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Dr Laura Watson

@lauracwatson.bsky.social

Musicologist/Associate Professor, Maynooth University | BOOKS: Paul Dukas: Composer and Critic (2019); Dukas: Legacies of a French Musician (2019); Women and Music in Ireland (2022) | Sounding the Feminists | Memoirs | she/her

694 Followers  |  495 Following  |  84 Posts  |  Joined: 11.11.2024  |  1.7212

Latest posts by lauracwatson.bsky.social on Bluesky

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A single shell, fired by the IDF at a fertility clinic: peace prize recipient explains what lies behind her genocide finding Former UN inquiry chair Navi Pillay says ‘what’s so unusual about this genocide’ is that ‘we are all witnesses to it’

The destruction of fertility clinics in Gaza has to be one of the IDF's most egregious acts of genocide. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...

06.11.2025 17:20 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

So much talk about spoiled votes, but virtually zero about the 900,000+ Irish citizens who voted for Connolly and the 15,000 volunteers who campaigned for her - nothing about what they want and represent and hope for.
No, Irish media and politics insist you engage with those who can't be bothered.

26.10.2025 09:14 — 👍 176    🔁 45    💬 5    📌 1

Saying that it's "too hard" to get on the Irish president ballot when an independent woman got the entire Irish left to back her, got the biggest vote ever and beat two historically dominant parties is not just wrong - it is breathtakingly offensive and outrageously dishonest.
#Aras25 #Speirgorm

26.10.2025 09:11 — 👍 854    🔁 241    💬 17    📌 10

Get out and vote if you've yet to do so. Voting rights were hard won for ordinary people, especially women. #ConnollyforPresident #CatherineConnolly #Aras25 #Áras25

24.10.2025 14:54 — 👍 14    🔁 5    💬 0    📌 0

Voted for Catherine Connolly! #ConnollyforPresident #Áras25 #Aras25

24.10.2025 10:03 — 👍 3    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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🗣️ "Are we going to have a conversation, on the level that you are about deportations here, about the crisis of male violence against women in this country?” - News Correspondent, The Journal Eimer McAuley
#TonightVMTV

22.10.2025 22:02 — 👍 146    🔁 57    💬 0    📌 28
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Catherine Connolly Was There for Artists When It Mattered – Heather Humphreys Was Not Heather Humphreys is a former Minister for Arts who made a serious funding misjudgement during her tenure; Catherine Connolly’s support for artists offers a contrast, writes Toner Quinn.

Obviously #CatherineConnolly is a brilliant presidential candidate anway for #Áras25 #Aras2025; her support for the arts is another reason to vote for her. @journalofmusic.bsky.social journalofmusic.com/opinion/cath...

20.10.2025 08:25 — 👍 11    🔁 2    💬 0    📌 0
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#Endometriosis really challenging to live with lately. #endo

16.10.2025 13:04 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Book Of The Week: Sinéad O'Connor and the writers she inspired A new book, Nothing Compares to You: What Sinéad O'Connor Means to Us, edited by Sonya Huber and Martha Bayne, brings together 25 essays inspired by the singer.

Reposting to fix the link: www.rte.ie/culture/2025... My review of a Sinéad O'Connor book is now available on RTÉ. @muahi.bsky.social @maynoothuniversity.ie #spéirghorm

15.09.2025 14:44 — 👍 8    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0
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Sinéad and the Writers She Inspired A new book, 'Nothing Compares to You: What Sinéad O’Connor Means to Us', edited by Sonya Huber and Martha Bayne, brings together 25 essays inspired by the singer. Laura Watson reviews.

Don't normally publish twice in two weeks, let alone on the same topic, but happy to share another piece on Sinéad O'Connor. My review of a new essay collection is free to read in
@journalofmusic.bsky.social journalofmusic.com/book-reviews...
. #spéirghorm #womeninmusic #musicology #sineadoconnor

09.09.2025 13:30 — 👍 13    🔁 6    💬 1    📌 0

Might be of interest, @ipsc.bsky.social

07.09.2025 18:37 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Reposting for the morning crowd. I discuss Sinéad O'Connor's history with Israel and #Palestine; how her song 'Famine' resonates today; how censoring #Kneecap & other pro-Palestinian artists echoes the way O'Connor was treated when she protested injustice. #Gaza #sineadoconnor #speirghorm #speirgorm

03.09.2025 11:24 — 👍 17    🔁 9    💬 0    📌 0

I suggest that the censoring of Kneecap and other Irish pro-Palestinian artists has precedent in how Sinéad O'Connor was treated when she protested injustices.

02.09.2025 21:55 — 👍 3    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0
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Sinéad O'Connor's Palestinian Solidarity and Legacy - REBEL 26 July 2025 marked the second anniversary of Sinéad O’Connor’s death. (She…

rebelnews.ie/2025/09/02/s... My article on Sinéad O'Connor and Palestine has just been published on Rebel. I discuss her song 'Famine' and some links with music activism and censorship today. #gaza #sineadoconnor #speirghorm

02.09.2025 19:12 — 👍 16    🔁 2    💬 3    📌 1
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After months of the Israeli government manufacturing a starvation crisis in Gaza, famine has officially set in.

22.08.2025 16:22 — 👍 254    🔁 148    💬 10    📌 12
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Our pals The Mary Wallopers have just been pulled off stage and the PA shut down at VictoriousFest in Portsmouth for taking out a 🇵🇸 flag and saying Free Palestine

Speak up against genocide in England and you're treated like a criminal

Up the Mary Wallopers 💚🤍🧡

Free Palestine!
Free the 6 counties!

22.08.2025 17:17 — 👍 1330    🔁 484    💬 39    📌 28
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Famine has struck Gaza, says global hunger monitor Famine has struck an area of Gaza and will likely spread over the next month, a global hunger monitor determined today, an assessment that will escalate pressure on Israel to allow more humanitarian a...

www.rte.ie/news/middle-... This is unspeakable. Man-made famine in 2025. #Gaza

22.08.2025 10:04 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Red wine from Wales. In rondo form too!

17.08.2025 20:39 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Sally Rooney on Palestine Action
www.irishtimes.com/culture/book...

16.08.2025 07:59 — 👍 1    🔁 1    💬 1    📌 0

Out socialising two nights in a row with friends and comrades - and on school nights. Triggering vague memories of being young.

12.08.2025 21:57 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Indeed!

08.08.2025 08:49 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0
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A glimpse of the stunning scenery in North Wales: we stayed in Nant Gwrtheyrn first and then Port Meirion, the Italian-style village where The Prisoner was filmed in the 1960s. Surreal to stay in #PortMeirion after having watched #ThePrisoner!

08.08.2025 06:18 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

Sad to hear about the sudden death of Seán Rocks. Loved listening to Arena and was fortunate to be interviewed by Seán for it in 2018, about the Sounding the Feminists/NCH chamber series. He was very welcoming and so knowledgeable. Huge loss to arts broadcasting in Ireland.

31.07.2025 11:06 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Mass starvation spreading across Gaza, aid agencies warn, as pressure on Israel grows – Middle East crisis live More than 100 aid agencies, including Doctors Without Borders, Save the Children and Oxfam, say ‘our colleagues and those we serve are wasting away’ Palestine Red Crescent says the situation in Gaza is “only getting worse”, with spokesperson Nebal Farsakh calling it an “unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe”. Farsakh said in a video posted to X on Tuesday that there has been no food, clean water or medicine entering the Gaza Strip for more than four months. This has resulted in a catastrophe where people are literally starving to death. More people are being admitted to hospitals with malnutrition especially among children, pregnant women and the elderly. Continue reading...

Mass starvation spreading across Gaza, aid agencies warn, as pressure on Israel grows – Middle East crisis live

23.07.2025 08:04 — 👍 260    🔁 208    💬 22    📌 32

There is nothing anti-Jewish about calling for an end to a genocide.

19.07.2025 18:12 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 2    📌 0

Huge turnout for #Palestine solidarity march in Dublin today.

19.07.2025 13:42 — 👍 9    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

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