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Margaret Cahill

@margaretcahillbsky.bsky.social
829 followers 419 following 1.4K posts

Nature, gigs, books, art & theatre lover. Short story writer: Irish Book Awards/Irish Independent/The Honest Ulsterman/BULL/Idle Ink/Milk House/Bending Genres/Blood+Honey/ Epoque Press/The Milk House /Turn&Work/Crannóg linktr.ee/margaretcahill_

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Margaret Cahill @margaretcahillbsky.bsky.social · 9h
Very sad news to hear that the brilliant Denis Halliday has passed away. His death notice gives a great overview of some of his human rights work. "A sane voice in an insane world, and one needed now more than ever. A rare man who stood for what was right, even at personal cost."
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Margaret Cahill @margaretcahillbsky.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
Directions to Trá Pháidín on my fridge among all my hand made ceramics - north of the old cottage, heading towards Granuaile's tower, mind the whales and the fish on the way! trawfawdeen.bandcamp.com
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Margaret Cahill @margaretcahillbsky.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
London, Day 2. Ana Mendieta at Tate Modern. Loved it.
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Margaret Cahill @margaretcahillbsky.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Fields of clouds above London & the sky reflected in Anish Kapoor's sculptures at the Hayward - my annual Autumn art trip to London. Thankfully, they don't all start at 4.30am, followed by 4 hours sitting on the plane at Shannon but I learned that I excel at doing nothing. Didn't get annoyed at all.
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Margaret Cahill @margaretcahillbsky.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
@patrickfreyne.bsky.social I've just reached the God chapter of Experts in a Dying Field and it's so good. It's hard work being omnipotent but he handles it with humour. Love it.
God stays in Jimmy's head for some time, marvelling at His creation.God feels hurt for a moment....
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Margaret Cahill @margaretcahillbsky.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
I got up at 4.30am for a 7.30am flight to London that boarded on time but hasn't left yet and won't until after 11am. Had to cancel two booking I'd made for today, which is a nuisance, but I'm surprised at how patient I, and everyone else, is being. ✈️
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Emily Hall @emhall47.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Absolutely phenomenal story, @margaretcahillbsky.bsky.social. I fully appreciate how this story manages to be horrifying, complex, and quiet, all at the same time. #flashfiction #fiction #writesky #writing
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Margaret Cahill @margaretcahillbsky.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
My first published story set in #LimerickCity had to feature Georgian Limerick. I love the quiet, steady pacing of this story, as Oskar navigates the city, forever a stranger in his new home but no longer belonging to where he came from either. mrbullbull.com/newbull/fict...
Oskar is woken by the slamming of doors as people from the floors below him leave for work. The noise echoes up the wide staircase of the Georgian building to where he lies under two duvets in a bed that isn’t quite long enough for his six-foot-three frame.When he returns to the main room, he pulls open the heavy orange curtains beside his bed so he can roll his morning cigarette, but he doesn’t light it until he has a cup of black coffee beside him on the windowsill. There isn’t much to see but he likes to start his day here, looking at the sky and clouds, and the patchwork of added-on toilets, kitchens and fire escapes that jut out from the rear of the other Georgian buildings around him. The pleasing symmetrical facades they present to the city dissolve ungainly into clutter at their rears, where there are fewer eyes to see or care.Oskar has no idea who owns the house. He pays his rent in cash every week at the front desk of a property management company three streets over. He doesn’t mention the fact that the bathroom window will no longer close fully because the lintel is subsiding or that only one ring on the electric cooker works. In turn, they take his money and never mention raising the rent, which he knows is lower than anywhere else in the city.
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Margaret Cahill @margaretcahillbsky.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
I've been living in Limerick for a very long time but the city has only crept into my stories in recent years. I'm not sure you'll all thank me for it when you read this! I'm thrilled to have Two Choices published with @mrbullbull.bsky.social today. mrbullbull.com/newbull/fict...
Oskar is woken by the slamming of doors as people from the floors below him leave for work. The noise echoes up the wide staircase of the Georgian building to where he lies under two duvets in a bed that isn’t quite long enough for his six-foot-three frame.When the sun eventually comes out from behind the grey clouds, Oskar decides to go to the city park. It is the one place in the city where there are always more foreigners than Irish people. Like him, they mostly live in cramped city centre apartments with no back gardens or space for children to run around in. The park is their meeting place, their cricket and football field, their access to the sun, their refuge.
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Margaret Cahill @margaretcahillbsky.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Mark (King Kong Company & Irish Music Podcast) & Ellie left Tramore in Spring 2025 to cycle around the world. 31,500km later, they're about to head for home. They're raising funds on this last Irish leg to refurbish bikes for young people. GoFundMe link below spokeyokes.substack.com/p/one-more-t...
spokeyokes.substack.com
One more time with feeling.
The homeward route and dates for the last 900km of Ellie and Mark’s around-the-world cycle, including some fundraising get-togethers along the roads of Ireland
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Eric Ravenscraft @lordravenscraft.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Once again reminding folks that "thinking" models of LLMs work by recursively creating more elaborate prompts for themselves which is the same as "thinking" only so long as you believe that the entirety of human thought boils down to generating sentences which might explain why AI posters think so
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Margaret Cahill @margaretcahillbsky.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
🤣
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Margaret Cahill @margaretcahillbsky.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Beoga weren't just a support band but were acting as Sheeran's band for the tour. Playing these huge venues with an artist as big as this was career-changing for these acts. To sacrifice that, while acknowledging that it's not about them but the Palestinian people, is impressive & touching❤️🇵🇸
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CalicoRo @calicoro.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Revolut are known to be the least helpful when you’ve a problem. They spend less time on it than any other financial institution. Panorama did a doc on Revolut as did Conor Pope on RTE. So bad I never opened a Revolut account. They blocked me on X 🤣 www.independent.ie/irish-news/i...
independent.ie
Irish feared to be among those affected after Revolut data leaked to scammers
Revolut claims only a small number of customers impacted
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Margaret Cahill @margaretcahillbsky.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
There's a fantastic series of Sunday afternoon art workshops on in the Hunt for the ridiculously low price of €5. I made this at the lino-cutting one today. I'd highly recommended them. #LimerickCity www.huntmuseum.com/whats-on/ger...
A yellow and red print of three hares running across a landscape
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Richy Craven @richycraven.bsky.social · 09/12/2024
Before Doggy Daycare and work-from-home people would just let their dogs wander the neighborhood all day. Single, independent dogs living their best life. If they occasionally mauled a child, well, they should have known that Tuesdays is when Dino the Alsatian does his rounds.
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Margaret Cahill @margaretcahillbsky.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Between In Your Nature & The Critter Shed being back, and Sean Roynane's new, The Sean Chorus, there's a great selection of Irish nature podcasts available now. They're all informative, interesting, engaging and a pocket of calm in my week.
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Margaret Cahill @margaretcahillbsky.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
This looks like a fascinating new four-part series starting on TG4 on Monday. It "follows people from Ukraine, France, Scotland, South Africa and Germany who have made Ireland’s offshore islands their home".
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Margaret Cahill @margaretcahillbsky.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Sorry you couldn't make it last night @drnollid.bsky.social (Jane told me). I got there late and made my way up to the stage and was wondering where you were. Some people got two gigs for the price of one again! 👇
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Dónal Hassett @donalh.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
It is noticeable that whenever the Irish government says it wants to become more like our European neighbours it's never about things like rent controls, tenant rights, workers rights, public health care and always about thinks like the border regime and militarisation...
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Jude Sherry @judesherry.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
What are Irish values? Letting childern die in agonising pain? Destroying nearly all our nature? Making sure most kids grow up with no hope of getting their own home unless they emigrate or have rich parents? Handing over resources to corporations & giving them their own courts to sue our democracy
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Jamie @fctwentebenson.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
You gotta have some fucking taws on you to be talking about Irish values in a country with over 5,500 homeless children
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Margaret Cahill @margaretcahillbsky.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Busy weekend in Limerick: *Play last night in the Belltable *MA in Fine Art exhibition at LSAD today *Got this old-school ticket for a gig *Limerick Zine Fest today & tomorrow *Play tonight in the Hunt 29 years after moving here and it's weekends like this that remind me why I love #LimerickCity
Trá Pháidín ticket. Cash only for this physical ticket. Love it. Tom P's workMy stash from day 1 at Limerick Zine Fest. On in St John's Pavilion 11-5 tomorrow.
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Margaret Cahill @margaretcahillbsky.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
I'm so, so sad to hear this. For many years it felt like Frank was the only public voice addressing issues of poor planning and planning law in Ireland. He was dogged in his persistence that we need and deserve better and educated so many of us along the way. www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2026...
irishtimes.com
Frank McDonald, former environment editor of The Irish Times, dies
McDonald’s reporting on planning corruption was pioneering in Irish journalism, and he regularly reported from abroad on climate negotiations
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Margaret Cahill @margaretcahillbsky.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
This 👇
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Margaret Cahill @margaretcahillbsky.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
It's nearly Bonnie Prince Billy time again in Limerick so I've been observing my usual ritual of wandering around Castletroy singing this to myself every day. 26 years old and still one of my favourites. Next Wed. Tickets still available www.dolans.ie/gigs-events-... www.youtube.com/watch?v=Elyg...
youtube.com
I See A Darkness
YouTube video by Bonnie "Prince" Billy - Topic
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Margaret Cahill @margaretcahillbsky.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
This week's wildflower hour featured seed heads. The variety of them and their different methods of distributing seeds is fascinating. They're something to look out for now that many flowers have died off. I love this piece I made last year with an imprint of a Bird's-foot Trefoil seed head.
A ceramic piece I made with imprints of flower and tree seed heads.
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Áine Mc Caul ✍🏼 @ainemccaul.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
A lovely uplifting read for a Sunday morning. #SpeirGorm scienceblog.com/b-three-scho...
scienceblog.com
Three schoolgirls in Kinsale pulled up a pea plant covered in warts and, instead of binning it, spent three years testing 13,000 seeds in a spare bedroom — the bacteria living in those warts made barl...
When three teenagers glimpsed what others dismissed as plant disease, they saw a path to solving agriculture's nitrogen problem—and the scientific establishment's skepticism only made them dig deeper.
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Margaret Cahill @margaretcahillbsky.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
I'm in #LimerickCity for my second free gig of the week on a closed street (opera this time). There was a bring-your-own dinner at a long table beforehand. Free events in public spaces on a Saturday night in summer brings people from every community and background out. It's a beautiful thing.
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Margaret Cahill @margaretcahillbsky.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
We didn't need EP in Limerick tonight. Instead, we stood in our own pouring rain to see Dyrt, Hazey Haze and Strange Boy perform with a trad band. It was a free gig on a closed off street in the city. That's what drew me in. Giving space to people builds community. #TwilightThursdays #LimerickCity
Limerick's newest boy band - Dyrt, Hazey and Strange Boy
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FT @fucktheory.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Imagine being talented and beautiful and rich and famous and still the most noteworthy thing about you is how good a person you are.
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Mo Ryan @moryan.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
I'm sure she got advice on her image, on how it might be better to reject her LGBTQ audience. She didn't. She knew what it was to be powerless & poor & she didn't want *anyone* to live that way. A lesson for people w aspirations to public life: Hurting others doesn't have to be part of the equation.
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Mo Ryan @moryan.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
every billionaire & tech mogul, they all want to be adored & celebrated without doing the things Dolly did with a fraction of the power & money. What she had, she gave away. I'm sure she was comfortable (& that's good!). But she just relentlessly helped. It's not that difficult. Love. Care. Help. 💚🌸
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eolaí the artist @eolai.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
Thank you very much to whoever it was who bought a print of my County Mayo painting "Ballycroy" #SpéirGhorm #Art Link to Print: fineartamerica.com/featured/bal...
Landscape format in acrylic on canvas. A road coming out of the centre of the bottom of the painting heads diagonally right then bends hard left and disappears into a landscape of open bog rendered as a fiery orange with sparse red and green bushes. In the distance on the left there is a small white cottage and behind it a large violet rocky mountain that tapers down to the right with more mountains further away on the right and coloured a light purple. A sliver of water is in front of them. The sky is a light aqua blue with long large white fluffy clouds. The road surface is dark, matching the violet of the jagged mountain on the left and contrasting with the surrounding bog and with its road markings of dashed white lines down the centre and dashed yellow lines marking the edge of the road. The bog has pinks and yellows peppered throughout and more colours along the road edges where there are small ridges and or ditches with touches of yellows and grey-greens. Signed bottom left, Liam Daly
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Margaret Cahill @margaretcahillbsky.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
The stunning, tranquil Inis Cealtra (Holy Island) on Lough Derg. A monastic settlement dating back to 550 AD, with 6 churches, a round tower, holy well and lots of other monuments. It's also the final resting place of Edna O'Brien.
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Margaret Cahill @margaretcahillbsky.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
The stunning, tranquil Inis Cealtra (Holy Island) on Lough Derg. A monastic settlement dating back to 550 AD, with 6 churches, a round tower, holy well and lots of other monuments. It's also the final resting place of Edna O'Brien.
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Margaret Cahill @margaretcahillbsky.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
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Margaret Cahill @margaretcahillbsky.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
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Margaret Cahill @margaretcahillbsky.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
From Neil O'Lochlainn's incredible Tlú Lín at this year's Féile na Gréine. Stunning musicianship and creativity from everyone involved but he's a musical genius as far as I'm concerned.
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Margaret Cahill @margaretcahillbsky.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
I love David Gillick's post-race interviews so much. He's got such warmth, understanding and admiration for the athletes, is genuinely in their corner and tries to pick them up when they need it. These two together was just magic.
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Margaret Cahill @margaretcahillbsky.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
"We’re 8 years into it this year and we wanted to nod to our roots whilst showcasing the vast landscape of weirdo Irish music... Show everyone around you that your village or your town or your city isn’t just for tech companies and car parks." ❤️ Feile na Greine thethinair.net/2026/08/feil...
thethinair.net
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Margaret Cahill @margaretcahillbsky.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
Just met this adorable little creature in my local park. I think it's a Wood Mouse but would love confirmation if anyone knows. It let me get this close with my phone in my hand while it was busy cleaning its front feet. It was still there ten minutes later when I passed by again.
A small grey mouse with a very long tail, on a path licking its front foot.
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Margaret Cahill @margaretcahillbsky.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
I had a brilliant weekend in Offaly looking at butterflies on bogs and finally got to see large numbers of Painted Ladies (1). Caught this Brimstone (2) nectaring. Then, in my local park in Limerick, my 1st Comma of the year (3) and my 1st ever Bombus hypnorum (4), a special find. See its alt text
Painted Lady butterfly
Brimstone butterflyComma butterfly
Tree bumblebee (Bombus hypnorum), which is moving northward because of rising temperatures. It arrived into Southern England from France in 2003 and the first sighting in Ireland was in 2017. It's been recorded in my area of Limerick for the first time this summer. Unlike other bumble bees, it nests in holes in trees, empty bird boxes etc.
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Margaret Cahill @margaretcahillbsky.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
A couple of close photos of the fox walking right by the camera, oblivious to it.
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Margaret Cahill @margaretcahillbsky.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
A couple of close photos of the fox walking right by the camera, oblivious to it.
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Margaret Cahill @margaretcahillbsky.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
I was home in Offaly at the weekend and checked the trail cam I have in the garden. The foxes are still around and coming out in the day quite a bit. Most of my videos are in the middle of the night and not great quality but there are a few from early morning that show just how stunning they are.
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Margaret Cahill @margaretcahillbsky.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
After years of crappy shower options, a broken immersion, on the way out heating and boiling kettles to do the dishes, I now have hot water on demand from the taps and can have a good shower any time I like and heating for winter. The ease of it all is the height of luxury after all I put up with.
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Margaret Cahill @margaretcahillbsky.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
The small number of minor road closures that frightened and terrify these people. The city should be for the people but any small steps to give them safe space to enjoy it are opposed at every turn. Safe, free cultural and entertainment events are so needed. Map courtesy of Padraic Cleary.
Map of Limerick city road closures to facilitate events in August
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Cathal Malone @cathalmalone.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
Not sure who needs to hear this, but "judicial review" is literally just the name you give a case when a person says the State has broken a law (any law, about anything) and they want a court to put a stop to it. A politician saying "I am against anyone taking a judicial review" is proto-fascist.
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Gavin Elliott @sgelliott.net · 25/07/2026
Jack Chambers relies upon citizens (or people in the economy as he calls them) not understanding what a judicial review is. If the state has broken the law you may ask the court to hold them to account. That's what a JR is, and what Jack Chambers is against. The government following it's own laws.
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