Sorcha O’Brien

The GRA was passed in 2015 with very little fanfare following years of courageous campaigning by trans people. We have yet to see any negative ramifications in society - and we won't.

We simply *cannot* have a President of Ireland who speaks about trans women or their human rights in this way.

my bad landlord kept our deposit after letting a leak get so bad that mushrooms started growing in our bedroom and my partner got fungal pneumonia. so yeah, very difficult to relate to people saying "you'd have to feel sorry for Jim Gavin"

Absolutely brilliant news. But can we expand it too?

A wonderful thread involving secret compartments, secret treasures, care and kindness.

It would take around 1.1 million acres of solar panels to (clean) power the world. That's less than a quarter of the number of acres devoted globally to golf courses. You can see where this is going, right...?

Obviously, this is loser shit, but I think AI has really cemented itself as the visual language of fascism. It's anti-human, flattened, uninteresting, and cheap. It's like looking at a Potemkin Village and thinking that's the same as architecture.

Six of my novels and an anthology I have a story in are part of the Anthropic settlement. I just filed my claim. It's easy, they have all the information you need to do it.

You can find the lookup here: secure.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com/lookup

The "AI" responses that Google gives about me and my work are consistently error-prone, which I know because I am me. If I know Google's "AI" responses give incorrect answers about things I know about, I can't trust it to give correct answers about things I don't know. So, no, I don't use it.

Physical miniature elements getting ready

So grateful to @sonjatiernan.bsky.social & editors of #Saothar50 for opportunity to write on Irish housewives. By mad coincidence my ma was interviewed about her everyday experiences in 1968 & that features in my new article. #familyhistory #femaleactivism
dublinfestivalofhistory.ie/event/specia...

Looking forward to attending launch of #Saothar50 in Dublin next week 😀. This is a jam packed edition & was delighted to be asked to write article about #Irishhousewives in 1960s & 1970s, featuring a Swedish newspaper interview from 1968 on their everyday experiences, with my mum ❤️. #familyhistory.

This would be why I am such a strident critic of digitization as a substitute for actual archival preservation. My sixteenth century documents are far sturdier and likely to survive another 500 years than the detritus on the internet. And digitization is not democratization.

So this is a very, very desperate move - a very silly app of generative AI slop that will be incredibly expensive for OpenAI to run, and on top of it, they're requiring rights holders to *opt out* once they see violations. You can't do it in advance. They're washed, and trying everything to survive.

Wikipedia editors trying to fend off the onslaught of AI crap have crowdsourced some telltale signs of LLM-generated writing; it might be handy for editors and proofreaders generally. Thanks to @ellenrykers.com for pointing me to it. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikiped...

Let's All Remember When We Saved The World To remind ourselves we can do it again.

I honestly don't think everyone talks enough about how amazing it was when the world came together to fix the hole in the ozone layer, so I wrote this:

everythingisamazing.substack.com/p/lets-all-r...

It's a good reminder of what we're capable of.

Q. Can you vote in the Presidential election next month?

A. Of course I can. I always vote.

Q. Are you on the Register?

A. Why wouldn't I be?

*Checks Register. Name absent*

Q. Who erased me?

*Applies to be registerred*

There are only a few days left to register.

Ive seen LLMs pushed a lot to fellow #adhd students and scholarship to "help" them with things like detail work and structuring work. Ive also seen many punished for trusting this offer of help too. Here's what to use instead:

#academicsky

Some interesting colour Dublin city views from July 1957. From the Edmund L. Mitchell Collection from the Boston Public Library.

We found a link between SARS-CoV-2 reinfection & #longCOVID, & a post-pandemic rise in thrombotic events across all populations, regardless of vaccination or prior infection. Findings support continued COVID diagnosis in suspected cases & mask use by healthcare workers treating respiratory patients

In a library, a woman (30s?) is leading her Mum by the hand down the aisles until they reach the 'M' aisle.
She then pauses, pulls a book off the shelf and holds it up, saying: "That's your book Mum. Right there. You're in the Library!"
Mum bursts into tears.
Happy hugs all around. (2)

OpenAI's rapid rush into education has been achieved by habituating users through training programs, institutional lock-ins, strategic marketing partnerships, and third party integrations that together are helping it become infrastructural to teaching and learning. It's going to be hard to get out.

'Get offshore wind farms over the line' to meet AI energy demands, says Taoiseach Data centres continued to consume a greater share of Ireland’s energy last year, with their electricity consumption rising by 10% in 2024

It was never about decarbonisation, just more energy for US tech - difference is the Govnt says it out loud now.

'Speaking in NY this week, Martin said the demands of AI mean that Ireland needs to intensify efforts to scale up production of energy at home.'

www.irishexaminer.com/news/politic...

Capenhurst Women’s Peace Camp (1982–3) and after: local nuclear resistance, grassroots feminisms, and transnational solidarities Abstract. This article explores the local specificities of Capenhurst Women’s Peace Camp, established in 1982 at British Nuclear Fuels Limited on the Wirra

Brilliant new article by @racheljcollett.bsky.social in @mbhjournal.bsky.social further expanding knowledge & understanding of #womensgrassrootsactivism. Congratulations Rachel 👏🥳. @womenshistnet.bsky.social #skystorians
academic.oup.com/tcbh/article...

So many women have been talking, writing and warning people of the dangerous ideologies and biases of tech in Silicon Valley, for decades, and it’s so infuriating that so many men (not OP here) just flat out ignore it and act surprised at the technofascists infecting it now

Tickets for my talk on the letters of sympathy sent to Canon Begley and his parishioners following the 1926 Dromcollogher cinema fire are now available through the link below. The talk is on Sunday 28 September in Newcastle West county Limerick.
register.enthuse.com/ps/event/Mar...

Two women stand in an ornate room with gold decorations and a large throne. One, wearing a light coat, holds a booklet, and the other, in a dark jacket, gestures while speaking. The room features a mirrored fireplace, decorative paintings, and a polished table.

Heritage Guide Recruitment Alert!

Join us as a guide at OPW heritage sites across Ireland. Showcase our rich history, from ancient tombs to stunning gardens. Contracts range 3-9 months.

Apply here ➡️ https://cutt.ly/GuideRecruitment
Deadline: 5.00pm, 16 Oct 2025

Book cover of "Burning Swamps: Peat and the Forgotten Margins of Russia's Fossil Economy" by Katja Bruisch. A black and white photograph shows a woman with a headscarf stacking peat

📣 It's publication day! 🔥Burning Swamps🔥 is out with @universitypress.cambridge.org ! My book tells the forgotten history of peat in the context of Russia’s industrialization & electrification and points to the lingering presence of past extraction 1/5

#envhist #energysky

The settlement has been approved!

Known Abominations Unto Nuggan:

Chocolate
Garlic
Mushrooms
The colour blue
Babies
Crop rotation
Girls in men's clothing
Girls knowing how to write
Pictures of living things
Cats
Dwarfs
Oysters
Shirts with six buttons
Cheese
(more exist, but I ran out of characters)

- Monstrous Regiment, Pratchett

JA Westenberg @Daojoan@mastodon.social My 9 year old and his classmates have started using “that’s AI” to mean “I don’t believe you.” Me: we’re having dinosaur meat for dinner Kiddo: that’s AI Sep 24, 2025, 07:36 AM

They've lost the 9yos