All set for a special night at the world premiere of Ransom ‘79 featuring the late great Charlie Bird and Colin Murphy at the Lighthouse.

Really good analysis of the state of play in the Dublin constituency ahead of the European election by Harry McGee and Gary Murphy just now on Today with Claire Byrne. So many candidates in all three constituencies - and a new big issue on voters’ minds. Gonna be very interesting…

#OTD 1997. Election. Landslide. Labour win 418 seats giving Tony Blair a majority of 179.

In their worst election defeat since 1906, the Conservatives retain just 165 MPs, with their smallest share of the vote since 1832.

Thread on end of the Conservative Era 👇

My article in today’s The Irish News on why no historian should have anything to do with the British government’s “independent public history” project, a charade that is intrinsically linked to the reviled British Legacy Act. irishnews.com/opinion/no-his…

The History of Fianna Fáil on Talking History with Eunan O’Halpin, Gary Murphy and me newstalk.com/podcasts/highl… via NewstalkFM

1982. World Snooker Championship Semi Final. Alex Higgins came to the table, one shot away from going out of the tournament, and with the balls in a seemingly impossible position. What followed is generally regarded as the best snooker break of all time.

True story, I moved into Ashbourne 25 years ago.

The locals made planning complaints about the estate I was moving into but it got built.

Back then Ashbourne had 1 SuperValue (or whatever the name was back then), 1 main street, and probably not more than one bus a day.

In the…

JRR Tolkien said 'I wisely started with a map' and he wrote his stories afterwards.
Too many history works treat maps as an annoyance to be packed into the appendix of a book if they are there at all.
The UCC team that brought us the brilliant Atlas of the Irish Revolution put…

Today marks 61 years since the Bristol Bus Boycott. It began after the Bristol Omnibus Company, with the support of the Transport & General Workers Union, refused to employ Black & Asian crews. The boycott lasted 4 months until the company backed down & overturned the colour bar.

30 April 1991. The last Trabant was manufactured. The classic East German car, often called “The Trabi”, had been produced since 1957 by the East German car manufacturer, VEB Sachsenring Automobilwerke Zwickau.

🚨 We're hiring! 🚨 The School of HAPP at Queen's is looking for a Lecturer in Comparative Politics and a Lecturer in Irish Politics. The closing date for applications is 6 May. Details here hrwebapp.qub.ac.uk/tlive_webrecru… and here hrwebapp.qub.ac.uk/tlive_webrecru…

I read the terms of reference for the public history project related to the Troubles, which you can access through here. I have some thoughts.

gov.uk/government/new…

It is with immense sadness that Pan Macmillan announces the death of C.J. Sansom at the age of 71. buff.ly/4devMmF

On Saturday evening I got a message from my friend Roz that Chris had died. Awful, sad, a massive loss, but to be honest it wasn’t unexpected. He had been ill for a very long time – and after many health setbacks I think he really wanted to go. 🧵1/15

We have launched Cork Stories! Huge thanks to everyone involved. ⁦Doire Press⁩ @CorkWorldBookFestival

Obit for Sam Nolan in Sindo independent.ie/irish-news/obi…

Some mouth-breathing racist homophobe recorded this and thought uploading it to social media reflected badly on the former Taoiseach and not on them.

That’s some thought process.

How many people died violent deaths in the Irish Civil War? The Irish Times thanks to Ronan McGreevy for covering the #IrishCivilWarFatalities project and launch this morning irishtimes.com/history/2024/0…

Such a tragic loss. CJ Sansom was one of the finest ever writers of historical fiction. He was an inspiration to me and to many others. We are poorer without him.
panmacmillan.com/blogs/general/…

The The Sunday Times Ireland joined Leo Varadkar while canvassing for Cllr Siobhan Shovlin in Blanch this week.

He said: 'If there’s a solid FG vote here without my name on the ballot paper, that would make the decision easier for me to pass it on to someone new.” thetimes.co.uk/article/f9db23…