iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Marc Scully @marcscully.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

Solidarity with public sector colleagues on the pickets today. From a household with an @ifut.bsky.social member, a @forsatradeunion.bsky.social rep, and two children taught by INTO members. And yes, Jack Chambers, we too are members of the public. #digitalpicket

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Marc Scully @marcscully.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

(I had a whole plan of using the arguments from that TV debate as a jumping off point for a new line of research, and then it barely came up at all! I still want to develop this further in future.)

A four panel comic where a researcher begins to smile as they develop an idea but then Dara intervenes and says ‘no’.

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Marc Scully @marcscully.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

A colouring sheet that came home in my son’s schoolbag. Uh… Kids, today we’re going to learn about sharing through the virtuous example of … (checks notes) … Lionel Messi & Cristiano Ronaldo!

A colouring sheet featuring a depiction of a soccer game where, confusingly, Ronaldo & Messi, appear to be playing both against and alongside each other.

Panel 4: “The ball hits the net! I clap and Messi claps, too.”
Panel 5: “Ronaldo and Messi share the ball. I am glad”

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Marc Scully @marcscully.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

The day has been long and full of teaching, supervision and meetings, but at least there was an excellent haul of books in my mail tray today. @marekmcgann.bsky.social @craigspeelman.bsky.social @maddipow.bsky.social @sandersonspeaking.bsky.social

Three books on a desk. Absent Minds by Madeline Pownall, The Great Psychology Delusion by Craig Speelman & Marek McGann and Teaching Social Psychology edited by Catherine Sanderson & Rebecca Totton

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Marc Scully @marcscully.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

There’s no way Myles would’ve stood for it.

IT is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then the dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere which she just began to move in; glittering like the morning star, full of life and splendour, and joy—
The Plain People of Ireland: Sure that wan went to the wall years ago, you must be mixin' her up with some other party.
Myself: For me the Queen of France never died.
The Plain People of Ireland : And if it's above the horizon you seen her, that's fair enough, many's a man seen more than the queen of France and him out in a boat fishin', coopers of stout and sandwiches, half fallin' out of the boat rotten fluthery-eyed drunk on porter and whiskey, sure is it any wonder you're seein' visions man? Sure Lord save us you'll be Napolean Boneypart himself next above in the Grange weedin' turnips.
Myself: I was at a wake the other night and every man jack was drunk
- including the corpse.
The Plain People of Ireland: O faith now never mind the wakes, many's a better man than you was happy enough at home be the fire with Knock-nagow or a good American cowboy story, there's a very bad type of person goin' around now that wasn't known in our fathers' day.

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Marc Scully @marcscully.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

If you’re using the Met Éireann app, it’s vital to go by the radar map rather than the precipitation percentages. Current radar map for a time of ostensibly 0% chance of rain:

A meteorological map of the south and west of Ireland showing a band of showery rain moving across the country.

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Marc Scully @marcscully.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Contemplate the bleak. Gaze into it.

The view of a rainy Limerick Junction from one of the few bits of inadequate shelter on Platform 4.

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Marc Scully @marcscully.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Casual breakfast reading en route to #spsconf in London @bps-social-psych.bsky.social (Parked at 5.35, through security and sitting down to breakfast by 5.50. Cork Airport remains undefeated.)

A bowl of granola next to a book. The book is “Social Psychology of Leadership and Crowds: Global Perspectives”.

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Marc Scully @marcscully.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Delighted and humbled to announce that I’ve been awarded a Chair by my institution.

A group of blue chairs arranged in a circle in a seminar room. One of the chairs has a A4 sheet of paper reading ‘Marc Scully’ taped to the back.

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Marc Scully @marcscully.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Not for the first time lately with the IT, the headline on the print version is a tad less inflammatory, not containing the suggestion that medical opinion is divided.

WHAT DO
IRISH EXPERTS THINK ABOUT CONTROVERSIAL ADHD CLAIMS?
A new documentary sceptical of ADHD as a medical disorder and the use of drugs to treat it demonstrates the vastly differing views on the condition
By Sylvia Thompson

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Marc Scully @marcscully.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

This passage in particular. (Which also has me thinking about contact theory, critiques of contact theory, and how to teach it in an Irish setting).

There was an immediate impulse across the country to reject the comparison, to insist that Ireland remained immune to that specific inheritance of violence. Yet the video permitted no detachment.

There he was, Congolese, dying on Henry Street; and there I was, Congolese, watching the loop repeat across my screen. Perhaps I had needed Ireland to remain innocent because it protected something in me. Those comments I heard in my childhood were provincial, produced by children repeating words they barely understood, not adults who understood well enough to publicise the target of their rage's home address.

It allowed me to believe that the intimacy of Irish life would eventually correct itself-that living beside somebody, teaching their children, attending their funerals, and borrowing their lawnmower would make political hatred impossible through sheer familiarity.

Embarrassment left room for innocence, but fear had now removed that option.
Yet a reliance on imported racist frameworks offers its own kind of distortion.

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Marc Scully @marcscully.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Niles was LinkedIn before LinkedIn.

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Marc Scully @marcscully.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

Relatedly: It is the most shattering experience of a young man's life when one morning he awakes and quite reasonably says to himself, "I will never play the bsky.app/profile/ever...

Richard E Grant in the final scene of Withnail & I, giving a soliloquy from Hamlet to an audience of the wolves at London Zoo

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Marc Scully @marcscully.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

It is August 1st and the Halloween decorations are in the shops. Time for Academic & Literary Bluesky to reflect on whether posting hot takes about the Odyssey, rather than writing That Thing You Need To Write was really the best use of the last fortnight.

Halloween decorations in a department store.

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Marc Scully @marcscully.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

Happy August 1st, Dermot! (Photo taken just this morning in my nearest Dunnes).

A display of Halloween decorations in a department store, taken on August the 1st. August 1st, mind you!

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Marc Scully @marcscully.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

It says No InfantinoS. We’re allowed to have one.

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Marc Scully @marcscully.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

I finished @jonawils.bsky.social’s ‘The Power and the Glory: A New History of the World Cup’ the other day. It does seem like Infantino has read the closing paragraphs and thought “well, challenge accepted”.

It's easy to hark back to an illusory past - almost everybody's first World Cup is their personal favourite, a time when horizons open up and there is a realisation of the vastness and diversity of the world, and how everybody in it obsesses over this one game, a curious sense both of profound difference and profound community - but whatever else is happening, however corrupted and exploited the institution of the World Cup may become, that magic goes on.

It survived Mussolini and the Argentinian junta, it survived British indifference and João Havelange, it survived the scandals of Russia and Qatar and it will survive also Mohammed bin Salman and Gianni Infantino. Countries have always used the World Cup to promote themselves, to fight proxy wars, to project an image of unity and strength, to negotiate their position in the world, but some small spark of Rimet's vision still remains.

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Marc Scully @marcscully.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

Of course, as Cork people know from experience, the more likely narrative outcome of the one golden summer you have with your young superstar with the famous name before he disappears to Australia, is narrow defeat in the final, and 20 years of wistfully thinking about what might have been.

Cork's Setanta O'hAilpin celebrates after scoring a goal past Kilkenny goalkeeper James McGarry in the 2003 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship Final.

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Marc Scully @marcscully.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

Cate Blanchett in I’m Not There is pretty great.

Cate Blanchett as Bob Dylan in I’m Not There holds a cigarette and looks wryly down the camera lens. It’s awesome.

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Marc Scully @marcscully.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

The third-place playoff, as scripted by Goscinny & Uderzo.

Comic strip panels where Goscinny & Uderzo enthusiastically plan one of their Astérix stories until the cafe owner takes fright and has them brought away in an ambulance.

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Marc Scully @marcscully.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

“Not this thing! The other thing! Bring me the other thing!” from @katebeaton.bsky.social ‘s King Baby was a catchphrase in our house when the kids were that age.

A page from King Baby by Kate Beaton. A father is offering a small ball to his baby son saying “Here you go, champ.” The baby responds “Wehhh” angrily. The picture is captioned “Not this thing! The other thing! Bring me the other thing!”

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Marc Scully @marcscully.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

The name Lugdunum always reminds me of Astérix, so I was pleased to see the name of one of the conference buildings this week. #ByBelenos #iykyk

An archway in a limestone building with the name Bát. Bélénos written next to it.

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Marc Scully @marcscully.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

Presenting my research in the ‘Citizenship in the Making’ session at the @euroqualpsy.bsky.social conference in Lyon earlier today.

A man in a light blue shirt stands next to a PowerPoint presentation.

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Marc Scully @marcscully.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

Kudos to the bould @davetothegrave.bsky.social , representing @micireland.bsky.social in the baking heat at the @euroqualpsy.bsky.social conference in Lyon today.

A man is standing next to a PowerPoint presentation. The title slide is in blue and reads “Not Irish enough”: everyday nationalism and contested Irishness.

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Marc Scully @marcscully.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

Early morning sunshine on the Lower Glanmire Road as my journey to Lyon for the @euroqualpsy.bsky.social conference begins. #EQUIP2026 Any Lyon evening recommendations welcome.

A three-story red brick Victorian building with a striking turret feature in early morning sunshine.

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Marc Scully @marcscully.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

In 2006, @andyrileyish.bsky.social anticipated the median Bluesky user during the World Cup. (I’m glad everyone’s enjoying themselves. Some of the takes have been a little wild).

A 4-panel comic strip called Roasted

First panel: KARL’S FOOTBALL KNOWLEDGE

Second panel: PRE-WORLD CUP. A man wearing black stands silently and glances to his right.

Third panel: DURING WORLD CUP.

The same man points at a screen and shouts the following phrases:
“THEY'RE WEAK AT THE BACK”
“THEY'RE PLAYING WITH ONE UP FRONT WHICH IS VERY SURPRISING FOR THEM”
“HE'S GOT TO UP THE TEMPO IN TNE SECOND HALF, GET AN ATTACKING MIDFIELDER ON”
“HE HASN'T GOT THE SERVICE SO YOU CAN’T BLAME HIM”
“TOO MANY LONG BALLS”
“THEY'RE DANGEROUS ON SET PIECES”
“YOU CAN’T SIT BACK ON A ONE GOAL LEAD”

Fourth panel: POST WORLD CUP

The man stands silently, glancing to his left.

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Marc Scully @marcscully.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

I went to school around the corner. So in my mind, it’s both “architectural marvel that people come to Cork specifically to see” and “where lads took advantage of the many alcoves to eat chips and have fights in peace”. Also imagine this being the last face you saw before exams.

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Marc Scully @marcscully.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

Same hometown, but I disagree on the ominous megastructure.

The front-facing aspect of the architecturally significant Christ the King Church, Turner’s Cross, Cork.

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Marc Scully @marcscully.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

Scotland just need a point from a final group game against a below-par Brazil to qualify, you say?

A scene from a match between Scotland & Brazil at the 1990 World Cup. The Brazilian player Müller, taps the ball into an empty goal at close range as Scottish goalkeeper Jim Leighton looks on despairingly.

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Marc Scully @marcscully.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

When historical forces make you share an Anglosphere with the lads.

A meme where an older child is sitting in the back seat of a car between two crying toddlers, and is clasping her hands over her ears in desperation. The older child is labelled 'Spéirghorm', while the toddlers are labelled 'UK Bluesky' and 'US Bluesky' respectively.

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Marc Scully @marcscully.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

Is there a play that has been more thoroughly ruined for a generation than A Streetcar Named Desire was ruined by The Simpsons for fortysomethings? Like, @theeverymancork.bsky.social have a new production, and I really should go, but I know if it doesn't start like this, I'll be disappointed:

Chief Wiggum, in character on stage, sings "Long before the Superdome, where the Saints of football play" before a backdrop of a stadium.

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Marc Scully @marcscully.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

From an @news.rte.ie video asking people who they’ll be supporting in the World Cup. While we can’t expect sport and culture to do all the heavy lifting, convivial multiculturalism does have a way of breaking through. Worth noting amidst the racist violence, intimidation and far-right agitation.

A man around the age of 60 being interviewed by RTE News. He says “I suppose Cape Verde will be one of them and…”

“Ghana will be the other because of the Irish guys in it”

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