Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Des FitzGerald @fitzgeralddes.bsky.social · 20h

A gorgeous listen.

Saved the second half of this for post-lunch enjoyment. It *may* just be my favourite thing Roedelius has done this century (that I've heard, properly keeping up with never-retiring 90 yr-old fella would be a full-time pasttime)

Alan Burns @alanburns.bsky.social · 22h

Random shelf pick not played in ages time: piano and prepared piano with a generous dash of electronics - this is very lovely indeed (if possibly overlong at 76 mins, but I remember liking all of it)

1

Des FitzGerald @fitzgeralddes.bsky.social · 1d

Don't miss Words on the Wave – Ireland and St. Gallen in Early Medieval Europe at the @nmireland.bsky.social - it ends next week. Congratulations to all who put together such a beautiful book to accompany the exhibition 👏

A photo of the catalogue from Words on the Wave – Ireland and St. Gallen in Early Medieval Europe. The exhibition ends next week at the National Museum of Ireland, Kildare St.

2 4

Reposted by Des FitzGerald

RHA Gallery @rha-arts.bsky.social · 2d

Niall Naessens presents an exhibition of new works at the RHA, opening tomorrow, featuring acrylic ink drawings with etching, ink rollups and coloured pencil details as well as etchings & computer drawings.

A Walk in the Sublime,
An Adventure in 21st Century Romanticism

16 October - 16 November 🧵

Niall Naessens, Mister Burke and His Hound, 2025. Acrylic ink, etching ink and coloured pencil, 50 x 50cm. Image courtesy of the artist.

Niall Naessens, Landscape with Botticelli Roses, 2025. Digital drawing, 95 x 95cm, inkjet on Bamboo paper. Image courtesy of the artist.

1 1 6

Reposted by Des FitzGerald

RHA Gallery @rha-arts.bsky.social · 2d

Join artist and guide Mags Harnett for a Slow Looking Tour of our photographic exhibition A R C H I P E L A G O this Sunday.

Slow Looking Tour – A R C H I P E L A G O
Sun 19 Oct
12.30 - 1.30pm

Free, book here: rhagallery.ie/events/public-events/slow-looking-art-tour-a-r-c-h-i-p-e-l-a-g-o

Installation image from A R C H I P E L A G O – Ros Kavanagh Photography.

1 2

Reposted by Des FitzGerald

James Kelleher @jameskelleher.pilcrow.ie · 3d

Next time somebody asks me what Bluesky is like, I'll send them this

230 1.3K 11K

Reposted by Des FitzGerald

Forever Louise Brooks @foreverlouiseb1.bsky.social · 3d

Louise with Andrews Engelmann in Diary of a Lost Girl (1929).

9 86

Reposted by Des FitzGerald

RHA Gallery @rha-arts.bsky.social · 9d

KCAT is a multi-disciplinary arts centre in Callan, Co. Kilkenny, dedicated to the fostering and nurturing of creative ambition & professional development in the arts.

Featuring works from KCAT artists past and present, ‘The Known and Unknown World’ celebrates the 25th anniversary of KCAT Studio.

Declan Byrne, Tree, mixed media, 39 x 32 x 30cm, 2018

Brianna Hurley, The Happy Crying Waterfall, acrylic and posca marker on canvas, 150 x 100cm, 2025

Andrew Pike, Ned Kelly in an Irish Landscape, triptych, detail, acrylic on canvas, 92 x 236 cm, 2006.

1 1 3

Reposted by Des FitzGerald

RHA Gallery @rha-arts.bsky.social · 9d

Let us welcome you to the RHA this Saturday ⤵️

This free tour may be of particular interest to first time visitors but is, of course, open to anybody and to all ages.

First Day at the RHA - Saturday, 11 October, 12 – 1pm.

More info: rhagallery.ie/events/publi...

First-time visitor? Let us welcome you to the RHA this Saturday!

This tour may be of particular interest to first time visitors but is, of course, open to anybody and to all ages.

First Day at the RHA - Saturday, 11 October, 12 – 1pm.

2 2

Reposted by Des FitzGerald

Tuatha @tuatha.ie · 12d

Labbacallee • Cork

Labbacallee is Ireland’s largest example of a wedge tomb.

The name Labbacallee derives from Leaba Chaillí, which can be roughly translated to ‘The Hag’s Bed’.

Archaeologists discovered the remains of an adult woman, a man, and a child. All dating between 2456–1776 BC.

Labbacallee Wedge Tomb under old trees in North Cork

2 25 100

Reposted by Des FitzGerald

John86 @john86l.bsky.social · 13d

You don’t have to be called Steve or Stephen to work at Blackpool, but it does help.

A club statement from Blackpool saying Steve Bruce has been sacked along with coaches Steve Agnew and Stephen Clemence. Stephen Dobbie and Steve Banks will take temporary charge.

50 370 1.1K

Des FitzGerald @fitzgeralddes.bsky.social · 13d

Always think of my college days in Bath back in the 1990s when reading Seamus Heaney - today's Irish Times has a previously unpublished poem about his two sisters.

Ribbons by Seamus Heaney
In the name of the colours,
Emerald, cornflower blue,
Ruby, primrose and white,

In the name of ringlets and curls,
Polka dots, partings and plaits
And double-tied bows . . .

To-day the photographer comes
With his tripod and cowl
And plaited retractable snout,

A five-legged beast
Of gesticulation and blather
They’ll outface together,

Steady and far off and solemn
As orphans posed at a rail
In the last days of sail,

Beyond the pale of the selves
They are due to become,
The one thing immutable still

The roughcast grey of the wall
Of the school, plus
The knitted classic Fair Isle

Patterns, plus their names on the roll
As transcribed on the slats of the bench,
In a copperplate hand –

All that, and the strictly tied bows,
And one right arm and one left,
Each placed to be seen round the other’s

Shoulder, as ordered.

Seamus Heaney and four of his siblings. Left to right: (front) Seamus, Ann, Sheena; (back) Patrick, Hugh circa 1950. Photograph: Heaney family

3

Reposted by Des FitzGerald

Tuatha @tuatha.ie · 16d

Monea Castle • Fermanagh

This beautifully situated castle was built in 1618 in the Scottish style for Malcolm Hamilton.

It is one of the finest Plantation-era castles in Ulster. Part of the consolidation of English & Scottish settler power following the Nine Years War

#Fermanagh #Castles

An aerial view of Monea Castle overlooking the Fermanagh landscape

A view from a corner tower towards the main part of Monea Castle. The walls of the tower in the foreground had been converted into a dovecote

1 8 39

Reposted by Des FitzGerald

Stephen Collins @stephencollins.bsky.social · 18d

Carl Benz has an idea

[Scene is a 19th century drawing room with a sign outside saying TRANSPORT INVENTORS CLUB. Inside, the German Engineer KARL BENZ is addressing a meeting of gentlemen about his new transport idea]

1
KARL BENZ:
OK guys - you’re gonna love this

2
KARL BENZ:
So it’s like, a box made of metal that goes at up to 120 miles an hour, yeah?

[Karl shows them a diagram of a car]

3
KARL BENZ:
And your drive it down one side of the road, and the boxes going the other way go on the opposite side, so we don’t need to build two roads!

4
OTHER GUY:
What’s down the middle?

KARL BENZ:
A white line.

5
OTHER GUY:
So like, a white barrier…

KARL BENZ:
No a white line. Drawn on the floor.

6
OTHER GUY:
And who’s piloting these machines?

KARL BENZ:
I was thinking: random members of the public.

7
[Pause, the other guys all look with concern at Karl]

8
OTHER GUY:
Karl are you OK

KARL BENZ:
No listen it’s fine

9
OTHER GUY:
You know we’re worried about you, don’t you?

KARL BENZ:
No really it’ll work -

10
KARL BENZ:
Once hundreds of millions of people have died and the world’s started ending because of the fumes it’ll all be normal.

11
OTHER GUY:
Is that normal like the ‘commuter travel device’ you brought in last week which was just…

12
OTHER GUY:
…an iron maiden fired from a catapult?

[The other guy displays a diagram of an iron maiden being fired from a catapult]

KARL BENZ:
THAT WOULD’VE WORKED!

[ends]

8 170 620

Reposted by Des FitzGerald

Lonely Tower Film & Media @lonelytower.bsky.social · 20d

Chuffing great day! #Railway200 #Darlington

2 3 9

Reposted by Des FitzGerald

Kirkdale Bookshop @kirkdalebooks.bsky.social · 21d

RIP

2 32 91

Reposted by Des FitzGerald

Laura Phillips @lauraphillips.bsky.social · Sep 8

#BBCRadio3 is broadcasting from a train for an entire day to mark the 200th anniversary of the modern #railway 🚂

📻 Listen to Train Tracks, live on Saturday 27 September on BBC Radio 3 and #BBCSounds

#trains #music
More 👇🏻

Radio 3 celebrates the 200th anniversary of the modern railway with an all-day broadcast from the Highland Chieftain Train from Inverness to London

Radio 3's Train Tracks includes a whole-day broadcast and five live programmes across the country

www.bbc.co.uk

2 4 5

Des FitzGerald @fitzgeralddes.bsky.social · 21d

Letter of the week - perhaps year, in today's Irish Times...

Road warning

Sir, – Many years ago I saw an elderly woman with a little white dog waiting to cross a busy Dublin street. I went up to her and politely asked could I help her get across. She glared at me and screamed “F**k off, I am well able to cross a f**king road.” – Yours, etc,

FRANK KILFEATHER,
Delgany,
Co Wicklow.

1 3

Reposted by Des FitzGerald

RHA Gallery @rha-arts.bsky.social · 22d

Listen back to yesterday's RTÉ Radio 1’s Arena, where RHA Curator Davey Moor and Conor Horgan, photographer, filmmaker and member of the Island Photographers Group, discussed A R C H I P E L A G O, a major new exhibition of Irish photography at the RHA.

📻: rte.ie/radio/radio1/clips/22546972

A R C H I P E L A G O : Through an Irish lens

RHA curator Davey Moore and photographer Conor Horgan on A R C H I P E L A G O: Through an Irish Lens, a new photography exhibition at the RHA.

rte.ie

1 2 2

Reposted by Des FitzGerald

Hedley Thorne @hedleythorne.bsky.social · 23d

Berkshire's forgotten hillfort, Perborough Castle, crowned with golden trees. #HillfortsWednesday

10 66

Des FitzGerald @fitzgeralddes.bsky.social · 23d

Welcome back 👏

Dr Bendor Grosvenor FRHistS @bendorgrosvenor.bsky.social · 23d

The world's most indispensable arts podcast is back, with a new episode out now on all your usual platforms. Another episode out tomorrow, then weekly.

A flyer for the Waldy and Bendy podcast; a cartoon drawing showing two people in headphones, sitting beside a microphone.

2

Reposted by Des FitzGerald

RHA Gallery @rha-arts.bsky.social · 23d

Tonight on RTÉ Radio 1’s Arena, RHA Curator Davey Moor and @conorhorgan.bsky.social, photographer, filmmaker and member of @islandphotogroup.bsky.social, will discuss ARCHIPELAGO, a major new exhibition at the RHA of Irish photography.

Tune in from 7pm on @rteradio1.bsky.social

3 4

Des FitzGerald @fitzgeralddes.bsky.social · 23d

The race for Irish President 🗳 is on!

3

Reposted by Des FitzGerald

Paintings of London @paintingsoflondon.bsky.social · 24d

'Concert Hall', Queen's Hall, Langham Place (1929) by Sybil Andrews

(Glenbow Museum)

4 64 290

Reposted by Des FitzGerald

The Booker Prizes @thebookerprizes.com · 24d

📣 It's Booker Prize 2025 shortlist day!!!

A reminder to join our livestream from 7:30pm BST / 2:30pm EDT / 12am IST using this link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6VO...

The Booker Prize 2025 Shortlist Announcement: Live Stream

YouTube video by Southbank Centre

www.youtube.com

10 31

Reposted by Des FitzGerald

The Thomas Hardy Society @hardysociety.bsky.social · 25d

The Thomas Hardy Society is officially on Bluesky! Follow us to learn more about #ThomasHardy - we'll be posting events, news, and more.

7 12