Dr Una McIlvenna

@unamcilvenna

Associate Professor at ANU who writes about – and sometimes sings – ballads about executions, disasters, military conflicts & politics from the 16th to the 19th century. Personal website: unamcilvenna.com

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Dr Una McIlvenna@unamcilvenna· Jun 24

I’m reading Sarah Wynn-Williams’ excellent exposé from her time at Facebook, & the greatest takeaway, apart from the fact that the tech billionaires are all total sociopaths with zero morals, is how truly stupid & ignorant they are. We keep hearing the word ‘genius’ about them but it’s the opposite

Dr Una McIlvenna@unamcilvenna· Jun 23

Especially this bit

Dr Una McIlvenna@unamcilvenna· Jun 9

I’m sure the Germans have a word for it, but it’s a very particular and special kind of pride you feel when you receive your own PhD student’s book in the post. @natcutter.bsky.social I could not be more proud 🥰

Dr Una McIlvenna@unamcilvenna· May 25

Hey, if you're near Utrecht this coming Thursday, I'm giving the UUCEMS/Descartes Centre annual public lecture, on disaster ballads. It starts at 3:30pm, it's free, and there will be drinks after! I might even try to sing something in Dutch (should be good for a laugh)! www.uu.nl/en/events/le...

Dr Una McIlvenna@unamcilvenna· Apr 11

Dutch friends! (And other Low Countries folk!) I'm going to be spending the month of May on a Descartes Centre fellowship at Utrecht University, so hoping to catch up with as many of you as possible. I'm also giving the UUCEMS public lecture on 28 May - do come along :)

Flyer advertising my talk at the UUCEMS annual lecture: 'Disaster Ballads in early modern and 19th-century Europe' on 28 May, 3:30-5pm in the Janskerkhof 2-3, 0.13

Dr Una McIlvenna@unamcilvenna· Feb 26

Cover-Up. What a fantastic documentary about Seymour Hersh, the investigative journalist who broke the story of the My Lai massacre during the Vietnam war and Abu Ghraib. www.theguardian.com/film/2025/oc... This one line near the end really stood out to me:

Dr Una McIlvenna@unamcilvenna· Feb 14

If it’s the Vogue diet from the 70s, it’s genuinely very effective:

Dr Una McIlvenna@unamcilvenna· Feb 9

Best sign yet at the Melbourne protest against the visit of the war criminal Isaac Herzog, president of Israel:

Dr Una McIlvenna@unamcilvenna· Feb 9

Proud to be here protesting with my Jewish friends, as appalled as I am by the genocide in Gaza.

Dr Una McIlvenna@unamcilvenna· Feb 9

Huge numbers here in Melbourne protesting the state-sponsored visit of the war criminal Isaac Herzog, president of Israel. We have shut down the centre of the city 💪🏽💪🏽💪🏽🍉🍉🍉🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸

Dr Una McIlvenna@unamcilvenna· Feb 8

Reading up on Martin Nowak, the Harvard prof who partied with Epstein (and who is still employed by @harvard.edu ) and suddenly the persecution and subsequent resignation of Claudine Gay is making a whole lot more sense…..

Dr Una McIlvenna@unamcilvenna· Feb 6

Another Georgian skater, another superb costume 🔥

Dr Una McIlvenna@unamcilvenna· Feb 6

God, I love the winter Olympics so much, maybe even more than the summer ones. In every sport, the athletes are millimetres from instant death. And the Georgian ice skating outfits are 🔥🔥🔥

Dr Una McIlvenna@unamcilvenna· Feb 5

I was wondering where my cat was going during the hot days….

Sun lounger with a cat’s paw poking out from underneath

Dr Una McIlvenna@unamcilvenna· Jan 27

Gotta say, it’s a bit surreal watching all these videos of Snowmageddon from North America when here in Melbourne we’re due to hit 110 Fahrenheit today

Dr Una McIlvenna@unamcilvenna· Jan 24

Ok, this is something I’ve never seen before: tomorrow’s weather forecast here in Melbourne predicts that it will be hotter at midnight tonight than it 3 pm tomorrow 🤯

Dr Una McIlvenna@unamcilvenna· Dec 30

Happy to share my glowing review of the 100Ballads.org site, which has just been published in Early Modern Digital Review: jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/em... It's a fantastic site for anyone interested in early modern English ballads. Check it out!

17th-century ballad about the Great Fire of London

Dr Una McIlvenna@unamcilvenna· Nov 25

Tell me again how great AI is - this one can't even tell time 🙄

Dr Una McIlvenna@unamcilvenna· Nov 10

I think it’s one of the most beautiful things Ive ever seen. The scene where she and the brother are leaving and she’s in this green dress which picks up on the moss covering the tower - I just gasped at the beauty. The colours everywhere! 😍

Dr Una McIlvenna@unamcilvenna· Nov 7

LOL American gas is so cheap!! We could only dream of gas that price...

Dr Una McIlvenna@unamcilvenna· Nov 7

Ooh!! I'll have to add that one to my (extremely long) list of contrafacts to La Marseillaise!! Here's the 'Southern Marseillaise', sung by a *very* different group of people:

Dr Una McIlvenna@unamcilvenna· Oct 30

Well, Mountbatten is certainly an appropriate name for the Pedophile Prince. Andrew was just keeping up a long family tradition:

In 2019, files became public showing that the FBI knew in the 1940s of allegations that Mountbatten was homosexual and a paedophile.[140][141] The FBI file on Mountbatten, begun after he took on the role of Supreme Allied Commander in Southeast Asia in 1944, describes Mountbatten and his wife Edwina as "persons of extremely low morals", and contains a claim by American author Elizabeth, Baroness Decies, that Mountbatten was known to be a homosexual and had "a perversion for young boys".[138][142] Norman Nield, Mountbatten's driver from 1942 to 1943, told the tabloid New Zealand Truth that he transported young boys aged 8 to 12 who had been procured for the Admiral to Mountbatten's official residence and was paid to keep quiet.

. Robin Bryans had also claimed to the Irish magazine Now that Mountbatten and Anthony Blunt, along with others, were part of a ring that engaged in homosexual orgies and procured boys in their first year at public schools such as the Portora Royal School in Enniskillen. Former residents of the Kincora Boys' Home in Belfast have asserted that they were trafficked to Mountbatten at Classiebawn Castle, his residence in Mullaghmore, County Sligo.[143][144][145] These claims were dismissed by the Northern Ireland Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry (HIA).[146][123][147] The HIA stated that the article making the original allegations "did not give any basis for the assertions that any of these people [Mountbatten and others] were connected with Kincora".[146]

In October 2022 Arthur Smyth, a former resident of Kincora, waived his anonymity to make allegations of child abuse against Mountbatten.[148] The allegations are part of a civil case against state authorities responsible for the care of children in Kincora.[148] Smyth claims that he was raped twice by Mountbatten in encounters facilitated by the house father of Kincora.[149] In 2025, a book reported allegations by five men that Mountbatten had raped them when they were children in Kincora.[150]

Dr Una McIlvenna@unamcilvenna· Oct 21

I had never heard of Lindsey Halligan until reading this, but funnily enough, this is exactly what I thought she would look like

Dr Una McIlvenna@unamcilvenna· Oct 18

The Helen Lewis article in the Atlantic about the Riyadh comedy festival is superb. The section on Jimmy Carr alone should win awards. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

Dr Una McIlvenna@unamcilvenna· Oct 7

Pretty standard for most Commonwealth countries, with some recent changes. UK Circuit judges in Crown court wear wig, violet robe w/ lilac facings & tippet (lilac 4 civil, red 4 crime). On ceremonial occasions, circuit judges also wear a matching hood, wig, black breeches, stockings + buckled shoes.

Dr Una McIlvenna@unamcilvenna· Oct 6

I mean, just look at this photo. Look at these crowds. What the hell does Starmer think he's doing? Does he think the public supports a ban on people asking for peace? A ban that says 'arrest grannies as terrorists'? What a colossal f*ck up. www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

Dr Una McIlvenna@unamcilvenna· Oct 4

Hey ABC Radio National, thrilled that you've had such a good response to your Top 100 Books of the 21st century, but given that you're about to write about this quite a bit, maybe inform your reporters that a novel is a work of fiction. If it's non-fiction, it's not a novel.

Dr Una McIlvenna@unamcilvenna· Oct 3

It was Tempest :)

Dr Una McIlvenna@unamcilvenna· Sep 30

This is EXACTLY what I find constantly in Australia:

Dr Una McIlvenna@unamcilvenna· Sep 29

Reason #874,098,897,034 why AI should be banned from education: