Kevin O'Sullivan

YouTube video by Noisey 'Fantastic Man' (Full Length) - A Film About William Onyeabor

This film about William Onyeabor is over a decade old, but I'm very glad I finally caught it. A great watch for anyone interested in the cultural history of West Africa post-independence & Cold War networks that facilitated artistic expression. Oh, and the music's great too. youtu.be/GiaRp0M2fxE?...

Environmental humanities & adjacent scholars: interested in collaborating on a panel for this @carsoncenter.bsky.social conference in July?!
#envhum #STS #envhist www.carsoncenter.uni-muenchen.de/news/news_ev...

Having sat with it for a bit, I'm still struggling with this document.

The document is at once very cautious, and effusive. The text of the guidance itself is pretty good--in fact, I think they point out a lot of ways in which generative AI is a terrible thing for doing history.

The main problem with kids nowadays is that almost none of them have heard a drummer get wicked

Cold War/long 1980s #skystorians - what work has been done on UK cities declaring "nuclear free zones"?

Red Star ’91: Conquering Europe as Yugoslavia Collapsed – Part One | It Was What It Was : The Football History Podcast The football history podcast, brought to you by The Overlap

The It Was What It Was podcast has just released a two-parter on the Red Star Belgrade team that won the European Cup in 1991. Lots here about the entanglement of football and violence, about the team itself, and about what the victory stood for. Well worth a listen.
shows.acast.com/it-was-what-...

An American academic once said to me that the difference between Ireland pre- and post-Tiger was that, after it, you could get a decent caesar salad in Gort.

The first chapter of Ann Marie Hourihane's book, She Moves Through the Boom (great title!), is really good on these differences.

He's obviously enjoyed race week... 😉

I see Plumpy'nut is under threat from cuts at USAID. Its history is worth reading, not least how its nutritional benefits were also mobilised as a tool of control. Both Tom-Scott Smith & Joel Glasman are well worth reading on this:
ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid...

www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/1...

The Who Sampled page is a sight to behold. www.whosampled.com/DJ-Shadow/Bu...

Photo of a CD player, with a CD case on a shelf in front of it. The CD is DJ Shadow - Endtroducing...

Sunday evening listening. The creativity involved in putting this together is still as mind-bending, 29 years after its release. Given all that came after, it must be one of the most influential albums ever made.

Pet academic peeve: book reviews that summarise each chapter. ("In chapter one...", etc).

I mean, what's the point? I want your opinion, not your notes.

😂

Amazing! I had no idea, though I suppose the timing makes a lot of sense.

Really?!

And eating mushrooms in the People's Park, one presumes, too. Or, eh, maybe not.

Amazing

I had no idea - just Googled and found Stars of Heaven. Will have a listen later!

*knows Karl Marx

Time to wheel out the fact that Niall O'Flaherty, lead singer with Sultans of Ping ('Where's Me Jumper', etc), is a senior lecturer in the history of European political thought at King's College London. "My brother met Karl Marx", indeed.

One week left to apply for this great #envhist job with us in Norway.

Spotify’s terrible privacy settings just leaked Palmer Luckey’s bops and bangers The Panama Playlists claims to show the favorite tracks of some of the biggest names in tech, media, and politics.

This is one of the funniest things I've read in ages:

"Among the notables are Vice President JD Vance — whose “Making Dinner” playlist features “I Want It That Way” by the Backstreet Boys and “One Time” by Justin Bieber, according to the site."

www.theverge.com/privacy/7163...

Sharing this for colleagues who might be interested in moving to Ireland (or escaping from other locations!)
www.researchireland.ie/funding/glob...

YouTube video by BillieMartenVEVO Billie Marten - Feeling (Official)

An antidote to the dreadful news cycle: the new album by Billie Marten is really very good. Especially the opening track, Feeling. youtu.be/Kwdhv_bRslA?...

Glazed and confused In a piece for the Guardian Jeremy Ettinghausen introduced me to a term I hadn’t come across before: glazing. Ettinghausen’s article draws on eighteen months of chat logs between three …

“That’s what history as-a-process-of-finding-out-about-the-past actually is: a series of constant shocks and disorientations. You thought you knew something …, but you are repeatedly confronted with you own ignorance and forced to adapt your ideas.” 🗃️ williamgpooley.wordpress.com/2025/07/29/g...

Waterstones' promotional flyer for Matt Houlbrook's book Songs of Seven Dials: An intimate history of 1920s and 1930s London. The flyer includes an image of the book and the discount code you can use to preorder it on the Waterstones website: SUMMER25

Preorders make a huge difference in boosting a new book like this: if you’re able to order Songs of Seven Dials or even share the flyer through your social media I would be very grateful.

"They're *not* the champions of the world!" shouts my better half from the next room, as the England players sing the chorus of that Queen song.

*Gaelic football

For non-Irish Blueskyers, it's the All-Ireland football final - one of the most-watched sporting events of the year. Live on TV.