Derek Bowler

[Derek Bowler @BowlerDerek]

Humbled and honoured to receive the University of Limerick Outstanding Achievement Alumni Award (Society) at the 2026 UL Alumni Awards on Friday night.

It was a privilege to be honoured alongside Donal Ryan, Frances Collins and Martin Cotter, three people whose work I greatly admire.

I walked into UL not entirely sure where it would lead. It led from the Limerick Voice newsroom to verifying eyewitness evidence from some of the world's biggest stories, to building news services for public service media, and on to training journalists around the world. Every step of that road started in Limerick, with people who believed in me before I fully believed in myself.

To my lecturers at UL, Tom Felle, Dr. Emer Connolly, Fiona McGarry, Keith Watterson, Fergal Quinn, mary dundon, Colin McGann, Henry Silke, Ron Kirwan, Kathryn Hayes, Amanda Haynes and Eoin Devereux, thank you for your time, energy and wisdom, and for pushing us all to be better.

Thank you to UL President, Professor Shane Kilcommins, Aoife Madden and Lisa Mc Carthy of the UL Alumni team, and our MC Dr Máire Treasa Ní Cheallaigh for a special evening.

Thank you to the colleagues, collaborators and newsrooms I have been lucky to work alongside, and to my family for their patience and support over all these years.

To every student in the UL newsroom today: at a time when trust in information is under pressure, the skills you are learning have never mattered more.

📸 University of Limerick

[Derek Bowler @BowlerDerek]

A calm-sea radar pass is not a clean pass. Over Umm Al Quwain, the Sentinel-1 passes on 9, 12 and 18 October show no slick, but each had wind below the 2 to 3 m/s EMSA gives as the floor for seeing oil, so none can rule a leak out; the first pass with enough wind, on 21 October, shows a slick about 35 km long. Here is how we read them: https://t.co/TtTaa03Aka

[Jim O'Callaghan TD @OCallaghanJim]

The video produced by the DRCC involving grandparents does not represent the views of the Government. It was both inappropriate and demeaning to grandparents and has been removed by DRCC following my officials engagement with them.

[Derek Bowler @BowlerDerek]

@peterrutzler The sand is leased, and they’re behind on payments.

[Derek Bowler @BowlerDerek]

A ship’s name, flag and MMSI can all change; the IMO number is the only stable identity anchor, which matters when a tanker like the Turba can broadcast a position more than four miles from where it actually lay. Our Methods capstone puts every discipline in the series into one port-to-port workflow: https://t.co/mqgImQscgX #OSINT

[Derek Bowler @BowlerDerek]

To the good folks over at @Buseireann, the tricolour over Parnell Place bus station is shredded. If ye won't replace it, at least lower it to half-mast so the passengers have something to grieve with 🇮🇪 #Corcaigh

[Derek Bowler @BowlerDerek]

Full workflow: https://t.co/2SoNAKiqLw

[Derek Bowler @BowlerDerek]

On 4 April 2022, the New York Times matched the exact street positions of bodies in Bucha, Ukraine ground video against Maxar satellite imagery dated as early as 9 March, while Russian forces still held the town.

[Derek Bowler @BowlerDerek]

Every model-generated candidate gets graded against the cross-referencing standard we use here: Possible for model output alone, Probable with one primary-source confirmation, Corroborated with two or more.

[Derek Bowler @BowlerDerek]

We've laid out the full workflow, tools, and opsec considerations in AIV-002, out now for Signal tier subscribers. https://t.co/7Qw1bAOUWs

[Derek Bowler @BowlerDerek]

In January 2024, an audio recording spread online appearing to capture Pikesville High School principal Eric Eiswert making racist remarks. Baltimore County Police confirmed in April 2024 it was entirely AI-generated.

[Derek Bowler @BowlerDerek]

That gap is why we lean on the cross-referencing standard behind evidentiary-grade verification rather than a single detector's confidence score.

[Derek Bowler @BowlerDerek]

Full workflow, including the verification record template, out now for Signal tier subscribers: https://t.co/CEHczLNoWe

[Derek Bowler @BowlerDerek]

In 2018, BBC Africa Eye verified crisis footage that led to the identification of Cameroonian soldiers who executed two women and two children.

[Derek Bowler @BowlerDerek]

Our new capstone tutorial builds that same four-layer discipline (location, time, source, satellite) into a single sequence for verifying new footage.