Dr. Owen O'Shea
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owenoshea.bsky.social
Dr. Owen O'Shea
@owenoshea.bsky.social
History, politics, books and coffee, in no particular order. PhD from UCD on post-Civil War politics in Kerry. New books coming in 2025. Author, historian, researcher. More at www.owenoshea.ie
On this day in 1919 #OTD

There was just one of the four #Kerry MPs/TDs present at the first ever session of Dáil Éireann

Piaras Béaslaí had the honour of reading the Democratic Programme of the Dàil which had been drafted by Labour leader Tom Johnson

owenoshea.ie/the-only-ker...
The only Kerry TD at the first meeting of Dáil Éireann
At 3.30 on the afternoon of 21 January 1919 a group of twenty-seven men gathered in the Round Room of the Mansion House in Dublin. Just a month previously, each of them had been elected to the British...
owenoshea.ie
January 21, 2026 at 6:41 PM
Congratulations to my friend, mentor and my former lecturer at UCD, Professor Muiris Bric on his election last night as President of the Kerry Archaeological and Historical Society at our AGM at Tralee Library.

Muiris brings tremendous experience to the role.

Beir bua, Muiris!
January 21, 2026 at 11:24 AM
Reposted by Dr. Owen O'Shea
Fairly sure it’s unintentional, but the end date on this mug being sold by the Smithsonian does make it sound a little like they’re saying America dies in 2026…
January 19, 2026 at 9:04 PM
Reposted by Dr. Owen O'Shea
this is what it has come to for Mexican restaurants in the Twin Cities
January 19, 2026 at 2:12 AM
Reposted by Dr. Owen O'Shea
Give him Rockall and tell him it is Greenland.
January 17, 2026 at 5:08 PM
Pleased to share a sneak preview of my exhibition on the early years of Fianna Fáil in Kerry.

The party marks its centenary this year and my focus is on the origins of the party in Kerry from 1926 to 1933.

Runs at Kerry Library during February and March. Dates to be announced soon!

@ria.ie
January 15, 2026 at 7:59 PM
Reposted by Dr. Owen O'Shea
New to #Bluesky? Here's a starter pack for Bricks & Mortar Bookshops on the Island of Ireland
#BookSky
go.bsky.app/G4kmxVq
January 11, 2026 at 1:25 PM
Reposted by Dr. Owen O'Shea
This is Minneapolis:

-drop the kids off for a day with their grandparents
-go to brunch with your wife
-get a text from neighbors who don’t have enough food & can’t leave home or they might be abducted by fed govt
-get groceries as helicopters roar overhead
-deliver food & this vehicle passes you
January 10, 2026 at 8:20 PM
Reposted by Dr. Owen O'Shea
Every news outlet that broadcasts Trump officials telling barefaced lies about the ICE killing in Minneapolis should display the video of the shooting on a continuous loop concurrently with the officials’ claims.
January 9, 2026 at 8:24 PM
Reposted by Dr. Owen O'Shea
I think it is probably a bad idea to put clearly unhinged, angry psychopaths in federal law enforcement positions.
January 9, 2026 at 2:15 PM
Reposted by Dr. Owen O'Shea
Frey: "This notion of inflammatory comments -- c'mon guys. I dropped an F bomb, they killed someone. Which one of those is more inflammatory? I'm going with the killing somebody."
January 9, 2026 at 3:49 PM
Reposted by Dr. Owen O'Shea
1950-something
January 8, 2026 at 11:29 PM
Reposted by Dr. Owen O'Shea
important message to all bluesky users
January 7, 2026 at 7:53 PM
Reposted by Dr. Owen O'Shea
Every hour between Monday and Tuesday, Twitter generated 6,700 sexual deepfake images.

Experts say it has become the biggest online factory of such material in the world.

This was a trend once on the darkest corners of the web - now pushed by a billionaire into the mainstream.
The AI Minister Niamh Smyth is seeking an urgent meeting with bosses of X over its Grok feature, which can generate sexualised deepfake images. She says the function is “disturbing and deeply worrying”

#VMNews
January 7, 2026 at 7:11 PM
Finalising material for my forthcoming exhibition on the early years of Fianna Fáil in Kerry to mark the centenary of the party's foundation in 1926

Supported by the @ria.ie Commemorations Bursary Scheme

Full details coming soon

#FiannaFail #centenary

#history #politics
January 7, 2026 at 10:23 PM
Reposted by Dr. Owen O'Shea
Breaking: Women's Aid Ireland will no longer maintain a presence on X from tomorrow.

@womensaidireland.bsky.social
January 7, 2026 at 5:53 PM
Reposted by Dr. Owen O'Shea
Mayor Jacob Frey: “To ICE, get the fuck out of Minneapolis.”
January 7, 2026 at 6:43 PM
Fr Quill’s coffin, clearly still intact after a year in the clay of Lixnaw, was ‘placed in a common cart’ at two o’clock in the morning and ‘the melancholy contingent’ of gravediggers made their way back home via the ‘Short Mountain’ road between Tralee and Castlemaine.

owenoshea.ie/body-snatche...
‘Body snatchers’: the Kerry priest who was buried four times
Fr John Quill was the parish priest of Milltown from 1825 to 1841. A native of Listowel, he had studied for the priesthood at Maynooth and was ordained to the priesthood in 1819. He was clearly a very...
owenoshea.ie
January 6, 2026 at 7:23 PM
The "Mussolini of Ballymacelligott" and some of the other tales of violence during election campaigns in Kerry in the 1920s

A short extract from my book on politics and electioneering in the years after the Civil War in Kerry

Available now from @ucdpress.bsky.social

owenoshea.ie/the-mussolin...
'The Mussolini of Ballymacelligott': violence during election campaigns in Kerry in the 1920s
The Civil War in Kerry was more bitter, divisive and prolonged than most of the rest of the country. It was inevitable, therefore, that those divisions would come to a head during election campaigns a...
owenoshea.ie
January 4, 2026 at 1:51 PM
Reposted by Dr. Owen O'Shea
With this regime anything is possible…
January 4, 2026 at 5:40 AM
Reposted by Dr. Owen O'Shea
NEW: People are using Elon Musk's chatbot, Grok, to alter images to depict real women being sexually abused, humiliated, hurt, and even killed.

futurism.com/future-socie...
Grok Is Being Used to Depict Horrific Violence Against Real Women
People are asking Elon Musk's Grok chatbot to alter images to depict women being sexually abused, humiliated, and even killed.
futurism.com
January 2, 2026 at 5:52 PM
The Kerry priest who was buried four times

The remarkable story of Fr John Quill, parish priest of Milltown, County Kerry who was buried four different times between 1842 and 1913

owenoshea.ie/body-snatche...
‘Body snatchers’: the Kerry priest who was buried four times
Fr John Quill was the parish priest of Milltown from 1825 to 1841. A native of Listowel, he had studied for the priesthood at Maynooth and was ordained to the priesthood in 1819. He was clearly a very...
owenoshea.ie
December 27, 2025 at 2:38 PM
Gerard Lynch, Listowel, who has died aged 94, was the oldest surviving former TD for Kerry

A native of Listowel, he served as a Fine Gael TD for Kerry North 1969-77.

His father John Lynch was Fine Gael TD for the constituency between 1951 and 1954.

May he rest in peace 🙏
December 21, 2025 at 7:20 PM
Looking for a Christmas gift for the history lover in your life?

The three books I've authored or edited during 2025 are now available in all good bookshops

See www.owenoshea.ie

#books #Christmas 📚 🎄
December 16, 2025 at 9:21 PM