In today's research I have been reading about a very famous incident in Ireland in 1414 when an Irish poet allegedly killed the English king's representative in Ireland.

Same old, same old you might think...

But, it's the way he killed him that is notable👇 The story is recorded in the Annals of the Four Masters under the year 1414. It centres on John Stanley, Deputy of the King of England in Ireland.

It’s happening again…

Every year around 1 February, Ireland has the same argument:
Was Brigid a saint, a goddess, or both?
Many seem to favour the view that she was once a pagan goddess whose attributes the church used but that is much less convincing than it sounds.
> Mindful that even the existence of a woman that long ago is hard to prove our earliest sources for Brigid of Kildare are Christian texts. Late and stylised, yes but they describe a powerful Christian holy woman. None of them say she was once a goddess.
>

It is #InternationalDogDay, and I love dogs so let’s have a look at dogs in medieval Ireland. Dogs weren’t just pets then —they were enshrined in law& legend. They were status symbols & even place-names. From lap-dogs to war hounds, their pawprints are everywhere. A thread Early medieval Irish law had a whole tract called Conslechta (“Dog-sections”). Though only fragments survive, it shows how carefully society regulated dogs: their value, their offences, and fines for harming them.

In 1518 the Archduke Ferdinand of Habsburg found himself and his fleet unexpectedly in Ireland, thanks to stormy weather. While there, one of his aides, a young man named Laurent Vital (age 16) wrote an account of their time there. It is extraordinary for many reasons > One of which is that it is a dispassionate account of early sixteenth century Ireland and the people he saw there. We gets lots of info about their dress and some habits. The most amazing bit though >

We are TIRED of this. We have literally had negative stereotyping of the Irish (by certain English) for ALMOST A THOUSAND YEARS NOW.
Thread (from a pissed off historian)

https://twitter.com/siobhni/status/1646803748830736385

‘This race is inconstant, changeable, wily, and cunning.’
Gerald of Wales in the twelfth century (admittedly more Welsh but still part of a colonising force)

Reading about how a future king of Tara was expected to be able to “rub his wheel against the stone penis of the Lía Fál”

Wheel of his chariot that is

Here’s a pic of the Lía Fál at Tara which probably isn’t the Lía Fál but that’s a whole other issue The Lía Fál (called the Stone of Destiny, no less) is said to have been brought to Ireland by the Tuatha de Danaan - one of 4 magical objects which they brought with them from 4 cities they had lived in.

Ah good morning Twitter. I’m currently reading an article on “Sleep related erections through the ages” (yes really) and thought I’d share a bit as it’s...well, you can make your own judgements > Plato excused penile wilfulness because “in males the nature of the genital organs is disobedient and self-willed, like a creature that is deaf to reason, and it attempts to dominate all because of its frenzied lists”

I wonder what he called his little, crazy friend? >

I have come across a series of interpretations of famous figures as they would look today.
Here’s Julius Caesar looking like he enjoys a flat white and works as a senior manager in Google Anne Boleyn, annoyed at having to actually even look at you if you’re not a Protestant. Also...where’s my fucking Uber energy is big here

#Solstice baby There are cloaks everywhere and one man has come as a pirate which is awesome

So because all the stuff about Samhain being touted about across the airwaves etc is basically a pile of rubbish...
Let’s go back to basics shall we and start calling the day what it should be called...The Feast of Mongfind.
Who? Well...
According to c11th C The Death of Crimthann, Mongfind was a powerful witch Queen who is said to have died at Samhain.
Of what?

I’m standing outside Salisbury Cathedral and there’s a man bullshitting a woman about medieval history.

He’s literally using the few bits of knowledge he has to try and get laid.

I am staring at her and rolling my eyes like a mad woman👍

She looks bored stiff,I have hope He’s just said that the Magna Carta was signed “here at this Cathedral”

My
Face
Is
A
Picture

RUN AWAY FROM HIM NICE LADY

Ugh now he’s pointing out ‘architecture’