Matthew Kelly
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matthewjkelly.bsky.social
Matthew Kelly
@matthewjkelly.bsky.social
3K followers 850 following 260 posts

Historian of Britain & Ireland at Northumbria University. Beginning new work on the history of ornithology in twentieth-century Britain.

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Political science 33%
Sociology 31%
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matthewjkelly.bsky.social
Matthew Kelly @matthewjkelly.bsky.social · Dec 23
We can all identify with this harassed fella. ‘The Minor Official’ from George Birmingham’s ‘Irishmen All’ (1913). Illustration by Jack B. Yeats.

matthewjkelly.bsky.social
Matthew Kelly @matthewjkelly.bsky.social · 6h
Ahem. I do. Probably about one set a year. I find settling down to it, following the instructions, using my hands, therapeutic, mindful I suppose, offsetting stress of work.There‘s a formal beauty to the adult sets, seeing how they come together. I don’t have kids, that might be a factor.

matthewjkelly.bsky.social
Matthew Kelly @matthewjkelly.bsky.social · 23h
Look at the bone structure, the brow…

Gosh, the Daly papers. Looked at those for my PhD research. I thought the picture looked familiar.

matthewjkelly.bsky.social
Matthew Kelly @matthewjkelly.bsky.social · 1d
Cd the guy on the right be John MacBride?
a rabbit hole logo with a bitcoin mango logo behind it
ALT: a rabbit hole logo with a bitcoin mango logo behind it
media.tenor.com

matthewjkelly.bsky.social
Matthew Kelly @matthewjkelly.bsky.social · 1d
Owen McGee’s entries in the Dictionary of Irish Biography cover this crowd, but without portraits, alas. For example, Fred Allan might be in this group.

matthewjkelly.bsky.social
Matthew Kelly @matthewjkelly.bsky.social · 1d
Ah. Guess you’ve seen his entry in the DIB?

matthewjkelly.bsky.social
Matthew Kelly @matthewjkelly.bsky.social · 1d
Who do you think is on the left?

matthewjkelly.bsky.social
Matthew Kelly @matthewjkelly.bsky.social · 1d
I assume it has had its topographers & natural historians, plus birders & anglers putting pen to paper?

matthewjkelly.bsky.social
Matthew Kelly @matthewjkelly.bsky.social · 1d
It is singularly important, like no other individual site is across the islands. Had a squint at googlemaps. Striking that there’s a margin of woodland or unimproved grassland around much of the lake. Is there public access - can it be circumnavigated on foot? An environmental history to be written!

matthewjkelly.bsky.social
Matthew Kelly @matthewjkelly.bsky.social · 1d
Pioneering dissection of how environmental politics can play out in post-conflict societies, in this case Northern Ireland and the Lough Neagh crisis in the context of competing ‘ethno-nationalist … segmented’ electoral blocks.

@marcmulholland.bsky.social.

Reposted by Matthew Kelly

lpcooley.bsky.social
Laurence Cooley @lpcooley.bsky.social · 2d
This article is now out in @bjpir.bsky.social! In it, we explain why government action to tackle the ecological crisis at Lough Neagh has lagged behind the apparent rhetorical consensus about its importance. Has Muir been set up to fail? #LoughNeagh #openaccess journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
The environment as a second policy dimension in a deeply divided society: The politics of Northern Ireland’s Lough Neagh crisis - Timofey Agarin, Laurence Cooley, Elliott Hill, 2025
Environmental concerns are often marginalised in post-conflict societies. Especially under power-sharing, political parties tend to prioritise their ethno-natio...
journals.sagepub.com

matthewjkelly.bsky.social
Matthew Kelly @matthewjkelly.bsky.social · 5d
RIP Mani

youtu.be/4PBU_N5x4ls?...
Stone Roses - Waterfall 2013 Made of Stone HD
YouTube video by ManicStreet69
youtu.be

matthewjkelly.bsky.social
Matthew Kelly @matthewjkelly.bsky.social · 5d
A not-at-all random response, but I went to St Augustine’s in Belvedere. Some years ago. Strange little memory jolt!

Reposted by Matthew Kelly

ianwaites.bsky.social
Ian Waites @ianwaites.bsky.social · 6d
Coming soon!

matthewjkelly.bsky.social
Matthew Kelly @matthewjkelly.bsky.social · 6d
The Bedford Hotel is the proper place to mark significant moments in the history of my maternal family. I think this has now passed, alas.

matthewjkelly.bsky.social
Matthew Kelly @matthewjkelly.bsky.social · 7d
Easy to overdo the historical comparison, but pope as a national figure & counterweight to political regime recalls JP II and Poland under communism.
christopherjhale.bsky.social Christopher Hale @christopherjhale.bsky.social · 7d
In new remarks, Pope Leo XIV denounced the Trump-Vance immigration raids as a moral failure, warning of “violence” against longtime residents living peaceful lives.

Reposted by Matthew Kelly

christopherjhale.bsky.social
Christopher Hale @christopherjhale.bsky.social · 7d
In new remarks, Pope Leo XIV denounced the Trump-Vance immigration raids as a moral failure, warning of “violence” against longtime residents living peaceful lives.

matthewjkelly.bsky.social
Matthew Kelly @matthewjkelly.bsky.social · 7d
You’re welcome! Also, I’ve looked at POW held at the Dartmoor depot in my Quartz & Feldspar (2015/6), which might also provide some helpful context. Great subject. Lots to do.

matthewjkelly.bsky.social
Matthew Kelly @matthewjkelly.bsky.social · 7d
Guessing you know Renaud Morieux’s The Society of Prisoners: Anglo-French Wars and Incarceration in the Eighteenth Century (Oxford University Press, Past & Present Series, 2019)?

Reposted by Matthew Kelly

longbarrowpress.bsky.social
Longbarrow Press @longbarrowpress.bsky.social · 8d
"I thought of how, as a child, I’d used pylons to calculate distance & time, and how they seemed to anchor space. I thought of how the turbines resisted this, how unmeasurable they seemed, in a nightscape with few visual referents."

'Landscapes of Power'
longbarrowpress.substack.com/p/landscapes...
Chimney at Didcot Power Station, photographed by Martyn J Bull.

matthewjkelly.bsky.social
Matthew Kelly @matthewjkelly.bsky.social · 14d
I deleted for I saw you‘d already answered this.

matthewjkelly.bsky.social
Matthew Kelly @matthewjkelly.bsky.social · 15d
Yes, point taken. Some of Orwell‘s behaviour goes beyond what patriarchy nominally permits. I think Funder allows the reader to see that, but doesn‘t assert a hard border between the two, for part of patriarchy’s power—arguably—lies in that uncertainty.

matthewjkelly.bsky.social
Matthew Kelly @matthewjkelly.bsky.social · 15d
Correction: In some ways, Funder’s engagement with Orwell’s biographers, whom she treats respectfully throughout, is the most important part of the book. She shows how their resort to the passive voice, evasive language, and wishful thinking obscure both Eileen‘s labour & Orwell’s sexual behaviour.

matthewjkelly.bsky.social
Matthew Kelly @matthewjkelly.bsky.social · 15d
Finally, Eileen‘s last letters to Orwell are truly upsetting. By and large, Funder allows them to speak for themselves, and they do. Men should read this book.

matthewjkelly.bsky.social
Matthew Kelly @matthewjkelly.bsky.social · 15d
Wifedom should make us read biographies differently, more sensitive especially to the representation of women, and especially wives.

matthewjkelly.bsky.social
Matthew Kelly @matthewjkelly.bsky.social · 15d
First, the central role played by Eileen’s labour, both paid and domestic which made Orwell’s work possible. Second, sanitising his sexual behaviour, especially their uncritical acceptance of his account of Eileen’s point of view, such as her supposed acceptance of an open marriage.

matthewjkelly.bsky.social
Matthew Kelly @matthewjkelly.bsky.social · 15d
In some ways, Funder’s engagement with Orwell’s biographers, whom she treats respectfully throughout, is the most important part of the book. She shows how their resort to the passive voice, evasive language, and wishful thinking demonstrate two things.

matthewjkelly.bsky.social
Matthew Kelly @matthewjkelly.bsky.social · 15d
Her agency is systematically written out of Homage, Orwell repeatedly resorting to the passive voice to account for crucial and—to repeat—courageous role she played.

matthewjkelly.bsky.social
Matthew Kelly @matthewjkelly.bsky.social · 15d
In a set of virtuoso chapters about Eileen’s role in the Spanish Civil War, Funder exposes Orwell’s erasure of her activism, bravery, & centrality to the experiences he describes in Homage to Catalonia. Now hard to imagine a meaningful reading of Homage that doesn’t take account of Funder.