It’s taken me four weeks to write this, because I barely knew where to start.
Channel 4 showed the singular and vastly wonderful The Banshees Of Inisherin at the weekend, and as brilliant as it is in its own right, it also came loaded with all sorts of resonances and finally prodded me into action.
The equally singular and wonderful Jonathan Nash, who will be known to readers of this isolated and quiet island parish under a variety of names, died last month, of death. It was sudden yet expected, and in those respects very much the opposite of the man himself.
The process of simply buying the Xbox One took me either three days or eight weeks, depending on how you look at it, due to a combination of how retail works these days and the gibbering random madness that is GAME's pricing and corporate structure. But I'm not even going to get into that here.
Northcode on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Pathologising dissent isn’t just rude — it’s a form of control based on authoritarian logic. It’s the same manoeuvre used…” Sep 18, 19:29
Hatey McHateface on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “@TURABDIN As recently as 30 years ago, you could have gotten away with claiming the allegations of primitivism and moral…” Sep 18, 19:07
Hatey McHateface on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “There’s no oppressive reality in my neck of the woods, Alf. Maybe you just need to move house.” Sep 18, 18:57
factchecker on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: ““why else would certain elements of the oppressed group (the more assimilated etc) reject their own liberation and deny their…” Sep 18, 18:18
TURABDIN on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Maybe a wee oversensitive? Considering the west has been lecturing, and worse, my part of the world for centuries about…” Sep 18, 18:10
Old Bill on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “The Duty of Candour is already activated in the Police Scotland Standards of Professional Behaviour and to avoid this, carelessly,…” Sep 18, 16:50
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Informative exploration of MacDiarmid’s use of the term ‘antisyzygy’. (I don’t necessarily endorse Malgrati’s entire pitch.) ‘ANTISYZYGY’: AN ESCAPE ROUTE…” Sep 18, 15:51
Spartan 117 on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “There’s something stunningly ironic (some would even say offensive, but I’m not easily that way) in a non-Scot lecturing *me*…” Sep 18, 15:47
Alf Baird on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “…and this is why the colonizer (and his group acting collectively btl here) ‘hates theory’ (Memmi) – because it unveils…” Sep 18, 15:07
Alf Baird on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: ““being in denial, stubborn pride maybe, regarding Scotland’s current status is a psychological aberration which the thinkers you quote would…” Sep 18, 15:04
Mark Beggan on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “But all you get is the C word nicely feathered in a word salad. Maybe you could ask him to…” Sep 18, 14:51
TURABDIN on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “@ ALF BAIRD Those who attack you make your case. Scotland did not start out as a unionist colony but…” Sep 18, 14:13
Hatey McHateface on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Naw, Mark. Every time Alf reads one of my posts he starts choking and somebody has to perform the Heimlich…” Sep 18, 13:37
Spartan 117 on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Ah Alf, so it’s somebody else’s fault ye huv tae yaise thon Coloniser’s tung, nae yur ain? An whit “Scots”…” Sep 18, 13:34
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Book review: ‘SUPERHERO COMICS AND SCOTTISH IDENTITY: The Comics Art Of Frank Quitely’ « The authors are academics, interrogating Scottish…” Sep 18, 13:20
Aidan on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “@Alf – repetitive, excessive, and largely meaningless writing focused relentlessly on the same subject, often to the point of becoming…” Sep 18, 13:16
Aidan on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: ““There are several others regularly contributing BTL who post nothing but hate, single-minded psuedoacademic wibble or just plain unintelligible drunken…” Sep 18, 13:07
Hatey McHateface on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “@ Alf Baird says: 18 September, 2026 at 12:34 pm “The main point here is the need for a colonized…” Sep 18, 13:02
Alf Baird on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “The main point here is the need for a colonized people to understand the linguistic and cultural impacts of colonialism,…” Sep 18, 12:34
lothianlad on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “They are mnoe starting to really panic. Their attempt at distancing and evasion wont work. They will be held to…” Sep 18, 12:27
Hatey McHateface on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “@ Spartan 117 says: 18 September, 2026 at 10:34 am I think Alf finds himself in a bind. Although he…” Sep 18, 12:07
Alf Baird on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: ““Is this tae dae wi’ thon Colonialism yur aie haverin’ aboot?” Colonialism is ‘obscured by assimilation’ (Memmi), and the colonized…” Sep 18, 12:06
Hatey McHateface on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: ““a culturally-intertwined political identity (Pettigrew), which creates ‘a manufactured being’ (Memmi)” As always, Alf, you give us much to think…” Sep 18, 11:54
Spartan 117 on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Ah huv tae sae Alf, how come ye’ve nivver gien ony o’ yer lectchurs or speeches thit ‘uv been watchin’…” Sep 18, 10:34
Spartan 117 on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “There are several others regularly contributing BTL who post nothing but hate, single-minded psuedoacademic wibble or just plain unintelligible drunken…” Sep 18, 10:17
Hatey McHateface on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “An insightful, forensic dissection of my post and the article I link to from Dave. Whilst I may not agree…” Sep 18, 10:12
Alf Baird on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: ““when it comes to Scottish Indy, ideological purity is all” There you go again, Hatey, blaming the colonized native for…” Sep 18, 10:04
DaveL on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: ““Words of wisdom”; you have none. You have hate and death supporting obnoxious rants and that’s all. Who’d be Hatey?” Sep 18, 09:30
Hatey McHateface on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “An interesting article about the people who are going to have many BTL readers unable to afford to keep themselves…” Sep 18, 08:48