#northern ireland posting

[saintsenara]

Ur comment about Tom watching Antiques Roadshow with fish and chips has got me wondering about what you think the HP characters go to chipper orders are? I’d wager Dumbledore would enjoy a spicebag myself..

i'm genuinely screaming.

dumbledore is one hundo after a spice bag, as are ron and tonks. they are the three people who have made the correct choice.

as for the others...

harry [dursleys] and tom [orphanage] are obviously choosing the plainest option - cod and chips. tom would go in for mushy peas and a packet of benson and hedges alongside his. harry - given his canonical sweet tooth - is getting some sort of deep-fried chocolate bar as a chaser.

hermione [pretentious] is having the thinking woman's fish order - plaice and chips. unless she's been drinking, when she - like ginny - loves a battered sausage for the innuendo potential.

arthur's having scampi, because that seems the most muggle, and a selection of every sauce in the place. molly's having haddock, which she considers respectable, and is being joined in that choice by mcgonagall.

sirius [depressed] is taking the risk on a chipper pie - a gristly steak-and-kidney that's been sitting under a heat lamp all evening, for example. he prefers the rats he ate while living in that cave.

lupin [there] is having plain chips, no sauce or anything.

snape [ill-tempered] is going for one of northern ireland's greatest chip shop creations - a pastie supper. which can - like him, to be quite honest - best be described as a lump of mystery meat.

neville [northern] is obviously having chips and gravy, in fear that his gran would disown him otherwise.

luna [disconnected from reality] is going for the other one of northern ireland's greatest chip shop creations - a cowboy [pronounced coyboy] supper.

any malfoy [posh] is leaving the function and never speaking to you again if you suggest going to the chipper [good]. but narcissa secretly loves a curry butty.

bellatrix [unhinged] is indulging in a habit i didn't realise was unusual until i went to uni in england, and slapping tinned pineapple and thousand-island dressing on top of a portion of chips and calling it "hawaiian".

[brightokyolights]

Hello UK peeps 📢🇵🇸📢🇵🇸

Parliament is going to be voting on a ceasefire again on Wednesday 21st February 2024!

Please email your MP to ask them to join in voting for a ceasefire (template in link) and there will also be a demonstration that you should attend if you can!

More info available on the *Palestine Solidarity Campaign website.*

Keep speaking up, keep donating and keep educating yourself ❤️💚🖤🤍

Free Palestine 🇵🇸

(Pic from PSC)

[reasonsforhope]

"The amount of electricity generated by the UK’s gas and coal power plants fell by 20% last year, with consumption of fossil fuels at its lowest level since 1957.

Not since Harold Macmillan was the UK prime minister and the Beatles’ John Lennon and Paul McCartney met for the first time has the UK used less coal and gas.

The UK’s gas power plants last year generated 31% of the UK’s electricity, or 98 terawatt hours (TWh), according to a report by the industry journal Carbon Brief, while the UK’s last remaining coal plant produced enough electricity to meet just 1% of the UK’s power demand or 4TWh.

Fossil fuels were squeezed out of the electricity system by a surge in renewable energy generation combined with higher electricity imports from France and Norway and a long-term trend of falling demand.

Higher power imports last year were driven by an increase in nuclear power from France and hydropower from Norway in 2023. This marked a reversal from 2022 when a string of nuclear outages in France helped make the UK a net exporter of electricity for the first time.

Carbon Brief found that gas and coal power plants made up just over a third of the UK’s electricity supplies in 2023, while renewable energy provided the single largest source of power to the grid at a record 42%.

It was the third year this decade that renewable energy sources, including wind, solar, hydro and biomass power, outperformed fossil fuels [in the UK], according to the analysis. Renewables and Britain’s nuclear reactors, which generated 13% of electricity supplies last year, helped low-carbon electricity make up 55% of the UK’s electricity in 2023.

[Note: "Third year this decade" refers to the UK specifically, not global; there are several countries that already run on 100% renewable energy, and more above 90% renewable. Also, though, there have only been four years this decade so far! So three out of four is pretty good!]

Dan McGrail, the chief executive of RenewableUK, said the data shows “the central role that wind, solar and other clean power sources are consistently playing in Britain’s energy transition”.

“We’re working closely with the government to accelerate the pace at which we build new projects and new supply chains in the face of intense global competition, as everyone is trying to replicate our success,” McGrail said.

Electricity from fossil fuels was two-thirds lower in 2023 compared with its peak in 2008, according to Carbon Brief. It found that coal has dropped by 97% and gas by 43% in the last 15 years.

Coal power is expected to fall further in 2024 after the planned shutdown of Britain’s last remaining coal plant in September. The Ratcliffe on Soar coal plant, owned by the German utility Uniper, is scheduled to shut before next winter after generating power for over 55 years.

Renewable energy has increased sixfold since 2008 as the UK has constructed more wind and solar farms, and the large Drax coal plant has converted some of its generating units to burn biomass pellets.

Electricity demand has tumbled by 22% since its peak in 2005, according to the data, as part of a long-term trend driven by more energy efficient homes and appliances as well as a decline in the UK’s manufacturing sector.

Demand for electricity is expected to double as the UK aims to cut emissions to net zero by 2050 because the plan relies heavily on replacing fossil fuel transport and heating with electric alternatives.

In recent weeks [aka at the end of 2023], offshore wind developers have given the green light to another four large windfarms in UK waters, including the world’s largest offshore windfarm at Hornsea 3, which will be built off the North Yorkshire coast by Denmark’s Ørsted."

-via The Guardian, January 2, 2024

[khaperai]

IRA posters

[bewarethecheese]

A red phone box and mail box in a small town in #NorthernIreland. A daily photo from my archives. bewarethecheese.com #photography #travel #europe #ireland

[dougielombax]

“buT NOboDy spEAks iRIsh! wE MiGht aS weLL HAve sigNs WRiTTen iN POLish! HuUuRrR DuUuRrRr!”

Oh do ever so kindly shit up and fuck off with that SHITE!

It is not an argument nor is it a refutation!

End it!

Fucking hell.

Colonial faeces!

Bumbrained fodderbeasts who are scared of the country’s native language and don’t like to be reminded that we were here long before they showed up, our presence destroying their delusions of grandeur and superiority by reminding them they hadn’t conquered fucking shit.

I’d send the fuckers away to a convent with all the other stupid geese of their generation. Forever.

In the meantime the rest of us can continue living in the 21st century trying to make the world a better place.

Bottom line. It’s a language! It never killed anybody!

Get fucking used to it!

Fucking hell.

Side Note: You’d be surprised at the sheer number of Irish folk in the republic who want the language to die too. They’d make the British SO proud. Fucking morons. Ghastly little pea brained stooges. They’re like extremely dumb children.

[greencarnation]

in northern ireland during the troubles (and before) catholics used murals as a way of both claiming territory/identity and taking up space in public when they couldn't march. it was a way of forcing their voices to be seen and heard when the media and the government were against them. it was a way of protesting. i will elaborate later but do you get me. marching, posting - all good but not the only way to resist. there is so much in our arsenal and we aren't exploiting it. you don't need 100k followers or ten thousand people marching with you to make your voice heard - you can start now, alone. make it impossible for palestine to slip from public consciousness, make everyone know and everyone remember

[olympeline]

Headcanon as to why the UK bros can all use magic despite it heing a very unusual trait among nation people: the Arthurian legends are true. Albion is still the land where the Once and Future King sleeps, waiting to be awoken at the end of the world. So, even if the people themselves have forgotten the old religion and the magic they once knew, their national personifications will never lose their connection to it.

Also Merlin* is still alive, still the greatest wizard to ever live, and still a total troll. Personal headcanon that a nation always knows where all their people are and can find them if they want to, but Merlin is the exception. He wanders around Britain, in and out of the fae realm, and gives the fab four the slip. Wales can sometimes get close (being the land of Myrddin’s birth) but even his gaze can’t hold the wizard for long. No one finds Merlin unless Merlin wants them to. Very frustrating for a nation to have one of their people do that, but it’s Merlin so deal wit it

Speaking of Merlin, he’s the one who gave England his human name. Third headcanon that nations are given their human names by their greatest residents. The other UK bros were named by different people, but Merlin gave England his king’s name. Which makes England one of the only nations to be named after someone. Hundreds of years later and he still can’t decide if it’s something to be proud of or just embarrassing

(*I’m 100% picturing BBC’s Merlin btw because that version = *chef’s kiss* And he has the perfect trolly nature for this stuff too)

[alternativeulster]

based rté forgets about king charles, proclaims michelle o'neill as our new sovereign

[mrs-jamesbbarnes]

Me, two years ago watching Howards End: Aw Paul Wilcox is attractive

Me, a year ago watching Little Women: dang LAURIE is HOT

Me, three months ago watching World on Fire: Harry Chase is so chaotic I love him - hot, speaks several languages, would die for the people he loves, character in a historical drama, looks good in a uniform, DIMPLES

Me, this month: PRINCE ERIC PRINCE ERIC PRINCE ERIC PRINCE ERIC

Me, when the Tattooist of Auschwitz comes out and makes me cry like the book did: JONAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

[saintsenara]

Any favourite Irish headcanons for Seamus? 😊

thank you very much for the ask, anon!

and i'm sorry to say that i'm going to be really dull and - before we get into the more insincere headcanons i have for seamus - say that figuring out his role in the series depends on the answer to a really important question which neither the books nor [to my knowledge] jkr's post-series writing addresses:

is wizarding ireland a colony?

as someone who is fond of seeing the series through the lens of anglo-irish history, this preoccupies me a lot - and i think it's something very interesting to unravel...

the statute of secrecy - the law which brings about the separation of the magical and muggle worlds - was first instituted in 1689 and put fully into effect in 1692.

it's reasonably clear from the tone of the extra canonical material that these dates come from [and also from the fact that - i am told - the statute of secrecy is a fairly significant sub-theme of the fantastic beasts films] that jkr landed on these dates for the statute primarily by thinking about the history of witchcraft in early-modern america [the salem witch trials, for example, take place in 1692-1693].

[witch trials were not an exclusively american phenomenon, of course, but they had begun to fade out in early-modern europe by c.1650, which is roughly when they begin to become more widely-documented in the american colonies. it's also fair to say that the pop-culture image of witch trials, even in europe, is heavily influenced by their american manifestation - we've all seen the crucible!]

but selecting this american context to situate the statute within means that - apparently by accident - it's also a document which appears into the lives of british and irish wizards during an extremely bloody time in anglo-irish history...

a detour which has nothing to do with harry potter...

the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were the main period of british colonial expansion in ireland - the early seventeenth century is, for example, the period of the plantation [that is, the settler colonisation] of ulster [what is now roughly northern ireland].

like many periods of anglo-irish relations, there was a major sectarian aspect to the british treatment of the irish. the plantation was driven by protestant settlers from scotland [which is not and has never been a colony!] and england into northern ireland. the protestant population expanded rapidly in the seventeenth century, political authority in the subordinate irish parliament was largely in the hands of protestant elites [especially clerics connected to the church of ireland] who enacted the policies of the british parliament and the crown, the catholic population was subject to land confiscations, restriction of worship, and an expectation of anglicisation.

and in march of 1689 - the year the statute of secrecy was first signed - this all... rather kicked off.

in november 1688 - in an event known as the glorious revolution - the king of britain [and ireland!], james ii, was forced from the throne. among the reasons for this [many of which were to do with james' absolutist views of monarchy] was the fact that james was a roman catholic, and that the birth of his son james [iii, the old pretender] in june 1688 displaced james ii's protestant daughters mary and anne in the line of succession and would result in a catholic dynasty on the throne. which was unpopular.

so james was chased off and the throne was offered to william of orange - soon to be william iii - the husband of mary [ii].

in an attempt to regain his throne, james primarily recruited support from among the catholic population of ireland [as well as scotland and france], having promised to reverse many of the more unpopular sixteenth- and seventeenth-century policies imposed upon ireland by the crown. this was intolerable both to british and irish protestants, and william iii had no choice but to land in ireland with an army.

the start of the conflict was bloody but nebulous. the tide turned in william iii - and his protestant supporters' - favour in july 1690, with the battle of the boyne, a williamite victory. the jacobite cause was in shambles, james fled the country, and his supporters were eventually made to formally surrender with the signing of the treaty of limerick in october 1691.

from 1691 to 1800, ireland was a british colonial client state [nominally an autonomous kingdom with its own parliament, in reality controlled by the crown and responsible to the king's cabinet in london] politically dominated by anglo-irish protestant families. in 1800, this "independent" legislature was abolished and ireland was absorbed into the united kingdom of britain and ireland and governed from westminster via a colonial administration in dublin, which remained dominated by anglo-irish protestants. this remained the case until the establishment of the republic of ireland in 1922. northern ireland remains a constituent nation of the united kingdom.

and now back to the wizards...

according to the harry potter lexicon [my beloved], jkr has connected the establishment of the statute of secrecy in britain to a delegation of wizards who sought protections for the magical from [a post-battle-of-the-boyne?] william iii and mary ii in 1690. when they failed to get these, the british delegation - along with the representatives from other nations who made up the international confederation of wizards - agreed to the full imposition of the statute, with the main local result of this being the creation of the ministry of magic to govern the magical citizens of britain...

and of ireland?

because something which has always stood out to me - in a way i imagine it has for literally nobody else - is that you can suggest on the basis of canon that magical ireland was never partitioned...

“[England] Went down to Transylvania, three hundred and ninety to ten,” said Charlie gloomily. “Shocking performance. And Wales lost to Uganda, and Scotland was slaughtered by Luxembourg.” 

charlie is talking about the performance of the uk's constituent nations in the quidditch world cup here. we know - obviously - that ireland are the finalists and eventual champions of the competition.

northern ireland, however, is nowhere to be seen...

it could be that the northern irish quidditch team is as abysmal at international sport as its muggle equivalents and that charlie regarded it as futile to mention it. it could be that wizarding ireland is a united ireland [slay!]. but it could also be that the minister for magic is ultimately responsible - as the monarch would have been at the time the statute was signed - for the governance of the entirety of ireland, with his rule maintained within ireland itself by a client government which he appoints.

because while i don't buy the idea of a hereditary wizengamot or think that the sacred twenty-eight has any actual power other than the opportunity to influence the minister... it's striking that the name of an anglo-irish noble family appears on it [burke - although carrow is sufficiently close to the anglo-irish "carew" for us to consider it a variant, and one also finds the odd lestrange knocking about irish history...], and that jkr has written about another of the most prominent pureblood families as having been resident in ireland during the seventeenth century... the gaunts [it's why lord voldemort like relics so much...]. we also know that the london edition of the daily prophet - which functions as something close to state propaganda - circulates in ireland, because seamus' mother takes it, and that the ministry is unhappy with the tricolour flag being flown ostentatiously by ireland supporters during the world cup...

it is, then, entirely possible - should an author wish - to imagine that the imposition of the statute at such a key point in anglo-irish history means that the magical ireland of the 1990s remains subject to the british minister, and that it therefore has a very different political and cultural relationship to britain than its muggle cousin.

and i also think that this but one way of thinking more broadly about the wider imperialist vibe which is found in the books: the defence of "civilisation" and the status quo; the fact that so much "wizarding" culture is just posh british stuff; the fact that so many of the historical analogies jkr uses to mirror wizarding history relate to the troubles; the ways in which the size and insularity of the wizarding population means that the conditions which enable revolution might not be present in magical communities, etc.

and for us to think about the ways this might make wizarding history diverge from muggle in the early-modern and modern era: is there a revolution in wizarding russia, or are there still estates staffed by squib serfs? do wizards think they're travelling to istanbul or constantinople? do wizards participate in the "new imperialism" of the late nineteenth century, imposing the same colonial borders upon magical africa and asia as muggles do? what would it be like, if you were muggleborn, entering a world which is not only so culturally and politically different, but geographically different?

which brings us to...

seamus finnegan headcanons

on the basis of name alone - which, of course, doesn't mean everything - seamus appears to be one of the only students of irish extraction [that is, not just the only student who's an irish national, but the only student who's of irish heritage] at hogwarts [orla quirke - sorted in goblet of fire - is the only other one i can think of].

[although it is worth noting that many names which appear to be scottish are also common in ireland - especially in the north. professor mcgonagall has - on the information of the seven-book canon - just as much chance of being an ulster protestant as she does a scot...]

[i have decided on the basis of this that i now think cormac mclaggen is northern irish.]

irish people from all walks of life live, study, and work in britain - and vice versa. but the fact that seamus attends a boarding school with the specific cultural vibe hogwarts has - that is, an institution which is a pastiche of elite, fee-paying british schools; which directly maintains the class-based status quo which props up the wizarding state; whose graduates dominate high-level political and institutional positions; and whose student body is strikingly well-heeled - suggests that there are less famous wizarding schools in ireland, and that him being sent to hogwarts is the result of a certain anglophilia [and the desire for him to benefit in any future ministry career, in britain or ireland, from an elite british education] on behalf of his parents...

this is not to say that i think seamus is a protestant - although i genuinely think that the muggle dad witch mam thing is meant to be a joke suggesting he comes from a mixed marriage [still reasonably scandalous here even in 2024!] - but that he comes from a reasonably posh, anglophile, unionist catholic background, as did many real anglo-irish civil servants educated at the sort of institutions - especially oxford and cambridge - hogwarts shares a cultural vibe with.

but who gives a shit about class and religion! the more important things to know about seamus:

his go-to chip shop order is - as it should be - a spice bag.

he has - in his life - drunk the odd bottle of football special.

his over-the-top loathing of "pretty-boy diggory" in goblet of fire is an absolutely iconic deflection tactic from the fact he's gay - and deamus is canon.

indeed, he loves dean so much that he has willingly cheered for the england national football team [although he threatened to obliviate anybody dean told about this]. dean, for his part, has got really into hurling.

the closest they come to divorce is when dean won't stop singing galway girl by ed sheeran at him.

one @whinlatter has convinced me of: this is their son.

his confirmation name is florian - the patron saint of protection against fire.

him getting beaten to a pulp by the carrows - and then explaining in great detail how the room of requirement works to harry - is iconic, and is a really under-appreciated aspect of character growth from his doubt over harry in order of the phoenix.

the derry girl he identifies most strongly with is james - although he tells everyone it's michelle.

he met edele lynch from b*witched once and lost his mind.

he owns a flat cap.

him publicly beefing with his mam in the immediate run-up to dumbledore's funeral is one of the most specifically irish things he ever does and i can't explain why.

him giving harry an "appreciative smirk" after he drops the iconic "there's no need to call me sir, professor" line is the second most irish thing he does. i, once again, cannot explain why. [him winking at harry after he answers snape back in their very first potions lesson also sends me.]

he is the voice behind this iconic video... and, let's be real, his slight capacity for self-aggrandisement and sulking does make him a plausible cork man.

he visits his granny every sunday for endless cups of tea and re-runs of ballykissangel.

he has never read a single piece of writing by sally rooney - but he lies and says he has.

he did this to harry on his first day in the ministry:

his wand is made of dogwood - which suits the flamboyant and loud.

he's shown in canon to quite like a bit of gossip - him being gassed up by quirrell's claim that he fought a zombie and then gutted when quirrell refuses to actually tell the story always sends me - and i like the idea of him being amazing value in a pub.

he's an only child - but he has at least thirty cousins. and his cousin fergus genuinely never did have another peaceful moment after seamus learned to apparate.

he and lavender went to the yule ball together because both dean and parvati are stupid and didn't see what was right in front of their faces. they split a bottle of archers behind a rose bush and complained about men and it was the best night of their lives.

he goes as red as a lobster the second the sun's out.

he runs the shit london guinness twitter account.

his boggart is a banshee because his dad - who is literally only mentioned once in philosopher's stone - dies over the summer before his second year [banshees - in irish folklore - herald the deaths of family members with their weeping]. however - unlike harry - you don't hear him fucking banging on about this all the time...

and he can't speak a word of irish, but none of the posh english lads he knows are going to risk calling him out on that...

[khaperai]

IRA checkpoint during the 70s

[raynepigeon]

String of Time fanart

This took so fucking long i drew for 4 hours straight today, worth it!!

@winterwrites23

[werewolfetone]

History tends to repeat itself in general but also I feel very strongly that specifically politicians seem to have a pathological aversion to learning anything from the past ever

[dougielombax]

Before Putin decided to launch that ghastly invasion of Ukraine as his latest blood soaked vanity project, I heard so many idiots say there couldn’t possibly be a war in Europe.

“But this could never happen here! It’s been 70 years!”

Right.

Disregarding the wars in the former Yugoslavia 30 years ago, the UK’s own dirty war in the north of Ireland, the ongoing conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Russia invading Georgia in 2008, and so on.

Yes I know they were on a smaller scale (except Yugoslavia. More or less) but shut up I’m making a point.

Do some BLOODY research!

Pure bumbrained ignorance!

It’s like they thought wars could only happen far away and out of sight in Africa or the middle east or wherever.

Fucking morons!

[olympeline]

My brain at 2AM: If Wales, Scotland, and N. Ireland have magic like England then they would have his magic vision too

My brain: So they could see things other nations couldn’t. Like say: if “England” was actually “British Empire” and “Sealand” was his replacement in-waiting, the actual “England” for when Arthur dies like Grandpa Rome did

My brain: Unless England somehow sticks around until Fort Sealand crumbles and Sealand becomes a normal human who will age and die

My brain: Thanks to this the rest of the UK brothers know, sooner or later, they will lose a little brother no matter what

Me: