Once I was a clever boy learning the arts of Oxford... is a quotation from the verses written by Bishop Richard Fleming (c.1385-1431) for his tomb in Lincoln Cathedral. Fleming, the founder of Lincoln College in Oxford, is the subject of my research for a D. Phil., and, like me, a son of the West Riding. I have remarked in the past that I have a deeply meaningful on-going relationship with a dead fifteenth century bishop... it was Fleming who, in effect, enabled me to come to Oxford and to learn its arts, and for that I am immensely grateful.


Friday, 17 July 2026

Irish Curses


Substack has an insightful and lively illustrated post from Gillian Kenny about the long and colourful tradition of cursing in Ireland. Although just an introduction to five different styles of cursing by churchmen, nobles, poets and ordinary folk it is clearly based on academic research, and has a useful looking bibliography. It is also interesting in the way it shows how some at least of these customs persisted into the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.




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