But pathetic @Labour Party backing out of manifesto commitment.

Reports of their rightwingery were exaggerated.

The excellent Jason, as ever.

"...the concept of abortionist saints is unique to Ireland, with no similar stories appearing in other European hagiographical texts."

The Bollywood film set in Dublin.

Not convinced by explanation that feminist gains were reversed due to factional conflict within the wider revolutionary movement. I would eant to see evidence that Republicanism had really internalized feminism in the first place. My suspicion is that, like the Labour movement, politicized women were convenient allies for the leadership of SF (and…

Tracking down a fake tweeter in the Dublin suburbs!

Hooray!

W.T Cosgrave re-opens the GPO (1928?) after it had been restored following the 1916 Easter Rising.

It's a small world. (Especially if you're talking about County Cork.)

How to follow the results.

By the time this appears in linkspam we will probably know how the referendum went.

Tom Garvin on the death of UCD.

My mate Hugo explains what he does all day. (Gosh, I was at that reception last Wednesday too, though I don't appear in shot.)

#fb

Being an Irish reader of sf and fantasy. "The product of one of history's many intertidal zones, I love a literature to which I'm largely invisible."

Declan Ganley and Brendan Simms call for a fully federal EU. (I'm surprised; I had pigeon-holed them both as Eurosceptics, but obviously was wrong.)

"When the Irish people vote for Seán Gallagher for President next week, we’ll be electing the most nakedly unsuitable object of forelock-tugging that we could possibly have representing us at this time." - fortunately this may now be out of date, but a good rant at the time.

Plans from 1890 discovered. Four different routes proposed!

The great Irish novelist Flann O’Brien’s debut, At Swim-Two-Birds, should have sealed his reputation as the equal of Joyce and Beckett. At long last, in the year of his centenary, the world is catching up.

The emptiness symbolizes the country’s degrading economic situation. But it goes beyond visual representation. The estates have had a very physical effect on the face of the open landscape.

Provides access to two online historic atlases : The Irish Famine Population Data Atlas 1841-2002 and The Atlas of Irish Famine Data 1841 - 1851. Fascinating stuff.

By someone who knew him much better than me: "I think Garret lived such a mentally sharp and active life for so long – still writing his regular economics column in the Irish Times to the end – because he was just so curious and endlessly interested in and enjoying the people around him."

"He was *my* taoiseach."

The disruption caused by Queen Elizabeth II to one Dublin family's life.

As well as making the obvious point about the Taoiseach's eleven nominees, Noel Whelan makes another point that had escaped me - the electorate for the 43 vocational seats in the senate is fixed by law, not the constitution, and can easily be changed if the government should wish.

Life in modern Ireland

"It is always great to see a brutal dictator like Colonel Gaddafi being overthrown by his people, even if he is a rather colourful character who brings a certain excitement to the normally bland world of international relations. More than that, though, were the treats that could become available to researchers if the regime fell and its archi…

"You want a better Ireland. Of course you do. We don't. We want one that we can be in charge of." Also, wigs.