Laura Dowling

Leonard and Hungry Paul cast and Director on telling a story about kindness, friendship, and the quiet heroism of everyday life - The feel-good series stars Alex Lawther, Laurie Kynaston and Jamie-Lee O’Donnell, with Julia Roberts as narrator

Am actually quite moved to read the thoughts of the actors and director about Leonard and Hungry Paul.

I honestly never expected any of this. I was just typing away for my own entertainment and a book popped out.

www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/...

Picture of a large junction box on the street at the top of Kildare Street at Stephen’s Green in Dublin, Ireland. On it is painted a very large, angry-looking seagull in front of two wooden gates. Two tiny people, dwarfed by the seagull, appear to be running from it, one on either side of the lower front of the image. The text over the gates reads St Stephen’s Green. The signature in the lower right of the image says M. Fitz 25.

Got to love Dublin. #Speirgorm

Let’s goooooo

Join Sara Ahmed, Emma Dabiri and Catriona Crowe and I, Tuesday 7 Oct @abbeytheatre.bsky.social @dublintheatrefest.bsky.social for Complaining For Good at 12:30. Still a few tickets available. I’ll be talking about WTF Happened, the book I wrote with @lianbell.bsky.social from @ucdpress.bsky.social

Anyway, I'm super annoyed at Heather Humphreys this morning setting her prerequisite of being President as motivation to learn Irish, so here's a code 'creidimionat' to get my Irish language ebook of 150 resources for free. I've set aside 20 slots for that code.

payhip.com/b/bm0ZI

I keep thinking about the person he owes the money to. IMAGINE what delicious revenge it would be. They'll probably get the money back and also landed a serious blow to Gavin's presidential campaign

Read Intermezzo in just over a day. Couldn't put it down. So I loved it? But I wanted to shout at everyone in it.

5 stars

Explaining to my wife that I cannot simply “read the books I’ve already bought and haven’t read” like some kind of peasant.

the EU parliament is looking for a native-level irish speaker for a press officer traineeship, starting next march

it's paid (€1660/month, no tax) and is a pretty sweet opportunity to see how the EU sausage is made, and a chance to try brussels (if you're not already here)

deadline end of october!

One woman’s eye-witness account of life under Taliban rule | Aeon Essays When the Taliban captured my city, thousands fled and the rest were severely repressed. But I’ve stayed – and survived

Smuggled out of Afghanistan — a chronicle of the last four years of living under Taliban rule as a woman. It was a rare privilege to work on this essay, and I am proud to have had some small part, alongside Untold Narratives and the Bagri Foundation is making it happen.
aeon.co/essays/one-w...

The full cover, back and front, of my book, The First Fire of Halloween. The front features a púca, the mythical Irish shape-changer, as a muscular human figure with a goat's head. He's standing in a field in darkness, with a fire blazing in front of him. Inset in the dark sky above and behind him are a pair of yellow goat's eyes. The title is in orange against the sky, and my name is in black against the fire. On the back cover, the blurb reads: Thief. Trickster. Murderer. Humans have forgotten why they once feared the púca. But he will make them remember. In the small Irish town of Athboy, there is a hill where the first fire was once lit each year to mark the beginning of Samhain. Bonfires would then be lit across the country, launching a festival to celebrate the last harvest before the harsh months of winter. On the night when the boundary with the Realm of the Dead was at its thinnest, it was believed that the spirits of the dead wandered the land. In recent years, that fire has been lit again every Halloween night. Jamie Sheldon is an American girl visiting the town with her parents for an archaeological dig. Rone O’Callaghan lives on a farm near Tlachtga, the ancient site on the Hill of Ward. Both teenagers are close by when a local man is murdered. The circumstances suggest the killer may be acting out some ancient ritual. The truth is even more macabre. This Halloween, as humans wander the streets wearing monster masks, there is a monster among them wearing a human mask. The most treacherous of all the ancient faerie folk . . . The shape-changing púca.

Is this the MOST Halloween book you'll ever read? Maybe, but it IS set around the Irish hill where the bonefires were first lit. It is a story about the very roots of Halloween; the horror, mythology, and the harvest festival that lies between life and death.
#Halloween #Samhain #Tlachtga #SpeirGorm

Love love love that outcome #TraitorsIRL

Is Kelley gone either way? She just gets to decide the winner #TraitorsIRL

This is so tough for Kelly #TraitorsIRL

Omg you're so close!!

Last night of The Traitors Ireland!! Who do you want to win? I'm rooting for Oyin. Will the faithful figure it out. #TraitorsIrl

Now that every party of the left* has endorsed Connolly, it is incumbent upon all activists within all the allied parties to pull our weight behind Catherine Connolly.

If we want to navel gaze, or wait for perfection to come along - you have plenty of time to do so after the campaign. #speirgorm

O'Connor wins historic silver medal in heptathlon Kate O'Connor won the silver medal in the heptathlon at the World Athletics Championships following an incredible fifth personal best from seven events, as she clocked two minutes 9.56 seconds in the ...

www.rte.ie/sport/athlet...

‘This land is wonderful for wine’: Israeli settlers strengthen grip on West Bank From wineries to Airbnbs, settlers are expanding their footprint in the occupied territories as Palestinians face deepening restrictions

A superb piece of factual journalism by the ever reliable @sallyhayd.bsky.social . Doesn't give you hope of a reasonable end to all this madness though...😔

‘This land is wonderful for wine’: Israeli settlers strengthen grip on West Bank

www.irishtimes.com/world/middle...

Reminder @theguardian.com has a partnership with OpenAI; which explains this thinly sourced excuse of an article that relies on ONE Masters student and OpenAI's International Education Lead countered by measly words of "caution" from ONE university admin.

Don't read this. I didn't.

But anyone who can even pose *or* publish such a question while there is a current excavation of the bodies of babies dumped by nuns in a septic tank has a huge issue with accepting historical truth.

Hmmm, my kids non-denominational school is a WAY happier and healthier education than my scary trad Catholic one. So I'm happy to make that claim.

this is, hands down, the best video I've seen on men's influencer content and it's not close either

I'm looking for stories about how AI is killing creative work, and I'd love to hear from you—artists, writers, illustrators, actors, designers, editors, voice actors and narrators—if your job or practice has been hit. This is going to be a big one.

AIKilledMyJob@pm.me

Museum of Cambridge are looking for a #Disability Heritage Research Volunteer, to work remotely, creating histories of people with disabilities in Cambridgeshire. www.museumofcambridge.org.uk/wp-content/u...

JP McManus to seek an extra €30m in taxpayer funds for 2027 Ryder Cup Billionaire businessman has already received €58m in public money towards Adare Manor event

a single billionaire is asking for the same amount of money it costs the irish state annually to fund 2000 artists on its basic income pilot scheme so that he can host a golf event

*turns slowly to look at camera*

www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2025...

Do you love #TheTraitorsIrl? Do you fancy hosting your own #MurderMystery? Helpfully, I've written a fairly ridiculous one which you can find here: mysterypartiesirl.etsy.com

It has ten fabulous characters!

Graphic by Finnegan Shannon with a white background and black text. Below is a QR code and hashtag #DisabledRage. Text reads, RAGE WITH US

There is a lot for disabled people to be enraged about. I partnered with artist Finnegan Shannon on #DisabledRage public art. All graphics are downloadable & feel free to share and wheatpaste all over your community

disabilityvisibilityproject.com/disabled-rage/

Parents outside a school supporting the school caretakers and secretaries strike.

School Secretaries and Caretakers are on indefinite strike fighting for #PensionParity. Find out more and show them your support here. #SpeirGorm

forsatradeunion.newsweaver.com/singlemessag...

I know most would be on the remove ‘gaslighting’ train but if I could erase one pop psychology l term from popular discourse it would be “love language”

this utter bull is peppered everywhere now