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Niamh Dowdall

@dowdalln.bsky.social
1.1K followers 1.3K following 59 posts

(she/her) | libraries & publishing & open research | Irish women's writing/art/history/culture | dress and clothing in literature | labhair Gaeilge liom! | Views all mine!

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Reposted by Niamh Dowdall
Gerard Shannon @gerardshannon.bsky.social · 4h
Tonight, in the RIA I was nominated for the Michel Déon Prize for non-fiction for 'Rory O'Connor: To Defend the Republic'. Didn't win sadly but a sincere congratulations to both @mauricejcasey.com and John Waddell, deserved joint winners for 'Hotel Lux' and 'The Celtic World' respectively.
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Maurice J. Casey @mauricejcasey.com · 4h
Tonight the @ria.ie jointly awarded the Michel Déon Prize to John Waddell for his book the Celtic World and me for Hotel Lux. A real honour. Congrats also to my fellow shortlisted authors, including fellow veteran of the Irish History Twitter trenches @gerardshannon.bsky.social
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Nialler9 | Niall Byrne @nialler9.com · 29/09/2026
RÓIS signs to Domino; MO LÉAN album given global release this November nialler9.com/rois-signs-t...
nialler9.com
RÓIS signs to Domino; MO LÉAN album given global release this November | Nialler9
RÓIS is a Fermanagh composer, vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and electronic artist, who released the brilliant album Mo Léan that placed highly on my Irish
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Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 27/09/2026
Google finally updated some of its satellite images of Gaza and my god, it's horrific. The entirety of Rafah has been demolished. The majority of Khan Younis is in ruins. Entire towns completely leveled and erased of the map.
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Niamh Dowdall @dowdalln.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Public library visits increased by two million nationwide in two years
rte.ie
Public library visits increased by two million nationwide
Visits to public libraries around Ireland have increased by two million in the last two years, new figures show as National Public Libraries Open Day takes place nationwide.
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Royal Irish Academy @ria.ie · 22/09/2026
Join leading researchers, policymakers and creative industry experts at the RIA to explore one of the biggest questions facing the sector: who pays for creativity, and how should public policy support it? Places are limited. Register now: www.ria.ie/events/who-p...
An abstract graphic illustration on a tan background. Three teal icons float in a row: a film reel on the left, an artist's palette with colored paint dots in the center, and a video game D-pad on the right. Below the palette, several black circles of varying sizes float downward, as if being deposited into a slot at the top of a red box situated at the bottom center.
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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Celtic (UG), Chinese & Russian (UG), Contemporary History, Economics & Statistics (joint degree), Inclusive Education (MSc), Intellectual History, Italian & Classics (joint), Law & Social Policy (joint), Medieval History, Persian Studies (UG), Portuguese (UG), Psychology & Economics (joint)....
heraldscotland.com
Full list of the 90 programmes earmarked for closure at leading Scottish university
Managers say the cuts are necessary “to protect our world-leading reputation and resilience in research and teaching” but staff members have hit…
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Crawford Art Gallery @crawfordartgallery.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Our next themed work for this month delves in the fascinating and vast realm of Irish folklore. ‘Stray Sod’ (2019-20) is a screenprint by Debbie Godsell that draws on past customs that have contemporary resonance. ‘Irish folklore,’ the artist explains, “is underpinned by the understanding that the
A haunting, black and white screen print showing a person wearing a backwards dress with a bag over their head, standing in a field or meadow with dense trees visible behind them. The colouring is faded and warped in places, giving it a ghostly, historic, and battered feel.
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Cethan Leahy @cethanleahy.com · 12/09/2026
Man, you read one Michael Longley poem...
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Niamh Dowdall @dowdalln.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Delighted you studied arts years ago? Concerned about the future of the humanities? Anxious about sweeping cuts to AHSS depts across universities on these islands and beyond?
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Darach Ó Séaghdha @darach.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
“I get down on my knees and do what must be done And kiss Achilles’ hand, the killer of my son”. Layers of symbolism in Connolly giving Trump that poem. troublesarchive.com/artforms/poe...
troublesarchive.com
Ceasefire | Troubles Archive
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Jen Keane @zenbuffy.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Sharing for the evening crowd. Sorry #GAA but your metadata is telling on you. Their gender pay gap report was due in November last year. When do you suppose they produced it?
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Niamh Dowdall @dowdalln.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
But why??? I’ve really tried and I just cannot understand where these type of limits on citizenship fit into ANYTHING… my brain hurts trying to work out what the agenda is (beyond racism).
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Dr Gearóidín McEvoy @garodean.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
I literally wrote a book about how people got ARRESTED for trying to speak Irish to police in Ireland, don’t given me this feigned respect and reverence for Irish.
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Dan Sinykin @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
I wrote about being torn between academia and wilderness, scholarship and nature. And hunting deer, and Austyn Wohlers' great novel Hothouse Bloom. William Cronon and Alyssa Batistoni. And the way a river flows to the sea. www.thenation.com/article/envi....
thenation.com
How a Creative Mind Lives In Nature
Working in the wilderness could not satiate my intellectual impulses. But for the protagonist of Hothouse Bloom, the binary between mental and physical labor is what calls her.
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Aoife Bhreatnach @aoifeb.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
If you're going to college to read dirty books, chose Trinity. All the smut you can borrow! No one will be surprised to hear that UCC library is very safe. #SpéirGhorm
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Poetry Ireland / Éigse Éireann @poetryireland.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
🎺We are delighted to announce that Poetry Ireland Review Issue 150 will be edited by Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin!🎺 📅Submissions for this issue will open on September 14th and run until October 31st. 🔗https://www.poetryireland.ie/poets/submission-poetry-ireland-review
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libfocus @libfocus.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
New article by Libfocus guest author Holly Meade-Kennedy: "Artist Una Watters and The Cost of the Marriage Bar on Irish Libraries." www.libfocus.com/2026/08/arti...
libfocus.com
Artist Una Watters and the Cost of the Marriage Bar on Irish Libraries
Article by Libfocus guest author Holly Meade-Kennedy. Holly works within the Irish academic library sector and is passionate about social ju...
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Charlie Lynch @charlielynch.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
The absolute cruelty of it, the involvement of churches and plenty of racism added in. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
I was told I was unworthy to be a mother. Then they stole my baby
Marion McMillan was one of about 250,000 women who were forced to have their babies adopted between 1949 and 1976.
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Eileen Clancy 🧿 @clancyny.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
She Popularized Economics. Then She Was Erased From History. Why? By Jeanna Smialek Maria Edgeworth sneaked economic theory into her best-selling novels. Two centuries later, a new book finally gives her the credit she deserves.
nytimes.com
“The Invisible Hand of Maria Edgeworth”: An Economist, Erased (Gift Article)
Maria Edgeworth sneaked economic theory into her best-selling novels. Two centuries later, a new book finally gives her the credit she deserves.
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Dr Panti Bliss-Cabrera @pantibliss.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
This is true in Ireland too. You now regularly hear people saying (including on here) that they're afraid to go into Dublin City centre and it's completely detached from reality. It's bizarre. www.kcl.ac.uk/news/public-...
kcl.ac.uk
Public perceptions of crime at odds with reality, study finds | King's College London
Britons consistently overestimate how dangerous the county really is
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Caitríona Beaumont @caitbeaumont.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
& if you want to learn more about how rural women embraced leisure & fun & dancing during the Jazz Age in Ireland (under the noses of the Catholic Bishops 😮) you can read my @rtebrainstorm.bsky.social piece that draws on my chapter for this great new collection ed. by Louise Ryan & Eileen Hogan.
rte.ie
The story of the revolutionary 1929 Tipperary school for women
Here's what happened when a group of intrepid women packed their bags, gathered hay for bedding and headed up Slievenamon in 1929
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Patrick Brannigan @patrickjmb.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
"In the 1920s, bishops, north and south, stood sentinel against the moral dangers of the jazz-dancing, cigarette-smoking, short-dress-wearing modern woman." Flappers and the Jazz Age: edited by Eileen Hogan and Louise Ryan @clodaghfinn.bsky.social #SpéirGhorm www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/colu...
irishexaminer.com
Clodagh Finn: The Irish flappers who defied the bishops to bring the Jazz Age to Ireland
A new book opens the most surprising — and utterly delightful — window on the rich social and cultural life of Irish women in the early part of the 20th-century... to the utter disgust of many (male) ...
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John Self @john-self.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
F-shaped blurbs, seducing chatbots, nicking quotes off GoodReads and paying BookTokers: in today's Guardian I investigated the book world's tricks of the trade.
theguardian.com
How to make a bestseller: insiders reveal the tricks of the book trade
From cover design to shelf placement and influencer partnerships … how publishers will persuade you to buy their books this autumn
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Niamh Dowdall @dowdalln.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
“We traded looks – Did you catch that? Yes, I did – and continued as though nothing happened.”
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Richard Chambers @newschambers.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Latest update from the Irish Department of Justice. Out of 134 applications for visas from Palestinian students in 2026 - at least 97 have been refused. Last year, out of 144 applications received - 122 were accepted.
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Royal Irish Academy @ria.ie · 19/08/2026
Marking 90 years since the first Aer Lingus flight took off from Baldonnel aerodrome, our colleague, Dr Eoin Kinsella, Managing Editor of @dib.ie, joins the Oliver Callan Show on @rteradio1.bsky.social later this morning to talk about some incredibly interesting Irish aviation pioneers.
Promotional image for Dictionary of Irish Biography on RTÉ’s The Oliver Callan Show, featuring Oliver Callan and Dr Eoin Kinsella, airing August 19, 2026.
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University College Dublin @ucddublin.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
🐻🦴 Bear, boar or cattle? New research led by UCD School of Archaeology has revealed that "cattle bones" long thought to mark the beginning of farming in Ireland actually belong to bear and wild boar, rewriting a key chapter in Irish prehistory. 🧵 @ucdarchaeology.bsky.social @graemewarren.bsky.social
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Niamh Dowdall @dowdalln.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
😱
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Neil Jackman @neiljackman.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
On the way home after a brilliant week at the Viking Congress in Oslo. So inspiring to hear of all the exciting new research, and great to meet everyone! We also shared the latest news about Woodstown with our poster, pictured here with excavation co-directors Dr Susan Curran & Dr Håkon Reiersen
Dr Håkon Reiersen, Dr Susan Curran, and I, stand in front of our poster detailing the Woodstown Viking Site at the Viking Congress in Oslo
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Helen Day @lbflyawayhome.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
A tiny part of me still hasn’t absolutely given up hope that one day, when I really, really need it, The Elves will turn up and help out. (The Elves and the Shoemaker, 1965. Artist Robert Lumley)
The two elves, dressed in their ragged clothes, open the door of the shoemaker’s Home and head to his workbench to start work 
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Prof Katherine Schofield 🇬🇧🇦🇺🇪🇺 @katherineschof8.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
This is extraordinarily bad, as even the UK copyright libraries (e.g. Cambridge) have moved over to frequently only acquiring the ebook version of new publications. If you don't own the hard copy, you're just renting and you are at the mercy of the publisher.
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Niamh Dowdall @dowdalln.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Want
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Sally Hayden @sallyhayd.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
With Europe’s borders back in the headlines, please consider reading ‘My Fourth Time, We Drowned’ if you haven’t already. It’s very important to have a fuller picture before weighing in.
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Royal Historical Society @royalhistsoc.org · 02/08/2026
In late 2023, the Society spent a day with Hertfordshire’s historians. We saw the quality, creativity and distinctiveness of teaching, research and engagement. We were told by a (now departed) senior manager that History was ‘a portfolio the university will guard very carefully’. bit.ly/4hLediN
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Arthur David Spota @adaspota.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
British Surrealist artist and photographer Eileen Agar The iconic Ceremonial Hat for Eating Bouillabaisse, circa 1936, her fanciful-looking hat that she is often depicted wearing throughout the decades. #EileenAgar #Surrealism
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Royal Irish Academy @ria.ie · 01/08/2026
Read @thejournal.ie’s article about the ongoing archaeological excavation in Maree, Co. Galway: www.thejournal.ie/galway-prehi... by RIA grant recipient Dr Noel McCarthy, @uniofgalway.bsky.social.
Two archaeologists stand beside a large exposed stone slab at an outdoor excavation site in a grassy field.
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Imbibe Coffee Roasters @imbibecoffee.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
As many of you know, we've given 1% of all the money you spend with us to @womensaidireland.bsky.social for over 8 years. A few years ago, we decided to increase this donation to 10% on Bank Holiday weekends. From midnight, it’s a Bank Holiday... Image made by a real life designer.
Cream card with the Imbibe Coffee Roasters at the top. Text below say’s

10% of all web sales donated to Women’s Aid
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Dr Mary McAuliffe @drmarymcauliffe.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
If you work in any of the Irish HEIs please consider signing this letter openletter.earth/refusal-of-v...
openletter.earth
Refusal of Visas to Students from Gaza
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Niamh Dowdall @dowdalln.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Ireland after Brexit
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Royal Irish Academy @ria.ie · 30/07/2026
It is wonderful to see Dr Noel McCarthy’s (@uniofgalway.bsky.social) archaeological excavation in the Maree area of Galway progressing, as featured in @irishtimes.com: www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2026... Two different types of megalithic tombs dating back almost 6,000 years have been revealed.
Close-up of a hand holding a small, rough purple stone with a hole in the center against a blurred outdoor background.
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Charlotte Weatherill @ckweatherill.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Full of despair today. Massive lay offs in social sciences and humanities across the country, Burnham puts out a video saying 'AI can write an essay', and my university is busy integrating co-pilot into all staff and student computers. We are being told we're defunct and there's no resistance.
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Neil Jackman @neiljackman.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
One of the most important archaeological excavations in the history of the state. I hope the team continue to be given all the resources and supports they need. Both in terms of the excavation and scientific analysis, and also in terms of their wellbeing afterwards. This is not easy work.
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Niamh Dowdall @dowdalln.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
Oh no! I loved this building.
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Eoghan Daltun 🌍 @irishrainforest.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
It really is quite incredible that none of this is ever mentioned in media reports. As if the 'wildfires' all over the country were just an unfortunate inevitability.
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Martin Paul Eve @eve.gd · 20/07/2026
The Guardian gets with the programme www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
The Guardian view on humanities cuts in universities: academic departments are more than cost centres | Editorial
Editorial: Literature, the arts and social sciences must not be sacrificed as higher education funding is squeezed
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Carl Kinsella @carlkinsella.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
"Telling others they don’t have a monopoly on compassion when they’re begging you to care is a bit like showing up at Heuston Station with a Thomas the Tank Engine toy in your hand and ranting at an Iarnród Éireann staff member about how they don’t have a monopoly on the railroads." Surrealing:
thejournal.ie
Surrealing in the Years: An abridged history of the phrase 'monopoly on compassion'
Do not pass go. Do not collect €200.
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Simon McGarr @tupped.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
The weakness of the Taoiseach’s response to a suggestion to collect data to allow policy to be made rationally suggests a strong wish for that data not to be made clear.
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Social Democrats @social-democrats.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
The Taoiseach knows that missing women and children who lived in Bessborough may well be buried there. Yet he maintains that he can't do anything to stop the site being turned into apartments. He's the head of govt: he holds the purse strings. It's time he stopped sitting on his hands, and acted.
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Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
‘Thousands of university job cuts in humanities and social sciences are creating widespread cold spots for languages, classics and theology degrees, the British Academy has warned’ www.theguardian.com/education/20...
theguardian.com
Humanities among degrees being ‘extinguished’ by hard-up universities
Exclusive: Experts fear rise in education ‘cold spots’ and social immobility as 4,000 academic posts lost in one year
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