Celtique

Zig-zags between Ireland+Canada, family+university, library+computer lab. Travel ninja. CriFi addict. Peabody winner, professor, mother of 4, grandmother.

[Richard Morris @ahistoryinart]

'Evening, Killarney.' (1941) Speaking to an art critic in the 1930s, Paul Henry said: 'What always strikes me about the Irish landscape is its otherworldliness. There's an air of mystery about it ... you feel that anything may happen round the corner.'

[John Simpson @JohnSimpsonNews]

From today’s Times: ‘Researchers at the University of Cambridge said that regardless of “what or how we read”, sitting down with a book is linked to improved health and problem solving. Benefits include lowering stress and reducing the risk of dementia, and span all types of reading, from comic books to classic novels or hefty non-fiction tomes.’

[Brendan May @bmay]

A French film explaining what would happen if non whites did what angry white racists want them to do by going back to where they came from. Absolutely sublime. We need this sort of creativity here.

[The Irish Politics Newsletter @IrishPoliticsNL]

Breaking: Donald Trump says, "I'd love to see Ireland unified".

Which is darkly amusing, seeing as most of his support on the island of Ireland comes from the DUP.

[Alex Mather @AlexDRMather]

Homelessness down 8% in Toronto while it rose 18% across Ontario over the same period is quite the data-backed endorsement of Olivia Chow’s approach.

[Robbie Harris @robbiebodhran]

The great uilleann piper Paddy Keenan has passed away. His music carried the wild heartbeat of tradition and will echo for generations. May he rest in peace.

[James @james1ach]

"We can’t believe that anyone could be unkind to us and still be genuinely fond of us, although we do it all the time."

[Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand]

This sounds completely unreal but I double checked and it's true: the Eiffel Tower was closed on Monday due to a Hindu sect that demanded that all women "make themselves invisible" so their 93-year-old guru wouldn't have to see them.

The sect in question is BAPS - "Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha," which roughly translates to "the organization of Swaminarayan followers who believe in Akshar Purushottam, based in Bochasan" (a village in Gujarat).

It's a very wealthy organization with deep ties to Modi's BJP (Modi is himself from Gujarat), known for building mega-temples around the world and whose doctrine demands absolute obedience to a living guru as the sole path to God.

It's not their first controversy: in 2021, the FBI raided their massive New Jersey temple after workers - mostly Dalits, India's lowest caste (the so-called "untouchables") - alleged they'd been lured to the US on fake religious visas, had their passports confiscated, and were forced to work 13-hour days for about $1 an hour, confined to a guarded compound (see https://t.co/kTNzdZWtoe).

Long story short, they just opened a new mega-temple in France (the website: https://t.co/4g6HW9bBPy) - specifically in Bussy-Saint-Georges (30km away from Paris) - presented as "the biggest Hindu temple built in continental Europe in a traditional style" (https://t.co/exbFjzLe2k).

Their guru was there for the inauguration and, as you do, wanted to visit the Eiffel Tower while in France. But, thing is, his doctrine dictates that women must not be in his presence.

And here is where it gets unreal: when his entourage requested a private visit, the Eiffel Tower's management actually agreed to the terms and ordered all female employees - including subcontractors - to hide (https://t.co/Sm7yb5LMFq).

This was on Saturday and, France being France (in a good way), on Monday the women who'd been told to make themselves invisible made themselves very, very visible: the staff went on strike and shut down the Eiffel Tower.

So there you have it, unreal but true: the Eiffel Tower, symbol of the French Republic, is closed because a 93-year-old Hindu guru refuses to be in the presence of women.

(picture below the picture of their guru on his visit, taken from https://t.co/4FRKezWJvq)

[Dieter MacPherson 🇨🇦 🚀🌕 @dmacpher]

If you care about Canadian digital sovereignty save and share this website, it is a directory of Canadian alternatives to American tech companies. https://t.co/zoqW3QMkfv

[Philippe Roi @7559pr]

Un grand roman peut nous obliger à passer trois cents pages auprès d’un être que nous aurions fui en moins d’une minute dans la vie réelle. Nous découvrons ses mensonges, ses lâchetés, ses contradictions, parfois même ses crimes. Nous constatons alors quelque chose que le jugement immédiat ne permet pas de comprendre. Un être humain peut être à la fois coupable et bouleversant, monstrueux et généreux, ridicule et attachant.
Stendhal ne cherche pas à justifier Julien Sorel ; Balzac ne nous demande pas d’aimer Vautrin ; Flaubert ne s’emploie pas à susciter notre indulgence envers Emma Bovary, ni Dostoïevski à absoudre Raskolnikov, mais tous nous empêchent de réduire un être humain à ce que nous savons de lui.
Peut-être que l’une des fonctions les plus précieuses de la littérature consiste à nous affranchir de ce conditionnement qui précipite nos jugements, afin de nous rappeler qu’une vie ne tient jamais tout entière dans un seul mot, une seule faute ou une seule opinion.
Nous pensions que lire des romans nous apprenait à connaître les autres. Peut-être nous apprennent-ils surtout à ne pas les juger trop vite.

[Celtique @Celtique]

@CoopTory

[Gena Gorlin @Gena_I_Gorlin]

Whoa- this is the most fantastic pedagogical tool I’ve encountered in as long as I can remember (which is a helluva high bar, considering who I live with).

I’m so excited to have my 6yo play with it! And you all should too.

https://t.co/vv8QVMO7VP

[Chris Deerin @chrisdeerin]

Phenomenal piece of insightful journalism by one of our best journalists. All in one take, too 🫡

[Danielle Franz @DanielleBFranz]

A farmer in Henry County, Kentucky, put down his pencil today.

He spent sixty years telling us to go home, stay there, and take care of what we were given.

Kentucky is quieter tonight. So is the country. Rest well, Wendell.

[The New Yorker @NewYorker]

A poem by Wendell Berry, who died yesterday at age 92. https://t.co/cAjR4iTs7u

[James Melville 🚜 @JamesMelville]

Constable Sukhvinder “Suki” Singh Sunger of the Vancouver Police Pipe Band made history as the first turbaned Sikh drum major to lead the march at the 2026 Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo. He looks absolutely magnificent.

[C. Sallustius @CSallustius]

Submariners in most navies have a reputation for eating rather better than everyone else, presumably because decent food helps morale when you are literally living beneath the waves for months at a time. But naturally the French have taken this further. Other navies feed their submariners well. The French appear to have opened a small bistro at 300 metres.

[Ian Duhig FRSL @ianduhig]

Missed Mary Shelley's birthday yesterday but here's one of her favourite badges in later life.

[S Sebag Montefiore @simonmontefiore]

The tyrants of Iran - after massacring 30-40,000 innocent people -are now hanging innocent young people from cranes in public and in secret.
This is one of those great moral tests of our time, of humanity over ideology.
Keep shouting about this. Keep remembering them.

[Orla Joelsen @OJoelsen]

Trump just posted this video featuring armed geese — all sporting what appears to be Trump-style hair.