Ultán Gillen

It has to be "The Muppets Take Medieval Studies," because Kalamzoo is objectively the funniest place name for anywhere an academic conference takes place.

Cherry Float Coke an enormous disappointment

It Turns Out Waymos Are Being Controlled by Workers in the Philippines During a Congressional hearing, Waymo's chief safety officer, Mauricio Peña, was grilled over the company's reliance on overseas workers.

Once again, it turns out “fully autonomous” means “a guy in the Philippines.”

Those well under inflation salaries

The Republic has defeated Ireland

Excited my research is out here and freely accessible!! Thanks Itinerario and my excellent editors @thomasmareite.bsky.social and @nagonzalezq.bsky.social! www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

YouTube video by TEDx Talks Folklore matters—here’s why | Bryan Banks | TEDxColumbus State U

In 2018, I heard a story of tunnels beneath Columbus, Ga. They were used to transport enslaved peoples before the Civil War, this person told me. What followed was my pursuit of the truth. www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzbP...

Just indulged in some Thomas Moore the poet hatred. Satisfying

Over 800 EoIs for the Research Ireland Investigators call! 800!!! Maybe we need a national funding structure that is better provisioned and regularised?

Verso highly on brand by sending a email referencing the anniversary of the victory of Stalingrad by linking to what a Trotskyist had to say about it

The guy who owns Amazon shutting down the books section of the Washington Post is beyond parody

I am very happy this article is out [OA to come]. It builds on work by scholars like @matthewjkelly.bsky.social, Paul Townend, Michael de Nie, @alanlester.bsky.social (and others) to suggest that Irish nationalism had something important to say about the British Empire in the 1830s and 1840s. 🗃️

Montanus appeared in Press the United Irish paper. Allegedly T.A. Emmet according to a booklet from 1898 held by the NLI printing the letters

Opening screen of Royal Historical Society blog post: 'With December’s restart, what next for REF2029 and for History?' Full abstract: On 10 December 2025, Research England announced the ‘unpausing’ of REF2029 and, with it, completion of a three-month review of the terms and principles of the next assessment exercise. The messaging that accompanied December’s announcement was clear: a more pragmatic, less burdensome REF template is ‘back on track’, with attention soon to move to the work of criteria setting by subject panels. However, December marked more than resumption after a temporary halt. The updates announced are extensive and include significant changes to the structure and content of REF2029. Here, we summarise and review the key headlines. This post also considers the implications of these changes, with reference to History and the wider humanities. These include positives, notably changes to the portability of books and to impact case studies. But there are also concerns, most notably in relation to the new-look environment element and changes to the form and weighting of its assessment. These put at risk the central REF principle of ‘rewarding excellence wherever it is found’.

What changes were made to REF2029 as part of last December's 'unpausing'; and what are the likely implications - positive and negative - for History and the wider humanities?

New on the RHS blog: bit.ly/3ZIfe0P

#Skystorians @artsandhums.bsky.social

Battle of Carrickshock Tom Manning chronicles the Battle of Carrickshock and examines the role of proctor or agent, the case of Rev Harris Hamilton, casualties among police and civilians, anti-tithe meetings and the use of ...

Amazing documentary here on the ‘Battle of Carrickshock’ during the tithe war in Ireland in 1831

www.rte.ie/radio/docono...

Plonked in the middle of a general discussion, it strikes me that this might be the key 'theoretical' claim I'm staking in my book:

Just remembered there was a Montanus writing to the papers and possibly a pamphlet in the 1790s. Nedd to check his politics.

Letters from an Old Orangeman This book returns to print a long-forgotten series of articles in defense of the Orange Order, a Protestant counterrevolutionary group in Ireland. In the autumn of 1835, as the Orange Order faced a pa...

I've recently published a scholarly edition of a primary text: 'Letters from an Old Orangeman' by 'Montanus'. Here's a twitter thread from my introductory essay. press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...

Is there any chance we could defend disciplines in Higher Education by saying they are all valuable in their own right, as ways of understanding the world, rather than saying they make you a proper human, or reveal objective reality, as you prefer?

For the benefit of who needs to hear it, physics and chemistry were hammered twenty five years ago. This isn't a new attack.

French prisoner-of-war sociability in Hampshire during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars Abstract. Daniel Gordon in his monograph on Citizens without Sovereignty explored how, in eighteenth-century France, sociability enabled those without powe

New article by Katherine Astbury and Abigail Coppins, 'French prisoner-of-war sociability in Hampshire during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars'

Open Access here: doi.org/10.1093/fh/c...

@frenchhistory.bsky.social

Further evidence it takes Irish people to produce the best literature in English

What have we got to lose by opening up a debate about the media and how it might contribute to the achievement of a rich participatory democracy? Stephen Baker is a Lecturer at Ulster University  Earlier in January, a report was launched setting out proposals for a new public media organisation in the event of a united Ireland. Funded by progre...

What have we got to lose by opening up a debate about the media and how it might contribute to the achievement of a rich participatory democracy?

sluggerotoole.com/2026/01/28/w...

“Strange! The Emperor [Napoleon]’s three greatest adversaries have already met horrible fates: Londonderry slit his own throat, Louis XVIII rotted on the throne, and Professor Saalfeld is still a Professor at Göttingen.”

I’m reading Heine again and so you have to, too.

An excellent new resource from @uoscollections.bsky.social!

We're looking forward to exploring the catalogue and developing links between the Arthur Scargill Archive and the archives of the National Union of Mineworkers archives (full NUM catalogue available in the next couple of months!)

Anger over 'Grand Theft Tax' as game firm's tax relief tops half a billion pounds UK government urged to review scheme’s use by ‘union busting’ firm

EXC: Rockstar, the Scottish video game firm behind the Grand Theft Auto series, has now claimed more than £500m in tax relief through a UK Gov scheme while paying out £400m+ in dividends, prompting calls for reform of what one MP called a 'Grand Theft Tax' www.scotsman.com/news/anger-o...

Beyond the Pale

Runs scared of everyone except internal enemies

Yet another film better than the book

Even mentions a monopoly supplies electricity in Kyiv. Did Hayek write this story?