Laura McAtackney

We have a vacancy at UCL for a new permanent lecturer in British and Comparative politics, working as part of the Constitution Unit

Again, i keep seeing this disconnect in acknowledging that culture can be political in the present but not that culture heritagized in the past can also be political (& reevaluated!). It is so odd to not see that politics underpins culture - heritage - identity (but also explains alot!).

RTÉ to boycott Eurovision Song Contest over Israel Ireland will not participate in next year's Eurovision Song Contest, and it will not be broadcast by RTÉ, after the European Broadcasting Union confirmed today that Israel will be allowed to take part...

I applaud RTE for the ethical decision to withdraw from participating and broadcasting Eurovision due to Gaza but i’m unsure how this isn’t subject to govt interference given they interfered in the possible renaming of a park in Dublin for the same reason www.rte.ie/entertainmen...

And to note: i’m not necessarily supportive of the renaming of the park rn - i don’t know enough about the context of that decision - but we are hardly strangers to renaming parks, streets, railway stations, bridges, towns and even counties when our values changed (post-independence).

It is also super interesting - and depressing - to me how often ‘official Ireland’ divorces its political policies from ideas of identity and heritage. As if ‘politics’ is only Big P stuff and how and what we remember - and what it means - is outside of that realm.

Not going to go around in circles with you about this. you may care about that - and while it can be useful context as to why the park was named )my guess is it wasn’t a hugely debated or considered issue) it doesn’t really matter now as we should not be tied to the ideals (or lack of) of the past.

But why does it matter what ‘we’ thought about Israel in 1995? Just like Colston the naming of the park wasn’t some mass movement of popular remembering, it was probably some passion project of a small number of people that didn’t really offend anyone and now the context has greatly changed.

It can quite easily be both! This really isn’t v different from renaming parks after problematic colonial figures - partially about the person in past and ongoing repercussions now. We can reassess Herzog as a person and also not want our public parks to be named after Israeli PMs during a genocide.

That’s now how heritage works, what we find meaningful and important is never set at a particular time; it is always conceived and negotiated in the present. When the values associated with a person / event are no longer those of the society then it’s absolutely normal to replace them.

Going back to heritage - the naming and memorializing of place is always political and therefore open to negotiation and change. It is absolutely clear why a park belatedly renamed after a Zionist might be reassessed right now given * everything * and is problematic to conflate w/ antisemitism.

Herzog was born in Belfast, grew up in Dublin and left for Palestine in 1935 at the age of 17. He was heavily involved in what were considered by the British as Zionist terrorist activities. While he is a well known Irish Jewish person to conflate his life as rep of ‘Irish Jewish’ is problematic.

Dublin Co acquired the land in 1950s. It was a (Orwell Quarry) park from 1985 before being renamed in honour of Chaim Herzog in 1995 (2 yrs before his death and due to the trimillennium of Jerusalem). To decide to honour the Irish-born former President of Israel may have been fine then, but now?

Official statement from the Irish Taoiseach condemning the current campaign to change the name of Herzog Park in Dublin.

A statement like this by the Taoiseach sustains my concerns about how ‘heritage’ in Ireland is often uncritically conceived and has not evolved by claims of positive, nationalist & shrug. The belated naming (and potential renaming) of a park is political and can change for various reasons.

Northumbria Pay and Pension Petition: Stop the Steal! If Northumbria does this, other universities will too.  These cuts will harm thousands of people, their students, families, and their local communities now and into the future.

👉👉👉Hey! Please sign and share! Let's get to 500+ today! www.megaphone.org.uk/petitions/no...

Teaching Eastern Europe Through a Decolonial Lens Why has Eastern Europe been absent from studies of decolonial history?

Why has Eastern Europe been absent from studies of decolonial history?

In our latest podcast, Oksana Dudko (@oksanadudko.bsky.social) and Anna Hájková (@ankahajkova.bsky.social) discuss Ukrainian history in an age of invasion.

A united Ireland referendum must not be ‘another Brexit’, analysts say Two leading journalists from both sides of the border warn against another ‘vague, thumbs up-thumbs down’ vote

Ahhh Project Fear beginning already re departitioning of Ireland! V similar to the fearmongering that appearing around Scotland’s indyref - but strangely it was not as pronounced with Brexit, despite conflation - the status quo’s response to progressive change. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...

Reform UK accused of embracing racism over its pick for head of student organisation Matthew Goodwin argued people from minority ethnic backgrounds born and raised in UK were not always British

The Guardian gave Goodwin lots of space in the 2010s to whitewash racism as Legitimate Concerns, imbue those Concerns with faux working class authenticity, and denigrate anti racism as the bleatings of a cosmopolitan elite. Its a bit late to start Noticing now.

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

A little too much cronyism and expecting to trust ppl to do the right thing when they clearly have no sense what that is.

Indeed, all this needs is for us all to decide we are perfectly ethical and we just need to be trusted re what we decide to disclose or not. don’t know what the problem is?!

Haha, he’s just a gift ‘i asked myself, is what i’m doing legal?’. I mean, we are many kilometers passed ‘ethical’ when you’re trying to walk the line with that one!

New documentary review on the site by @brian-hanley.bsky.social on the RTE Documentary NORAID, Irish America and the Troubles. www.theirishstory.com/2025/11/10/d...

• "Anti-Trump" bias: Prescott says the BBC's coverage of the 2024 US election was more critical of Donald Trump than of his opponent, Kamala Harris - including a misleading edit of a speech Trump delivered on 6 January 2021 • "Ill-researched" stories on racism: He says the BBC had published "ill-researched material that suggested issues of racism when there were none", including in a now-removed BBC Verify story about car insurance • Too few push alerts on migration and asylum seekers: There was a "selection bias" against sending stories about migration and asylum seekers to BBC News app users as push notifications, Prescott says • "One-sided" transgender coverage: He says the BBC had often published stories "celebrating the trans experience without adequate balance or objectivity" and had ignored certain voices

Anti-Israel bias in BBC Arabic: Several contributors to the BBC's Arabic service selectively covered stories that were critical of Israel, Prescott writes • Broader issues in Gaza coverage: His other criticisms include misrepresenting the percentage of Palestinian women and children who have been killed by Israel's military, and misrepresenting the likelihood of children starving under Israel's aid blockade The BBC has not yet responded directly to the publication of this memo, but outgoing CEO of News Deborah Turness has said this morning the organisation "is not institutionally biased".

Institutional capture of the BBC: Michael Prescott former political editor of the Murdoch Sunday Times - so you can guess his politics - alleges the following. All the current far right obsessions in bullet points. Laughable and totally rancid

Client confidentiality reason for non-disclosure - Yates Ivan Yates has said client confidentiality was the reason he did not disclose the fact that he gave media training to Fianna Fáil presidential candidate Jim Gavin.

I love when case-studies come up during my teaching that are just too perfect. Nearing the end of a course on ethical dilemmas in anthropology and we have Ivan Yates fudging the difference between legal and ethical. Chefs kiss! www.rte.ie/news/politic...

Academic book publishers pre-advertising ‘black friday’ deals on social media. Grim.

Katie McCabe takes clear poppy stance as she follows in McClean's footsteps Katie McCabe follows in the footsteps of James McClean by not wearing the poppy while in action for Arsenal.

In yet another addition of willful ignorance by the British tabloid press, the cyclical poppy furore. It is incredible it has to be explained to adults that there is nothing apolitical about remembering war and especially how it is used in the contemporary. www.irishmirror.ie/sport/soccer...

absolutely

It’s an odd one, i worked the elections in the north for years and we kept spoiled votes and they were counted (the text was not recorded) but it wasn’t announced with the tallies afaik?! But given the social media campaign it became more prominent this time.

Absolutely, the mainstream media and politicians continue to be abysmal at confronting an increasingly emboldened far right and seem to be happy just allowing their BS claims. I’m delighted with what looks like a landslide for Connolly but this ability to so easily claim a false narrative is bad.

Who was behind the 'Spoil The Vote' campaign? A network of businesspeople and online commentators campaigned for voters to spoil their ballots as a form of protest. Here's who they are — and how they became part of the movement

While it was a less than ideal Presidential campaign - with only two candidates still running in the end - it’s useful to see the names and bios behind the ‘spoil your vote’ campaign. Mainly a lot of failed politicians, right wing agitators and social conservatives. www.rte.ie/news/primeti...

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