Ricki O'Rawe

An interesting conference being organised by colleagues in the Centre for Documentary Research here at Queen's University Belfast in June 2026.
Home Frames: Documentary and the Domestic Space
www.qub.ac.uk/research-cen...

https://www.ucu.org.uk/article/14409/UCU-statement-High-Court-rules-governments-proscription-of-Palestine-Action-unlawful

The court has spoken.

Counter-terror powers must not be used to undermine democratic rights.

Full statement from @drjogrady.bsky.social

Israeli air strikes kill 12 people in Gaza, health ministry says Three children and two women killed in strike on apartment

Israeli air strikes kill 12 people in Gaza, health ministry says

It is absolutely stunning and is helping to chart a path to lighter days. Go raibh míle maith agat!

GWENDOLINS 60th Birthday Party Friday, January 16, 2026 at 8:00 PM

A scene is made up of so many parts, some of which doń´t get the credit they deserve. The DIY-alt-punk community of Belfast has been supercharged over the years by the inimitable Gwendolin Patterson. Come help us celebrate her and her 60th birthday next Friday - www.facebook.com/events_invit...

Zack Polanski offering voters fantasy solutions, says head of Fabian Society Joe Dromey, head of the Labour thinktank, urges his party to take on the ‘twin populisms’ of Reform UK and the Greens

“The idea that squeezing a tiny elite of billionaires will pay for everything is fantasy and we do need to expose that.”

Good job no one’s ever actually said that - including me.

So why is Labour again repeatedly lying to avoid taxing the super-rich?

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

The attacks on trans rights, which are basic human rights, are a terrible injustice and an attack on truth and fact as well. Everyone should be deeply alarmed and it should be disqualifying for a politician to support such discrimination.

Another significant Modern Languages department under threat. What does it say about current arrangements that learning about other cultures is being systematically devalued and disallowed?

Poster providing same details as the post.

As an affiliate of Irish Congress of Trade Unions, @ucuatqub.bsky.social encourages colleagues to gather in front of the Lanyon Building gates at 12.30 on Friday 28th November to show solidarity with Palestinian trades unionists, workers and the Palestinian people. Hot food & tea/coffee provided!

Excellent source of decolonial thinking and reporting - follow if that is your thing.

AHGBI, led by Professor Sarah Wright, opposes the University of Nottingham’s move to suspend—and effectively close—all Modern Languages degrees. SRUK/CERU, led by Dr Carlos Soler Montes, has also raised concerns.

AHGBI urges immediate reconsideration.

#SaveNottinghamLanguages

Nice primer on research about AI use and brain development

With Palestine conspicuously absent from the front pages of some major outlets and bombs still falling on Gaza, let’s make sure to look a little further for our news.

📢 ¿Te interesa el realismo mágico, las narrativas contemporáneas y los estudios literarios innovadores?
En breve se abrirá la convocatoria FPI (Formación de Personal Investigador) del Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia para la contratación de un/a investigador/a predoctoral asociado/a al proyecto:

Brexit Britain

Sounds class - Comhghairdeas!

You almost never see/hear/read a person-on-the-street quote in which that person is saying "Yeah, immigrants are great." If it hates it rates just like if it bleeds it leads, and we get a disproportionate number of right-wingers sharing their hate and disinformation about immigration from msm.

JOB: Lecturer/Assistant Lecturer in Spanish (Global and Area Studies) - jobs.hku.hk/en/job/53267...

Sally Rooney: I support Palestine Action. If this makes me a ‘supporter of terror’ under UK law, so be it I would happily publish this statement in a UK newspaper – but that would now be illegal

Sally Rooney on the hypocrisy of the proscription of Palestine Action : www.irishtimes.com/culture/book...

Come join us for a special event to honour Ted Hickey (my father in law) on the 20th anniversary of his passing in the hometown of his close friend and musical comrade, Seán Corcoran. seancorcoranseries.com/requiem-for-...

Yep. Scaremongering about splitting the vote doesn’t really land when the so-called centre ground feels so morally far from decency.

I wonder will UK politics go the way of post-agreement NI, when voters fled the middle ground towards Sinn Féin and the DUP.

The embedding of AI into a platform some teaching staff are required to use raises all sorts of ethical quandaries, not least ecological ones.

Three stunning and shaming paragraphs, by Rachel Wolf of Public First, in @theobserveruk.bsky.social

YES

Something the establishment is trying so hard to censor will always be worth seeing

Assistant Professor in Spanish of Gonville & Caius College and Emmanuel College at University of Cambridge Apply for the Assistant Professor in Spanish of Gonville & Caius College and Emmanuel College role on jobs.ac.uk, the top job board for academic positions in higher education. View details and apply n...

Job! Assistant Professor of Spanish @caiuscollege.bsky.social and Emmanuel College. Nine months from 1 October 2025 to cover my teaching while I’m on leave. Latin American literature, cinema or thought.

Details here: tinyurl.com/33m6d389.

‘Musk apparently did not anticipate that it would be bad P.R. for the world’s richest man to take food and medicine from the world’s poorest children.’ What a dangerous, sociopathic, idiot Musk is.

That is just the privilege of the 1% that you are seeing. They knew all along they were untouchable.

💬 What can primary school French and Spanish teachers learn from Irish-Medium classrooms?

Thomas Rogan explores how immersion-style techniques used in Irish-Medium Education could transform modern foreign language teaching in mainstream primary schools.

📖: www.lspjournal.com/post/languag...