Lisa MacDonald

Lecturer SMO, EY, writer, singer, teacher, PhD student Edinburgh. Mnathan na Còigich/The Women of Coigach (2022), Taigael (2025)

[Lisa MacDonald @Cocoannwyl]

Hive mind, I need some help. Does anyone know of anyone who collects flags? Shipping lines, port authorities, Northern Lighthouse Board, Trinity House - you name it, I have them. What can I do with them?! #vexillology #vexillophile

[Lisa MacDonald @Cocoannwyl]

Good day. #Skiffieworlds #Stranraer

[Lisa MacDonald @Cocoannwyl]

Awesome set-up for #SkiffieWorlds2025 !

[Lisa MacDonald @Cocoannwyl]

@i_iratus I’m tall - though not as tall as you - and I find that the looming sensation is made up for by the fact that I can fetch things down from high shelves in the supermarket for the loomed-over.

[Lisa MacDonald @Cocoannwyl]

@Dunringle Congratulations! Many adventures await.

[Lisa MacDonald @Cocoannwyl]

Thanks, @suzannezeedyk . This is what I needed to see today.

[Suzanne Zeedyk @suzannezeedyk]

https://t.co/9m5CL2brBb

[Lisa MacDonald @Cocoannwyl]

Great idea… films, plural, are the way to go.

[Lesley Riddoch @LesleyRiddoch]

Loads of folk have made films about Scotland. Maybe it’s time we started making our own. #ThisisScotland

[Arthur Cormack @artmaccarmaig]

From The Times.

[Lisa MacDonald @Cocoannwyl]

@Stevens_Han Hi Hannah! Sorry, it doesn’t seem to have come in… not sure why. Yes please, DM me here!

[Lisa MacDonald @Cocoannwyl]

Abair gu bheil seo math…

[Lisa McGee @LisaMMcGee]

This is wonderful. Uncle Colm in Irish. The work of the one and only Uncle Colm himself - the legend that is Kevin McAleer #DerryGirls

[The New Yorker @NewYorker]

The world’s biggest colonial power prided itself on being a liberal democracy. Was this part of the problem? https://t.co/l3WK9ixYdk

[Lisa MacDonald @Cocoannwyl]

@philcoghill Mealaibh ur naidheachd!

[Lisa MacDonald @Cocoannwyl]

This - so much.

[Naomi Fisher @naomicfisher]

What a strange thing we do to our young people in this culture and time.

We make them spend several years learning things which they often have no interest in, which they have not chosen and which they will in many cases never use again. We tell them that these things are vitally important.

Then we sit them in rows and make them write about the things they can remember for an intense few hours. We compare what they have written down with everyone else of the same age, and then we rank them.

We make them wait a couple of months and then we tell some that they are the successes, and others that they are the failures. We encourage them to hang their self-worth on how they performed. Newspapers publish pictures of the delighted, whilst the disappointed hide their heads in shame.

We tell them that these results will determine the rest of their lives – and then we set up systems that make this true. We provide fewer opportunities for those who did not succeed. Those who did well can take their pick of courses, whilst those who did not are made to take the same tests again and again, just to hammer it home.

We make sure that young people spend the majority of their adolescence focused on exams and pressure. Every summer, they sit in rows and try to remember. Each year, they’re told that their whole future rests on this.

Many of them inevitably cave in under the pressure. They become anxious and depressed. They show signs of burnout by the age of 16. They lose their spark, and just go through the motions. Some of them retreat altogether.

Then we pathologise them, say that they need mental health treatment or to become more resilient. We send them for therapy or give them medication. We say that they are the problem, whilst the system carries on unchanged.

What if instead we stopped to think about what we are doing to our young people?

Adolescence is a time of opportunity and vulnerability. It’s a one-off stage of life. What if we asked ourselves, should our young people really spend these years on a conveyor belt of high stakes exams?

Imagine we allowed ourselves to look beyond this time and place, and to see just how strange this really is. What would we offer our young people then?

[Alastair McIntosh @alastairmci]

@GerryHassan The drugs problem is mostly a poverty problem, and the poverty problem is mostly a problem of lack of agency and vision to include those at the bottom of the social pile. It’s not that Scotland doesn’t care, it’s that we lack the macro economic levers, and some lack the interest.

[Lisa MacDonald @Cocoannwyl]

This is not the complete answer to all that is going on, and I’m not even so sure about the ‘race’ thing, since we are all members of the human race. However, here is what courageous and dignified politicians can sound like if they are serious about peace.

[The SDLP @SDLPlive]

Difference is an accident of birth.
Difference is of the essence of humanity.
Respect for difference is the first and deepest principle of real peace.

Today, on John Hume’s 4th anniversary, his core belief is more important than ever.

[Lisa MacDonald @Cocoannwyl]

I found this piece on sports and gender very interesting to read.

[Susan M Shaw @feministgadfly]

@LauraRbnsn Thought you might be interested in my piece today on this topic:

https://t.co/qPZ4yBXxR5

[Lisa MacDonald @Cocoannwyl]

Latha brèagha aig Regatta Ulapuil. Cha b’ urrainn na b’ fheàrr. Get the sunscreen on! #what’sthatshinythinginthesky?

[Lisa MacDonald @Cocoannwyl]

If only there was a club of like-minded people we could join…

[Ursula von der Leyen @vonderleyen]

Today, Ireland is receiving its first payment under #NextGenerationEU.

€324 million in EU investments for railways, clean tech, and digitising schools.

This is happening because of Ireland’s impressive progress on its reform agenda.

Maith thú Ireland!

[Lisa MacDonald @Cocoannwyl]

@liusaidhbeattie You ran an excellent, positive campaign, Lucy. Your time will come. x