Prof Laura McAtackney @LMcAtackney Twitter profile | Pikagi

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Prof Laura McAtackney

@LMcAtackney

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Radical Humanities Lab / Archaeology, UCCork (Ire) & Heritage, Aarhus U (Dk) | Researches conflict, colonialism & institutions | she/her | Tweets own

Cork, IE & Aarhus, DK

https://t.co/k8d73uA18t

Joined January 2013

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@LMcAtackney

Prof Laura McAtackney

6 months

The only time i’ve been to Israel / Palestine was in 2013 to attend a conference on the Israeli wall building program. I was invited as someone who studied walls elsewhere - peace walls in Belfast - and my institute at UCD funded my attendance. It was a life altering experience.

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@LMcAtackney

Prof Laura McAtackney

6 months

My solidarity with Palestinians is authentic and based in experience as well as scholarly research. It has shaped my understandings of the nuances of colonialism and endurance of coloniality. It’s also not something I will debate as a theoretical, academic exercise.

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@LMcAtackney

Prof Laura McAtackney

6 months

Those who deny the structural oppressions experienced by Palestinians on an every day basis - to focus solely on spectacular events - deny the context and real world ramifications of coloniality. They facilitate the dehumanization of Palestinians; it’s unconscionable.

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@LMcAtackney

Prof Laura McAtackney

6 months

All this is to say, since then I have always stood with my oppressed Palestinian brothers and sisters. I do not know how anyone could experience that place and not see the long-term, structural oppressions alongside the everyday cruelty of the military forces.

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@LMcAtackney

Prof Laura McAtackney

6 months

I distinctly remember a young woman architect giving an inspirational talk about architectures of the sky, referencing the only places they were free: in the air; their imaginations; the potential future. I wondered how people could persist through such oppressive conditions?

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@LMcAtackney

Prof Laura McAtackney

6 months

Whereas I, a light skinned and blonde haired woman, was waved through barricades as someone who was deemed not-Palestinian. The open, everyday racism of the experience was stark. It was also 10 years ago, things have got much worse, but it confirmed this unjust oppression.

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@LMcAtackney

Prof Laura McAtackney

6 months

The concept of the conference was ‘sumud’, which roughly translates as resilience. The need for this level of resilience to merely exist was humbling. Our colleagues in Gaza could not leave their open-air prison and they had to appear remotely to talk about their experiences.

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@LMcAtackney

Prof Laura McAtackney

6 months

Over a number of days we heard from academics and activists about the experiences of everyday Palestinians. We visited sites and saw what wall building was doing on an experiential level. 1 house had the wall built around 3 sides and the occupants were harassed on a daily basis.

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@LMcAtackney

Prof Laura McAtackney

6 months

At every turn we were met with generosity, hospitality, and sumud. By people who were by this stage used to oppression, denial of their right to exist in their ancestral lands, and ongoing creeping spaciocide. My own experiences after the conference confirmed their experiences.

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@LMcAtackney

Prof Laura McAtackney

6 months

I had to delete any material related to the conference from my laptop, have a different explanation as to my travel to Israel and navigate high security categorization on my journey (that still dogs my traveling today). But i made it to Bethlehem for an eye opening experience.

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@LMcAtackney

Prof Laura McAtackney

6 months

The conference was organized by colleagues at Bethlehem University and a Dutch NGO in the West Bank at a time when the walls were dividing Palestinians from their land and harassing those standing in their way. We knew the Israelis authorities would not allow our attendance.

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@LMcAtackney

Prof Laura McAtackney

6 months

So many anecdotes from that trip but one i strongly remember was having to navigate the military complex that controlled movement between Jerusalem and Bethlehem (5km apart). Rows of silent dark haired / skinned men made to wait until Israeli soldiers decided to let them through.

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@LMcAtackney

Prof Laura McAtackney

3 years

Amazing how the British left - some of whom tweet non-stop about colonialism and its legacies - have * no words * about their government imposing an amnesty on all conflict-related deaths in NI, which effectively stops any proper investigations of state-sponsored murder in NI.

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@LMcAtackney

Prof Laura McAtackney

3 years

John Patrick Cunningham was a 27 year old with the mental age of a 6-10 year old. He had a fear of men in uniform. He was shot in the back fleeing from 10 soldiers who stopped him in a lane on his way home. His death was not properly investigated in 1974, it should be now.

@JohnnyMercerUK

Rt Hon Johnny Mercer

@JohnnyMercerUK

3 years

Heading to Belfast tomorrow with Dennis - he is dying, and would have been travelling alone. I’ve realised whatever Prime Ministers and Cabinet Ministers say for the crowds, no-one really gives a shit. Read his experiences, and you’ll understand why.

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@LMcAtackney

Prof Laura McAtackney

2 years

I will never not tear up when the Guard at passport control @DublinAirport hands your passport back with, ‘Welcome home, Laura’. ❤️ Mind you, the woman before me told him it was her 1st time home since 2019 and she had kissed the runway. Felt v dull in comparison 😂

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@LMcAtackney

Prof Laura McAtackney

2 years

There is something very triggering about NI twitter for the last few days, with the open accusations of ‘nationalists’ (Catholics) ‘infiltrating’ respectable professions and daring not to hide who they are. It all feels a bit 1950s.

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@LMcAtackney

Prof Laura McAtackney

10 months

It is hard to articulate just how bad this tweet/thread is by a sitting UK PM. It represents an attack on academic freedom that cynically scapegoats universities over graduate prospects when ‘poor pay and high debts’ reflects the societal context they have created. Grim.

@10DowningStreet

UK Prime Minister

@10DowningStreet

10 months

One in five graduates would be better off if they hadn’t gone to university. That’s unacceptable. So @RishiSunak is cracking down on rip-off university degrees and boosting skills-based learning. Here’s how👇

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@LMcAtackney

Prof Laura McAtackney

7 months

For anyone who wants to know more about what is happening in Gaza but has only the usual biased ‘western’ news sources, worse than useless, it’s worth checking out al jazeera’s coverage. As always, solidarity with the oppressed Palestinian people.

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Why the Palestinian group Hamas launched an attack on Israel? All to know

Hundreds killed as Israel bombards Gaza after Hamas launched surprise attack by land, air and sea.

www.aljazeera.com

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@LMcAtackney

Prof Laura McAtackney

3 years

Touched down in Dublin after nearly a year of no travel (anywhere but especially home) and bless the passport control guy for a bit of banter and a ‘Welcome home’. If he hasn’t been safely behind plexiglass i’d have hugged him to death ❤️ ☘️ 😭

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@LMcAtackney

Prof Laura McAtackney

3 years

Not going to directly reference the latest commemoration controversy but rather the underlying issues that are frequently sidelined in these cyclical discussions. Firstly, commemoration is always a political act. What event, who organizes, attends, how it’s framed. Political.

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@LMcAtackney

Prof Laura McAtackney

1 year

Thank you to the Times for providing this Punch throwback and thereby great material for illustrating the lingering nature of colonialism, it’s perspectives and (usually) subtly enduring sense of superiority. Truly fascinating, if demented, stuff.

@BrookesTimes

Peter Brookes

1 year

My cartoon Thursday @TheTimes . Where the emphasis of Blarney Biden’s visit lies. ` #JoeBiden #Ireland

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@LMcAtackney

Prof Laura McAtackney

3 years

It’s still kind of shocking how openly and easily Tories can dismiss Northern Irish lives. How they can reduce an unarmed man - John Patrick Cunningham - with learning difficulties who was shot in the back to ‘something that happened’ so that the perpetrator becomes the victim.

@JohnnyMercerUK

Rt Hon Johnny Mercer

@JohnnyMercerUK

3 years

It was Dennis Hutchings 80th birthday yesterday, and he chose to spend it at a rally in Westminster. He is due to stand trial in September for something that happened 46 years ago in Northern Ireland. Everyone else present at the time is now dead. At some stage, this will end.

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@LMcAtackney

Prof Laura McAtackney

3 years

Every year of my living memory I have either (1) not wanted to be in NI over the 12th, or (2) been grateful for not being in NI over the 12th. I have no problems with anyone celebrating their culture and heritage but let’s not pretend this isn’t a toxic time for many of us.

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@LMcAtackney

Prof Laura McAtackney

6 months

@Shellmccabe Exactly. People who don’t even have the most rudimentary knowledge of colonial theory and no experience of the people or places treating it like a debating exercise. I had to mute alot of convos - including rejoinders to my own - as i could not deal with it.

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@LMcAtackney

Prof Laura McAtackney

2 years

I've been sitting on some news for awhile (still finalizing details) but I'm finally able to share I'll be joining @UCC as Professor at the Radical Humanities Lab / Archaeology in Oct! I will retain a role @AU_Archaeology until Oct 2024 but I'm already practicing Corcaigh Abú!

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@LMcAtackney

Prof Laura McAtackney

8 months

No individual should legally own - through inheritance! - the largest fresh water resource in an entire state. #DecolonizeNow

@PantiBliss

Dr Panti Bliss-Cabrera

8 months

BTW, if you were wondering who owns Lough Neagh, it’s this guy, Nick Ashley-Cooper “ten years ago, he was a successful techno DJ living in New York. Today, he’s The Earl of Shaftesbury and the head of a rejuvenated estate”

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@LMcAtackney

Prof Laura McAtackney

3 years

Northern Ireland is a complicated place with a difficult history that has been caught in cycles of violence for what feels like forever. The reasons for it are never one-dimensional and they’re never just about external factors or high level politics.

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@LMcAtackney

Prof Laura McAtackney

8 months

Dear god the narrative around the idea‘Zombie’ could be an int’al rugby anthem is just so bizarre. Ireland’s Call is a bit whatever but Zombie is so far from relevant to a sporting anthem you may as well just cobble together a tune with the chorus ‘We hate the Shinners’.

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Prof Laura McAtackney

9 months

Irish athletics is going through such an exciting time and the team reflects our contemporary, multi-cultural island so well. Fantastic results for all our emerging Irish superstars! ☘️ 🇮🇪

@TeamIreland

Team Ireland

9 months

When you make history 💚

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@LMcAtackney

Prof Laura McAtackney

3 years

After y’day’s bizarre announcement that ‘Ireland’s’ pop finally reached 5m (the island did that some time ago), as someone who researches the past (archaeology/history/heritage) and is from the North can we STOP using ‘Ireland’ to implicitly mean the 26 county state? GRMA.

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@LMcAtackney

Prof Laura McAtackney

3 years

January is finally (almost) over and so it is fitting that the most intricate #embroidery I’ve attempted so far is also finished. It’s loosely inspired from a wood scene from The Secret of Kells (I love their artwork) and contains about a million French knots :)

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@LMcAtackney

Prof Laura McAtackney

7 months

Proud of being Irish and a resident of Denmark: when did collective punishment of civilians become an EU agreed action?

@visegrad24

Visegrád 24

7 months

The EU's plan to suspend all financial aid to the Palestinian Authority has been blocked by 4 EU states: Spain Denmark Ireland Luxembourg

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Prof Laura McAtackney

4 years

During the last lecture I gave on the ‘dark heritage’ of the Irish Civil War I introduced the students to the phenomenon of the ‘good Irish hair’ of the revolutionary generation. The first example was Michael Collins but, of course, it had to end with the best: Roger Casement.

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@LMcAtackney

Prof Laura McAtackney

1 year

Loath the term ‘Donegal Irish’ being used as a shorthand for Ulster Irish. It’s such a partitionist term that separates Irish speaking from the North. It also completely dismisses the impact of post-partition policies on Irish speaking inc the eradication of the Tyrone Gaeltacht.

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@LMcAtackney

Prof Laura McAtackney

2 years

In the land of parity of esteem I do wonder how every rebel song can be an indicator of a cold house for unionists in a UI but there is v little open reflection on what it’s been like for nationalists living in a state that still has thousands of OO marches every yr 🤷‍♀️

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@LMcAtackney

Prof Laura McAtackney

10 months

@guardian What a joyless, cold, and tone deaf obituary; i cannot believe there was noone at the Guardian who could have done better 🤷‍♀️

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Prof Laura McAtackney

3 years

301 people were killed by the British Army during the course of the Troubles, ‘over half’ were civilians. To date 6 soldiers have stood trial, 4 have been convicted (most sentences cut short and Army careers restarted). Amazing how they are cast as victims

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Investigation of Former Armed Forces Personnel Who Served in Northern Ireland

The investigation of former British soldiers who served in Northern Ireland during “The Troubles” is receiving a significant amount of media and parliamentary attention as a result of ongoing court...

commonslibrary.parliament.uk

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@LMcAtackney

Prof Laura McAtackney

2 years

Very disappointed to return to Denmark and not a turnip nor pumpkin to be found for hallowe’en … until i struck on the idea of the jack o’lantern CELERAIC! Think i’m onto a winner!

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Prof Laura McAtackney

6 months

It is very troubling that expressing support for Palestinians - who have been bombarded in what is essentially an open air prison for a month now - has to be constantly equivocated with explicit ref to the already widely condemned attacks on civilians on 7 October.

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Prof Laura McAtackney

2 months

Let’s be honest, Charlotte doesn’t even know what this means nevermind how exciting it is. But she is inadvertently providing a public service in revealing the range of diverse and inspirational work being funded. Bravo for these much needed radical and impactful projects!

@CharlotteCGill

Charlotte Gill

@CharlotteCGill

2 months

"Critically, my project aims to move away from the compartmentalised research of the binaries that have separated the Republican Catholic communities and their Loyalist Protestant counterparts."

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@LMcAtackney

Prof Laura McAtackney

2 years

I’ve seen little reference to this in the GB media so worth highlighting : y’day the MoD and PSNI settled a case for £1.5m due to the ‘suspected’ collusion of security forces and loyalist paramilitaries in the the Miami Showband massacre in 1975.

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£1.5m damages settlement over Miami Showband massacre

Survivors and relatives of those murdered in the Miami Showband massacre are to receive nearly £1.5m (€1.75m) in total damages to settle claims over suspected collusion with the loyalist terrorist...

@MiamiShowband

Stephen Travers

2 years

On the way home from the High Court in Belfast tonight, I stopped at the scene of the massacre to say a prayer and to tell Tony and Fran and Brian that I hope they can now, finally, leave that field forever.

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Prof Laura McAtackney

1 year

Far too many microphoned street preachers in Belfast screeching nonsense, hate speech and misogyny from every street corner. I had to walk passed a guy screaming about women being ‘prostitutes for free’ yesterday; not ok.

@_chrisjones_

Chris Jones

1 year

How on EARTH is this allowed? @belfastcc need to make this a priority if they haven't already. It makes the city centre intolerable.

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Prof Laura McAtackney

2 years

How does NI ever become a ‘post/conflict’ society when the British govt are using practices from the conflict to hide evidence about the murder of a child? His family deserves justice. #NoahDonohoe

@BelTel

Belfast Telegraph

2 years

Northern Ireland’s new Secretary of State has been accused of helping police “conceal” information about the death of schoolboy Noah Donohoe.

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Prof Laura McAtackney

3 years

Just off the 'in discussion' seminar with Professor Mary Daly hosted by Oxford and it is not often I am lost for words but I am just dumbfounded. By some of the responses, language used, obvious dismissal of survivors' testimonies as lesser forms of evidence.

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Prof Laura McAtackney

3 years

It is strange to come from NI, where political identity - as British or Irish - can seem so central, to then move to RoI or across to Britain you realize how differently you are viewed: othered - suspicious even - and marginal to what you thought was your national identity.

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Prof Laura McAtackney

1 year

Re-sharing this letter to the IT from three years ago. It is about grief and Christmas and it is true and heartbreaking and beautiful: ‘Look for me in the trees. I will be there in the trees’

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Prof Laura McAtackney

11 days

Solidarity with TCDSU and its protesting students. We cannot teach ethics in institutions that do not practice them; we cannot claim academic freedom while supporting a state that has bombed all the universities in Gaza. 🇵🇸

@TCDSU_President

László Molnárfi (SU)

@TCDSU_President

11 days

Students at Trinity College Dublin have set up an encampment for Palestine, demanding that their university cut ties with Israel as per BDS principles supported by the vast majority of students and staff. 🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸 @TrinityBDS @tcdsu @tcddublin

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Prof Laura McAtackney

4 months

What an awful policy to be proud of. University students bring many things to the UK - beyond paying the outrageous fees they bring their brains, ingenuity and experiences - by some margin they positively contribute to society. Why aim to separate them from their families?

@RishiSunak

Rishi Sunak

4 months

From today, the majority of foreign university students cannot bring family members to the UK. In 2024, we’re already delivering for the British people.

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Prof Laura McAtackney

4 years

Important article for Irish people to read, digest and sit with. As we know, Ireland has a complicated history. We like to talk about ‘800 years of oppression’ not so much the reality of being colonized but also benefiting from colonization

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Links to slave trade evident across Ireland

‘The Irish tended to have a very strongly held belief in their own white racial superiority’

www.irishtimes.com

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@LMcAtackney

Prof Laura McAtackney

1 year

Call for restraint to 26-county journalists who have virtually no knowledge of the North but are itching to circulate a hot take due to Biden's visit. No one needs to know your thoughts on GFA, peace walls, dissidents, youth or the 'two communities'; Ulster has suffered enough.

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Prof Laura McAtackney

2 years

It’s been very odd reading some of the discourse around Joe Brolly’s comments about (some of) the South’s attitudes to Northern Catholics. A lot of those attitudes are documented, not even that long ago (ahem, Eoghan Harris), and many of us have personal experience of them.

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Prof Laura McAtackney

2 years

This is pretty disgraceful diminishing of a mother’s legitimate right to know what happened to her child. Given the recent history of NI, if authorities don’t want theories circulating about the unexplained death of a teenager then they should simply open the files.

@rodneyedwards

Rodney Edwards

2 years

Conspiracy theorists are claiming police are trying to shield informers or even paramilitaries by redacting data in the Noah Donohoe case. But that is not correct, according to those with knowledge of the files. My report for today’s Sunday Independent.

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Prof Laura McAtackney

2 years

It is genuinely chilling seeing the treatment of Professor Harvey atm. He is an articulate nationalist who is explicitly using his expertise in constitutional law to have discussions about … constitutional change. Such intimation has long echoes and should be condemned by all.

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Prof Laura McAtackney

3 years

When ppl, especially Black Irish ppl, are tweeting their sorrow or legitimate concern about the shooting dead of a mentally ill Black man, don’t be ‘reply guy’. It is not the time for your hot take about how great the Guards are or dismissing their grief. #GeorgeNkencho

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Prof Laura McAtackney

8 months

How can there be any ongoing pretense the North is an equal partner within a pol union when legacy legislation is introduced without consent, justice is deliberately withheld and archives are made publicly inaccessible. Do they even care? #NeverGivingUp

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Prof Laura McAtackney

10 months

As a 1990s teen I always breath a sigh of relief when I'm not in Northern Ireland over 12th. The tensions associated with the 11th night are hardwired into you. The continued widespread burning of effigies and flags associated with CNR communities isn't a glitch, it's a feature.

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Prof Laura McAtackney

3 years

These visuals give a substantial sense of how the border has ‘shaped’ Ireland (to the detriment of those having to live around it).

@irish_railways

Daily downfall of Irish Railways

@irish_railways

3 years

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Prof Laura McAtackney

3 years

Reconciliation in NI is not about people attending church services or being ‘mature’ enough to give narrative hospitality to skewed views of the past. It must start with radical - and painful - honesty about the different experiences and perspectives on what happened in the past.

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Prof Laura McAtackney

7 months

Some of the worst takes I’ve seen on Gaza have been from the far right of ulster unionism and the English ‘liberal’ left. If you can’t extend your abhorrence of violence to the many civilians killed, injured and displaced leading up to this point then you’re skew is revealing.

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Prof Laura McAtackney

1 year

This is something that some British commentators seem confused about, his sense of Irishness is not green beer and shamrocks they like to mock but tied into sense of oppression, of being part of a forced diaspora and colonial injustice.

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Prof Laura McAtackney

3 years

Subtweet: the scholarly study of the past is not the same thing as the public memory of the past. Choosing to commemorate the past is always about selection and it is always political. Nothing is neutral (especially when it is claimed it is).

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Prof Laura McAtackney

2 years

Mercer’s breathtaking contempt for the 14 unarmed civilians killed in Derry in 1972 is utterly despicable. Imagine 50 years after British soldiers rampaged on the streets of Derby, Doncaster or Dundee if an MP made such a statement in the HoC? I cannot.

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Prof Laura McAtackney

3 years

It is interesting how many English historians still don’t consider Ireland as part of their ‘colonial’ legacy and they consciously neglect what happened there and the scholarship on it. Why is colonialism within Europe still ignored when it enriches our understanding of the past?

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Prof Laura McAtackney

3 years

Irish Studies, Irish Literature, Irish History

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Prof Laura McAtackney

7 years

Now hyper aware of monuments so its interesting being in London. Invariably male are specific + heroic; female representative + anonymous

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Prof Laura McAtackney

9 months

Interesting re revelations from Listowel - the treatment of the curator was awful and should be called out - but does anyone from the North who has lived in the 26 not experienced similar? I lost count of the number and variety of ‘but you’re not really Irish’ convos I’ve had.

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Prof Laura McAtackney

3 years

If you’re not from NI, not familiar with it, or haven’t closely followed what has been unfolding for the past months / years then try to avoid inserting your own take on what is a complicated situation. This isn’t just about a protocol or Brexit but it’s not separate either.

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Prof Laura McAtackney

3 years

How is this stuff still being published? It wouldn’t pass the marking criteria of an u’grad essay with its lazy dichotomies, sweeping generalizations and lack of coherent argument. Unionists - we all - deserve better than this dated nonsense.

Ruth Dudley Edwards: Protestants can be lost for words while Catholics sing and write poems and...

For almost two decades there have been intense and often enlightening debates about innumerable contentious subjects on the blogsite Slugger O’Toole.

www.newsletter.co.uk

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Prof Laura McAtackney

8 months

It’s been quite the week for neocolonial hot takes from descendants and replacements! So much of their reactions based on maintaining privilege through shutting down dissent / ability to question their naturalized place in society.

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Prof Laura McAtackney

5 months

Oxford/Cambridge are considered the elite universities of the UK - and i’ve spend some time at both so i’ve a little first hand experience - but how have they produced so many senior historians who are communicating such terrible takes on history week-in, week-out? Mortifying!

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Prof Laura McAtackney

3 years

As for the dismissive claims that kids rioting on the streets don’t remember the Troubles - in a real material sense some of these places have never left the Troubles behind. How many people could riot either side of a peace wall in any other city in Ire / UK?

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Prof Laura McAtackney

4 years

Excellent piece by Catriona Crowe on the Mother and Baby Homes inquiry archive. The Irish state has a long history of fearing and locking away archives to protect themselves: of primary concern should be the survivors and their access needed.

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Mother and baby home documents should not be ‘sealed’

It denies access to survivors and historians for an unreasonable length of time

www.irishtimes.com

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Prof Laura McAtackney

3 years

Not very subtle subtweet but I wish ppl who presented themselves as the public face of archaeology didnt write books with human remains prominently displayed on the front cover.

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Prof Laura McAtackney

3 months

Every university should be releasing statements condemning this unjustified killing of our colleagues - and Palestinians in general - but most won’t. Some lives are more equal than others, Solidarity.

@PollyWilkins

Polly Pallister-Wilkins

3 months

If you are an academic these people were our colleagues. The silence of universities in the face of such barbarity is a shame never to be washed away.

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Prof Laura McAtackney

2 years

Here’s how academia works: - The logo (not ‘branding’) of the (1) funders and (2) the authors’ institutions are prominently placed on public outputs. - Academic freedom = the university does not dictate what research it’s employees undertake.

@ConcernedQUB

Concerned Queen’s University Belfast Students

2 years

QUB branding on a manifesto for a United Ireland. Honestly, it speaks for itself at this stage. #Equality

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Prof Laura McAtackney

8 months

An absolute disgrace in an era of disgraceful WM impositions on NI. Legislation created without consultant and supported by no political, civic or (most important) victims’ groups in NI. You cannot top-down impose a settlement on conflict while hiding your own culpability. Shame.

@skydavidblevins

David Blevins

@skydavidblevins

8 months

BREAK: Commons passes Bill to end historical prosecutions in Northern Ireland.

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Prof Laura McAtackney

2 years

The emotional, compelling responses to #BloodySunday from Ire - such as @aoifegracemoore - contrast strongly with these detached editorials from Britain. The maintenance of the ‘inexplicable NI’ myth denies the colonial mindset that still structures it

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The Guardian view on the Bloody Sunday anniversary: the legacy remains | Editorial

Editorial: Even 50 years later, the killings in Derry in 1972 cast a long shadow over Britain’s policies in Northern Ireland

www.theguardian.com

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Prof Laura McAtackney

2 years

Many of us have long family histories of being sidelined, marginalized and aware that we were not considered respectable enough to stand alongside counterparts from the ‘other’ community simply because of our religion. Always a suspect community, allowed to rise only so high.

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Prof Laura McAtackney

3 years

I’m not going to punish myself by reading anymore ‘articles’ on Sally Rooney. She write nicely presented, readable novels. But the amount of energy and effort critics - primarily women - put into psychoanalyzing the author without examining their internalized misogyny is WOW.

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Prof Laura McAtackney

10 months

Final proofs submitted, can we finally begin to hope it’s actually (gulp!) done?! Routledge Handbook of the NI Conflict and Peace hopefully in the real world before the end of the year!

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Prof Laura McAtackney

3 years

Still can’t quite believe we are into our fourth day of commemoration gaslighting. It’s almost as if the political furore proves that commemorating partition is a political act and demanding attendance at it means that the invitation wasn’t actually a neutral act?! 🤷‍♀️

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Prof Laura McAtackney

1 year

Wow, after so many years of bringing this volume together with so many fantastic, generous colleagues it finally looks real! We are so excited to bringing together what became a bit of a passion project: ‘The Routledge Handbook of the Northern Ireland Conflict and Peace’

@ppmcdermott1

Philip McDermott

1 year

Looking forward to the publication of this volume in the Autumn. Thanks to @LMcAtackney @Ocathainstarai for the invite to contribute a chapter on cultural diversity and migration. @UlsterUni @ASPS_UU @UlsterArts scholars are so well represented in this comprehensive volume.

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Prof Laura McAtackney

2 years

Its super interesting - as someone who studies the past and memory - just how much enforced directing of memory there is at times of transition. The enforced mourning and tone policing led by the press and rampant on social media is something to behold.

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Prof Laura McAtackney

3 years

I’m an archaeologist. Just to note that excavating complicated gravesites is what archaeologists do. Excavating mass graves is sadly not that unusual in Ireland or elsewhere. The expertise exists already, it simply needs to be commissioned by the govt.

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Excavation of Tuam mother and baby home site will take 'many years', says forensic expert

René Gapert is a leading forensic anthropologist and is an expert in identifying human remains.

www.thejournal.ie

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Prof Laura McAtackney

3 years

As Sunday morning culture wars from the Tory press moves from colonial legacies and Churchill to (checks notes) the Troubles, yet another reminder that many historians don’t know how archives work and seem to think there are magic secret stores of smoking gun files awaiting them.

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Prof Laura McAtackney

3 years

So tying back to my initial point - faux outrage that declining to attend commemorations of contested events - that claim by their very existence they are reconciling - is not the problem. The problem is claiming that commemoration = reconciliation, when often it is the opposite.

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Prof Laura McAtackney

2 months

The hilarious/depressing part of the tweeting of the AHRC’s funding page is the reality = a huge amount of arts and humanities research is not only unfunded, but researchers use their own paltry wages to fund trips, and work on weekends /holidays to keep research active.

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Prof Laura McAtackney

2 years

The attacks on theright to aspire to a United Ireland - now a real aspiration due to the negative impacts of Brexit - reveals that to some Nationalists will always be an underclass. Tolerated if they know their place but demonized as infiltrators if they question the status quo.

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Prof Laura McAtackney

3 years

Sometimes I wonder how many historians have really clear understandings of how archives work. How much the papers and ledgers (microfiche and scans) they access are shaped, wedded and refined by the institutions that created them, used them and finally archives them?

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Prof Laura McAtackney

3 years

I’m not sure I’ll ever get over the shock at the number of English people I personally knew who not only thought it was ok for soldiers to shoot *civilians but who considered any possibility of prosecution against them a violation of their human rights. *obv only NI civilians

@lottelydia

Dr Charlotte Lydia Riley

3 years

hang on, Johnny Mercer was trying to resign because he doesn’t want soldiers to be prosecuted for crimes they committed in Northern Ireland? And so the government has sacked him even tho they also don’t really want to prosecute soldiers for crimes committed in Northern Ireland?

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Prof Laura McAtackney

2 years

His career stalled in his 40s when he applied to be manager of a bigger office and was told that none of the (all Protestant) work force would work for a Catholic. That was in the 1990s and he retired within a decade as a bitter and thwarted man who never really got over it.

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Prof Laura McAtackney

8 months

How’s does a ‘Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery’ include ex-RUC when one of the key ‘legacy’ issues is the need to investigate collusion between said organization and loyalist paramilitaries? From a joke to a farce.

@FinucaneCentre

Pat Finucane Centre

@FinucaneCentre

8 months

Years of campaigning for independent investigations have been thrown out the window with this appointment. #NeverGivingUp

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Prof Laura McAtackney

10 months

Inisbofin skulls, stolen by AC Haddon in 1890, (finally) returned: ' ... I would like to say sorry to the islanders. I’m really glad that we can right this wrong. I think it is important to give dignity in death and to show solidarity with the living.'

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Stolen skulls finally come home to Inishbofin after 133 years for poignant burial ceremony

Simple coffin carried the 13 skulls to the ruins of St Colman’s Abbey, where they had been spirited away by anthropologist Alfred Cort Haddon in 1890

www.irishtimes.com

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Prof Laura McAtackney

8 months

I wish NI politicians would stop referencing sectarianism as if it’s some unexplainable and detached from cause and effect. It is social, built into structures and maintained through our political system. Many of them - certainly their parties - are central to its maintenance.

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Prof Laura McAtackney

8 months

What’s with unionist bro accts whose sole aim is to correct any other term used for ‘Northern Ireland’? 1. nomenclature of the state has always been contested and evolving 2. RaNdoM126734 doesn’t get to dictate what i call where i’m from 3. quite the charm offensive for the union

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Prof Laura McAtackney

3 years

Agghhhh, the Great Famine happened on an island without a border so how does it make any sense to be comparing populations levels with an ‘Ireland’ that means the partitioned state and not the island? (also conflating ‘Ireland’ with the 26 counties is confusing)

@guardian

The Guardian

3 years

Ireland’s population passes 5m for first time since C19th famine

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Prof Laura McAtackney

2 years

I don’t know anyone from my background who doesn’t have family who weren’t openly discriminated against - nevermind the subtle hints and winks - my uncle Pat getting a job only to be told ‘Sorry we don’t hire Catholics’ when he was asked what his background was.

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Prof Laura McAtackney

2 years

‘Northern Ireland’s borders were carefully drawn in 1921 to preclude such an outcome’ - the aim to control demographics into an unending future was never going to end well. At what stage does political unionism focus on appealing to anyone who isn’t born in?

@SJAMcBride

Sam McBride

2 years

Nevertheless, if the autumn census results show a Catholic majority it would be a historic result & something which would unnerve many already unsettled unionists; Northern Ireland’s borders were carefully drawn in 1921 to preclude such an outcome.

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Prof Laura McAtackney

4 months

Feminism that is not intersectional and is selectively supportive of women experiencing injustice is not worth the name. For Nollaig na mBan i’ll forego the r&r to continue to demand a ceasefire and justice for Palestinian women.

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For feminists, silence on Gaza is no longer an option

It is a feminist responsibility to call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

www.aljazeera.com

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Prof Laura McAtackney

2 years

Can i just say : i really appreciate how dead on bars in Belfast are ❤️

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