Des Fitzgerald

Okay, granted, but also I need to say that anyone who bought a ticket for Roy Keane and Roddy Doyle at the Marquee at least somewhat had it coming.

A picture of Ruud Van Nistelrooy above the text, "Ruud Van Nistlerooy An evening with one of Manchester United’s greatest ever goal scorers. Sunday, 8 March | 8PM Tickets €80* | €160* | €330*

If things weren't bleak enough, someone is trying to charge THREE HUNDRED AND THIRTY EUROS for "an evening with Ruud Van Nistelrooy" at the cork opera house.

This is the only bit for which I would give them credit, haha

Hiring established scholars to junior Oxbridge roles imperils disciplines As lay-offs continue elsewhere, postdocs’ inability to land permanent roles will block the pipeline of future faculty, Cambridge academics argue

An incredibly embarrassing article, even by Cambridge standards of clueless self-regard. www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/hiri...

I'm warning you now that someone is going to write a gushing essay about the new Pixar film, Hoppers, using the phrase "flat ontology."

In its own way, in understanding the war as bad only to the extent that it risks "American lives and resources," as a mere distraction from the real problems experienced by Americans, this statement is arguably more despicable than the open, gleeful racism of the US government.

UCC event poster for event w Prof Debbie Ging on March 5

Looking forward to Prof @debbieging.bsky.social’s talk on Thursday! Organized by @uccwomenstudies.bsky.social & the CASiLaC Political Technologies cluster and part of #IWD & our PG7044 PhD module!
@uccresearch.bsky.social @uccphilosophy.bsky.social @oliverjdavis.bsky.social @maybenansi.bsky.social

is that the boxing one? that's a great pub.

yeah the river has two channels so the city centre is actually on an island (was once many islands, but reclaimed over the centuries). weirdly i am very nostalgic for the albany in cardiff. it's the kind of pub we just don't really do here.

For sure (though, again, I'd honestly be surprised if it had a huge effect just given how wildly understaffed every irish uni is, and the sort of general agreement that this is a problem. But maybe that's complacent. Deffo something to watch anyway)

Hah! I mean, we are a department of 25 or so, and we teach around 1000 students in first year alone (not all in arts). So...

a picture of hannah spencer smiling in a really nice green coat, and with people holding green signs behind

when you are at the paddy's day parade and some lad with a banjo goes past on the back of a lorry

oh no, the bit with the shops is is the central island (also where ucc is). southside is death-suburbs. i live five minutes from maureens!!

We must reclaim and rejuvenate urban spaces WHEN my wife and I moved W back to Cork from the UK a few years ago, we agreed we'd only live in one of two places. We'd dig ourselves into the side of a rock somewhere in the Beara peninsula and settle in beside the sheep. Or we'd try to find some-where to live in Cork city centre. Where we absolutely would not live, we agreed, was where we had both grown up: The mind-numbing. spirit-crushing suburbs of the city's southside, and in particular the Suburbs are not the solution to our issues, writes Des Fitzgerald desolate borderlands of Ballinlough and Douglas, where dreams don't go to die, exactly, but do sometimes go to settle down quietly in a row of unchanging, semi-detached houses, each of them extended and rendered until any trace of interest or character has even care fully removed. The French anthro-pologist Marc Augé uses the term "non-places" to describe bland, tran-sient and interchange-able modern spaces, which seem to exist out-side of the usual human references to history, culture, and identity. That's probably a bit strong for, say, Bishop-stown. But still, there's something about the long roads and narrow footpaths of the south-side suburbs, the pre ponderance of shopping centres and petrol station forecourts, the near-total absence of commercial and civic excitement, that seems almost calibrated to prevent anything that

For the Cork crowd, the @irishexaminer.bsky.social has a big supplement on the future of the city today, and I have an article in it about how much I hate the southside in general, Douglas in particular. #speirgorm

I assume that's the model, or something like it. (Basically, that you'd enter a programme in english or languages or whatever it is). Part of the dynamic is that UCD did a revamp along these lines some time ago and it's generally seen as having been a big success in terms of attracting students.

Sure, it is depressing and I agree short-termist. I'm open to correction on this, but I'd be extremely surprised if existing staff negatively affected, given public employment protections (and I think everyone agrees SSRs are already drastic everywhere). At least I'd want to hear from the staff.

TBH I think the omnibus arts degree is in trouble everywhere, for the same reasons. UCD have already essentially done away with it, we are major revamping. I presume (though the article sounds alarmist) they are not actually getting rid of the programmes, just changing the structure & entry-point.

oh! didn't see this was out - thanks eoin!

Radio 4 running with the line that Goodwin lost because he was "an academic" 😑🔫

Awkward to have a one-point swing making the decision between social democracy and fascism.

Omg

a poll for the gorton and denton by-election showing green on 28%, reform on 27% and labour on 28%?

How is reforming the electoral system not a major issue in the uk?

Really? Not compared to DK surely.

yes, I have seen this about aus salaries too! We're public sector - and rolled into national level bargaining between govt and unions - which is the key difference I think, in terms of keeping up with inflation especially.

(We have our own issues - especially around speed of promotion - but for comparison, the lower of the two senior lecturer scales here goes to €112k).

Top earners increase at Russell Group universities despite cuts About 9,400 staff paid at least £100,000 a year across research-intensive institutions, analysis of financial accounts shows

It's not a popular message, but that there are as few as 185 people earning 100k at a big, serious uni like Cardiff is actually a signal of how low UK academic salaries are, and how much professorial salaries, in particular, have eroded comparatively.
www.timeshighereducation.com/news/top-ear...

Why more Irish women are choosing not to have children It is one of life's most private and personal choices, yet is often met with a public backlash and non-acceptance from family and society

My brilliant colleague, Dr Joan Cronin - who has the wisdom not to be here - has written on the changing landscape for women who choose not to have children in Ireland: www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2...

In passing, I (genuinely) love how all US polling is some variant of:
- President do good: 52%
- President do bad: 48%

Hugh Linehan: The inconvenient truth about artificial intelligence Incurious scepticism is not an adequate response to the questions AI raises

Disappointing contribution from Hugh Linehan, resting on a bunch of weary cliches about the humanities. (It does make one wonder how well Claude might emulate the originality & verve of a typical IT column. Maybe a future question for the Yascha Mounk substack).
www.irishtimes.com/media/2026/0...

oh, i don't doubt he is smart, and that he was extremely capable within a very particular (and, as you say, now largely defunct) moment in philosophical writing. but the personality - which strikes me as much more interesting than the philosophy - is *so* bleakly familiar.