Dr Síbhe Ní Fhathaigh

Enfant terrible; Ardéchoise cœur fidèle; Baix-Galway-Sydney-Whyanbeel; environment, all things law, politics & culture in a personal capacity

[Dr Síbhe Ní Fhathaigh @Sibhe01]

It is funny all right to suddenly see “all of these bros suddenly worrying about Greek literature”, not realising that Ancient Greece practised gender fluidity in all aspect of its civil and religious life. https://t.co/EbJXkPHTLD

[Eoin Ó Broin @EOBroin]

The Defective Concrete Block grant scheme is broken.

Only 527 homes have been remediated in 8 years!

The Minister for Housing must bring forward the review of the scheme as a matter of urgency.

Impacted homeowners & renters must have a real 100% end-to-end redress scheme.

[Brendan Mulligan @BrendanM56]

Sustainable data centre development is an oxymoron.

[Dr Síbhe Ní Fhathaigh @Sibhe01]

“History should not be subservient to nationalism (…) but to criticism, methodical (Cartesian) doubt and truth based on facts”.

[C dans l'air @Cdanslair]

"Marc Bloch était un obstiné de la vérité. Il était d’abord français, républicain, et il pensait que l’histoire ne devait pas être asservie au nationalisme (...) mais à la critique, au doute méthodique et à la vérité des faits". @ericfotto
invité de @Caroline_Roux #cdanslair.

[Yuval Noah Harari @harari_yuval]

Yesterday I had the privilege of attending Marc Bloch's reburial ceremony at the Panthéon – Paris' monument to the most outstanding citizens of France. Bloch was honored not only as one of the greatest French historians, but also as a man who chose resistance over safety when his country fell into darkness.

Bloch fought in two World Wars, and received multiple awards for bravery. By the time the pro-Nazi Vichy regime came to power in 1940, Bloch was already recognized as perhaps the preeminent historian of medieval France. He continued to teach history, and during that time wrote 'Strange Defeat', a book explaining the French defeat in 1940, and 'The Historian’s Craft', a meditation on history and historiography. Bloch also joined the Résistance and became one of its leaders.

On March 8, 1944 Bloch was captured during a crackdown on the Résistance by the Nazis and their French collaborators. At the time, collaborationist French newspapers celebrated Bloch’s capture. They highlighted his Jewish identity, and referred to the historian as a traitor to France, describing the Résistance as a Jewish-Bolshevik terrorist organization. Bloch was imprisoned and tortured at the Gestapo headquarters in Lyon, and was executed on June 16, 1944, ten days after the Allied landing in Normandy.

I am a medievalist by training, and have been deeply influenced by Bloch. What moved me most about Bloch is his uncompromising commitment to truth. For him, history was never nostalgia or mythmaking, but a discipline of honesty – a way of resisting propaganda, prejudice, and the comfort of convenient fictions. For Bloch, truth was not just an intellectual position, but a spiritual practice. Anticipating his death at the hands of the Gestapo and the Vichy regime, the Jewish historian and freedom fighter left behind detailed instructions for his burial. He wrote:

“I have not asked to have read above my body those Jewish prayers to the cadence of which so many of my ancestors, including my father, were laid to rest. All my life I have striven to achieve complete sincerity in word and thought. I hold that any compromise with untruth, no matter what the pretext, is the mark of a human soul’s ultimate corruption. […] That is why I find it impossible, at this moment of my last farewell, when, if ever, a man should be true to himself, to authorize any use of those formulae of an orthodoxy to the beliefs of which I have ever refused to subscribe.
But I should hate to think that anyone might read into this statement of personal integrity even the remotest approximation to a coward’s denial. I am prepared, therefore, if necessary, to affirm here, in the face of death, that I was born a Jew: that I have never denied it, nor ever been tempted to do so. […] A stranger to all credal dogmas, as to all pretended community of life and spirit based on race, I have, through life, felt that I was above all, and quite simply, a Frenchman. A family tradition, already of long date, has bound me firmly to my country. I have found nourishment in her spiritual heritage and in her history. I can, indeed, think of no other land whose air I could have breathed with such a sense of ease and freedom. I have loved her greatly, and served her with all my strength. I have never found that the fact of being a Jew has at all hindered these sentiments. Though I have fought in two wars, it has not fallen to my lot to die for France. But I can, at least, in all sincerity, declare that I die now, as I have lived, a good Frenchman.”

By his request, a Latin epitaph was carved on Bloch’s grave: dilexi veritatem (“I have loved the truth”).

Watching Bloch's memory honored at the Panthéon yesterday did not feel like a tribute to the past as much as a challenge to the present. As dark clouds gather once again, how many of us today can demonstrate Bloch's level of integrity and fearlessness?

[Dr Síbhe Ní Fhathaigh @Sibhe01]

Bias or the perception of bias is not something to be dismissed lightly when it comes to those in charge of making planning and zoning decisions. A treasure trove for journalists.

[Dara Bradley @Barnacles09]

Galway Ring Road latest: Environmentalists lodge complaint over ACP Chair https://t.co/dty2Lu21xD

[The Ditch @wereontheditch]

The High Court has ruled a vulture fund illegally evicted a woman and her son with special needs from their home of 20 years – during an action gardaí and an asset management company linked to a convicted criminal assisted at.

https://t.co/IPyECOTRMq

[CUP Linguistics @CambUP_LangLing]

The Secret History of Language by Lyle Campbell.
From ancient scripts to newest words, this engaging book unravels the marvels and mysteries of language change and language history.
📚 https://t.co/Litc3uNruP

[Environmental Trust Ireland🇮🇪🌳🌳💚🐬🐬 @IrelandTrust]

Against the odds - Environmental Trust Ireland(ETI) won a Landmark High Court Case against the #Aughinish Red Mud Expansion & quarry expansion. ETI stood ALONE in bringing this case @Galwaybaywatch @SocialRightsIRL @limerickpost @limerick_leader
@Live95fmNews
#Limerick

[TheJournal.ie @thejournal_ie]

Ivana Bacik: It's time that religious institutions paid their dues and were held to account for historical child abuse...

https://t.co/B37023fBa0

[Dr Síbhe Ní Fhathaigh @Sibhe01]

This “offer” is less than the bare minimum. https://t.co/HHEEj3T004

[Dr Síbhe Ní Fhathaigh @Sibhe01]

Housing Agency spends €7,000 on French Riviera hotel stays for officials

https://t.co/zyh36cy1wd

[Eoin Ó Broin @EOBroin]

The price of new build homes, esp in cities, is out of control.

The housing crisis will not be solved while such high prices persist.

Govt policy has to focus on bringing these prices down, not providing more subsidies.

Read the @daftmedia report here: https://t.co/sbuMYZwpLz

[TheJournal.ie @thejournal_ie]

A coalition of homeless service providers say they are 'greatly disturbed' at the speed in which the new housing bill is 'being rushed' through the Houses of the Oireachtas.

The 12 providers said the bill will add to Ireland's escalating homeless crisis https://t.co/We7NtMNUVA

[Dr Síbhe Ní Fhathaigh @Sibhe01]

More bad housing policy. Developers took advantage of the government’s waivers by registering commencements but are either stretching out build times or did not start construction.

https://t.co/11QVVQr3xE

[Dr Síbhe Ní Fhathaigh @Sibhe01]

After all the subsidies the government granted to developers …

[Eoin Ó Broin @EOBroin]

12 month rolling new home comencements at a 7 year low.

June 2025 - May 2026 - 24,499 new home starts.

We are back to 2018/2019 levels.

Even accounting for the artifical spike caused by the waiver deadlines, this is concerning.

Ultimately it is completions that matter, but...

[Dr Síbhe Ní Fhathaigh @Sibhe01]

This is what bad housing policy looks like https://t.co/DsZ1Li8PeC

[Dr Síbhe Ní Fhathaigh @Sibhe01]

This is happening in Galway East too. It’s a systematic failure of both Councils to enforce planning conditions and should be investigated by the OPR if a complaint with the relevant data is filed

[Dr Síbhe Ní Fhathaigh @Sibhe01]

Australia confirms first case of bird flu as virus reaches every continent https://t.co/kgcOQOh7I5

[RTÉ News @rtenews]

Scientists have detected H5 strain of bird flu in Australia for first time, meaning the highly contagious variant has now spread to every continent https://t.co/CVeY5dKUFC