Laura McAtackney

After a week away writing, Mr Crowe gave at least 30 mins cold shoulder before I had to sit in the bedroom with him on my knee purring and demanding stomach rubs

He has indeed and i’m not surprised at all by his decision.

Coincidentally i also talked with him at a wonderful conference in Cork last year and he was fantastic. Also v interested in tracking down British military personnel involved in Ireland who went on to be involved in the British mandate in Palestine.

Prominent historian cancels course at Columbia University over Trump deal Rashid Khalidi, in open letter published by the Guardian, accuses university of ‘capitulating’ with $200m settlement

Kudos to Rashid Khalidi, author of The Hundred Years War on Palestine, refusing to teach a class at Columbia Uni (where he worked for 20 years) due to its capitulation to Trumpian demands on how it deals with Israel, Palestine, protest and anti-semitism. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

The mathematics of starvation: how Israel caused a famine in Gaza Israel controls the flow of food into Gaza. It has calculated how many calories Palestinians need to stay alive. Its data shows only a fraction has been allowed in

Not the first time a government has played with Famine as policy, and not the last, but i’m sure we will also see those who equivocate and claim ‘natural’ disaster when it is clearly political expedient for a regime to orchestrate the demise of a people #Gaza www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...

Book cover. Green with a green-eyed black and white cat in the centre. Title: ‘Teach Your Cat / Irish’. By Anne Cakebread.

Important book I picked up on my travels!

Oh it is glorious! Would stay there again in a heart beat.

Sign the Petition Stop Mass Redundancies at Lancaster University – Hold Senior Management Accountable

- 400 jobs to go at Lancaster University

- 1 in 4 people will be made redundant

But where's the financial evidence for this extreme action?

Please read 👇

Sign the petition 👇

chng.it/7F52bThYqn

Brother of murder victim dies week after PSNI apology Eugene Thompson, the brother of Paul 'Topper' Thompson who was murdered by loyalist paramilitaries in 1994 with suspected state collusion has died, just days after receiving an apology from the PSNI.

Yet more evidence of WM govt controlling the past in NI: closing formal routes to justice, preventing info on state collusion being shared with victims’ families, while spending extravagantly on discredited official history. Families, like Paul Thompson’s, deserve better. www.rte.ie/news/regiona...

Honestly if there are sniper holes in the foreheads of children, I don’t care if your own reasoning allows you to sidestep the G-word, there is no logical parsing that can justify these acts, there is no gentlemanly symmetrical warfare based on some colonial guideline, this is mass human hunting.

Lecturer in Early Medieval History (c.400-1100) at University of Kent Discover Lecturer in Early Medieval History (c.400-1100) jobs and more in higher education on jobs.ac.uk. Apply for further details on the top job board.

Lecturer in Early Medieval History (c.400-1100)- University of Kent - #History #skystorians 🗃️www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DOB288/l...

Picture of poem by Heaney ‘The annals say …’

Picture of an art gallery with a sage green wall and white block. Atop the block is a precariously placed wisp of wicker.

Picture of a large sculpture in an art gallery Stone base and large irregular white, one, oval elongating up from it.

Art gallery photo of display with square, white base and large irregular shaped shiny metallic object on top. The metallic object is like a large flat oval with a projecting point on top right side.

Gorgeous stuff at the Glucksman at their latest opening - a Irish-Japanese exhibiting and an exhibition on the Book of Ireland, including a rather lovely handwritten poem by Heaney.

Ireland trialled a scheme where they provided 2000 artists with a guaranteed income of €1300 a month. It's been such a success that it's already been extended and there's a campaign to push it further. Here's the government report: assets.gov.ie/static/docum...

Scandinavia is dark. And minimalist. You’ll have a fun few days, looking forward to comparing notes on your return!

That’s your first question? Mine was, why are everyone waiting for street lights telling them to cross empty roads?! haha! Enjoy!

I’d say that is their focus but as they’ve not structurally skewed it in the call i’d recommmend as many AHSS as possible so that we don’t (as always) lose out to the sciences / engineering etc.

Yes, it seems very opportunistic and i wonder how it works out long term when the ‘stars’ see the funding landscape (outside of the much over-focused ERCs) and realize the reality. On the other hand, a lot of my really great colleagues are suffering in the UK and US and i’d love to see them here.

I’m not entirely sure i agree with them, seems quite cynical and all academias work definitely so an influx of ppl from more neoliberal academies tends to result in a pressure for more neoliberal elements to our current system (which needs some reforms, but not those type). But it can be good!

Absolutely, i’m very ambivalent about these types of searches but i’m also aware of the awful situations a lot of my colleagues are in outside of Ireland.

Ireland aiming to lure those wanting to escape the academic hellscapes of US / UK / Aus academia … We have currently a ‘Global Talent’ initiative for both mid career and senior academics. Informal expressions of interest to UCC (a.forde@ucc.ie) by end of July. www.researchireland.ie/funding/glob...

‘Writing retreat’ being a small cottage by a lough - of which there is an abundance in SW Ireland - and starting and ending the day with a swim. 8 hours proper work done a day. Virtually no emails read. Absolute bliss!

The main problem of having the utter privilege to go on a ‘writing retreat’ - in an attempt to escape the endless emails and actually get some substantive work done - is returning to a full day of navigating emails. I’m not sure i’ve worked anywhere like UCC for pure amount of email traffic.

Research Fellow Archaeological Science (RICHeS Scientist) at Queen's University Belfast Discover Research Fellow Archaeological Science (RICHeS Scientist) jobs and more in higher education on jobs.ac.uk. Apply for further details on the top job board.

5 year job in Belfast for a lucky isotope nerd out there - closes Monday though, so do get your skates on

Staring into the abyss, France calls for the recognition of Palestine and Britain says it’s really really bad to spray-paint planes.

OMG, it is shameless! Also following that long tradition of UK academia in making longstanding, loyal staff redundant to hire in newly minted (&cheaper) ECR (ofc, in an ideal world there should be room for all career stages rather than cynical attempts to make academia a race to the bottom).

£4M to attract 'world’s best' to support Cardiff research Cardiff University has secured over £4M to attract the world’s best research minds to Wales. The funding, part of UKRI’s £54M Global Talent Fund, is designed to support the UK’s leading research-inten...

The absurdity of trying to bring 'the world's best minds' to a university which has so recently made a whole slew of the world's best minds redundant, in a collapsing academic system & a country where xenophobia poisons our society more each day. Welcome to Cardiff? nation.cymru/news/4m-to-a...

Hungary bans Kneecap ahead of Sziget Festival show Hungarian authorities have banned Irish rap group Kneecap from entering the country to perform at the Sziget Festival, accusing the group of using antisemitic hate speech and praising the Hamas milita...

Superficially ludicrous that a country with significant problems with anti-semitism - including from govt - tries to disbar a music group with spurious claims of the same. But it highlights the complex nature of a Far Right that can be both anti-semitic and pro-Zionist. www.rte.ie/entertainmen...

Kevin Okoth · The Pessimist’s Optimist: Beyond the Postcolony Achille Mbembe is the pessimist’s optimist: he delivers a devastating analysis of the contemporary moment while never...

This is a really good essay on Achille Mbembe by Kevin Okoth - it's not really a review of his new book, so much as a lengthy critical reading of the development of Mbembe's thought since the mid 1990s. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

EU to discuss action against Israel over Gaza war conduct EU foreign ministers will discuss a raft of options for action against Israel over the war in Gaza - but likely will not agree on any.

The moral cowardice of the EU in the face of fross human rights abuse against Palestinians is sickening. But let’s not forget it has been facilitated by equivocating academics and memorial organizations that reinforce the conflation of criticism of Israel with antisemitism www.rte.ie/news/world/2...

It is time that we stop making excuses for it and claim it is an acceptable part of any culture.