Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Elizabeth Boyle

@thecelticist.bsky.social

6.2K followers 3.1K following 690 posts

Historian/writer • @maynoothuniversity.ie • executive committee @mediumaevum.bsky.social • board member @dublinnorthwest.bsky.social • Fierce Appetites (Penguin, 2022) • rep'd by Robert Caskie • extreme metal fan • she/her

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Elizabeth Boyle @thecelticist.bsky.social · 1d

Papers from the @ria.ie @ceilteachomn.bsky.social @scs-dias.bsky.social conference on the Book of Lecan, which took place last week, are now available to listen to on SoundCloud. Enjoy!
#MedievalSky
#SpéirGhorm

www.ria.ie/audio/the-bo...

The Book of Lecan Conference - Royal Irish Academy

During this two-day event in October 2025, speakers explored the production of the Book of Lecan or Leabhar Mór Lecain, its scribes and patrons, and the texts contained within the manuscript.

www.ria.ie

17 29

Elizabeth Boyle @thecelticist.bsky.social · 13h

"It is a show that considers the missing chapters and histories in the archives, and how they might be brought into being ..."

www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...

Enslavement, immolation and a HIV diagnosis: the artists expressing harsh truths with collage

From queer relationships and migration to AI and colonial histories, a huge range of artists have spliced together photography and archive material to create images that challenge history as we know i...

www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Elizabeth Boyle

Francesca Tinti @francescatinti.bsky.social · 1d

A new Early Medieval Europe virtual issue on Travel and Mobility in the Early Middle Ages, featuring five brilliant articles published over the past 20 years by Andy Merrills, Paul Dutton, Frank Riess, Ben Allport and Rebecca Thomas: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/toc/10.1...

Beyond migrations: travel and mobility in the early Middle Ages: Early Medieval Europe

Early Medieval Europe is an interdisciplinary medieval studies journal covering European history from the fall of the Roman Empire up until the 11th century.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

1 12 21

Elizabeth Boyle @thecelticist.bsky.social · 18h

Just arrived. The posthumously published book of my late colleague, Dr Colmán Etchingham. Thanks to everyone who saw it through to publication. We plan to hold an event in Maynooth to mark its publication (details to follow). Available to order here: boydellandbrewer.com/book/vikings...
#MedievalSky

A copy of Colmán Etchingham, Vikings in Early Medieval Ireland: Church-raiding, Politics and Kingship (Boydell and Brewer, 2025).

1 25 88

Elizabeth Boyle @thecelticist.bsky.social · 21h

Medieval History job at DCU.

#MedievalSky
#Spéirghorm

Prof. Elaine Chalus @profelainechalus.bsky.social · 2d

Assistant Professor in Irish and/or European Medieval History
Dublin City University - School of History & Geography #skystorians 🗃️www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DOY744/a...

Assistant Professor in Irish and/or European Medieval History at Dublin City University

Discover an exciting academic career path as a Assistant Professor in Irish and/or European Medieval History at jobs.ac.uk. Don't miss out on this job opportunity - apply today!

www.jobs.ac.uk

4 6

Reposted by Elizabeth Boyle

John Sabapathy @jwwsabapathy.bsky.social · 1d

Chapeau to @pseudo-isidore.bsky.social for his wonderful new book which has just arrived, an amazingly global and ecumenical volume, in all senses! Beautifully produced by OUP (and before publication day!?).

A spur to others!

Front cover of Charles West's Europe in the Eleventh Century

1 16 44

Elizabeth Boyle @thecelticist.bsky.social · 1d

The Book of Lecan Conference - Royal Irish Academy

During this two-day event in October 2025, speakers explored the production of the Book of Lecan or Leabhar Mór Lecain, its scribes and patrons, and the texts contained within the manuscript.

www.ria.ie

17 29

Elizabeth Boyle @thecelticist.bsky.social · 2d

Hmmm. I'm hoping to get over to see it during my Christmas break. Definitely not a rave review. 🫤

Elizabeth Boyle @thecelticist.bsky.social · 2d

'... you won’t find stolen Benin bronzes here, or any other plundered art. “It was important to start where that narrative leaves off ... These are the artists who emerge on the other side of that violence, grappling with a loss of tradition and trying to relocate forms and techniques.”'

‘This is a west African story’: how modern art tackled Nigeria’s identity crisis

As the landmark Nigerian Modernism exhibition opens at the Tate, curator Osei Bonsu talks about the art in dialogue with ideas of nation-making

www.theguardian.com

1 4

Elizabeth Boyle @thecelticist.bsky.social · 2d

Reminds me of this excellent sign that I saw at the Tubman African American Museum in Macon, Georgia.

Piano, which once belonged to Little Richard, with a sign on it saying "Do not attempt to play Little Richard's piano. He will know."

7 200 780

Elizabeth Boyle @thecelticist.bsky.social · 2d

"When you get down to it, rejection can do you a favour. It forces you to face objective reality. You find out, perhaps contrary to your longstanding expectations, that an entire universe exists outside your own head and the opinions of others might matter as much as yours."

‘Stay true to yourself – and fly closer to the sun’: what I’ve learned from 50 years of rejection

As a writer, I have been rejected thousands of times, and it initially led to shock, denial and anger. Then I accepted it. Here’s what you can gain from doing so too

www.theguardian.com

1 5

Reposted by Elizabeth Boyle

Richard Chambers @newschambers.bsky.social · 5d

Breaking: Jim Gavin withdraws from Presidential Election.

2 29 85

Elizabeth Boyle @thecelticist.bsky.social · 5d

"... the French state’s brutal stifling of dissent had politicised a generation. ... French rock musicians were against what they considered fascist police-state apparatus ... They were looking for new inspirations, free of American whitewashed pulp. They found it in black American jazz."

Street battles, invented languages and gigs in psychiatric hospitals: France’s lost rock revolution of 1968

Bands such as Magma and Art Zoyd provided a soundtrack for the student protests that shook the country. Little remembered now, a new book reveals their decisive influence on later successes such as Ai...

www.theguardian.com

Elizabeth Boyle @thecelticist.bsky.social · 5d

'Doppelgängers stalk her pages, where women are often polished off quickly and unsentimentally; consider the immortal lines “it’s a whydunnit in q-sharp major” (“The Driver’s Seat,” 1970) and, from “The Portobello Road,” in the ... 1950s: “He looked as though he would murder me and he did.”'

Into the Dark Heart of a Novelist Who Was ‘Something of a Witch’

www.nytimes.com

1 6

Reposted by Elizabeth Boyle

RTÉ Brainstorm @rtebrainstorm.bsky.social · 9d

Most read on #RTEBrainstorm: how the mantle cloak set fashion trends in Medieval Ireland and made the notion of 'Irishness' visible and distinct in Europe. By
@maireadfinnegan.bsky.social @maynoothuniversity.ie www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2...

How the mantle cloak set fashion trends in Medieval Ireland

A highly valued item of durable clothing at home, the cloak was what made the notion of 'Irishness' visible and distinct in Europe

www.rte.ie

2 1 8

Reposted by Elizabeth Boyle

Royal Irish Academy @ria.ie · 7d

We had a great turn out for our Book of Lecan conference, hosted in the RIA Library and organised in partnership with Maynooth University and Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. Pictured are two speakers, Alex Woolf and Seán Ó Hoireabhárd, with the Book of Lecan (RIA MS 23 P 2)

1 5 28

Elizabeth Boyle @thecelticist.bsky.social · 6d

Thank you to everyone who participated in the excellent @ria.ie conference on the Book of Lecan. It was a fantastic couple of days. The talks were recorded and will appear on SoundCloud soon!
@scs-dias.bsky.social @ceilteachomn.bsky.social 📚

The speakers at the Royal Irish Academy conference on the Book of Lecan, standing on the stairs at the RIA. I'm at the front on the right.

4 24

Reposted by Elizabeth Boyle

Aonghus Ó hAlmhain @aonghusoha.bsky.social · 7d

open.spotify.com/episode/1DTU...

Agallamh na hollúna @niamhwycherley.bsky.social agus @thecelticist.bsky.social faoi filíocht agus filí na meánaoiseanna

Poets and Poetry with Dr Elizabeth Boyle

open.spotify.com

2 5

Reposted by Elizabeth Boyle

Niamh Wycherley @niamhwycherley.bsky.social · 7d

What does it say about a society that valued poets so highly? Find out in The Medieval Irish History Podcast — back for a 3rd series! We are kicking off again with the inimitable @thecelticist.bsky.social @ceilteachomn.bsky.social @tiagoovsilva.bsky.social open.spotify.com/episode/1DTU... 1/2

Poets and Poetry with Dr Elizabeth Boyle

open.spotify.com

1 26 67

Elizabeth Boyle @thecelticist.bsky.social · 9d

"a phenomenon often observed in the study of the far-right online ecosystem ... is the seepage of extreme right discourse into more mainstream spaces. Neo-Nazi groups use memes, shitposting and humour as a deliberate strategy to seed increasingly extreme ideas into groups amenable to their message."

‘See you in Valhalla’: how the FBI director waded into the far-right’s obsession with the Vikings

Was the FBI chief sending a message to white supremacists? It’s more likely Patel’s Valhalla reference was a clumsy attempt to call Kirk a hero.

theconversation.com

1 5

Reposted by Elizabeth Boyle

National Museum of Ireland @nmireland.bsky.social · 12d

Families Join us for an Open Day: Words on the Wave – Ireland & St. Gallen exhibition
🗓️ Sat 4 Oct | 11.00–16.00
📍 NMI, Kildare St
Talks: Maeve Sikora (11:30), Dr Ó Riain (12:30), Prof Ó Cróinín (14:30)
Take part in free Workshops & handle replica artefacts
🎟️ Free admission
museum.ie/en-IE/Museum...

An Incipit (opening letter) with two birds from the St. Gallen manuscript Priscian Institutiones Grammaticae, Cod. Sang 904, p. 25. © Stiftsbibliothek St Gallen.

28 52

Reposted by Elizabeth Boyle

David Stifter 🍵📄🦊 @davidstifter.bsky.social · 10d

My contribution to Maths Weeks 2025 (www.mathsweek.ie/2025/), I will part of a panel speaking on "Matamaitic as Gaeilge" at Uni Galway, 12 October. My talk will be on "How to conceptualise numbers in Old Irish".

8 7

Elizabeth Boyle @thecelticist.bsky.social · 10d

"For a while, he set up a communications centre in a local cafe, where Vava‘u’s residents could come to dictate their messages to Neymen, as if he were the designated letter-writer in a medieval village, and thus reach their relatives overseas."

www.theguardian.com/news/2025/se...

Extremely offline: what happened when a Pacific island was cut off from the internet | Samanth Subramanian

A colossal volcanic eruption in January 2022 ripped apart the underwater cables that connect Tonga to the world – and exposed the fragility of 21st-century life

www.theguardian.com

Elizabeth Boyle @thecelticist.bsky.social · 11d

Fantastic piece on a fascinating aspect of early Irish law, by my former PhD student and @ceilteachomn.bsky.social graduate, Dr Viktoriia Krivoshchekova, who is now a postdoc at @scs-dias.bsky.social

#MedievalSky

www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2...

How to get away with murder in medieval Ireland

Duinetháide murders, where the killer didn't leave a trace or a body, carry all the intrigue of a classic murder mystery

www.rte.ie

17 44

Reposted by Elizabeth Boyle

Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 22d

Very much enjoying the culture of trust and respect implicit in the installation of room usage monitoring devices on academics' office doors today. Imagine my shock on discovering that managers' doors remain unsullied…

A SmartViz monitoring device installed at a university.

61 74 230

Elizabeth Boyle @thecelticist.bsky.social · 11d

Essay on Daphne du Maurier by @stephenking.bsky.social in today's @theguardian.com 📚 #BookSky

www.theguardian.com/books/2025/s...

‘She wrote the best first line – and the most chilling stories’: Stephen King on the dark brilliance of Daphne du Maurier

From Rebecca to The Birds and scores of creepy short stories, Du Maurier was queen of the uncanny, writes the US horror maestro

www.theguardian.com

18 48