iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

We lasted 1 night camping at 3°C on Lake Superior before finding a motel! 😂 Indigenous peoples lived, travelled & traded here for thousands of years. Their waterways were highways long before ours existed. An Ontario George Ryan thriller is taking shape. 🍁 #BookSky #GeorgeRyanArchaeologicalThrillers

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Cathal @cathalfp.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

🇨🇦 An emotional stop at milepost 3339, where Terry Fox's Marathon of Hope ended in 1980. Now exploring Thunder Bay with my friend Doug Ball and goldendoodle Áine. Spectacular autumn colours, wildlife and inspiration for future George Ryan adventures. 🍁 #BookSky #GeorgeRyanArchaeologicalThrillers

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Cathal @cathalfp.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

🍁 Oakville to Wawa with my longtime friend Doug Ball, the award-winning photographer behind iconic images of Stanfield and Trudeau! Spectacular Lake Superior scenery, with Thunder Bay ahead. 🇨🇦 And research for a future George Ryan thriller! #BookSky #GeorgeRyanArchaeologicalThrillers #AuthorsLife

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Cathal @cathalfp.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

My grandfather in Kilkenny helped inspire my love of Irish history and mythology, and eventually my novels. So I dedicated my first Behind the Adventure podcast to him. Episode 1 explores Alice Kyteler, the River Nore and the Mórrígan. Listen: cathalflynnpost.substack.com #BookSky #IrishMythology

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Cathal @cathalfp.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Relief that the Drumcree march was stopped. Anger that the Garvaghy Road dispute was reopened after 28 years. Keep the marches to their own communities. I remember the Troubles, and I don't want that history repeated. Peace requires respect for residents as well as marchers. #BookSky #IrishHistory

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Cathal @cathalfp.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

What if the dystopian future isn't coming? What if we're already building it? I'm considering a novel set in Canada, 2035. AI controls jobs, billionaires wield extraordinary power, and a divided population struggles to resist. Too close to reality for fiction? Would you read it? #BookSky #Dystopia

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Cathal @cathalfp.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

I got off at the wrong bus stop in Bundoran and wandered into a pub that wasn't even open. The owner, Arón Neilis, poured me a Guinness and later gave me a lift to my hostel. He then told me his story. Seven days later, I'd found a real-life character for The Donegal Cipher. #BookSky #IrishFiction

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Cathal @cathalfp.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

My father died when I was 4 months old. At 13, I went to Forkhill, South Armagh to meet his family. Soldiers, helicopters and checkpoints were everywhere. But so were grandparents, cousins, football and stories about my dad. I finally found my father's Ireland. #BookSky #Ireland #Forkhill #Armagh

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Cathal @cathalfp.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

I love Eire's west coast, but Kilkenny feels like home. Summer meant my mum's old farmhouse, hurling, ruins with my grandpa & banshee stories from my gran, who said I'd return to Ireland to live one day. I didn't. But George Ryan did. Maybe she was right. #BookSky #GeorgeRyanArchaeologicalThrillers

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Cathal @cathalfp.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

I studied archaeology, yet learned surprisingly little about the Indigenous trade/travel networks that existed here before Europeans arrived. On Monday I'm heading to Thunder Bay to see the area for myself. Research for my game &, perhaps, a future novel. #BookSky #GeorgeRyanArchaeologicalThrillers

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Cathal @cathalfp.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

🎙️ My 1st Podcast is live. Episode 1: The Witch of Kilkenny and the River Goddess Alice Kyteler, the 1324 Kilkenny witchcraft case, An Mórrígan, the River Nore and the older Irish beliefs behind the story. 🎧 Listen here: rb.gy/68oual #BookSky #BehindTheAdventure #GeorgeRyanArchaeologicalThrillers

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Cathal @cathalfp.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Yesterday: Vikings in Newfoundland. Today: follow the money. A Norwegian Viking hoard has passed 5,000 silver coins. Viking Age silver travelled extraordinary distances, linking Scandinavia with England, Europe and the Islamic world. The Vikings travelled. So did their silver. #BookSky #Archaeology

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Cathal @cathalfp.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Columbus: 1492. Norse explorers: Newfoundland, AD 1021. We know the exact year because a solar storm in 993 left a radiocarbon marker in trees cut by Norse metal blades at L'Anse aux Meadows. The sagas said they sailed west. Archaeology proved it. Now: how much farther did they go? #BookSky #Canada

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Cathal @cathalfp.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

There's a lost prehistoric landscape beneath the North Sea. Doggerland once connected Britain to Europe. People lived there, crossed its rivers and hunted in its woodlands. Then rising seas swallowed it. Now archaeology is rebuilding the landscape using seismic maps and ancient DNA. #BookSky #writer

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Cathal @cathalfp.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Newgrange was built around 3200 BC. At the winter solstice, sunrise still travels through its roof box and down the passage into the chamber. We know what its builders constructed. We know it was deliberate. But we don't know exactly what it meant to them. That's archaeology. #BookSky #Newgrange

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Cathal @cathalfp.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Legend says an Earl sleeps beneath Lough Gur, emerging every 7 years on a white horse. Archaeology tells another story: people have lived around this Limerick lake for 6,000+ years. Maybe ancient landscapes collect legends because generations keep needing to explain them. #BookSky #IrishFolklore

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Cathal @cathalfp.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

They danced on Sunday. So they were turned to stone. Irish folklore turned a Bronze Age stone circle in Wicklow into dancers, with one solitary stone becoming their piper. Archaeology tells us who built monuments. Folklore tells us how later people tried to explain them. #BookSky #Ireland #Folklore

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Cathal @cathalfp.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Ireland has about 60,000 recorded ringforts. Archaeology: mostly early medieval farmsteads. Folklore: homes of the fairies. Disturb one and bad luck may follow. Did superstition help preserve some archaeological sites? Possibly. Either way, I'm not cutting down the tree. #BookSky #Ireland #RingForts

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Cathal @cathalfp.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Drumcree was never just about a road. The Orange Order saw tradition and freedom to march. Many Gar... Read more: longer.blue/posts/9ulWfy9uxe

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Cathal @cathalfp.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Drumcree was never just about a road. The Orange Order saw tradition and freedom to march. Many Gar... Read more: longer.blue/posts/9ulWfy9uxe

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Cathal @cathalfp.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Irish legend makes Emain Macha the home of Cú Chulainn. Archaeology found something stranger. Around 95 BC, a huge timber structure was built there, deliberately filled with stone, burned and buried. It doesn't prove the hero existed. It proves his legendary home was extraordinary. #BookSky #Ireland

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Cathal @cathalfp.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Four children transformed into swans for 900 years. Archaeology can't prove the Children of Lir. But Lough Derravaragh is real, surviving manuscripts preserve the tale, and people were still recording the legend from Irish storytellers in the 1930s. Why do some stories survive? #BookSky #Ireland

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Cathal @cathalfp.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Queen Medb is supposedly buried beneath a huge cairn on Knocknarea. Problem: archaeology suggests it's about 5,000 years old, probably thousands of years too early for the legendary Medb. So who's inside? Nobody knows. The cairn has never been excavated. I love Irish archaeology. #BookSky #Ireland

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Cathal @cathalfp.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Queen Medb supposedly launched the Táin from Rathcroghan. Can archaeology prove she existed? No. But Rathcroghan is very real: 240+ archaeological sites in a landscape important for thousands of years. Sometimes archaeology doesn't prove a legend. It explains why it belongs there. #BookSky #Ireland

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Cathal @cathalfp.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Oisín returned from Tír na nÓg to discover centuries had passed and the Fianna were gone. Legend, not archaeology. Still versions were being recorded from storytellers in the 30s. Archaeology asks what happened. Folklore asks what people believed happened. #BookSky #GeorgeRyanArchaeologicalThrillers

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Cathal @cathalfp.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

C U Next Tuesday... Is it November yet? Donald Trump scolds CNN anchor for covering him at the UN | Donald Trump | The Guardian share.google/D10XbPkX1foP...

share.google

Donald Trump scolds CNN anchor for covering him at the UN

President chided Kaitlan Collins for asking him question at UN after White House ban on CNN, MS Now and Politico

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Cathal @cathalfp.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Before Northern Ontario had highways, it had water highways. Lake Superior. The Kaministiquia. Lakes and portages travelled by Indigenous peoples long before fur traders arrived. For my research trip, I need to stop following roads and follow the water. #BookSky #GeorgeRyanArchaeologicalThrillers

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Cathal @cathalfp.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Thunder Bay was created in 1970. Its story wasn't. Anishinaabe history, ancient trade routes, the Kaministiquia, fur traders, railways, shipping and two rival cities all occupy the same landscape. My Northern Ontario research list is growing quickly. #BookSky #GeorgeRyanArchaeologicalThrillers

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Cathal @cathalfp.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

I called my Northern Ontario game The Copper Route. Turns out the name goes deeper than I realized. Thousands of years ago, Indigenous peoples around Lake Superior were already working native copper and moving it through vast exchange networks. Research trip just got more interesting. #BookSky

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Cathal @cathalfp.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Let's FG Canadian Women’s Rugby! Top 2 teams in the world, head 2 head! We will take the draw and have 2 matches back on Canadian soil. Effing LOVE it! #RugbyCanada #RedRoses #WXV #WXV1 #CanVEng #EngVCan #Rugby #Canada #WomensRugby

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Cathal @cathalfp.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

A friend asked me to visit the Terry Fox Memorial in Thunder Bay. That may have accidentally become a research trip. I'm already building a game near Lake Superior and considering Northern Ontario for a future George Ryan novel. Time to explore. #BookSky #GeorgeRyanArchaeologicalThrillers #Writing

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Cathal @cathalfp.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Last stop on our Surf + Archaeology tour:Japan. Pacific surf for George. Jōmon settlements, ancient pottery, stone circles, kofun and maritime history for me. This one's different. We're actually planning to go. Holiday or George Ryan research trip? Both! #BookSky #GeorgeRyanArchaeologicalThrillers

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Cathal @cathalfp.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

George Ryan in northern Spain? Above ground: Bay of Biscay surf and a wild Atlantic coastline. Below: Altamira and caves preserving art made tens of thousands of years ago. Then imagine a storm exposing a new opening in the cliffs... Yeah. This one works. #BookSky #GeorgeRyanArchaeologicalThrillers

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Cathal @cathalfp.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

What if surfing IS the archaeology? Huanchaco, Peru: Pacific waves and a 3,500-year tradition of fishermen riding reed caballitos de totora. A few kilometres away? Chan Chan, capital of the Chimú. This might be our best George Ryan location yet. #BookSky #GeorgeRyanArchaeologicalThrillers #Writing

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Cathal @cathalfp.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Morocco for a George Ryan adventure? For George: Taghazout and Anchor Point. For me: Amazigh history, ancient Atlantic trade, Phoenician connections, Roman purple dye and offshore islands. Surf + archaeology strikes again. #GeorgeRyanArchaeologicalThrillers #BookSky #Writing #AuthorsLife

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Cathal @cathalfp.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Where should George Ryan go next? Peniche, Portugal? For George: Supertubos and world-class Atlantic surf. For me: Neanderthals, Roman maritime archaeology, shipwrecks, pirates and a fortress. Surf + archaeology. Dangerous combination. #GeorgeRyanArchaeologicalThrillers #BookSky #Writing

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Cathal @cathalfp.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

The Ness of Brodgar dig ended in 2024. The archaeology didn't. 20 years of excavation produced 170,000+ animal-bone fragments. Now science is revealing new details of life in Neolithic Orkney. Sometimes the biggest discoveries happen after the trench closes. #BookSky #Orkney #Archaeology

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Cathal @cathalfp.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

When I was young, I travelled as far as Australia but didn't yet appreciate the archaeology and history around me. Now I look at Rapa Nui and its extraordinary Polynesian navigators and wonder how much I passed by without really seeing. Advice to my younger self: Look closer. #BookSky #Writing

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Cathal @cathalfp.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Leac an Scáil is only a short distance from my grandparents' home in Kilkenny. My grandfather was a historian, and taking me there is one of my earliest memories of discovering history. I later studied archaeology. Now I write about it. I think this may be where it all started. #BookSky #Writing

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Cathal @cathalfp.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Was Atlantis actually Ireland? A geographer once argued Plato's description resembled Ireland, linking the idea with Newgrange, Knowth and Tara. Archaeological evidence? No. A fascinating premise for a novel? Absolutely. Sometimes all a story needs is: What if? #Atlantis #Ireland #BookSky

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Cathal @cathalfp.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Before George Ryan, I was a Canadian kid spending summers in Ireland. My grandfather in Kilkenny was a historian. Exploring castles and ruins with him taught me that an old pile of stones is never just an old pile of stones. There's always a story. Decades later, I'm still looking for it. #BookSky

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Cathal @cathalfp.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Possible cave art in SW Ireland may be at least 15,000 years old, potentially pushing Ireland's human story back ~5,000 years. The brilliant part? Computer modelling identified where to look. Archaeology+technology. This one definitely has my attention. #BookSky #IrishArchaeology Images: George Nash

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Cathal @cathalfp.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Early 2025. Sitting aboard a 45' catamaran in Key West, I discovered the incredible history of Seymour Narrows and Ripple Rock, 4,500+ km away. Eventually I asked the dangerous question: What if? And it found its way into The Tofino Deception. #GeorgeRyanArchaeologicalThrillers #BookSky #Writing

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