Oisín Murphy-Lawless

@bikesnbukes

LLM in Human Rights. Opinions are my own, reposts not an endorsement. Cyclist, da, flatmate to Finrod (friend to man). Cat pics, Phillies, some law, tech and internet policy (day job), the odd Bucky/Klaes gif. Oh! And RPG stuff (mainly Call of Cthulhu).

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Oisín Murphy-Lawless@bikesnbukes· Jul 12

Good selection. If you can find a secondhand copy of in search of a state by blackstaff press, you get a great snapshot of Irish Catholic nationalism in the run up to the GFA. Well worth looking out. The author, Fionnula O’Connor interviews across the north and organises undera set of themes:

The content page of Fionnuala O’Connor’s In Search of a State. The chapter headings read as follows:

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

INTRODUCTION

1 ‘I remember…’
ARDOYNE

2 'Two very different lifestyles"
CLASS

3 ‘Shifting, complex and ambiguous’
POLITICAL ALLEGIANCE

4 ‘I don't want them to be bad guys’
THE IRA

5 'Benign apartheid’
PROTESTANTS

6 ‘If we could trust them...’
BRITAIN

7 ‘I don't like their attitudes’
THE SOUTH

8 'Contact with hearts and minds’
THE CHURCH

9. 'No going back'
IDENTITY

Oisín Murphy-Lawless@bikesnbukes· Jun 27

This was nestled in the Laundry RPG supervisors guide and had me laughing.

Text from page from the roleplaying game The Laundry, about the UK’s covert dept for dealing with occult and cosmic horrors. The heading reads Garda Unit for the Bizarre and Unprecedented (GUBU). The text reads:

The Irish counter-occult group is part of the police force (garda síochana). The GUBU unit dates back to 1923, when the keys to the Red Room in Dublin Castle, which contained documents and files relating to occult phenomena, were handed over to the Irish government.

Oisín Murphy-Lawless@bikesnbukes· Jun 14

Finally this line caught my eye. I am still waiting for the Irish far right to lean into referencing Ribbon Men and Whiteboys, and the culture of secret societies and agrarian violence which is inextricably linked to the push for independence from the 1840s. This line probably isn’t that.

Will2Rise shared a picture of masked young men in Belfast, writing, "Around 250 armed young white men patrolled the streets, banned phones and filming, and blocked firefighters from putting out the fires they had started. This White boy summer is going to be hot out."

Oisín Murphy-Lawless@bikesnbukes· May 25

See also further on, this on the value of diversity:

Further excerpt from Pope Leo’s first papal encyclical Magnifica Humanitas: “Indeed, this is the possibility of building together, of transforming diversity into a resource and of making listening and dialogue the common ground upon which to cultivate justice and fraternity. Within this shared task, Christians discover their unique role of guiding actions toward God so that, in his light, pluralism does not dissipate into disorder, but instead, through the practice of synodality, it becomes the space in which humanity rediscovers its solid foundations and its final end.”

Oisín Murphy-Lawless@bikesnbukes· May 25

Not an expert on the Vatican’s latest thinking on gender and sexuality, but this language is interesting on the importance of diversity:

Excerpt the most recent Papal Encyclical (Magnifica Humanitas) describing the faults of the Tower of Babel. Text reads:

It was an impressive feat: a single language, a single technology, a single direction. However, the project concealed a profound danger. It was a project conceived without reference to God, supported by a uniformity that eliminated diversity and that chose homogenization over communion.

Oisín Murphy-Lawless@bikesnbukes· May 25

Holy crap, the opening of the encyclical alone. The framing of AI including LLMs as a Tower of Babel? Wow.

The opening paragraph of the latest papal encyclical concerning AI, Magnifica Humanitas. Text reads: Humanity, created by God in all its grandeur, is today facing a pivotal choice: either to construct a new Tower of Babel or to build the city in which God and humanity dwell together.

Oisín Murphy-Lawless@bikesnbukes· May 7

Leith Dockers Club is now a polling station. It puts such a spring in the step, it honestly does. I am not a regular - been to a wake there, one or two friends do’s, and the odd community croft event. But it’s part of Leith’s fabric and it is only right and proper that you can vote there.

Oisín Murphy-Lawless@bikesnbukes· May 4

Post your warning sign

The crest of a road before it turns sharply down. In the distance are some buildings and the sea. To the left is a dry stone wall, at its base a grassy verge. Next to the wall is a sign, affixed to a metal post sticking up out of a chunk of concrete. The sign is white, and shows the figure of a cyclist flying over the handlebars of the bike at the top of a slope. The word ‘Aire’ (take heed in Irish) is at the top of the sign. At the bottom it says ‘caution’.

Oisín Murphy-Lawless@bikesnbukes· Apr 10

Introducing ma to the most important gif of all time, while discussing a (relatively) newly elected TD who has failed to show up on her doorstep since the general election.

Oisín Murphy-Lawless@bikesnbukes· Mar 26

Double geansaí anocht! #COYBIG

My television showing the football stadium in Prague - in front is the Irish tricolour, in the background the Czech and Irish players lined up for the national anthems. In the lower right corner you can see a Phillies player walking onto the field at citizens bank ballpark.

A selfie of me wearing my Saturday night special Phillies jersey, in dark maroon with the white 70s font P for Philadelphia. Underneath my Ireland Umbro eircom jersey, circa 2001. You can see just half of the fai badge, and underneath the letters IRE. In my right hand is a blur of light brown and black as Finrod, friend to man, squirms free. I am wearing glasses with a beard and moustache, a bit untidy but not serious growth or length.

Oisín Murphy-Lawless@bikesnbukes· Mar 26

Huh. 20 years after Facebook became open to everyone over 13 with an email, two potentially significant decisions about features which encourage overuse of meta products, and how they don’t take sufficient care for the safety of children on their platform. Lotta money made in those 20 years.

Excerpt from Wikipedia article on Facebook’s history. The text reads:

“In 2006, Facebook opened to everyone at least or only 13 years old with a valid email address.
Facebook introduced key features like the News” (excerpt ends)

Oisín Murphy-Lawless@bikesnbukes· Mar 7

P.S. the spice was mighty last night

A picture of freshly made spicebag heaped on a plate. The potato wedges are mixed in with red onion and long strips of red pepper, sprinkled with spring onion, all coated in McDonnell’s spicebag mix. Surrounding the plate is a bike water bottle from Brixton Cycles (RIP), a can of Newbarn’s Stout, and a glass of the same stout. In the background are piles of books, including Graham Walmsley’s Stealing Cthulhu.

Oisín Murphy-Lawless@bikesnbukes· Mar 5

Posts like this is why I follow @danschkade.bsky.social. Also the incredible art and comics. Like his David Lynch Superman, or his VVitch Batman.

A panel Dan Schkade’s distinctive comic art, shaded in brown and black. A Black Goat emerges from the shadows and says ‘wouldst thou like the taste of vengeance’. The lettering on the speech bubble is white text on a black speech bubble.

A second panel of Dan Schkade’s tribute to the original Batman origin by way of the film the VVitch. Goatman stands on a roof, his black coat billowing behind him. His cowl has black horns on it, and on his chest is what looks like a stylised black goats head/pentacle.

The text reads in the first descriptive box on the top left of the panel reads: “AND THUS IS BORN THIS WEIRD FIGURE OF THE DARK”

The text in the second descriptive box on the bottom left corner reads “-- THIS AVENGER OF EVIL THE GOATMAN"

Oisín Murphy-Lawless@bikesnbukes· Feb 20

Name 2 characters from different franchises who would be friends.

A picture of Tali from the computer game series Mass Effect, a thinner bipedal alien who wears a spacesuit and helmet at all times due to a dangerously weak immune system. A spacer who has never called a planet their home. She wears what looks like an elaborately patterned shawl over the helmet.

A picture of the white haired and grizzled Klaes Ashford, a thin bipedal human who is never out of his belter suit because a belter must always be prepared for things to go wrong in space. A spacer who has never called a planet home, a pirate who lost his family to punishing and exploitative capitalism.

Oisín Murphy-Lawless@bikesnbukes· Feb 15

There was a reason we had so many spade mills and types of spade in Ireland. (This panel is from the exhibit on spades, raised beds and spailpíns -expert shovelers who sold their labour at other farms - in the Ulster Folk Museum’s restored spade mill.)

An exhibit panel from the Ulster folk museums in the middle are two pictures.

In one you can see two labourers with long handled spades. The text reads “Cassie and Paddy McCaughey, Ballymacan, County Tyrone, in 1906”

In the other is a field with long lines of raised beds, in which two figures are digging the beds. In the distance of the second photograph, you can see a leafless tree with the lines of raised beds running down either side. The credit reads “The McAuley sisters of Glenshesk, County Antrim, working to create ridges for potatoes, c.1915”

The text reads:

“Spades and People

Ireland has more types of spade than any other European country. In the 1800s there were more than sixty spade mills in Ulster, each producing thousands of spades and shovels every year.

Spadework: the most refined system of tillage ever used.

In Ireland, cultivation ridges have been made using spades for at least 5,000 years. Long trenches were dug and the soil used to make ridges, on which the crops were grown. The work was done by hand, using spades, to ensure that the width and height of the ridges were right for the soil, the slope and the crop. No other system of tillage (crop cultivation) can match this precision.”

Oisín Murphy-Lawless@bikesnbukes· Jan 20

Between the mention of building walls and contrasting with ‘building coalitions that work issue by issue with partners’, I wondered if the speechwriters or Carney had been listening to King T’Challa:

Two stills from the film Black Panther, one underneath the other. In both, King T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman) stands to the left in the foreground in a black shirt and a shawl/silk scarf thrown over his left shoulder. To his right, standing further back, are Nakia, a covert agent of Wakanda (played by Lupita N’yongo) and a member of the Dora Milaje (one of the royal guard).

Underneath both pictures run the text of a line of T’Challa’s speech: ‘in times of crisis, the wise build bridges while the foolish build barriers’.

Oisín Murphy-Lawless@bikesnbukes· Jan 15

Ranger Suarez has signed with Red Sox, and I am both sad and chuffed for the man. I missed Rhys and I will miss Ranger. I will never forget listening to the final game of his Maddux game. So glad I got the chance to see him in London. Now I need to look for second hand Suarez jerseys.

Ranger Suarez, pitcher for the Philadelphia Phillies, is walking alongside his catcher, JT Realmuto. They are walking from left to right of the picture, the only two figures against the green grass of West Ham’s home field in London, a baseball stadium for just two days in 2024.

JT is all focused and business, staring ahead, his cap on backwards, his catcher’s mitt in his left hand wearing his chest protector, knee pads and shin guards. Ranger, next time has his cap pushed a bit back on his forehead, his lithe right arm swinging forward. He is looking down as he walks.

The bottom half of Ranger’s face is a bit blurred as they were further away and I had to zoom in with my camera movie to take the picture. But If you know Ranger’s body language, if you have heard anything about the man, you will likely know with absolute certainty that he is smiling. Probably chucking.

Some pitcher. Some fuckin’ pitcher, that man. I will miss him and I am keep getting tearful tonight thinking about him.

Oisín Murphy-Lawless@bikesnbukes· Jan 6

Should go without saying that this is a great piece, but I liked this quote by Kip Carpenter about Will Scarlett. It echoes one of my favourite things about the expanse: the personal is always political - people’s lives shape them and everyone has a reason for doing horrible things.

Screen grab from the quoted article about the history of Robin of Sherwood. The quote concerns Will Scarlett, who was played by Ray Winstone. Text reads:

"I wanted to present somebody who had actually lost his family as a result of the cruelty and oppression [of the times]", Carpenter would later explain. "In Northern Ireland, for instance, the reason the conflict goes on and on is because people have lost someone who's near and dear to them. It isn't an abstract - it's a personalised hatred. If you've seen your wife and children shot in front of you by either an IRA man or a loyalist, your revenge is personal. It has nothing to do with being a Catholic or a Protestant."

Oisín Murphy-Lawless@bikesnbukes· Jan 3

Don’t think you can see Jupiter in this shot, but here is the almost wolf moon over Edinburgh, reflecting off the waters of Dunsapie loch, a 19th century construction 2/3 the way up the remains of the extinct volcano called Arthurs Seat at the centre of the city.

The clouds pass over a near full moon, hanging in a darkened sky, made a deep greying indigo by the camera lens and software Underneath is the black outline of the rocky escarpment to the west of Dunsapie Loch on Arthurs Seat in Edinburgh. Beneath the dark silhouette where once a ring fort stood, the water of the loch glitters in the moonlight.

If you are nearby the loch this late, be observant and kind to any strangers you meet. And stay on your path.

Oisín Murphy-Lawless@bikesnbukes· Jan 3

I saw Good Vibrations before I had the immense good fortune and blessing to meet @justrena.bsky.social. Went to see it on a whim. Just great. Because I listen to what I am told, I now know Petesy Burns of the Outcasts played Pugwash. I am told he was one of the best. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a hanam.

A still from the film Good Vibrations. Petesy Burns, one of Belfast’s punk musicians of the 70s and guitarist with the Outcasts, stands in a record shop, flicking through records. On the wall to his left and behind him, singles are sitting on the wall. A big man, he has curly hair framing a round good natured face with a grey beard. He is dressed in dark jeans with a big keychain, and is wearing a sleeveless leather jacket over a striped red and black top. He has a blue mug in one hand, presumably with tea in it. The subtitles underneath the screen says ‘It’s have been wasted on him anyhow, Terri’. He is speaking to the proprietor of Good Vibrations record shop, Terri Hooley.

Oisín Murphy-Lawless@bikesnbukes· Jan 2

Good Vibrations, a film in which Adrian Dunbar plays a UVF man with an epic long wig that would make a teenager from Stranger Things. One of the greatest films about music you will ever watch.

Adrian Dunbar in a 70s brown leather jacket with a long black-haired wig. The hair comes down to shoulder length, almost a beehive, like. He has his left eye do comes and he is looking straight down the camera af you with that brilliant long Irish nose of his. He is sitting in front of the kind of veneer wood panelling you can only find in Irish pubs of a certain vintage. The likes of Grogans in Dublin.

Oisín Murphy-Lawless@bikesnbukes· Jan 1

A happy and wimdy new year to everyone from Arthurs Seat in Edinburgh tonight.

The night sky of Edinburgh, a landscape shot taken from the top of Arthurs Seat. The sky is streaked with clouds, and darkens as it nears the top of the picture. The bottom of the picture is pitch black. In the centre, you can see the streets of edinburgh glitter into the horizon, the last of the twilight a distant burnt orange strip. In the dark, picked out against the city’s illumination, you can see silhouettes of people closer to the edge, drinking it all in. To the left someone can be seen holding a camera up at the take a picture.

Oisín Murphy-Lawless@bikesnbukes· Dec 31

Celebrating the coming new year by watching the Batman. Battinson is the best bat, I do not want to hear all the Nolan fanboys. He truly lives up to the eternal line of wally’s. (Living for the day barely conversational and socially awkward Bruce is interviewed by Corenswet’s Superman.)

Oisín Murphy-Lawless@bikesnbukes· Dec 26

You know where you are with this hot sauce (courtesy of herself @justrena.bsky.social):

Oisín Murphy-Lawless@bikesnbukes· Dec 21

For the day that’s in it, that time the Guardians of the Galaxy, the hound of Ulster and Shamrock fought Samhain in order to read the Book of Kells by the light of the Solstice. #newgrangesolstice

The guardians of the Galaxy (this version is lead by Major Vance Astro who looks like a young Captain America with long hair and a headband), stand in front of a version of Newgrange. Yellowjacket aka Rita De Mara announces that ‘it’s beautiful … and a little eerie!’ Talon, an orange furred feline looking fella replies ‘you got that right, Rita!’

A full page panel of the hound of Ulster, Cú Chulainn, standing over the unconscious form of the brawny, bald-headed Charlie-27. The origin has a massive green and gold cloak , is wearing a helmet, and his red hair is in a single long braid. He holds aloft the Gae Bolga. He declares that ‘none may cross the threshold lest they deal with the greatest warrior of all time’.

A full page panel of screaming despairing faces, the spirits of those who died in war, released by Shamrock, a red haired Irish superhero dressed in a green leotard, leggings, boots and gloves. The spirits steam across the page to the upper left hand corner where Samhain, a king of the underworld writhes in torment at all the sorrow.

A sequence of panels showing the sun rising over some distant mountains, and a beam of its light shoots in through the entrance of Newgrange (totally missing the roof box over the entrance, but I digress), illuminating the inside of the tomb including the Book of Kells, which once read will go help the guardians save humanity from the martians.

Oisín Murphy-Lawless@bikesnbukes· Dec 18

Likewise

A load of drying dishes crammed into a drying rack next to the sink.

Oisín Murphy-Lawless@bikesnbukes· Dec 10

Is it bad that I see this Ulster, Scottish Law and 17th century and go ‘ohhhhhh that sounds interesting’. Also, violence and theft in private petitions to Irish Parliament in the latter half of the 15th century? Sign me up!

Excerpt of papers in the book A Sense of Place
Studies in British and Irish legal history in memory of W.N. Osborough. The titles of the papers read:

Colum Kenny, Scottish jurisdiction and the Murray estate in Ulster in the seventeenth century

Robin Frame, In search of the March and its custom

Sparky Booker, Violence and theft in private petitions to the Irish parliament, 1455-1500

Oisín Murphy-Lawless@bikesnbukes· Dec 10

End of a long day. Just having dinner now after everything else, including some stationary training. Clearly the only sensible thing is watching the Orion wedding episode of lower decks. Not least because Tendi bears a startling resemblance to @justrena.bsky.social when she is science nerding.

A gif of Lieutenant Junior Grade Mariner hugging the green-skinned Orion D’vanna Tendi who looks apprehensive. In the middle with her back to the camera is Lieutenant Junior Grade T’Lynn. Mariner says ‘Tends, the real you is the one who feels out about science on the Cerritos’

All three are wearing Orion attire, and the use of material is clearly inefficient.

Oisín Murphy-Lawless@bikesnbukes· Dec 4

Having a bit of a Ripley moment this morning, folks.

Oisín Murphy-Lawless@bikesnbukes· Nov 27

You’ve just died. The 6th picture in your gallery is what killed you.