Stan Ó hOireachtaigh 🍉
@stane.bsky.social
Leeds and Dublin, once a musician, now an academic; last refuge of the scoundrel etc.
https://beyondthespelloflabour.wordpress.com/
https://beyondthespelloflabour.wordpress.com/
Reposted by Stan Ó hOireachtaigh 🍉
I just don't need to know what the Telegraph has written about Dungeons & Dragons. It's a newspaper for people who are frightened of samosas.
November 30, 2025 at 12:15 PM
I just don't need to know what the Telegraph has written about Dungeons & Dragons. It's a newspaper for people who are frightened of samosas.
I do find this extraordinary. I'm pretty my parents didn't much want to know what I was up to when I was 18.
People are very hard on young people on here, lack of critical thinking, lack of responsibility etc, and then you see something like this and it all makes a different kind of sense.
November 30, 2025 at 3:20 PM
I do find this extraordinary. I'm pretty my parents didn't much want to know what I was up to when I was 18.
You could complain about the monoculture and people would know what you were being snobby about.
We are in a strange place at the moment where we both mourn discovering new things for ourselves outside the mainstream but miss also the monoculture where we all watched and listened the same things.
November 30, 2025 at 11:36 AM
You could complain about the monoculture and people would know what you were being snobby about.
I haven't heard Geese and have no intention of changing that, but the review here is priceless. Exactly as I imagined them if I'd bothered to articulate it.
Been out of action on the blog for a while, but making a return for list season. Throwing this one out early partly as a prediction piece.
Here’s our most overrated albums of 2025. Don’t believe the hype.
nofrillsreviews.com/2025/11/30/2...
Here’s our most overrated albums of 2025. Don’t believe the hype.
nofrillsreviews.com/2025/11/30/2...
2025 in Review: The Most Overrated Albums
Kicking off list season, with our annual rundown of the year’s most overrated albums. Find out who made our unlucky thirteen.
nofrillsreviews.com
November 30, 2025 at 11:33 AM
I haven't heard Geese and have no intention of changing that, but the review here is priceless. Exactly as I imagined them if I'd bothered to articulate it.
Finding The Emigrants in a charity shop and thinking, hmmm, interesting, introduced me to Sebald.
The death of browsing is part of the reason art is the way it is now. Our opinions are largely fed to us by algorithms. Spending a spare 15 minutes wandering around a bookstore or comic shop or video rental place was how you found stuff you wouldn't ordinarily pick up and thereby expanded your taste
Bookselling is like the most "people go to the store and buy what looks cool to them without a particular agenda" type business left, and your purchases have a huge influence on what is ordered, what is displayed, and what is recommended.
November 30, 2025 at 10:18 AM
Finding The Emigrants in a charity shop and thinking, hmmm, interesting, introduced me to Sebald.
Good to see.
🩵 🩷 🤍 TRANS MISSION 🤍 🩷 🩵
We’re incredibly excited for the announcement of Trans Mission!
A solidarity concert for one night only, with an amazing lineup, raising funds for us and Not A Phase – sign up for tickets here 👇 ✨
https://www.transmissionlive.uk/
We’re incredibly excited for the announcement of Trans Mission!
A solidarity concert for one night only, with an amazing lineup, raising funds for us and Not A Phase – sign up for tickets here 👇 ✨
https://www.transmissionlive.uk/
November 29, 2025 at 9:03 PM
Good to see.
Reposted by Stan Ó hOireachtaigh 🍉
Perfect 👌 as usual from @zackpolanski.bsky.social 💚💚💚
November 29, 2025 at 4:29 PM
Perfect 👌 as usual from @zackpolanski.bsky.social 💚💚💚
For a song about suicide, this never fails to cheer me up - JTE's unfeasibly long trousers and Bryn Davis on bass, twirling that fiddle before the last chorus.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LLq...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LLq...
Justin Townes Earle Performs "Harlem River Blues" on Letterman
YouTube video by tyler munro
www.youtube.com
November 28, 2025 at 1:06 PM
For a song about suicide, this never fails to cheer me up - JTE's unfeasibly long trousers and Bryn Davis on bass, twirling that fiddle before the last chorus.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LLq...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LLq...
Reposted by Stan Ó hOireachtaigh 🍉
And still, there are those who say that Americans can’t do irony.
November 28, 2025 at 7:24 AM
And still, there are those who say that Americans can’t do irony.
I recall the first time I visited London on my own, I came back with a load of Burroughs/ Hubert Selby/ Kerouac (!) books that were still banned in Ireland. Be strange to see Brits smuggling Sally's next book back to Britain...
The lengths the British government will go to please the Israeli government.
www.rte.ie/news/2025/11...
www.rte.ie/news/2025/11...
Sally Rooney books may be pulled from UK, court told
Normal People author Sally Rooney's books may have to be withdrawn from sale and none of her new works published in the UK due to "uncertainty" caused by the ban on Palestine Action, the British High ...
www.rte.ie
November 27, 2025 at 10:07 PM
I recall the first time I visited London on my own, I came back with a load of Burroughs/ Hubert Selby/ Kerouac (!) books that were still banned in Ireland. Be strange to see Brits smuggling Sally's next book back to Britain...
This decade edition:
Jake Xerxes Fussell
Fat White Family
Jackie O -Motherfucker
Sir Richard Bishop
Kneecap
Jake Xerxes Fussell
Fat White Family
Jackie O -Motherfucker
Sir Richard Bishop
Kneecap
Also more than once:
The Clash
Joy Division
The Fall (many times)
The Blades ( many more times)
Micro Disney (and Microdisney)
(I have seen bands this century)
The Clash
Joy Division
The Fall (many times)
The Blades ( many more times)
Micro Disney (and Microdisney)
(I have seen bands this century)
Introduce yourself with 5 concerts you’ve seen.
The Divine Comedy
The Dead Milkmen
The Lucksmiths
Mandy Patinkin
David Devant & his Spirit Wife
(Or really, bands/artists I’ve seen at least twice, most much more)
The Divine Comedy
The Dead Milkmen
The Lucksmiths
Mandy Patinkin
David Devant & his Spirit Wife
(Or really, bands/artists I’ve seen at least twice, most much more)
November 27, 2025 at 8:04 PM
This decade edition:
Jake Xerxes Fussell
Fat White Family
Jackie O -Motherfucker
Sir Richard Bishop
Kneecap
Jake Xerxes Fussell
Fat White Family
Jackie O -Motherfucker
Sir Richard Bishop
Kneecap
Reposted by Stan Ó hOireachtaigh 🍉
Only one week left to submit to our Music and Media conference at UCD next June!
Don’t forget to submit a paper by Dec 5 for our Music and Media conference at UCD: “Directions and Aesthetics of the Digital Era”
www.ucd.ie/music/newsan...
www.ucd.ie/music/newsan...
November 27, 2025 at 6:04 PM
Only one week left to submit to our Music and Media conference at UCD next June!
Also more than once:
The Clash
Joy Division
The Fall (many times)
The Blades ( many more times)
Micro Disney (and Microdisney)
(I have seen bands this century)
The Clash
Joy Division
The Fall (many times)
The Blades ( many more times)
Micro Disney (and Microdisney)
(I have seen bands this century)
Introduce yourself with 5 concerts you’ve seen.
The Divine Comedy
The Dead Milkmen
The Lucksmiths
Mandy Patinkin
David Devant & his Spirit Wife
(Or really, bands/artists I’ve seen at least twice, most much more)
The Divine Comedy
The Dead Milkmen
The Lucksmiths
Mandy Patinkin
David Devant & his Spirit Wife
(Or really, bands/artists I’ve seen at least twice, most much more)
Introduce yourself with 5 concerts you’ve seen.
Lau
The Tiger Lillies
George Clinton
Efterklang
Yeasayer
(I've deliberately left out the big names - Pink Floyd and Prince won't tell you the first thing about me.)
Lau
The Tiger Lillies
George Clinton
Efterklang
Yeasayer
(I've deliberately left out the big names - Pink Floyd and Prince won't tell you the first thing about me.)
November 27, 2025 at 6:02 PM
Also more than once:
The Clash
Joy Division
The Fall (many times)
The Blades ( many more times)
Micro Disney (and Microdisney)
(I have seen bands this century)
The Clash
Joy Division
The Fall (many times)
The Blades ( many more times)
Micro Disney (and Microdisney)
(I have seen bands this century)
Reposted by Stan Ó hOireachtaigh 🍉
Are you studying for a doctorate at a UK university via a programme that is wholly or mostly online? If so, please take part in an anonymous, 10 min survey about the impacts of online doctoral study on wellbeing and share the link lancasteruni.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_....
Online doctoral researchers' wellbeing survey
The most powerful, simple and trusted way to gather experience data. Start your journey to experience management and try a free account today.
lancasteruni.eu.qualtrics.com
November 27, 2025 at 9:01 AM
Are you studying for a doctorate at a UK university via a programme that is wholly or mostly online? If so, please take part in an anonymous, 10 min survey about the impacts of online doctoral study on wellbeing and share the link lancasteruni.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_....
A very Irish story really - all about standing up for Palestine until you have to make a decision that might harm the bottom line.
18 months ago University of Galway was honouring Palestinian human rights defender Shawan Jabarin of Al-Haq with a distinguished alumni award.
Now honorary doctorates are being refused because of ongoing links between the University and the complicit Technion Institute.
www.rte.ie/news/connach...
Now honorary doctorates are being refused because of ongoing links between the University and the complicit Technion Institute.
www.rte.ie/news/connach...
Third person refuses doctorate from University of Galway
A third person has turned down an honorary doctorate that was due to be conferred by the University of Galway, at a ceremony tomorrow.
www.rte.ie
November 27, 2025 at 9:47 AM
A very Irish story really - all about standing up for Palestine until you have to make a decision that might harm the bottom line.
Just read @robinjames.bsky.social piece on hauntology, and her argument with it in the Wire; much to say on that, but also struck by the observation that 'continental' philosophy in the US found refuge in Catholic universities - I've noted this before, and also how, in Ireland, UCD has always/
November 27, 2025 at 6:59 AM
Just read @robinjames.bsky.social piece on hauntology, and her argument with it in the Wire; much to say on that, but also struck by the observation that 'continental' philosophy in the US found refuge in Catholic universities - I've noted this before, and also how, in Ireland, UCD has always/
'How do we reference this standing in wonder thing?'
"Will this have to stand in authentic wonder before the Beauty of God's creation?" is the new "Is this going to be on the test?"
November 26, 2025 at 6:15 PM
'How do we reference this standing in wonder thing?'
November 26, 2025 at 2:08 PM
Internet not all bad. Just applied for a new passport in about 5 mins.
November 25, 2025 at 8:46 PM
Internet not all bad. Just applied for a new passport in about 5 mins.
Reposted by Stan Ó hOireachtaigh 🍉
I wish I didn’t have to share this. But the BBC has decided to censor my first Reith Lecture.
They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
November 25, 2025 at 9:26 AM
I wish I didn’t have to share this. But the BBC has decided to censor my first Reith Lecture.
They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
Reposted by Stan Ó hOireachtaigh 🍉
If you're in ireland and have kids in primary school or soon to be, please fill out this survey on preferences re religious involvement in schools, and whether people prefer single-sex or co-ed. It takes < 1 minute and will inform future provision. #speirgorm www.gov.ie/en/departmen...
Primary School Survey
This survey is for parents and guardians of children in primary school or who will enter primary school in the coming years
www.gov.ie
November 24, 2025 at 2:52 PM
If you're in ireland and have kids in primary school or soon to be, please fill out this survey on preferences re religious involvement in schools, and whether people prefer single-sex or co-ed. It takes < 1 minute and will inform future provision. #speirgorm www.gov.ie/en/departmen...
Went to dentist this morning. Dentist just rang me now, all apologies, to ask what happened because his notes hadn't saved on the computer. Which tooth was it? What did I prescribe? Odd ....
November 24, 2025 at 6:08 PM
Went to dentist this morning. Dentist just rang me now, all apologies, to ask what happened because his notes hadn't saved on the computer. Which tooth was it? What did I prescribe? Odd ....