Pádraig Durnin

Really enjoyed presenting my research paper, 'Anti-Apartheid in Britain: From Classical Anti-Colonialism to the New Anti-Imperialism, 1960-1975', at Friday's 'Investigating Anti-Apartheid Networks' workshop. Thanks so much to
Connal Parr & @padraigdurnin.bsky.social for the invitation!

Glasgow City Council: You finish that mural of Mary Barbour?
Artist: Sure did boss, real fuckin sexy just like you asked.
Glasgow City Council: What.

An afternoon of English non-league football (the Southern Counties East Division One Cup final no less).

Great trip down to Bristol to speak about the Dunnes anti-apartheid strike and the Irish labour movement in the 1980s at the Radical History Festival over the weekend – never having been down here at all before it I wasn't sure what to expect but it's a great place to visit!

Think it's actually a Housing Exec property if I remember rightly?

Will miss him! Came to Tannadice with plenty clubs under his belt when neither us nor his career were at a high point yet managed to radiate the demeanour of a boyhood fan living the dream. Probably time to move on but would love to see him back in a coaching role down the line.

If anyone has a copy of Ben Turok's Nothing But the Truth they're willing to lend/part with for a bit less than the forty-odd quid it's going for online give me a shout – happy to pay for it and/or cover the postage.

Largely moribund outside a few pockets, think the last chance to seriously revive it was probably the rush of new members it had post-2014, but it was too ossified to turn that into a new generation of activists. That said, I'm interested to see what happens if they manage to consolidate here.

Alba vote in the Southside in 2022 was mostly off the back of a split in the local SNP largely centred in the Pakistani community, so it's probably not from there. As to the SSP: they ran a pretty serious campaign w/ regular stalls, leafleting, community engagement, and a decent local candidate.

Don't have many illusions in the SSP as a national organisation in 2025 (still looks essentially moribund beyond a few small pockets), but I'm interested to see what might happen if there's a serious effort to consolidate and build up Olivia Murphy's profile in the area over the next few years.

SSP showing that a small left party with no press visibility can still register when it runs a serious campaign with a local candidate that starts more than two weeks before polling day – wouldn't have been miles off a seat in the four-seater ward here if this was a full election.

A work in progress draw of two figures placed in front of a tree. Gulls are flying around one of the figures and there are fragments of drawn people and landscapes behind them

‘They each would wear the other one’s shoes’ I’m imagining Neil Gow as an old Presbyterian minister with him and Dougie Maclean. Neil is the ghost from the Michael Marra song. He’s got a bit missing. I rather fancy that’s true of ghosts, they’re like us in that way, bits missing, broken.

With Nujoma passes the era of Africa's liberation generation of leaders – his name came up in a document I was reading this week for work and thought crossed my head that he was possibly the last living person anywhere to largely undisputedly hold the title of "father of the nation".

Interested on literature on the South African intelligence services activities in Europe and North America during the 1970s and 80s: infiltration/sabotage of anti-apartheid activism, links to the transnational far-right, collaboration/conflict with US/British/European intelligence services etc.

Realised my knowledge on this is a lot more fragmented and anecdotal than it ought to be! It's an area a lot of work on anti-apartheid (inc. what I've done myself) has tended to elide.

Interested on literature on the South African intelligence services activities in Europe and North America during the 1970s and 80s: infiltration/sabotage of anti-apartheid activism, links to the transnational far-right, collaboration/conflict with US/British/European intelligence services etc.

Image of four copies of Siblinghood and Sociability in Nineteenth-Century Ulster by Shannon Devlin and some lovely flowers.

A copy of Siblinghood and Sociability in Nineteenth-Century Ulster by Shannon Devlin against a blue sky.

Happy publication week! Delighted (& slightly terrified) my first book is out in the wild for everyone to read 😂 Had so much fun going down the rabbit hole researching these families and hope that’s evident on the page #histfam

(both from Daniel Geary's 2020 article 'From Belfast to Bob Jones: Ian Paisley, Protestant fundamentalism, and the transatlantic right')

Nothing quite like the high Paisleyite world view expanded from Ulster to global affairs at large.

Soldiers Abduct Three Palestinians In Hebron And Nablus On Sunday at dawn, Israeli soldiers abducted three Palestinians from Hebron and Nablus, in the southern and northern parts of the occupied West Bank. Media ...

Abdul-Hakim Wadi from Qusra village, near Nablus, was kidnapped from his home in a dawn raid by Zionist occupation forces. Rafat Taha and Abdullah Az-Zein were also kidnapped in Hebron.

imemc.org/article/sold...

Upcoming event

Online talk: Life in Balata refugee camp (details attached).

⏰ Tuesday 21 January at 6pm GMT.

Please register here: us02web.zoom.us/meeting/regi... (free to members and non members)

The Dundee Nablus Twinning Association is now on Bsky!

We'll share Dundee and Nablus news here so please follow us and share 🇵🇸🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Membership is available to all: dundee-nablus.org.uk/join-us/

How Irish diplomats reacted to Bernadette Devlin's 1969 US tour The Irish Government found themselves in a delicate position when the civil rights activist and newly elected MP toured the US in 1969

My first piece on the new volume of @difp-ria.bsky.social (&first Bluesky post!), and it’s all about Irish diplomacy during Bernadette Devlin McAliskey’s 1969 US tour:
www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2... @rtebrainstorm.bsky.social

On one hand there's Noel Edmonds-esque cosmic ordering to bring an ex-partner back, or encouraging what's essentially stalking 'to make them realise they miss you', on the other there's diagnosing extreme personality orders in statements like 'they claim they saw different reasons for the argument'.

Have been going through a difficult end to a relationship recently and I don't think I've ever seen anything as noxious if not dangerous as the sort of thing the Instagram algorithm has served up since it figured it out (presumably from harvesting data from DMs?).

Always had a real fondness for this bit of country. Standing stones, hillforts, dragon-slaying blacksmiths etc.

Two very old milestones in the Howe o' Strathmartine (at Balluderon and Bridgefoot). Anyone know anything about dating them?

Sky Sports defying the cynics who say they don’t take the Dundee derby seriously by not confusing the two teams once during the entire three-minute pre-match build-up

If you remember, you remember.