Anyone who believes flags can only bring people together is being totally naive. And has clearly never set foot in Northern Ireland. www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...
USA Today Bestselling Irish author. Fiction/non-fic. Upcoming standalone novel #OnceAYear HachetteBooks Irl Oct 2025 Lives London, UK/Corca Dhuibhne, Ireland (Gaeilge agus fáilte). Rep: Gaia Banks, Sheil Land Associates UK Linktree: https://rb.gy/g9pf2
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Anyone who believes flags can only bring people together is being totally naive. And has clearly never set foot in Northern Ireland. www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...
Ok this might spread into more than one message, but if you're able to share/help it would be appreciated. A Turkish Kurd is about to receive emergency housing for a week or so after an entire hotel of Asylum Seekers was turfed out of a hotel in Diss. Authorities are able to move his family...
There's glory for you
How Elon Musk Is Remaking Grok in His Image www.nytimes.com/2025/09/02/t...
Most of my novels are available in ebooks, Barb - depends what territory you live in, and what language you're looking for. It's great to know you enjoy them!
The paperback of my novel #TheBooksellersGift comes out Oct 2 in a cool new cover It's set in an #Irish indie bookshop so if you pre-order or plan to buy a copy I'd love it to be from your local bookseller's website or shop #spéirgorm #booksky #IrishWriting #shoplocal
Wildful by Kengo Kurimoto is gorgeous
I think this is it. Despair is easy and you get to feel wise, and it doesn't really place any obligations on you or force you to speak out or do anything, really.
Another lovely read from Felicity 😍
Looking for this clip or speech to see if it included anything interesting. Entirely unreported. Not even on her own twitter feed. How are they so bad at this? ~AA
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Ahem. 😎
Welcome news: the govt has confirmed £104m for local authorities to improve transport in towns and rural areas, where journeys are often difficult. With 70% of trips under 5 miles, properly resourced local authorities are vital to improving transport. www.gov.uk/government/n...
The paperback of my novel #TheBooksellersGift comes out Oct 2 in a cool new cover It's set in an #Irish indie bookshop so if you pre-order or plan to buy a copy I'd love it to be from your local bookseller's website or shop #spéirgorm #booksky #IrishWriting #shoplocal
WHO was a very good boy at the vet this morning 🥰
On Saturday, Nov. 1st, I will be interviewing Rosie Lavan and Bernard O'Donoghue, editors of The Poems of Seamus Heaney, forthcoming from @faberbooks.bsky.social, at The Source Arts Centre, Thurles, Co. Tipperary, at 2.30 pm. Tickets available online at @sourcearts.bsky.social
"I don't have ugly ducklings turning into swans in my stories. I have ugly ducklings turning into confident ducks." Maeve Binchy
i met anubis in the realm of the underworld, big strong guy by the way, had a dog’s head, i’m not so sure about that. and he said to me, mr president, you’ve got the heaviest soul we’ve ever weighed down here. can you believe it? they’ve never seen a soul that heavy in all of duat
Brilliantly coloured seedhead of the square-stalked St John's Wort is one of my favourite local plant and and under-rated #IrishWildflower for autumn pop. I'd love to see it in more urban gardens as it is fairly hardy, not overly competitive & gorgeous imo. #WildflowerHour #Fruits Co Laois
This photo was taken of miners at the end of their shift during the Gilded Age before they were unionized. This Labor Day remember the blood, sweat, and tears that those before us paid to give the working class the basic rights we enjoy today. #UnionStrong #HappyLaborDay #NoGodsNoMasters
Dá chluais chapaill ar Labhraidh Loingseach
Discussion in the shop today about how to pronounce this so I listened to an interview with the author. She said, "I have received conflicting advice from classicists; I've heard kah-TAH-bah-sis, I've heard kah-tah-BAH-sis, at this point I don't know anymore and I don't care how people say it."🤷♀️
Snort
It makes me emotional to see Judge Sooknanan showing that she values each individual child’s life at a moment when this administration is doing exactly the opposite
Back at Words on the Wave at @nmireland.bsky.social. I was so focused on the codices the first time that I completely missed the Springmount Bog Tablets! They're RIGHT HERE! #medievalsky
I wish journalists/ academics would avoid using the phrase "stop the boats" when what they mean is "stop people risking their lives in the English Channel. Like "fake news" it's a phrase imported from a political slogan, and therefore carries various and inconsistent levels of prejudice/ assumption
The world’s leading genocide scholars’ association has passed a resolution saying that the legal criteria have been met to establish Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, its president says. There was no immediate response from the Israeli foreign ministry.
Musk now supporting the deportation of anyone who isn’t white. *Do not* use the term “remigration”. It’s an attempt to normalise Nazi hate.
Idly wishing more people understood that ‘fittest’ in ‘survival of the fittest’ meant ‘best fit’ rather than ‘strongest’.
Where has this ludicrous ECHR "debate" even come from. I've never once met an ordinary member of the public who's said to me, "Do you know what? We REALLY need to leave the ECHR." It's just a new right wing talking point because every other shit idea they've foisted on us has run out of steam.
The ECHR alone provided redress to victims of crime failed by public inquiries, such as the Hillsborough disaster or John Worboys' victims (the black cab rpst). Our Government must defend our membership of the ECHR, loudly and proudly. Without it, we're all less safe.
Reform UK, the right leaning think tank Policy Exchange, and some Labour grandees, are all pushing for us to either leave the ECHR, or disapply parts of it temporarily or permanently. This puts me, you and everyone at risk, not just those seeking sanctuary.
A tank-trapping, carbon-capturing bog barrier to keep out Putin? Governments in Finland and Poland say they're looking into making this a reality. My big summer read, w/ @nikamelkozerova.bsky.social and @wojciechkosc.bsky.social, on defensive bog restoration: www.politico.eu/article/russ...
If I were trying to win elections and arguments, I simply would be doing everything I could to move UK political conversation away from a website run by an avowed enemy who believes and writes this stuff about me:
Snort
For much of this year depression has burgled almost everything about me. I’ve made this photo to show that I’m still here, even if I’m in tiny bits: old marbles, Roman beads, a tiny 17th C fox, 1930s toy flowers, a medieval key. Making this helped my brain, looking at the details might help yours…
The people shouting Dublin is too unsafe the loudest are often the ones who are way too online to be able to see what's going on IRL, anyway.
Delighted my upcoming novel Once A Year features in the Sunday Independent's list of Top 40 Bold New Reads for the new season NB: Indie booksellers @omahonysbooks.bsky.social are currently offering a SPECIAL PRICE & A PRE-ORDER COMPETITION tinyurl.com/2zjw9wf4 #OnceAYear #spéirgorm #Booksky
Do billionaires lose empathy when they become rich, or did they become billionaires because they had no empathy in the first place?
As a friend recently put it: the venn diagram of people who assured us the gun violence was worth it because we need the guns to protect ourselves against a tyrannical federal government and the people cheering on Trump as he deploys the military to take over American cities is a circle
👇 #spéirgorm
Morning commuters from Glasgow to Edinburgh will see their fares drop by 48% today. Scottish Greens, trade unions and commuters worked together to demand the removal of peak rail fares. Today, peak rail fares are scrapped for good!
Bless Alf Dubs. 92 years old and still arguing for the rights of refugees, 86 years after he came to the UK. Wouldn’t it be nice if our politicians could regain some humanity and Alf Dubs could retire. Not looking likely, though, is it? #r4today
It's disappointing that the government's plan to get people moving is focused around "Go for a jog" rather than, as the evidence suggests, building environments that encourage everyday incidental exercise: the ability to walk to amenities liveapp.inews.co.uk/category/388...
I am once again saying that clean energy is inherently cheap, and the reason we don't benefit from that is because the energy market doesn't let us. Great stuff here from my colleague @chrisgalpin.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/environment/...
there's a powerful moment of human connection I feel when I learn about a big mountain and I find out the name translates to "big mountain"
3/ www.ft.com/content/2b3b... “Hundreds of billions of dollars have already been spent on the data centres required to power generative AI models … but generative AI revenues at the so-called hyperscalers … were just $45bn last year, according to Morgan Stanley.”
2/ www.ft.com/content/c44c... "To a large extent, this is because the sales patter from the high priests of big tech is really starting to grate, particularly as each new release of supposedly whizz-bang AI models generates diminishing returns."
1/ Sentiment is shifting. Most recently: web.archive.org/web/20250818... “Despite $30–40 billion in enterprise investment into GenAI, this report uncovers a surprising result in that 95% of organizations are getting zero return.”
Monday’s UK Independent #TomorrowsPapersToday
Judge Sooknanan: As I said at the start of this hearing, I got a call at 2:36 am [last night] because the government chose the wee hours of the morning on the Sunday of Labor Day weekend to execute a plan to move these children. That's why we're here.
Sleep well tonight, Yaroslava. Here are some apples in our Irish garden. 🍏 💚 🍎 ♥️
I just want to show you how chestnut trees in Kyiv are meeting autumn. The “boys” have grown up.
Can't help but feel a lot of the Angela Rayner 'coverage' is basically along the lines of 'this is a working class woman who's done something with her life but still doesn't know her place.' Tell me about the property empires of Farage and the likes of Jenrick please.
Wow
Almost certainly the best thing I was ever told about owls was when I met an owl handler at an owl sanctuary and he told me that the wild owls who lived near the sanctuary worried about the tame show owls there and sometimes stopped by to leave them shrews and mice as presents.
Seen on my run in Rock Creek Park today. Parking lot near Beach and Tilden. Paper taped on over a Harris 2024 sign.
The trains didn’t ‘run on time’ under Mussolini. He prioritized the main tourist routes to create that image, but that came at a cost to the train routes that most of the population used every day.
The lies' laughable implausibility is a feature, not a bug. They're not trying to convince discerning, skeptical, fact-based people. They're trying to give supporters a fantasy that validates their feelings and creates a sort of loyalty test, while flaunting the absurdity in everyone else's faces.
Not sure whose fault it is primarily that most people don't seem to know that the president is basically a manager whose job is to carry out the will of Congress, and not The Country's Boss
Delightful, touching, sad, joyous stories from a master storyteller. Follow @annelouiseavery.bsky.social and support as you are able!
BREAKING: A federal judge has *blocked* the Trump administration from abruptly deporting 600 unaccompanied Guatemalan children — perhaps within a matter of hours — granting an emergency restraining order after advocates called the plan illegal + dangerous. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
Incredible scenes in Genoa, Italy as 50,000 people join a procession to bid farewell to the boats joining the Global Sumud Flotilla to Gaza. Over 50 boats from 44 countries, loaded with 100s of tons of food aid, have set sail to Gaza to attempt to break the Israeli siege. (📸 Hidden Palestine)
We had a lovely "Parish Picnic" @southwarkcathedral.bsky.social ,- a very fine bring & share lunch which ended up inside as we didn't trust the weather...so each table had its own sunshine in a vase. Just great!
Douglas Carswell has skirted the line and now he's crossed it. This is disgusting racism from a former MP who now demonstrates who and what he is.
via @tomgauld.bsky.social
Keep complaining every time BBC News promotes anti-climate nonsense without quoting science and whenever they promote Reform without good reason using this form: www.bbc.co.uk/contact/comp... The news editorial team is politically biased and it needs to be addressed.
The right to mibikity is a hill we should all be prepared to die on
A flotilla carrying humanitarian aid and activists, including Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg and Irish poet Sarah Clancy @sarahmaintains.bsky.social is due to leave from Barcelona today www.rte.ie/news/middle-...
This is such a charming and sad thread. Having taken most of this route the opposite way I can relate to all of this! #CrossBorderRail
Gosh. Please do. x
It’s a jam week. Damsons from Diana’s allotment this time. Deep purple, sharp and stubborn to pit. But worth every stained fingertip once they hit the pot and start to soften. #KitchenGarden 🥫👩🍳
Oh I see Elon Musk’s X is continuing to funnel torrents of dangerous disinformation to its remaining 300m active daily users.
I think it’s not that no one’s talking about it, but that no one knows what to do about it. Typically in the UK life outcomes are not purely white > non-white. The worst health outcomes are for white Gypsy, Romany, Irish Traveler, Bangladeshi and Pakistani ppl www.kingsfund.org.uk/insight-and-...
Scotland's Maclean brothers. Epic. Determined. Altruistic. 'Their Pacific row has raised more than £800,000 for clean water projects in Madagascar through their Maclean Foundation' #CleanWater #Madagascar Donations can be made here: www.themacleanbrothers.com/tmf/our-appr...
Here's a #GiftLink for those who want to read the full NYT obit of historian of science & gender, Margaret Rossiter. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/29/s... #histSTM 🧪🗃️
@pfauseygiorgio.bsky.social Thanks for your kind repost :)
People power.
My students, who attend a working-class rust-belt college, openly talk abt how much they hate AI & are afraid of its consequences. I wonder how much of the oft-reported student enthusiasm for the tech is the merely result of the NYT’s Ivy League bias
It was probably always inevitable that the rise of a dictator in the US would be greeted with a shrug by many Americans and Europeans alike. But it doesn’t make it any less shocking to see. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Life’s getting a bit more crap here if you are a person from an ethnic minority 🧵
The average American simply has no idea how quickly the infrastructure that keeps us safe and healthy is collapsing. These systems run in the background thanks to government employees who quietly do critical work. Those employees are being purged and systems are being destroyed.
Autumn light on a windy day in a house surrounded by trees #CorcaDhuibhne #writerslife #spéirgorm #writingcommunity
Three Georgian wineglasses (c1730-50) of baluster form, with knops (swellings) to the stems. With M. Ford Creech, Memphis, Tenn. #c18th #c18 #18thc
This has been cooking for a while so delighted to bring it to you, how we talk about climate and environmental crisis is critical to our future - storytelling, making climate change, action and solutions relevant to people in their daily life matters. Please join us #Spéirghorm on Sept 22nd. 👇📌
Absolutely right and THAT narrative needs to be the dominant one
Ultra
Satisfying
Postscript by Seamus Heaney who died twelve years ago today
D…d…does BBC News think the Iron Curtain was an actual iron curtain?
Nothing that could be grist to his mill is fun. If I were on his team, next week I'd be feeding him lines about resurrection, so he could dismiss them as "jokes", and encouraging him to wave an airy hand at "suggestions" that he's immortal.
Important that we recognize the work of translators. They do so much to bring books into other languages, including pitching books and advocating for writers' work. Without wishing to nag, I hope people agree that it's important to #namethetranslator when posting here about translated work.
Good morning to you we are open with the books the garden the gallery the coffee the tea the the remember: buy books from your local independent book shop #bookshops #books
Rí-thábhachtach go mbeadh deis ag daoine turais idirmhodúla a dhéanamh - níos tábhachtaí fós i gceantair tuaithe. Go raibh maith agat @maitiuocoimin.bsky.social agus @tuairisc.bsky.social as ucht an píosa seo a scríobh. tuairisc.ie/molta-go-mbe...
When the rumours prove baseless he'll reappear, "joke" about having risen again, and wave away "suggestions" that he's immortal
Another Women in Tranlsation month crossover with @backlisted.bsky.social, this time it’s the poetry of Hannah Arendt
Question for the media? At what point does the human become merely an "asylum seeker"? And when does the asylum seeker become human once more?