@alanford56.bsky.social
Historian of religion, interested in Irish history, religious hatred (studying it, that is...), how you write Irish history, and St Patrick and how he has been used (and abused) by Irish historians. Oh, and also classical music.
Don't think this needs much comment...
(From TheAnxiousGardener blog)
Description of the red bellied titi (Callicebus moloch) -- Scholarly communication at its best . . .
04.03.2026 13:25 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Help My Son’s a Zebra!
Know him 26 years, and only just discovered the truth.
It is of course typical of an academic to focus on what an article does not contain… Sorry about that.
Let me just stress that I really enjoyed what you did say in the article: really needed to be said.
Really enjoyed this Joel. Warmest congrats on bringing Ireland into the argument.
I do wonder though whether we are missing a hidden Catholic public sphere focusing not on (parochial!) London and Dublin, but on Europe. Jane Stevenson has a brilliant article on this looking at Eng Cath print culture
Getting the bible right!
Yes funny, but also very seriously true...
One of the main messages I tried to get across to students in my teaching...
AI and University Teaching/Assessment
Superb Long Read in today's Guardian by Peter C Baker. Most realistic account I have seen about the practicalities of lecturing when you know students are using AI.
Not without hope, but, hey, changes the way you teach and how you assess.
The Irish love of drink
Hmm . . . can the stereotype be true?
1608: Christopher Holywood, the Jesuit leader, reporting on a fellow SJ, who was speaking in public in Drogheda 'against the vice of drunkenness which - I do not know how - some think praiseworthy . . .'
Bright but…
Contemporary verdict on Dudley Loftus (1618-95) the orientalist, reputed to have been able to speak 20 languages by the age of 20, but whose wisdom did not match his scholarship:
‘I never knew so much learning in the keeping of a fool.’
American Football player names — a further instalment
Kick returners for the Los Angeles Chargers and the New England Patriots:
KeAndre Lambert-Smith
Efton Chism III
Great piece in current edition of the Renaissance Quarterly by Danielle Clarke: 'Lady Anne Southwell, Scripture, and the Landscape of Early Modern Ireland'.
Locates her poetry in the actual and metaphorical Irish landscape. Has a magical ability to straddle all kinds of disciplinary boundaries.
Happy Christmas
Look, no apologies, it just goes with the time of year, OK?
Why did no one bid for Donner and Blitzen on eBay?
Becuase they were two deer.
Bastard!!!
25.12.2025 14:58 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
Great opening to today's Times obit of David Ker, Irish old Etonian art collector and practical joker:
'When King Juan Carlos of Spain telephoned an English friend, he was surprised to be cut off mid-conversation by the words "F*** off Dave, I know it is you."'
Oops!
Forgot my all-time-favourite Catholic Truth Society of Ireland pamphlet:
The Girl Who Was Frightened of Cows – Extreme Unction (1953)
No, I've no idea either...
Irish Catholic Truth Society:
Why Leave Home When It’s Such Fun to be There? 1944
Divorce is a Disease 1944
Shall I Be a Nun? 1945
The Young Lady Says ‘No’! 1946
Grow Up and Marry 1947
Hell and its Punishments 1948
Shall I start to Drink? 1953
What Not to Do on a Date 1960
Different country...
Sorry to be so boring: surely not a palm, but a banana tree?
17.12.2025 16:37 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0Made the mistake of showing this to my family: 'What a great way of getting rid of your books, Dad!'
14.12.2025 17:54 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
From the Times obit of the novelist Sophie Kinsella:
'On her first night at university she met her future husband... She was 21 when they married--she did not want him to 'drift away', she said, adding: 'I think he thought the same thing , but it had to be explained to him.'
!
What a great area of expertise!
Dr Rob Runacres is an independent scholar and historical fencing instructor with a recently completed PhD at the University of Winchester.
Aw cmon, Chris, I'm not falling for that line....
04.12.2025 11:09 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
Hey! I'm a fish expert!
More AI madness.
A while back I published an piece on a Church of Ireland bishop, 'Fishing for Controversy: W.S. Kerr and the Demise of Church of Ireland Anti-Catholicism'.
Even since I have been plagued by emails such as this...
More AI Madness
Asked by Taylor & Francis to peer review article on Russian Orthodox views of Ukraine war.
My reply:
'Way, way, way outside my field. Is this a sentient human being making the choice of reviewer or a lunatic AI bot? If former don't use them again, if latter, try using former.'
Wonderfully pithy letter in today's Guardian:
'How come your article on narcissism didn't mention me?'
Oh sorry!
It's from PETE BIBBY.
‘And on the 8th day, God created FC Koln’.
Annual service in Cologne Cathedral for FC Koln.
God didn’t listen: they were relegated.
Well Daniel, you doubtless are familiar with the definition of a Professor: 'A person who talks in someone else's sleep'...
12.11.2025 20:52 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Looks wonderful Chris. Warmest congratulations.
And… err… I am sure Johanna will love this for Christmas….
This and the cooking pot I’ve bought her.
To universal family derision (‘Toys for boys’; ‘Well I guess you are a bit fat, Dad…’) have bought a static exercise bike.
Now, though, I need an exercise program. So pleased to see that my iPad has free Cycle Tracking software.
Bit odd, though…
First question was: ‘When did you last ovulate?’
Just come across a book written by Pitre and Sciascio, Urla senza suono: Graffiti dei prigionieri dell'Inquisitzione (1999), about the graffiti on the walls of the Palazzo Steri in Palermo written by those imprisoned there by the Inquisition.
'Screaming without sound' -- what a magnificent title!
Astonishing, isn’t it?
And to think that this was read in the drawing rooms of polite society.
And one of the most successful Gothic novels was Melmoth the Wanderer, by John Robert Maturin, the Dublin clergyman.