Alan Ford

@alanford56.bsky.social

180 followers 130 following 120 posts

Historian of religion, interested in Irish history, religious hatred (studying it, that is...), how you write Irish history, and St Patrick and how he has been used (and abused) by Irish historians. Oh, and also classical music. .. more

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History 60%

Political science 15%

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Alan Ford @alanford56.bsky.social · 11h

Just come across a book written by Pitre and Sciascio, Urla senza suono: Graffiti dei prigionieri dell'Inquisitzione (1999), about the graffiti on the walls of the Palazzo Steri in Palermo written by those imprisoned there by the Inquisition.

'Screaming without sound' -- what a magnificent title!

Alan Ford @alanford56.bsky.social · 19h

Astonishing, isn’t it?

And to think that this was read in the drawing rooms of polite society.

And one of the most successful Gothic novels was Melmoth the Wanderer, by John Robert Maturin, the Dublin clergyman.

Alan Ford @alanford56.bsky.social · 22h

Obvious source is the Depositions relating to the Irish Rising of 1641. All now helpfully transcribed online:
1641.tcd.ie

Please complete the security check to access 1641.tcd.ie

1641.tcd.ie

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Alan Ford @alanford56.bsky.social · 22h

Ah, nineteenth-century Gothic novels--amazing stuff!

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Alan Ford @alanford56.bsky.social · 1d

Hmm, yes, I guess this might be an issue.

Review of a book on the modern social theology of the C of E:

'This reviewer is not a theologian, but a couple of outsider’s observations... seem called for. The first is the striking absence of references to God, Jesus Christ, or the Bible'.

Alan Ford @alanford56.bsky.social · 2d

Great Sunday Times magazine article by a ex celebrity chef. Sounds wonderful, see the world, great pay; BUT rude vulgar employers who hardly know you exist.

If he ever feels the urge to go back, he reminds himself of the time he spent ‘Christmas day alone, sautéing foie gras for a chihuahwa.’

Alan Ford @alanford56.bsky.social · 7d

Wonderful, not to mention bizarre, sentence from the obituary of Prunella Scales in today's Times:

'The following year she raised eyebrows when she appeared nude in an episode of Unnatural Causes, in which she plays a wife who cooks her husband.'

Alan Ford @alanford56.bsky.social · 16d

Mid October Nerine

Alan Ford @alanford56.bsky.social · 20d

OK... OK... I know. I should have put the ladder away as soon as I had finished using it...

Alan Ford @alanford56.bsky.social · 22d

Will let you know how it goes. We’re downsizing from a 10 year old SUV that got the children to and from university and their houses. Looking forward to having a modest car rather than a monstrosity.

Alan Ford @alanford56.bsky.social · 22d

Oh gosh, what a talent. I’m clueless.

We are actually almost there.

Looks like we are buying a 2 year old VW ID 3, our first electric car.

Alan Ford @alanford56.bsky.social · 22d

Currently going through the nightmare of trying to buy a car.

Salesmen!

All of them your best friend.

None to be trusted.

So far seen five. When asked what they though of the car I want, all said that, actually, it was so good that their wife drove one.

What an extraordinary coincidence…

Alan Ford @alanford56.bsky.social · Oct 1

Ah the joys of trying to contact companies online.

Tried to raise an issue with ID Mobile, my phone provider.

Usual nightmare of trying to get through to an actual person. Nearest I could manage was an online chat, which… errr… did not start too well:

‘Please bare with me’, she began.

Alan Ford @alanford56.bsky.social · Sep 28

Neutrally and factually recounted in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, as it is below, you can't help wondering what the psyychological impact of this bizarre upbringing was.

Alan Ford @alanford56.bsky.social · Sep 23

So, then, musical performance is just a matter of playing the notes on the page. Yes? Well... errr... no...

There is also that little matter of the personality of the performer, as here, with the wonderful Patricia Kopatchinskaya and Polina Leschenko:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=5G8n...

Patricia Kopatchinskaja - Giya Kancheli, Rag-Gidon-Time (Wigmore Hall)

YouTube video by medici.tv

www.youtube.com

Alan Ford @alanford56.bsky.social · Sep 21

Further instalment of that never-ending source of delight, the names of American Football players.

Wide Receiver for #Purdue:

Nitro Tuggle

Alan Ford @alanford56.bsky.social · Sep 21

FT article on the joys of luxury $2m motorhomes:
‘From 2022 the couple spent 6 mths a yr in their motorhome, with Willis running his video company from the coach’s $250K AV suite. A year ago the couple went on the road full time, subsequently selling their home. (They have since separated.)’

Hmmm….

Alan Ford @alanford56.bsky.social · Sep 18

So this is what happens when you send a book proposal in!

A little gem from JB Bury writing to his publisher Macmillan in 1896:

‘Of course Mrs Mulhall’s proposal is out of the question. My wife happens to have met the lady and was not favourably impressed by her brainpower.’

Alan Ford @alanford56.bsky.social · Aug 18

What a wonderful idea—book and flower five centuries apart. Many thanks!

Alan Ford @alanford56.bsky.social · Aug 18

So then, grade inflation isn't just a contemporary phenomenon.

That wonderful historian, Edward Thompson, at an exam board in 1950s Nottingham, as candidates who had failed were repeatedly passed:

'So then, how many papers does a candidate have to fail in order to pass the examination?'

Alan Ford @alanford56.bsky.social · Aug 17

Ah well, another myth shattered by hard fact. Thanks for checking!

Alan Ford @alanford56.bsky.social · Aug 17

Is it true that he had an allergy to adverbs, and that he went through all his final drafts stripping them out? So long since I read him, I can't remember if this is the case.
Though actually, when you come to think of it, not bad advice for an historian...

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Alan Ford @alanford56.bsky.social · Aug 17

While the rest of the world calls them Crocosmia now, when I was last in Kerry they were still Montbretias. Or has that now changed?

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Alan Ford @alanford56.bsky.social · Aug 17

Hmm... not quite sure what to make of this quote from Sir Robert Peel:

'I have never seen an Irishman that had not something Irish about him'.

Alan Ford @alanford56.bsky.social · Aug 16

Jayz, is that still running? As ancient as I am…

Alan Ford @alanford56.bsky.social · Aug 16

Almost there, a Dhaníel... but how do spell it?

A

Alan Ford @alanford56.bsky.social · Aug 16

When I was young (. . .) my mother used to take me and my brother and sister on the 77 bus from Crumlin to the empty green fields of Tallaght. Empty, that is, apart from acres of blackberries, just begging to be picked.

Enjoy!

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Alan Ford @alanford56.bsky.social · Aug 2

Wild alpine Monkshood (Aconitum) walking above Lermoos, Austria.

Alan Ford @alanford56.bsky.social · Aug 2

Hmm.. OK then.

When you say 'the house', that means your palatial country residence, right? With its eight bedrooms modestly concealed behind the trees...

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Alan Ford @alanford56.bsky.social · Aug 2

Municipal lawn mower, Kirchplatz, Ehrwald, Austria.

Mows all day. At night tethers itself to charger. Then next morning starts again.

Not entirely sure, though, that this approach to public lawn mowing would work in inner city Nottingham...