Irish Culture and Partition, 1920-1955 (Stephen O'Neill Book Launch) Join Stephen O'Neill in conversation with Eamonn Hughes.

Belfast launch of Irish Culture and Partition 1920-1955 will be at the Seamus Heaney Centre on May 1, from 5.30pm to 7pm. Bígí Linn

Next Friday at 12, PhD candidate Michael O'Connor will speak about his work on Irish slaveholders in Jamaica in an event hosted by the Centre for 18th-Century Studies at QUB

Promotional graphic for the book Irish Culture and Partition, 1920–1955 by Stephen O’Neill. On the left is the book cover, with a dark green top section displaying the title and author, and a colorful stained-glass image below featuring a red hand and a sword among abstract shapes. On the right, yellow text on a blurred stained-glass background reads: “Comprehensively reinterprets the effect on culture of the continuing division of the island of Ireland.” The Liverpool University Press logo appears in the top right.

New in Irish Studies | @oneillsb.bsky.social's Irish Culture and Partition, 1920-1955, is the first book dedicated to examining culture and partition in Ireland.

Discover more here ⬇️
www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/book/10....

Spurious Home Office decisions rejecting student visas are threatening universities' ability to enrol young people from abroad, it is claimed. New rules come into effect in June that will punish universities if more than 4 per cent of study visas are rejected by the Home Office. However, the changes coincide with a marked increase in the numbers of visas being refused by the Home Office on spurious and inaccurate grounds, according to research by universities that has been shared with The Times. Neither students nor universities are able to challenge the decisions, which are often taken months after a university has accepted the applicant and in some cases just days before they are due to start studying.

UKVI carries out discretionary "credibility interviews" to ascertain that a student's intentions to study here are genuine. In another interview, when asked why they had chosen to apply to their chosen institution, the applicant said they had considered several factors, including the university's ranking, employability support, student satisfaction while also noting that it was an ancient institution and cited the year it was founded. The UKVI rejected the application, explaining that they were not satisfied the applicant was genuine given they had quoted the wrong founding year. The university subsequently confirmed that the applicant had provided the correct year and the UKVI caseworker was incorrect, but the decision could not be reconsidered.

In another case a foreign student was rejected from obtaining a visa to study at the University of East Anglia due to a dispute over whether the university was in Norfolk. The applicant asserted correctly that it was, but the UKVI caseworker appeared to confuse Norfolk with Norwich, which is the capital of the county, and rejected the application - believing the applicant was wrong.

In another credibility interview the applicant was asked to describe some of the taught modules they would be studying as part of their degree. The applicant explained that they had been offered a place to study a PhD in biomedical engineering which was fully research-based so did not have any taught modules. Despite this, the UKVI refusal letter stated that they were not satisfied on the basis that their answers were "vague and generic" and had failed to explain the taught modules they would be studying.

It is almost, almost, impressive just how Labour have taken the massively dysfunctional and incompetent Home Office and managed by dint of policies and rhetoric to make it even more dysfunctional and incompetent. It is a true testament to how hostile they are to migrants.

archive.today/07Hdr

A girl sits by a train window, looking outside at a landscape as the train moves. Overlaid text reads: The EU is giving out free travel passes, and nobody is talking about it. The European Parliament logo appears in the corner.

If you're 18, you can travel across Europe for free.

With DiscoverEU, young people can apply for a travel pass to explore Europe for up to 30 days.

8–22 April 2026 📅

Apply: youth.europa.eu/discovereu

Squandered

Have I got this right? Vance has gone to Budapest to interfere in the Hungarian elections by claiming that the EU is interfering in the Hungarian elections.

I’m amazed he even manages to put on his own eyeliner each morning.

Update from the land of the free:

Might be the greatest opening paragraph of anything ever.

It took my step-daughter two years to find a proper job. Her degree and role are likely to be obsolete within the decade if what we read about AI is accurate. I don’t see a lot of movement from governments to mitigate the Impact on job markets/life.

Book Launch: Irish Culture and Partition, 1920-1955 A book launch for Stephen O'Neill's Irish Culture and Partition, 1920-1955, with guest speaker Dr Tom Walker.

the Dublin launch of my book: 22 April, 6.30 at Notre Dame Dublin, O'Connell House, 58 Merrion Square. Bígí Linn.
www.eventbrite.com/e/book-launc...

@reform-uk-official.bsky.social Yet another wanker frightened of women who lead independent and fulfilling lives. Women neither need or want losers like Orr. That is what gets them most.

Hard to overstate how bad this is. This would be *national legislation to aid book banning*. The time to call your reps and say you are against HR 7661 is NOW.

Who buys that rubbish when chocolate is available?

As we celebrate St. Patrick's Day I want to remember especially the members of #FirstAfricanBaptistChurch, #RichmondVA for their aid to Irish people during The Great Hunger 1847.

#Netherlands

It's a nice photo. However, an article in The Guardian states that it ' contains genes resistant to last- hope antibiotics'.

I loathe baseball caps. If my husband ever wore one I'd divorce him.

Tonight! Come immerse yourself in all things Seamus Heaney with @dedalusdenaries.bsky.social before the rugby starts! Tickets here or on the door: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/late-heane...

Not a bug but a feature in this new war of choice. What Trump requires is a major terror attack on American soil prior to the midterm elections. Declared state of emergency. Disruptions in voting. Political dissent challenged and even prosecuted.

His war has primed the pump as intended.

A map of Ireland showing the scale and type of census returns sent in by local clergymen. https://www.virtualtreasury.ie/gold-seams/1766-religious-census

A map showing the extent of recovered names and numbers across the island of Ireland. 50,000 names across 246 civil parishes!

Legend accompanying the map of recovered names and numbers across the island of Ireland. Names of householders or local population numbers.

https://www.virtualtreasury.ie/gold-seams/1766-religious-census

Happy 260th Birthday to Ireland's first census! 🎂
Amazing coverage back in 1766 🙂 A tragic loss in 1922 🔥😩
Now available - over 50,000 recovered names! 📜📚5️⃣0️⃣,0️⃣0️⃣0️⃣ 🥳
www.virtualtreasury.ie/gold-seams/1...

📢 More detailed Survivors map coming today! 🔎

Can anyone help Orla?

No pasaran! 🇪🇸

God bless the Spanish for standing hard against this soulless, brutality. This is leadership:

Historic Irish newsreels digitised and made available for free online Gael Linn’s Amharc Éireann captured a snapshot of Irish life in the 1950s and 1960s

Historic Irish newsreels digitised and made available for free online

Some people have integrity @labouruk.bsky.social

Time to resign @kemibadenough.bsky.social

Clip from BBC Politics North:

A GP describes how #LongCovid ended her career after she needed a wheelchair within a year of contracting the virus.

She says patients are being forgotten by politicians and the NHS as the last dedicated clinic in the area prepares to close.

This is the level of commitment artists need to show in their own game if they are to be successful. I bow to the (partially) sober 1982 Offaly team and their manager Eugene for this heartfelt celebration of their (limited) sacrifice.