Pubic Service Announcement The Vagina Museum is trans inclusive. Always has been, always will be. Today the new EHRC Code of Practice comes into effect. Let us be clear, the guidance changes nothing about how we operate.

“Kaseya pointed out that some 60-70% of the new cases were recorded from spreading within a community, not from contact tracing… “Contact tracing is not working,” said Kaseya, “we don’t like the trajectory of this outbreak, and it’s already the second largest outbreak (ever) in the world.”

Ebola kills 1,700 in eastern Congo as the fastest-growing outbreak surges

Ebola has killed more than 1,700 people in eastern Congo in what has become the fastest-growing outbreak of the disease.

statnews.com

Sometimes I wish this rollercoaster was just a train track

𝗕𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗞𝗜𝗡𝗚🚨 "While he was detained, he lost 30 lbs. He had high blood pressure-he had diabetes. They refused him his medication...& I'm going to grow up without a father.. #ICE tried to cover up the fact that they killed him...They're just Heartless monsters." —preteen daughter of Edwin Lopez-Cornejo

Bear min/maxxing #art #bears

“The History Department is among the most affected: Three professors were laid off, and two are taking early retirement under pressure, said Jeremy Varon, one of the retiring professors. Five professors will remain — “not enough to competently deliver a curriculum,” Professor Varon said.”

The Galley Beggar Press Short Story Prize 2026-2027 is now open for submissions: www.galleybeggar.co.uk/prize

I'm old enough to have seen children working barefoot in the vegetable gardens of an industrial school.

The Author, Séamas O'Reilly@seamas.bsky.social · 8h ago

Worth remembering how mind-bogglingly recent the Magdalene Laundries were. The last one closed down on 25th September 1996, which means the Magdalene system outlived Tupac by two weeks.

The race to the bottom is hotting up Beds in sheds progresses rapidly to beds in work depots This government is truly delivering #HousingCrisis #DerelictIreland "Rental crisis forces bus firm to put beds for staff in Dublin depot" www.independent.ie/irish-news/r...

Rental crisis forces bus firm to put beds for staff in Dublin depot

Swords Express operator’s planning agent said “severe shortage” of suitable sites for employees

independent.ie

I wrote about my years filming with ex-wino turned chessmaster John Healy, exploring his bitter exile from the British literary world despite writing a runaway bestseller: www.rte.ie/culture/2026...

In the arena - John Healy's long road back from literary oblivion

Ahead of a special IFI screening of his acclaimed documentary Barbaric Genius, filmmaker Paul Duane reflects on the life and literary legacy of the film's subject, Grass Arena author John Healy.

rte.ie

Paul Duane 🥔@paulduane.bsky.social · 2w ago

Back in 1988 John Healy published his memoir The Grass Arena about his life as a wino turned chessmaster. This August the sequel, The Glass Cage, is published. To coincide with this @irishfilminstitute.bsky.social screen my 2011 documentary about Healy. Please share if you can ifi.ie/film/from-th...

When John made his first public appearance in decades, at the Cúirt literary festival in Galway, the Observer ran this short piece, with no byline, warning people away from attending his book reading. I asked Observer lit ed Robert McCrum if he knew who authored this piece, he said he had no idea.

The current chief executive of the Law Society NI provide a character reference for a child abuser, stating that he was “a Christian, family man well respected and viewed as a person of sound judgement & good character” another reference came from David Campbell of LCC This place is a cesspit

I was wondering why I’d got 19 clickthroughs from The Daily Telegraph…

We too easily skipped over the part of the Ceuta story where thousands of young people were manipulated into risking or losing their lives for a lie; to orchestrate images that then led the news agenda for the weekend, and kneejerk reactions from EU Govs And the Irish failures that let this happen

Deirdre O'Shaughnessy@deshocks.bsky.social · 7h ago

If you were confused about what happened in Ceuta last week read this piece by @lizcarolan.com who's looking at how it blew up online and who's behind it... www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/comm...

Taco Bell parent Yum! and Michigan health authorities discussed the cyclospora outbreak weeks before the public was alerted www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Taco Bell Met With Michigan About Parasite Weeks Before Recall

Michigan health authorities were in touch with Taco Bell’s parent company, Yum! Brands Inc., about a parasitic outbreak in early July, weeks before the company officially alerted consumers.

bloomberg.com

5 August 1928 | A French Jewish girl, Bella Rubin, was born in Paris. She arrived at #Auschwitz on 19 July 1942 in a transport of 1,000 Jews deported from Drancy together white her mother Marta and a younger sister Micheline. They were all murdered in a gas chamber.

Neko Case, truth-teller. Warning for discussion of sexual assault and harassment. Subject though not named here, is understood to be Glen Hansard.

Andrew Middleton@mapcenter.com · 2d ago

Goddamnit. Another musician I liked turned out to be an asshole. nekocase.substack.com/p/in-what-fu...

ICYMI: “The devastation stretches for more than a kilometre along the northwest shore of British Columbia’s Okanagan Lake, house after house reduced to scorched and twisted metal and grey dust.” www.ctvnews.ca/vancouver/bc... - @ctvnewsvancouver.bsky.social #BCWildfire #BradleyCreekWildfire

‘Devastation’: Chief says about 230 homes destroyed by B.C. wildfire

The chief of the Okanagan Indian Band says about 230 homes have been destroyed by a raging wildfire near Vernon, B.C.

ctvnews.ca

I'm very fascinated with how mythologized human beings stand up next to their own iconography I like how in the final couple years of his life Marx was beginning to confront being a political icon, and both noticed that it had little to do with his own ideas, and found it very annoying

Throwing stars. Way better. They used to be made of ceramic. Okay I might be thinking of Christmas ornaments.

Constantine@ajaxsinger.bsky.social · 13h ago

Food, man. Food is so much better than it was in 1986. All of it. Poor-people food, restaurant food, fresh food, frozen food. Food is just a hell of a lot better.

He sounds delightful. www.huffpost.com/entry/a-us-p...

A U.S. President's Great-Great-Grandson's Big Gay Vampire Novel

While it may come as a surprise to learn that Ulysses S. Grant's great-great-grandson, Ulysses Grant Dietz, serves as Chief Curator for New Jersey's Newark Museum, it might come as a bigger surprise t...

huffpost.com

Zebulon Vitruvius Pike@vitruviuspike.bsky.social · 17h ago

Deer in Phoenix Park this morning.

Possibly the most Irish message ever . #GAA #speirgorm #speirghorm

the horse actors on Little House are so good at acting like Prairie times horses

An Irish artist has helped establish a children's centre in Gaza that provides food, education and psychosocial support to children displaced by the war. Adam Doyle, better known as Spicebag, tells us why he helped create Ionad Hind Rajab. jrnl.ie/7117887

'They're just kids': The Irish-backed centre giving Gazan children a place to play

Irish artist Adam Doyle, aka Spicebag, says Ionad Hind Rajab is about giving displaced children “a break from the horror around them”.

jrnl.ie

I hope this guy just drives around town cheering everyone on.

This is what culture is. Our ancestors wrestled in mud to eke out some sliver of progress and now there are thousands of pages describing the intimate details of how Lestat from Interview with the Vampire might make love with Mario of the Mario Brothers.

Whoever pioneered the way people market books by just a list of tropes, I should be allowed to hunt them for sport.

i don't like to police genre, but it's not dark academia unless somebody gets squished in one of these bad boys

We are seeking submissions of poetry and art! Check out our guidelines here: www.upthestaircase.org/submit.html

Up the Staircase Quarterly

a journal of poetry and art

upthestaircase.org