iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Laura McAtackney @lauramca.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

A great turnout and amazing public support for our strike action today at UCC! Strikers Abú!

Laura McAtackney @lauramca.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

It was especially lovely to see the bottom of the gravestone, which was pretty much covered by grass in August. Thinking of Eva and Esther’s less than conventional Theosophist beliefs i love how they made peace with being laid to rest in an Anglican churchyard: ‘Life that is Love is God’

Bottom of the gravestone text:

Eva Gore-Booth
22 May 1870 - 20 June 1926
Esther Roper
4 August 1868 - 12 April 1938
Life that is Love is God

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Laura McAtackney @lauramca.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

The graveyard is now in a much better state. Some dead cut grass needed cleared off the grave and especially the picture of Eva was covered in grass. The picture was cleaned and righted. I also removed two dead plant pots (one i had brought in August) and put some new autumn flowers.

Picture of St. john’s cemetery in Hampstead in October (grass has been cut and minsk disposed of)

Picture of Eva Gore Booth and Esther Roper’s grave as it appeared when i arrived on saturday (with plant pots and excess cut grass).

Close up of Eva and Esther’s grave post-tidy, with picture righted and cleaned and new flowers hopefully to do through autumn.

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Laura McAtackney @lauramca.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Just to update people on Eva Gore-Booth and Esther Roper’s graves in Hampstead, which were in a sorry state in August when I visited (first two pics). Good news is that the whole graveyard has been thoroughly cleaned up and the grass has been cut. Hooray!

picture of Eva Gore Booth and Esther Roper’s grave in Hampstead in August

Close up of Eva Gore Booth and Esther Roper’s grave in august 2026

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Laura McAtackney @lauramca.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

But what really takes the biscuit is the decontextualized presentation of an Irish Bronze Age gold collar. Frontal display is using it as a representation of what gold jewelry mean. Archaeological details only provided behind the object and even then the colonial extraction is unarticulated.

Irish Bronze Age Gold Collar. On display in a case at the start of the Jewelry room at the V&A.

Banal accompanying text titled ‘The ancient
world’ in which it is presented to represent broad statements.

Only behind the object is there a description of the collar as an archaeological object, including is coming from ‘Ireland’, later specified to ‘said to have been found in Shannongrove, Co Limerick’

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Laura McAtackney @lauramca.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

The focus on the sparkle, detailed ancestral lines, and comments about the grandeur of Anglo-Irish colonial extractors like the Dufferins slightly bypasses what the taking, keeping and dispersal of these jewels meant in a colonial context.

Grotesque display of bejeweled crowns, tiara, necklaces and brooches.

Two panels describing the Londonderry Jewels and how they were described in 19th C fashionable London.

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Laura McAtackney @lauramca.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Now onto the V&A whose display of historical jewelry is just tone deaf wild in terms of playing down the violent extraction of colonialism. Indian jewelry presented as ‘The Passion for the Exotic’. At least they haven’t changed their text to pretend Palestine didn’t exist.

Text describing the fashion for indian and asian jewelry from mid 19th C. ‘The Passion for the Exotic’

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Laura McAtackney @lauramca.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Visited the Ashmolean, when I visit order museums in England I now have my own private game of guessing how much of it is Irish under the guise of ‘British prehistory’ (answer = alot of of the gold!)

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Laura McAtackney @lauramca.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

One day late for world octopus day, this beautiful example of a painted jar from Crete at the Ashmolean in Oxford (note this was ‘presented by the Cretan govt’ via Sir Arthur Evan’s, the excavator of Knossos. Not sure how much say a govt at that time of great political flux had!).

Large cream coloured jar with a large black octopus depicted (with tentacle swirling around its side).

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Laura McAtackney @lauramca.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

I’m sure everyone will be glad to not Crowe seemed to have suffered no ill effects from this attempted house break. I on the other hand …

Picture of a black cat rolling around in the sun on a (shamefully) weed covered paved area at the back of the house.

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Laura McAtackney @lauramca.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

i’m just not ready for the xmas trees yet (Brown Thomas, repeat offender), and what is it with four leaf clover instead of shamrock?!

picture of christmas trees and decorations at brown thomas cork. Chocolate lindt teddies in the foreground.

close up of hanging display of ‘novelty’ xmas tree decorations with an inordinate number of four leaf clovers.

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Laura McAtackney @lauramca.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

I’ve never been more tempted by a completely unsuitable ‘heri-tat’ object as this cast plaque from the Acropolis Museum. Only €75! Take my money and bring a bigger suitcase next time (it would be for my garden :))!

Rectangular vertical orientation cast plaque of a snake / serpent-type creature. against an orange wall backdrop. Divine.

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Laura McAtackney @lauramca.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

I’ve been quite enjoying myself trampling through people’s stupid insta posts taking pictures of random archaeological things that no one else seems interested in. Big win for grumpy old archaeology professor!

Tourist unbeknown to them being a scale for me taking a picture of the circumference of a pillar.

Fabulous little sculpture still just about hanging on to the corner frieze of the Parthenon (right hand side of front pediment).

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Laura McAtackney @lauramca.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Alongside the name fudging I was not expecting ‘The Derry’, which i feel may feed into Derry people’s inflated sense of self hahaha

Screen shot of a google maps search for ‘Derry’ showing the city labelled ‘The Derry’ on the map and ‘Derry/Londonderry’ on the search.

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Laura McAtackney @lauramca.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

That had me looking closer to home. Currently staying in a Gaeltacht area in West Mayo and esp loving I now know the term ‘an Fód Dubh’ - Black Sod - due to it being at the bottom of the peninsula. I can google the place an gaelige but the map only appears in English. How colonial.

Screen shot of a google map search for An Fód Dubh and brings up the place but only as Blacksod (English Translation)

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Laura McAtackney @lauramca.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Always good to reveal that maps are enduring power negotiations Not unexpected that google maps would be hedging their bets re Trump. I heard if you look up ‘Lake Ontario’ in the US it shows ‘Lake America’ (all the eye rolls). But it also shows ‘Lake Ontario (Lake America)’ for the rest of us.

Screen shot of a google maps search for ‘Lake Ontario’ showing the term ‘Lake Ontario (Lake America)’ in red over the water.

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Laura McAtackney @lauramca.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Friday night, completely in denial about the forthcoming semester, Atlantic bliss x

Picture through a long horizontal window of a garden and sea view on the horizon.

Picture through a long horizontal window of a sea view in the dusk.

Photo of a white sandy beach, grey-blue sea and a lightly cloudy sky.

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Laura McAtackney @lauramca.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

I sometimes laugh with the bitter irony of the far right claim the university sector is filled with left wing ideologies when you see letters like this to the paper of record. Begrudging a messily €4m to assist students from Gaza.

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Laura McAtackney @lauramca.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

I’m not a big one for repatriating graves but i don’t think Eva’s grave would look like this in Ireland. Indeed the whole graveyard in such an affluent part of London just looks completely overgrown and unloved. I cleared some weeds and added some roses, i hope someone else visits soon.

Eva Gore-Booth and Esther Roper’s grave with weeds and moss cleared and roses added.

Close up of Eva Gore-Booth and Esther Roper’s gravestone.

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Laura McAtackney @lauramca.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

While in London I went up to Hampstead to visit the grave of Eva Gore-Booth (suffragette sister of Constance de Markievicz) and her sister Esther Roper. Found it, and in some ways wished I hadn’t it was in a sad state of affairs. A sad neglected headstone in a sad neglected graveyard.

A sandstone gravestone in amongst the weeds

A close up of Eva Gore-Booth’s gravestone with dead plant and relatively new picture of Eva added in June 2026.

Framed picture of Eva Gore-Booth sitting on her grave with burnt up candles sitting infront.

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Laura McAtackney @lauramca.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Looks like climate changes bites for us all, even the v&a.

Picture of the dried out pond in the v&a museum courtyard with explanatory signage ‘We are very sorry, but due to the Thames Water hosepipe ban, the pond is closed until further notice’.

Close up of signage in v&a courtyard ‘We are very sorry, but due to the Thames Water hosepipe ban, the pond is closed until further notice’.

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Laura McAtackney @lauramca.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

He took notes of everything, especially details of bank accounts, pensions and all fin info that revealed a fear of not having enough. Fear you can only grasp when you see the list of his dead siblings - Martha (2), John Joseph (21), Alice (22) - who all died due to the conditions they lived in.

A page with handwritten notes indicating the death ages of siblings Martha, John Joe and Alice. The parents James and Mary are also recorded with more specific details.

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Laura McAtackney @lauramca.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

My granda - James Sharkey - was born in 1912 in a working class nationalist area of East Belfast (there wasn’t many!). He was a proud, articulate, fair, man. A lorry driver, trade unionist, organizer of Féis. I found his accounts from Féis Naomh Pól, which he was still running until he was 68.

A page with accounts written out from a feis ran by James Sharkey in 1980.

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Laura McAtackney @lauramca.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

While stopping off in Mayo one must jump on the Mayo bandwagon …

White box with transparent cover filled with assorted Tayto and sweetie shite. Text = ‘Mayo for Sam/ The Plaza’

Air freshener in shape of Mayo GAA shirt hanging in car.

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Laura McAtackney @lauramca.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

Out little black cat couldn’t be left behind for a short holiday so developed a yucky eye (official diagnosis) the day of our trip that entailed my husband driving c800 miles in a 24 hour period to retrieve him so we could feed him meds and generally lavishly pamper him. Not a bit grateful.

Picture of a man holding a black cat with what can only be described as resting bitch face. The cat has a red harness from being walked in the garden of a yellow-walled courtyard.

Black cat lying on white sheets having a big old sleep having first walked his mucky paws all over the aforementioned bed.

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Laura McAtackney @lauramca.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

Gorgeous photo! We were there this morning - recreating a two generation family photo around Yeats’ grave! The landscape also looks gorgeous with the clouds moving through it!

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Laura McAtackney @lauramca.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

To illustrate the weather change in Co Sligo, a picture of the beach i was swimming from on Friday v Saturday. Water was still lovely and warm but still …

Picture of the beach at Ardtarmon Strand, Co Sligo. Rocky foreground giving way to sand with blue seas and skies.

Picture of Ardtarmon Strand in Co Sligo. Rocky foreground with muddy path. Sandy beach and grey skies / sea.

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Laura McAtackney @lauramca.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

Channelling Irish-Mexican points of connection through the Batallón de San Patricio #MEXvENG

Green flag with an image of St Patrick holding a staff above a snake. Text above ‘República Mexicana’ and text below ‘Batallón de San Patricio’

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Laura McAtackney @lauramca.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

Here comes the bonfire discourse … and this sorry reminds me I saw a Northern reg lorry only containing stacked wooden pallets crossing the border on my way from Cork to Belfast y’day. Bonfires as an all-Ireland enterprise, gotta love it!

Picture of stacked wooden pallets with flag pinned to the front with murdered paramilitary Billy Wright pictured in between two hooded gunmen.

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Laura McAtackney @lauramca.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

One thing I noticed in my circuitous walk around Thaxton is not just the absolute absence of flags - of any descriptor - but also the heightened mc sensibilities. This is not so much a sign of a CNR area but a mc area. Signs related to dog walking etiquette and competitive floral loveliness.

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Laura McAtackney @lauramca.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

My personal connection is that my mum has lived in Thaxton for c10 years. She bought a house before the garage was here and there were no flags at the roundabout the first few years. Increasingly they have been added, extended and contested. The runnable stands in contrast to the streets inside.

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Laura McAtackney @lauramca.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

What i’ve found interesting is how this clearly contested claiming of a high traffic area has been used to argue that the gen area is ‘loyalist’. Usually by people who aren’t from the area and have never actually been inside Thaxton itself. Contrast flags at the roundabout v the adjacent street.

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Laura McAtackney @lauramca.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

There is something super refreshing about going to a disciplinary conference this is not your own. So far so AMAZING with the #FCHS26 conference with lots of great sessions on French colonial Caribbean. Fab organization by @donalh.bsky.social and Maynooth looking glorious.

Picture of a large modern building at Maynooth University (with the name taking up much of the side).

Large hall - Pugin Hall at Maynooth University- with double ceiling, wooden floors and wooden tables.

Large victorian quad building with extensive lawn, planted flowerbeds in full bloom and the building half covered in ivy.

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Laura McAtackney @lauramca.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

This message has come to you by the fact that some horrible piece of shit got annoyed that i criticized the racists burning people out of their houses in Belfast and left this enlightening message.

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Laura McAtackney @lauramca.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

Just out of a wonderful event with Maggie O’Farrell talking about her new book Land (sounds fascinating, looking forward to reading it!). Really interesting to know there is a prehistoric section in it and parts inspired by @nmireland.bsky.social, her favorite museum in the world (apparently!).

Photo of two women sitting on a stage facing each other in conversation, with a backdrop of red lighting and stained glass windows (it is an altar)

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Laura McAtackney @lauramca.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

Of all the wonderful things in Antwerp, this cat cafe was ultimately a balm my soul needed x

Very cute grey tabby cat (kitten) with white chest and paws sitting in the front window of a cat cafe.

A collective of cats sleeping in the window of a cat cafe including a large adult black and white cat and two smaller grey and white tabby cats.

The front window of a car cafe with a small white / mixed coloured fur kitten curled into a ball sleeping behind a large silver pipe in the front window of a cat cafe.

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Laura McAtackney @lauramca.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

(2) By look, I suspected the Dufferin Tiara was ‘Irish’. the description notes it was made in Eng for Lady Hariot Dufferin (1843-1936) with one diamond shamrock detachable. The text focuses on the regal places it has been and the renown of the wearer, not its cultural appropriation.

Large diamond encrusted crown with shamrock design. Presented against a black backdrop.

Text (white on black) on ‘The Dufferin Tiara’, noting its creation and biography as used by Lady Hariot Dufferin. Notable the item is only on loan from the Trustees of the Dufferin & Ava Trust since 2008.

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Laura McAtackney @lauramca.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

(1) The Bronze Age embossed gold collar is at the main entrance entitled ‘The Ancient World’. Description follows well worn tropes of ‘ritual’ and ‘elites’, the description states it was ‘said to have been found’ in Limerick ‘before 1783’. Gifted in 1948. What happened in between?

Image of gold embossed collar displayed in glass case at entrance to V&A Jewelry exhibition.

Image of text (white on black) in front of the gold Bronze Age collar ‘the Ancient World’, details of its creation and potential meaning / use.

Text (white on black) presented behind the gold Bronze Age collar. Information focuses on how it might have been worn and indicated where it might have been found and when.

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Laura McAtackney @lauramca.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

Interesting Irish connections at the v&a in their jewelry section. Not surprising how aesthetically pleasing objects can be separated so easily from politics, including the colonial worlds they inhabited, replicated and circulated in, esp the murky world of ownership and provenance.

Gold Bronze Age embossed collar displayed in a glass case with black background.

Large diamond encrusted crown with prominent shamrock design. Displayed against a black background.

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Laura McAtackney @lauramca.bsky.social · 21/05/2026

Just finished a wonderful couple of days in Prague with colleagues discussing disappearing, forgetting, and material loss. Was one of those great events that had enough time built in for discussion, including a walking tour and some chilled beers at the end. Perfect!

Workshop poster details posted on a glass door

Overview of poster with text workshop details. Glass door ‘AKC’.

Photo of a group standing outside a decorative metal gate at a metro station in Prague.

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Laura McAtackney @lauramca.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

Definitely a ‘mother fucker’ rather than ‘namaste’ moment :)

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Laura McAtackney @lauramca.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

A wonderful couple of days listening to colleagues from many disciplines exploring temporalities. With special thanks to our keynotes Antonia Thomas and Alberica Bazzoni, for pushing imaginative possibilities. Also to the organizing team of Leonora Masini, Chiara Giuliani and Barbara Siller.

Protection screen with an image of aurora borealis and white text imposed on top ‘The north is always enlarging the change’ (The Auroras of Autumn)

Projection screen with a black background and a large amount of text in the centre with different colours used.

Projection screen with large image of a woman with glasses sitting in front of a screen at an international UN-style meeting. Text above the image ‘No such thing as better colonizer’ Dr Sara Olsvig.

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Laura McAtackney @lauramca.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

What an amazing night with the incomparable Emerita Professor Rashid Khalifi at @maynoothuniversity.ie, where he gave a master class in comparative colonialism and how the English model was transferred to Palestine. Viva Palestine x

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Laura McAtackney @lauramca.bsky.social · 06/04/2026

A lovely day trip along the ‘copper coast’ (essentially from Dungarvan to Tramore) with beautifully cloud swirled skies and seas just a little too choppy for a swim. Can’t wait to get back in late May! Stradbally beach was our first stop x

View of a large expanse of sand with a distant sea. The skid is blue with some big white clouds. Perfect!

View of a large expanse of sand viewing the way back to land. Cloudy sky above (a bit more threatening of rain!).

Copper-strewn cliff side rock face with grass atop and the small dark figure of a man (my husband) examining it.

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Laura McAtackney @lauramca.bsky.social · 21/03/2026

I have nothing but love and praise for all the staff at NI Hospice for their kindness during my mother’s last illness. My family feel blessed that she was so well taken care of and we were treated with such love. On her last days we were in the hospice 24/7 and the sweet tea and sympathy flowed.

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Laura McAtackney @lauramca.bsky.social · 12/03/2026

Randomly found paper copies of my MPhil (2002) and PhD (2008) in my office and I’m slightly perturbed that i’ve been calling my PhD by a different name for the last xx years. Opps!

Two paper documents sitting on a sideboard. On the left is ‘The Archaeology of Political Prisons: the case of Long Kesh / amaze, NI’ and on the right is ‘Presenting Shared Heritage: the case of NI’.

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Laura McAtackney @lauramca.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

Had an amazing time in the Linenhall Library book shop on royal avenue today. I’m a sucker for old and random books and who doesn’t love a table of ‘Randomers’ including a copy of John Whyte’s ‘Interpreting Northern Ireland’ and a book on Lagan Valley previously owned by R Dudley Edwards :)

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Laura McAtackney @lauramca.bsky.social · 07/03/2026

Our mad cat turns his nose up at purpose created blankets, beds, toys etc but loves nothing more than luxuriating on a scrap of cardboard and playing with some pink string. Never change, Crowe! Happy #caturday

Black cat sitting in the sun on a piece of cardboard.

Black cat lying on a piece of cardboard in the sun.

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Laura McAtackney @lauramca.bsky.social · 19/02/2026

There is an interesting little contemporary archaeology / garbology project site near where i live where a 19C wall has collapsed to reveal an active hidey spot for mainly cheap vodka. There is an old iron gate / fence now apparently and really interesting is that it is being added to!

Pile of garbage secreted behind an old wall, mainly vodka bottles.

Evidence of older iron railing behind the wall.

Additions to the now exposed midden (or fallen debris?)

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