was an “ineffectual bleating” category…

Zach Weinersmith@zachweinersmith.bsky.social · last wk.

Hey parents of bsky: What are some theories of parenting you were very confident in right up until you had your own kids?

- Hey, English social media, how are you going to mark a high-profile team ending a long wait for success? - We are going to have some epic bantz about branded water bottles. Why, what are you going to do, Irish social media? - We are going to swap some intense stories about curses and funerals.

Séan Ó Conghaile ᚛ᚄᚕᚅ᚜@shaneconneely.eurosky.social · last wk.

We were carrying my grandad's cousin to lay him down with his people in Kilcoman cemetery this side of the Mayo border when the 4ú Briogáid Óglaigh na hÉireann came by. And stopped.

We were carrying my grandad's cousin to lay him down with his people in Kilcoman cemetery this side of the Mayo border when the 4ú Briogáid Óglaigh na hÉireann came by. And stopped.

Darach Ó Séaghdha@darach.bsky.social · last wk.

I used to work with a man from Mayo called Ken. Nice chap. He didn't appreciate any talk about The Curse, however. One day, in all earnest, he leans over to me and says that the Foxford parish archive doesn't even have a record of a funeral that day. "Maybe it was a ghost funeral?" says I.

Watch now they’ll win again next year, and we’ll all suddenly be sick of them.

Lee Keegan clearly only barely holding it together at the end of the RTE coverage.

Or Leeds Irish Centre for that matter.

Padraig Reidy@padraigreidy.bsky.social · last wk.

There won’t be a cow milked on the Holloway Road tonight

There won’t be a cow milked on the Holloway Road tonight

Ha ha! Well now!

Marc Scully@marcscully.bsky.social · 2w ago

Against all logic, the funny feeling that if Mayo ever do win their All-Ireland, it’ll be under circumstances such as today: complete outsiders, no real weight of expectation, and their teenage superstar about to disappear to Australia. #gaa

Against all logic, the funny feeling that if Mayo ever do win their All-Ireland, it’ll be under circumstances such as today: complete outsiders, no real weight of expectation, and their teenage superstar about to disappear to Australia. #gaa

Cate Blanchett in I’m Not There is pretty great.

Adam Rutherford@adamrutherford.bsky.social · 2w ago

What’s the best fourth wall break in cinema? Some starters:

If only because in the days after your team has suffered a particularly traumatic defeat, the algorithm insists on showing you pre-match posts of supporters gathering optimistically.

Dean Buckley@deanbuckley.bsky.social · 2w ago

new opinion acquired: social media should be required by law to offer a chronological feed

Very unsettling to step outside my house in Cork, smell smoke, initially wonder whether a neighbour has lit a bonfire, and then realise it’s from a wildfire in Co Tipperary, 90km away. Climate change as a series of disasters experienced through phone footage until you’re the one holding the phone…

Mairéad Hearne | Swirl and Thread Book Blog@maireadhearne.bsky.social · 2w ago

I can smell/see a light smoke haze outside my front door over 100kms away from the source. May all of those fighting the blaze and those living close by be safe. 'Smoke smell reported across Cork as Slievenamon wildfire continues' www.96fm.ie/news/96fm-ne...

Smoke from this currently hanging over Cork City. What must it be likd in Tipperary? A dangerous situation and awful destruction of wildlife as well as a huge impact on air quality & a drain on resources #spéirgorm

Carlow Weather@carlowweather.bsky.social · 2w ago

Slievenamon locals are asking people to stay away and keep roads clear for locals, farmers and fire crews who are trying to save homes from the fire. Some locals are requesting the army be called in to help.

Whereas the other is with @niamhestack.bsky.social on children's play and interactions with the natural world. Further information from Niamh here: lnkd.in/p/drgXAFHc

There are two areas of research where we are particularly looking for applications this summer. One is to study individual differences, stress and cardiovascular responses with Drs Paul Mulcahy and Niamh Higgins. Paul describes the project here: lnkd.in/p/dTnmsixt

Funded PhD opportunity klaxon! We at the Dept of Psychology are currently inviting applications for a funded Departmental Assistantship starting in September. More details here and in the following thread: www.mic.ul.ie/faculty-of-a...

Reposts appreciated here for #PsychPhD opportunities at @micireland.bsky.social . Join us in Limerick! #PsychJobs

Marc Scully@marcscully.bsky.social · 3w ago

Funded PhD opportunity klaxon! We at the Dept of Psychology are currently inviting applications for a funded Departmental Assistantship starting in September. More details here and in the following thread: www.mic.ul.ie/faculty-of-a...

Today's sad news brought me back to this Irish Studies Review article by Martin McLoone, which used Kevin Keegan as jumping-off point to discuss Irish surnames, Englishness, assimilation and who gets included in the popular image of the Irish in Britain. www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...

Why didn't Kevin Keegan play for Ireland? Contrasting narratives of the Irish in Britain

This article considers a range of contrasting narratives about the Irish in Britain that are sometimes overlapping and sometimes contradictory. These narratives reflect the complexity of the Irish ...

tandfonline.com