I’ve just finished reading The Fallen: The Magdalene Laundries & Ireland’s Legacy of Shame by Louise Brangan, which I bought a couple of months ago. This tells the shocking story of Ireland’s Magdalene Laundries, institutions run by a variety of religious orders designed to accommodate “fallen” women and girls. Also known as “Penitents”, the inmates of these institutions were a mixture of the poor and unwanted, orphans, disabled, those who had suffered familial abuse, and those who simply didn’t conform to Ireland’s self-image of a virtuous Roman Catholic state.
After Independence in 1922 these institutions, which had already been in existence for over a century, became a sort of dumping ground for inconvenient woman of all kinds. Once inside, the Penitents – most of whom hadn’t really done anything wrong – were stripped of what meagre possessions they had, had their hair shorn, their names were erased, and they were put to hard menial labour washing and drying clothes. They were fed and housed – after a fashion – but conditions were damp and unsanitary and they were forbidden to make friendships with their companions, or even talk to them. Not surprisingly, the result of this soul-destroying regime was that many of the Penitents became completely institutionalised, some living our their days in a man-made purgatory. Perhaps the most shocking thing of all is the last of these terrible places – which was on what is now Sean McDermott Street in North Dublin – didn’t close until 1996. This book was published to mark the 30th anniversary of this event.
The book is a scholarly work, woven around the oral testimonies of several women, measured in tone but with an unmistakeable undertone of righteous indignitation. It also sets the story of the Magdalene Laundries in the context of 20th Century Irish history, especially the rise of the Catholic theocracy under de Valera and it subsequent fall in the wake of major scandals, of which the Magdalene Laundries were one. As a relative newcomer to Ireland, I was unaware of the true nature of these places and found this book educational as well as deeply moving.
Some comments cut very much to the bone. Here is a paragraph concerning a woman known in the book as Carmel who had been taken to Sunday’s Well for reasons she was never told to find that many of the other women there were quite elderly and infirm:
Going to bed that first night, Carmel had thought that she had been sent to Sunday’s Well to care for the old women. Gradually, she had come to realise, like many others before her, that she had been sent to the Laundry not to look after these women but to become one of them.
Another passage that hit me hard was about the disinterment, in 1993, of 133 bodies from a mass grave when the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity decided to sell the land to a property developer. The graves of the women, who had died while incarcerated at a Magdalene Laundry, were unmarked; another 22 were found later. Shamefully, only 75 death certificates had ever been registered. It is agains the law in Ireland to bury someone without registering their death so 80 crimes had been committed over the years. No action was ever taken.
In recent years there has been a redress scheme for the survivors of these institutions, but what financial compensation can possibly be adequate for a lifetime of penal servitude? The most important message of this book is that stories like this have to be told. Ireland must confront the dark side of its recent past. Silence can be the worst form of dishonesty.
In 1998 the Department of Physics at the University of Nottingham was struggling in both research and undergraduate recruitment. To remedy the situation it decided to add a new group in Astronomy. The main idea was that having astronomy in its portfolio would attract more students and boost its standing in the Research Assessment Exercise (as it was then called). I was one of the people appointed to turn that decision into reality, and I’m glad to say the result was a success. Undergraduate numbers increased and in the next RAE Nottingham Physics scored a ‘5’, compared to the previous ‘4’. The Astronomy group quickly gained recognition across the UK and abroad, and another group was added, in Astroparticle Physics.
When the new Astronomy group was set up in 1999, the Department of Physics changed its name to the School of Physics & Astronomy. Despite the positive effect of this new activity, it was immediately clear that some members of staff resented it. A new letterhead was created, referring to the School of Physics & Astronomy, and one (very distinguished) senior member of the former Department always crossed off the “and Astronomy” whenever he used it. Others were surprised that the astronomers wanted to do research, when they felt that astronomy was just a bit of window-dressing for undergraduate recruitment. The astronomers were just there to do teaching, so that the “proper physicists” – mostly in semiconductor physics, nanoscience and other areas of condensed matter physics – could spend more time in their laboratories. I’m not saying that every physicist thought this – most were genuinely appreciative and supportive – but there were more than a few grumblers.
The undertone of all this is the envy that some physicists feel towards astronomy. Astronomers get invited to talk about their work to the general public and to amateur astronomy clubs, while there are no such calls for semiconductor physicists. Nobel prizes go to cosmology and astrophysics much more frequently than some would like. Above all there is the view that astronomy is all very well for bringing students in, but once at university the students must be converted to “proper physics”. Astronomers (including astrophysicists and cosmologists) should not get “notions” (as the Irish say). The short-sighted view that scientific research in universities should be aimed at short-term commercial gain amplifies this attitude, but does not entirely account for it.
These thoughts have been at the back of my mind for some time, but they came to the front again with the recent news about cuts to STFC funding. The callous attitude shown to the UK astronomy research community, implying that it should be grateful that it is not being cut by more than the disastrous level announced, indicates (to me) that there’s much more to what is going on than a mere budgetary issue. There is a deliberate plan to slap down a community that has grown too big for its boots.
The consequences for UK astronomy, and UK physics in general, are dire. Astronomy has kept many physics departments afloat for the last several decades. Without it, physics will fail in all but a handful of universities. That’s where envy takes you.
Who were they, what lonely men Imposed upon the fact of night The fiction of constellations And made commensurable The distances between Themselves their loves and their doubt Of government and nations; Who made the dark stable
When the light was not? Now We receive the blind codes Of spaces beyond the span Of our myths, and a long dead star May only echo how There are no loves nor gods Men can invent to explain How lonely all men are.
This poem is from a collection called “The World I See”, by Patric Dickinson, which was published in 1960. The poem was inspired by a visit to Jodrell Bank observatory. I have posted it before, but it seems apt to post it again now.
News came out yesterday of the results of the latest funding prioritization exercise by the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC). The total savings being made by cuts to astronomy and particle physics are less than the funds allocated to just one AI lab! It seems STFC has to bear the brunt of savings needed so that UKRI, the organization under which STFC sits, can gamble much more on Artificial Intelligence and Quantum Technology. It seems to me that these are two bubbles ready to burst and the decision to sink money into them is not only unwise, it places the UK science base at serious risk of collapse.
Anyway, you can find the list of specific cuts here. Radio astronomy is hit particularly hard. The interferometric network e-Merlin is not prioritized and its funding will run out in 2028. That puts Jodrell Bank Observatory in danger of complete closure unless an alternative source of funding can be found. The last time STFC had a financial crisis was in 2009 and e-Merlin might well have been cut then but survived thanks to political intervention at the highest level. I suppose that could happen again, but I wouldn’t bet on it. More bad news is that the UK Square Kilometre Array Regional Centre, with SKA itself already financially troubled, is also earmarked for cuts.
The 76m Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank, now under threat of closure
And that’s just radio astronomy and Jodrell Bank is one of the highest-profile casualties. There are cuts and cancellations in many other areas too; see here for a full list.
The Astronomer Royal for Scotland, Catherine Heymans, has used her platform to campaign against these damaging and short-sighted cuts to UK astronomy, including on social media:
Just off #BBCR4 World at One, arguing the importance of discovery science (like Jodrell) for long-term economic growth. I said I was heartbroken at the news: evidence just look at how exceptionally excited me & @mamaphysikerin.bsky.social were when we got to stand inside Lovell back in 2017 🥰 🔭🧪
The same can’t be said for the Astronomer Royal herself, Prof. Michele Dougherty. The reason for that is Prof. Dougherty is also Executive Chair of STFC and is therefore responsible for implementing the cuts. How it is possible for her to remain in both posts is nothing short of a scandal. Such a glaring conflict of interest cannot be allowed to stand. Indeed, Prof. Dougherty was elected to serve as President of the Institute of Physics from October 2025 but stepped down in January 2026 citing concerns of a conflict of interest with her role at STFC. It’s a slap in the face to the Astronomy community that it is not deemed worthy of such consideration.
I follow the hurling more than the Gaelic football, but I did watch yesterday’s memorable All-Ireland final between Kerry and Mayo which attracted a TV audience of over a million people. Bear in mind that the population of the Republic of Ireland is just 5 million.
Kerry were strong favourites ahead of the game, but it was underdogs Mayo (who played in all-white kit) that prevailed, deservedly, by 1-20 to 1-17.
This result is huge news because it is 75 years since Mayo won the All-Ireland title – they had been beaten finalists six times since 2012, including 2020 and 2021. The last time they won was in 1951. The Mayo colours were much in evidence in Maynooth last night as people celebrated their team lifting the Sam Maguire Cup along with the lifting of the Mayo Curse. I don’t think any members of the Mayo team will be buying their own drinks for a long time!
I like this very wholesome picture showing Mayo’s Jordan Flynn and Kobe McDonald on the pitch at Croke Park after the end of the game. That moment will stay with them for the rest of their lives.
Photo Credit: James Crombie/Inpho
Incidentally the Irish name for Mayo, Maigh Eo, means “Plain of the Yew Trees” and the Maigh is also responsible for the first bit of “Maynooth”.
I saw the above cartoon in the latest Private Eye and, with Repeat Examinations rapdily approaching I thought I’d share it here without permission.
Years ago, academic staff had to invigilate their own examinations. I had to do this in my first teaching job at Queen Mary and, later, at Nottingham, but more recently the job has generally been done by support staff rather than academics. I moved from Nottingham to Cardiff in 2007 and don’t think I ever had to invigilate examinations there, so I haven’t done it for almost twenty years. Nowadays we are just expected to be “on call” to deal with any queries that arise in the Exam Hall by phone.
The cartoon reminded me of one of the funniest April Fool jokes I can recall. I think it was when I was at Queen Mary, but it’s so long ago I can’t remember who was responsible. Anyway, whichever colleague it was sent an email to all academic staff passing on what appeared to be a message from the University Management stating that all staff would be required to attend a compulsory day-long invigilator training workshop, including a “role play” session (the mind boggles). This message managed to trigger a significant number of staff members who made use of the “ReplyAll” on their email to vent their outrage at such a waste of time. It was a good April Fool, because the idea of it was quite plausible. Most April Fools are far too obvious.
Anyway, I’m not sorry that I no longer have to perform the task of exam invigilation, as it was always one of my least favourite jobs, and not only because I don’t enjoy seeing people under stress. Initially I thought supervising an examination might allow me time to do something useful, but there always seemed to be some interruption, such as students wanting an extra answer book, or asking about some issue with the examination paper, or wanting to leave to go to the toilet, etc.
The most dramatic interruption I can remember was when a student who suffered from epilepsy had a seizure in the examination hall. Fortunately we invigilators had been briefed as to what to do in such an eventuality, namely to move the furniture so the student didn’t hurt themselves but otherwise not to intervene until they went to sleep – which usually happens after a minute or two. This was done about 15 minutes before the exam started, not in a day-long training session. We were told that such an episode was unlikely as the student was taking medicine to prevent them occurring. It was quite when it actually happened, but happily the student recovered quickly and was perfectly OK afterwards. Apparently he had been so busy preparing for the examination that day he had forgotten to take his medication in the morning.
Having given up on the idea of doing some other work during an examination, I used to take a few crosswords to do. These are good for passing the time because you can solve a few clues then pause to look around the hall. Other things I used to do included walking around counting the number of right-handed and left-handed students, for example, though I never did any detailed statistical analysis of the results.
The primary purpose of invigilation is to prevent cheating or other misbehaviour, and I only ever saw a few examples of that – most of them involving calculators with, e.g., graph-plotting facilities which are not allowed.
Anyway, I’m glad I no longer have to invigilate examinations, and that makes me all the more grateful for the people who do. Here in Maynooth there are three examinations per day during the Examination Period, with a brief period between to put out the next set of papers, which means a long day for those who do this job. Hats off to the staff of the Exams Office at Maynooth who carry out this thankless task three times a year!
We got some rain at last. On Friday evening I checked the trusty Met Éireann app and saw this:
With a west/northwesterly wind I thought there was a good chance we would get a bit of rain, and so it turned out although to be honest there wasn’t that much. I think the greeny-yellowy blobs missed us. There was enough rain to give the garden a little light refreshment but not to make up for the ongoing hosepipe ban. We’ve had several weeks with next to no rain, which is highly unusual.
I look at the weather outlook quite regularly and have learned one thing in my time in Ireland. The forecast is usually fairly accurate up to about three days in the future but you shouldn’t rely on it beyond that. This week provided a good illustration. Last weekend the forecast predicted rain on Saturday (i.e. yesterday). As the week progressed the forecast changed and rain wasn’t forecast until next Wednesday. Then it rained on Friday evening. Saturday, by the way, was extremely humid: well over 90%.
Here’s the outlook from today:
You can see that rain is forecast for Wednesday and Thursday, but the rainfall radar map shows why it is so difficult to predict whether rain will fall at a specific location. The rain clouds are rather small and moving rather quickly; the winds are around 25km/h (westerly). At the time of taking that screen grab there had been some light rain, but will the other blobs hit us? The Met Éireann model says “no” but others may well say “yes”. It’s a tough problem to predict this level of detail.
One thing that I think could be improved is a more reasonable representation of the uncertainty. The outlook for today confidently asserts that the Chance of Preciptation for the rest of today is “0%”. To me that means that it is absolutely impossible that it will rain, and that seems unreasonable to me. Surely there is some chance of rain later today? It doesn’t do much for the credibility of a forecast to claim such certainty. A week or two ago there were no clouds anywhere and “0%” was reasonable, but not today. If it were up to me I’d probably put “<1%” or “<5%” to hedge my bets.
And then there is the question of what amount of rain we’re talking about. I was on campus on Thursday and a few spots of rain fell then. I only noticed because I was outside, coming back from lunch. That was too little to count as real rainfall, but I wonder what the threshold is?
It’s time once more for another Saturday update of activity at the Open Journal of Astrophysics. Since the last update we have published a further nine papers, bringing the number in Volume 9 (2026) to 160 and the total so far published by OJAp up to 608.
I will continue to include the posts made on our Mastodon account (on Fediscience); these announcements also show the DOI for each paper.
The first paper to report this week was published on Tuesday 21st July in the folder Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics. The title is “Characterization of the Polarization Beam Response of SPT-3G Using Point Sources” by Tijmen de Haan (Institute of Particle and Nuclear Studies, Ibaraki, Japan) and an international cast of 101 others. This study presents measurements of the South Pole Telescope’s polarized beam response, indicating minimal sidelobe depolarization. The findings suggest potential explanations for frequency-dependent residuals in power spectrum analysis.
The overlay for this paper is here
You can find the officially accepted version on arXiv here and the announcement on Fediverse here:
New Publication at the Open Journal of Astrophysics: "Characterization of the Polarization Beam Response of SPT-3G Using Point Sources" by Tijmen de Haan (Institute of Particle and Nuclear Studies, Ibaraki, Japan) and 101 others from around the world
The second paper for this week, also published on Tuesday 21st July but in the folder Earth and Planetary Astrophysics is: “Exploring TRAPPIST-1 Climate States with an Energy Balance Model” by Jacob Haqq-Misra (Blue Marble Space, USA). The study uses a modified HEXTOR energy balance model to predict climate states of terrestrial planets orbiting low-mass stars, suggesting partial to complete ice cover for TRAPPIST-1 e and f.Abstractfor Exploring TRAPPIST-1 Climate States with an Energy Balance Model.
The overlay looks like this:
The official version of the paper can be found on arXiv here and the Fediverse announcement here:
New Publication at the Open Journal of Astrophysics: "Exploring TRAPPIST-1 Climate States with an Energy Balance Model" by Jacob Haqq-Misra (Blue Marble Space, USA)
New Publication at the Open Journal of Astrophysics: "A first systematic study of [OIII] 88μm at z>8: two luminous oxygen lines and a powerful ionized outflow in the first 600 million years" by Hiddo Algera (Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Taipei, Taiwan) and 37 others from all around the world.
The fourth paper of the week, published on Thursday 23rd July in the folder Astrophysics of Galaxies, is “Mapping CO Ice in a Star-Forming Filament in the 3 kpc Arm with JWST” by Savannah Gramze (U. Florida, USA) and 16 others based all around the world. This paper shows that JWST observations and ALMA Band 3 data reveal that 50-88% of CO gas in a star-forming filament is locked in ice; corrections are needed for mass measurements in such systems.
The overlay for this one is here:
You can read the final version of this one on arXiv here and the Mastodon announcement is here:
New Publication at the Open Journal of Astrophysics: "Mapping CO Ice in a Star-Forming Filament in the 3 kpc Arm with JWST" by Savannah Gramze (U. Florida, USA) and 16 others based all around the world.
New Publication at the Open Journal of Astrophysics: "Viscously Spreading Accretion Disks around Black Holes: Implications for TDEs, LFBOTs and other Transients" by Mila Winter-Granic and Eliot Quataert (Princeton University, USA)
The sixth paper of this week is “Characterising the response of an International LOFAR Station” by Letizia Vincetti (Trinity Collge Dublin, Ireland) and 9 others based in Ireland, USA, The Netherlands and Sweden. This was also published on Thursday July 23rd and is in the folder Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics. The article presents an investigation of the performance and calibration challenges of phased-array radio interferometers, using the Irish LOFAR station as a case study, highlighting the importance of accurate beam modelling, etc.
The overlay for this one is here:
You can find the final accepted version on arXiv here and the Mastodon announcement is here:
New Publication at the Open Journal of Astrophysics: "Characterising the response of an International LOFAR Station" by Letizia Vincetti (Trinity Collge Dublin, Ireland) and 9 others based in Ireland, USA, The Netherlands and Sweden
New Publication at the Open Journal of Astrophysics: "Exo Skryer: A JAX-accelerated sub-stellar atmospheric retrieval framework" by Elspeth K.H. Lee (U. Bern, Switzerland)
New Publication at the Open Journal of Astrophysics: "GCR Spectra Reconstructed with Neutron Monitor Yield Function and Artificial Neural Networks: Comparison of Two Methods" by Stepan A. Siruk (Moscow Engineering Physics Institute MEPhI, Russia) and four others based in Russia
And finally for this week we have “The failed failed-supernova scenario of M31-2014-DS1” by Noam Soker (Technion, Israel), a paper which challenges the failed-supernova theory for the fading of the yellow supergiant event M31-2014-DS1, suggesting it requires unlikely parameters and supports an alternative scenario involving violent binary interaction. This was published on Friday 24th July in the folder High-Energy Astrophysical Phenomena.
The overlay for this one is here:
You can find the final accepted version on arXiv here and the Mastodon announcement is here:
And that concludes the update of this week’s business. As it was foretold, the total number of publications at OJAp has now passed the 600 mark, and the likely number for 2026 is around 300. We published a paper in five of the six astro-ph categories this week, but still haven’t had a week when we’ve published a full house with at least one in all six…
What the Times Higher doesn’t discuss (at all) is Latchman’s track-record of research misconduct. You can read a lengthy discussion of some of it in the following blog post. It is also discussed more briefly in Latchman’s Wikipedia page.
If you want a symptom of the pathological state of the current higher education system, you need look no further than this appointment. And if you want proof that the Times Higher doesn’t do proper journalism then this is an example of that too.
I first heard news of the death of tenor saxophonist Plas Johnson (left) a couple of days ago, and since then there have been numerous tributes including this one in the Irish Times. Almost without fail the obituaries introduce him as the man who played the saxophone part of the Pink Panther theme written by Henry Mancini. In fact, years ago, I won a tiebreak for my team in a pub quiz by knowing the name of the person who played that tune.
Even very good musicians struggled to make a decent living from jazz after the arrival of rock-and-roll as a popular musical phenomenon in the 1950s. Like many jazz performers, Johnson addressed this issue by moving to Los Angeles, where he found work as a session musician working to support such artists as Frank Sinatra and Marvin Gaye, or on film and TV music. Henry Mancini noticed Plas Johnson’s quality and it inspired him to write the Pink Panther film specifically for him. Most of these performances went uncredited, which is why his name isn’t more widely known despite him being a very fine saxophonist. Nonetheless, having the financial security of being much sought after session musician, Plas Johnson was able to continue to pursue his love of jazz. He made some fine albums as leader (I have Positively on vinyl). He also moonlighted as Johnny Beecher to evade contractual issues.
The reason I knew of Plas Johnson as a jazz musician before I found out he was the Pink Panther guy. That’s because I used to listen to Humphrey Lyttelton’s radio programme The Best of Jazz on Radio 2 on Monday evenings from 9pm when I was at school and Plas Johnson came up a few times, including on the track I’ve included below from one of the famous Hanna-Fontana sessions at the Concord Jazz Festival. The recording was made in 1975 but the record wasn’t available in the UK until a couple of years later. I used to tape Humph’s radio shows but no longer have any of the cassettes so I had to spend much of my spare time the last couple of days trying to find the track Humph played. This is it! It features Plas Johnson (ts), clearly enjoying himself in the company of Bill Berry (tpt), Carl Fontana (tb), Herb Ellis (g), Dave McKenna (p), Herb Mickman (b) and Jake Hanna (d). Not a bad line-up!
R.I.P. Plas Johnson (1931-2026), so much more than the Pink Panther guy!
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In the Dark 