Emmet Ó Briain

@emmet

research. language. lay ethnomethodologist. broadstone based. mundane methods of pedestrianism + active travel also: D7 Play Streets, almost always (running) in the phoenix park worst taste in music: @yesboyicecream.bsky.social

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Emmet Ó Briain@emmet· 3d

phone through eclipse glasses

Emmet Ó Briain@emmet· 4d

*chortle* "Are qualitative methods scientific?...Some critics echo...Lord Kelvin, who declared that only learning expressed in numbers counted as Science with a capital S. Kelvin also dismissed heavier-than-air flying machines, wireless communication and X-rays as impossible, useless or fraudulent".

Are qualitative methods scientific? It depends what you mean by "scientific." Some critics echo the 19th century
physicist, Lord Kelvin, who declared that only learning expressed in numbers counted as Science with a capital S. Kelvin also dismissed heavier-than-air flying machines, wireless communication and X-rays as impossible, useless or fraudulent. Qualitative methods are more like work in chemistry or some life sciences, where case
studies cumulate and are tested in critical experiments to explore the limits of generalizability. This may not lead to certainty, but it shifts the odds of being correct. If we are trying to understand the nature of order as it is, it is always possible to imagine ways of doing things differently. As British cycling discovered, the accumulation of
marginal gains can have a dramatic effect on outcomes.

Emmet Ó Briain@emmet· 4d

On the charge of sociology’s softness… “ Unlike some other social sciences, however, sociologists think it essential to question how numbers are being produced … All quantitative data begin with a qualitative decision that an event is an example of *this* rather than *that*”.

In Merton's day, sociology was charged with becoming excessively quantitative at the expense of the
interpretive understanding favoured by the humanities. Today, this has flipped, with the charge that qualitative methods have been adopted because sociologists find math too difficult and can more easily manipulate them
to produce desired results. Unlike some other social sciences, however, sociologists think it essential to question how numbers are being produced. We can compare pandemic mortality rates in different countries, but unless we know how those rates are generated by the decisions of those defining the cause of death, registering it and coding it, the exercise is meaningless. All quantitative
data begin with a qualitative decision that an event is an example of this rather than that.

Emmet Ó Briain@emmet· 6d

An Introduction to Cocanha: Drawing from the Occitan Tradition... klofmag.com/2021/12/an-i...

As mentioned in my show notes, Cocanha are an Occitan duo (ft. Lila Fraysse & Caroline Dufau - although there have been other members including Maud Herrera - who features on their latest release - and Lolita Delmonteil-Ayral) who perform polyphonic songs accompanied by stringed tambourines, feet and hands. They sing in Occitan, a beautifully poetic endangered language spoken by about 1.5 million people across Europe. It's spoken in areas of Southern France, Monaco, Italy's Occitan Valleys, and Catalonia's Val d'Aran (these regions are sometimes referred to as Occitania).

Emmet Ó Briain@emmet· 6d

An unexpected crossover... Last week’s visit of the Beano to Dublin, including Dennis the Menace in the Botanics (@n-auchterlounie.bsky.social) and the Bash Street Kids on Grafton Street, made yesterday’s Martyn Turner in the Irish Times!

Dennis the Menace in the Botanic Gardens in the Beano

The Bash Street Kids on Grafton Street in the Beano

The Beano in Martyn Turner // The Irish Times

Emmet Ó Briain@emmet· 11d

the unnecessary-cardboard-sign-for-state-agency-photo-shoots industry is AI-proof

Man holding sign that says AI Office of Ireland

Emmet Ó Briain@emmet· 14d

A detailed Reddit discussion on: The Pragmatics of Temporal Expressions in Professional Requests in the Irish Workplace “When an Irish colleague says a task is "not urgent at all," how do you know whether they secretly mean it needs doing today anyway?” www.reddit.com/r/AskIreland...

When an Irish colleague says a task is "not urgent at all," how do you know whether they secretly mean it needs doing today anyway?
Work
I am used to fairly direct workplace communication, so I keep misreading the softer Irish version.
On Monday, a colleague gave me a document and said to check it "whenever you get a chance." On Thursday, he casually asked whether I had forgotten about it. Another person regularly says
"no panic," then checks back two hours later because they actually need the answer before lunch.
Nobody is being rude, and I am definately learning that tone matters more than the words. just have not figured out the scale yet.
Is there a reliable difference between "no rush,"
"when you can," and "whenever you get a chance"? What phrase genuinely means it can wait until next week?

Emmet Ó Briain@emmet· 15d

The All-Ireland Poc Fada competition takes place on Monday in its spiritual home on the Cooley Mountains, where women and men of all ages will hit a sliotar up and down the mountain to recreate the legend of Cú Chulainn. Great @rtebrainstorm.bsky.social explainer of the origins and history below 👇

silhouette of a hurler striking a sliotar https://www.dublingaa.ie/news/2025-dublin-poc-fada-finals

original map of the Poc Fada course https://www.rte.ie/images/0020b2bd-1440.jpg

Emmet Ó Briain@emmet· 25d

mushy peas (close up)

close up of authentic mushy peas from an authentic London café

Emmet Ó Briain@emmet· 28d

activities that go together: children playing - ”no ball games”- and 💩 - ”no dog fouling” (collected under the category of “things that aren’t allowed / we don’t want to see”)

two signs on a wall - one says “no ball games” and one says “no dog fouling”

Emmet Ó Briain@emmet· Jul 16

From Viviana Zelizer’s Pricing the priceless child (1985) “Children cannot obtain space and can lose rights to what they have when others demand more, so children suffer…the new 20thC rules for urban outdoor space, designed by adults for their convenience, constricted the public life of children.”

Recent studies of human spatial behavior note the relative powerlessness of children in the distribution of indoor house- hold space. As Mark Baldassare explains, dominant members of a family "can obtain the space they need for their activities ... by taking it from subordinate members... Children cannot obtain space and can lose rights to what they have when others demand more, and so children suffer."91 Similarly, the new twentieth-century rules for urban outdoor space, designed by adults for their convenience, constricted the public life of children. As one fourteen-year-old boy observed perceptively in 1921, "... a child doesn't make traffic rules, drive cars, etc. The child's main object is to keep out of the way of moving vehicles ."

Emmet Ó Briain@emmet· Jul 10

"My only crime was flying a plane full of cocaine into the Midlands"

Simpson quote - "My only crime was driving a truck full of explosives in from Canada"

Emmet Ó Briain@emmet· Jul 9

"If all you can say is, Well, maybe they could guess the hypothesis, then you basically are saying all psychological research is useless."

Emmet Ó Briain@emmet· Jul 9

struck by the below framing of 'public value' in the recent DPER 'Design for Public Value' guidelines ... realistically, is there a way in which these design principles could ever produce expanded public services?? (Or will they simply be used as a general warrant for trimming services?)

Public value
Value for money and public value point in the same direction:
- Did we spend wisely?
- Did it make a difference?
These guidelines help answer both. Government Design Principle eight commits the public service to delivering value in all its forms. Some of this is measurable - reduced friction, improved compliance, fewer errors, ess rework, time saved for staff and for the people using services. Some of this is harder to measure but no less real. A member of staff who feels their work has purpose. A policy that works because the people it affects were involved in shaping it. A process that makes sense because it was built around how people actually live, not how the organisation is
structured. When people are involved in the decisions that affect them, services improve and
trust builds. These guidelines are a practical means of making that happen. Value for money asks whether resources were used efficiently. Public value asks whether what| was delivered actually made a difference. |

Emmet Ó Briain@emmet· Jul 6

the chaotic coherence of the cúl camp aesthetic is a design classic

Emmet Ó Briain@emmet· Jul 5

Where are the boys? I am in the town, looking outward. Time is space; the distance between me and the boys unravels the years before me. Come back to us, boys; come back to me. The multitudes within me are expanding and I am breaking at my seams. I am becoming my own universe, and the boys arenowhere to be seen.

Emmet Ó Briain@emmet· Jul 1

The mental image I get whenever I see the phrase "AI ready" ("Quiet, you awful man!")

Emmet Ó Briain@emmet· Jun 30

AI Compass - bambamramfan.github.io/ai-compass/ I’m…

You Are The Luddite (affectionate)

It doesn't work the way they claim, it's making everything worse, and you'd like your internet back, please. You can explain in precise technical detail why it's a stochastic parrot, and you will, whether or not anyone asked. You're funnier about this than people give you
credit for.

Emmet Ó Briain@emmet· Jun 29

it is stuff like this that makes me so squeamish about the current enthusiasm for designing services for “public value” when “value” is quite obviously extremely narrowly defined or otherwise wholly conflated with economic efficiency

Dublin City Council says that as a result of Phase 1 of the ban on bin bags, savings have been made in resources, "as well as collection and disposal costs for waste management services".

Emmet Ó Briain@emmet· Jun 29

one of the biggest political challenges of the day is stemming the outsourcing of public services to external service providers in the name of “efficiency” or “public value”. Below is the result of this approach to public service “reform” taken to its ultimate - and logical -conclusion…

One pound in every £11 of UK government spending on contractors went to private equity-controlled companies last year, research shows, including key services such as transport, waste management and
healthcare. Politicians and economists have raised concerns over the "financial fragility and sharp cost cutting" created by private equity-backed firms, which often have high levels of debt, and the "conflicting interests" in running public services for
maximum profit.

Emmet Ó Briain@emmet· Jun 26

Road closures for engineering/traffic works act as “prefigurative infrastructure” for walking and cycling, effectively trialing alternative road designs. Below, roadworks have inadvertently created a modal filter, eliminating a local rat run and an unsafe pedestrian crossing in the process.

Road works have eliminated a rat-run and fixed an incredibly unsafe junction for pedestrians, making passage between sections of the linear park at Royal Canal Bank much safer. Despite the engineering works, the reduction in road traffic means it's been quieter too.

Emmet Ó Briain@emmet· Jun 25

Very cool final year project by @tudublin.bsky.social civil engineering students supported by @tudublinsustain.bsky.social - detailed design proposals for a sustainable redevelopment of the St Brendan's clubhouse in Longmeadows, incorporating climate change adaptation strategies (link in alt text)

https://www.tudublin.ie/explore/about-the-university/sustainability/about/news-and-events/news-archive/integrated-design-of-a-gaelic-football-facility--.php

Emmet Ó Briain@emmet· Jun 25

Bart of Darkness... "More friends! More allies! More, I say! Hang those who talk of less!"

Martin Prince in Bart Of Darkness in overcrowded paddling pool: "More friends! More allies! More, I say! Hang those who talk of less!"

Emmet Ó Briain@emmet· Jun 24

This inadvertent modal filter is a massive improvement on the current configuration as it eliminates a rat run used by (speeding) non-residents and fixes an incredibly unsafe crossing where you have to stick your head around a large wall to check if there’s a car coming because there's no footpath

the bit where Geraldine Street meets Royal Canal Bank where you have to stick your head around the wall to check if there’s a car coming (more difficult with buggy/children).

Emmet Ó Briain@emmet· Jun 24

I ended up getting this small run of pin badges made by Spike Badges who are based in Limerick - spikebadges.com - and were really helpful. (they also do lots of their own designs including these really cool 'upcycled map' pin badges...)

About Spike Badges is an independent company designing and popping badges from our Irish studio. Our designs are a celebration of joy and fun. We love flat minimalist design but we do like to jazzy work too. We design, print, cut, pop and package everything in our studio. Our badges are colourful, unique ano
confident. We experiment with paper and fabric and we're always open to interesting collaborations. Established Spike Badges in 2011 and we've grown from strength to strength in partnership with customers,
charities and small businesses. Spike Badges an Associate Member of the Irish Design and Crafts Council.

Snail mail to:
Spike Badges, Rathmale, Mungret, Co.Limerick.
Spike Badges is a registered business in Ireland. No: 450411.

Thanks for stopping by, do let us know if we can help. :)

Emmet Ó Briain@emmet· Jun 23

#fivealive 5 mid-00s Scandipop albums that sparked joy Florian - Florianopolis (2003) The Legends - Up Against The Legends (2004) Montt Mardié - Drama (2005) The LK - Vs. the Snow (2007) Soda Fountain Rag - It's Rag Time! (2008) (see also The Embassy, Radio Dept, TTA + Suburban Kids 😢)

Cover of Soda Fountain Rag - It's Rag time!

Emmet Ó Briain@emmet· Jun 23

Cowtown Yard in Stoneybatter are looking for community support to retain what they have built over the past 4 years, taking an unused yard beside Clarke's and turning it into a vibrant local hub. Local residents can sign the below petition to support their appeal against closure. bit.ly/CowtownYard

Neighborhood Position Statement:
Support for Cowtown Yard For nearly four years, Cowtown Yard has transformed a vacant space into a vibrant community destination. What was once a largely unused yard is now home to local food traders, wellness facilities, community events, and a unique gathering place for people from Stoneybatter and beyond. We are currently pulling together our collective community submission. By filling out this form, you are declaring your support for the community's position to retain. protect, and establish fair planning terms for this space

unused yard beside Clarke's City Arms in Stoneybatter

Outcast Sauna in yard beside Clarke's City Arms in Stoneybatter

Emmet Ó Briain@emmet· Jun 23

Yassssssss

Emmet Ó Briain@emmet· Jun 22

I don't get it...