The Bluestocking - where the laugh emoji is sorely missed.

[MyrtleLion]

Welcome to the Bluestocking Arms!

The company is always sparkling, the drinks are always sublime, and the cakes are mysteriously free from gluten, sugar, calories, and troublesome booze… not that you’d ever notice. 😏

Our enthusiastic team of gerbil waitstaff is ably supported by capybaras, quokkas, and other charming creatures who excel at their jobs while looking outrageously adorable.

You will find many things to laugh at - usually out loud - so take care not to spit out your tea. We are considering a petition for the return of the laugh emoji - just as soon as the AI gerbils learn how to spell.

New Bluestockingers are always welcome. Men can pop along to The Staunch Ally nearby.

Currently also knitting a Woolly Hug blanket for Bluestockinger Swashbuckled. Details here if you can knit or crochet a square before the 18 July.

www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5350941-woolly-hugs-desperately-sad-news-we-are-afraid-making-a-blanket-for-lovely-swashbuckled-whose-son-has-tragically-died

Ey up, me duck.

Well fascinating how long ago did your neighbour die could be one of my aunts or uncle.

In the theme of morning greetings....
Yew all a'roight s'mornen then?

Edited for autocarrot, which doesn't like rural dialects.

Ay oop, brew anyone?

She died in 1995. I didn't even need to look it up!

Howya hun?
It's only 10.12, you have all day to come up with witty and erudite things - get that cuppa down ya first hun

I fear it won't happen today. DH is feeling unwell, so that's my day sorted.

However, I have just discovered( to my cost) Girlcat really likes home made cherry frangipane tart. Better than Whiskas, eh?

AI has the answer:

That case you’re recalling is almost certainly the infamous Kerry Babies scandal in 1984, near Caherciveen, County Kerry.

The Gardaí investigated the death of a newborn boy found on the beach, and, oddly, suggested the mother—Joanne Hayes—might have given birth to two babies by two different fathers (a case of alleged heteropaternal superfecundation), even though DNA didn’t support it .

Joanne was wrongly accused of murdering the beach baby; later a tribunal was launched, and in 2020 the State formally apologized to her.

Several books cover the saga:

1. A Woman to Blame by Nell McCafferty, a scathing examination of the case and the Garda’s treatment of Hayes.

1. Joanne Hayes’s own account, My Story, co-written with John Barrett.

If you're after the book exploring a judge’s suggestion that she could have had two babies by different fathers, Nell McCafferty’s A Woman to Blame is the one diving into that miscarriage of justice. Her reporting pushes back hard on that theory and the institutional failures it exposed.

Gosh, my knitting is eating into my Bluestocking time and I've sent off my squares. 4 pages of chat that I missed!

I fear I have become a little obsessed. I have a small project in the go - actually two - I have knitted 9 squares for a Little Hug, blocked them and now they are ready to be seen together.

The other is slightly more ambitious with different colours and may never see the light of day, but I'm enjoying it nevertheless. I realise that I actually have two different weights of yarn - one is an Aran and the other is super thick and fluffy, so it's making for an interesting contrast.

The Gardaí investigated the death of a newborn boy found on the beach, and, oddly, suggested the mother—Joanne Hayes—might have given birth to two babies by two different fathers (a case of alleged heteropaternal superfecundation), even though DNA didn’t support it .

Joanne Hayes wasn’t the mother of the murdered baby found on the beach though. Her own baby had died at birth, but was buried elsewhere.

I don’t think the parents of Baby John were ever identified. The gardaí looked again a few years ago. I don’t think they found anything or if they did it wasn’t made public.

Actually a couple were arrested in 2023, but they were released again.

Yes, and it was DNA testing which identified the couple.

AI makes mistakes!

There will be lucrative jobs in fact-checking as a result.

Well done for sending off the lovely squares you did Myrtle
Hope DH is better soon, Fuzzy, and that you manage to ringfence some of that delicious-sounding tart for human consumption😄

Nell McCafferty - now there was 'some woman for one woman'💚

My squares are all packed up and ready to be posted, the next time dh is out with the dogs. We are currently dog-sitting ds3's girlfriend's dog, who is a cute cockerpoo. She was told he was half toy poodle, but judging by the size he's grown to, there's no toy in his poodle! And he's not stopped growing yet.

I now need to decide what my next knitting will be - I need to knit the sleeves for dh's latest jumper, then I've got the yarn to knit a baby shawl for my friend's younger dd, who is expecting in January, and the yarn to knit a cardigan for myself. Plus I've been asked to knit a sweater for a friend, and I am going to knit Shaun the Sheep for dh, for Christmas. Luckily the friend says there's no hurry for the sweater.

Well, I've had to undo two half-done squares so haven't got very far.

I'm sure I will get used to knitting again, though.

Well done and thank you for your lovely squares, Woley.
You like your knitting, don't you?? that's quite a schedule you have set out!
The recipients of your craft are very lucky - especially DH who gets a knitted Shaun the Sheep - photos please, when the time comes

was your neighbours name Chris/tina/Christina, married to Cyril?

No, afraid not. Bridie, had a sister Lizzie, brothers Mossy and Sonny (which would probably have been a nickname, no idea what his real name was).

Thanks would have been mad if it was. My mum has newspaper cuttings of village life in, and photos, wondering if any of the names feature on that.

Actually i think there is a web page as well.

It would have been mad, but fun
I seem to recall two Stockingers realizing that they used to play on the same beach when on childhood holidays in Wales? that was a bit mad too

Portarlington - 'The Paris of the Midlands' due to the settlement there of Huguenots by Henri Massue de Ruvigny (1648–1720), marquis de Ruvigny, later given the title of Earl of Galway [and therefore confusingly referred to as 'Galway' in history books -' hang on, why is Galway settling Huguenots in Laois???']
Portarlington | Laois County Council

@MarieDeGournay Yes i know about Portarlington and the Huguenots.

I have visited Eire quite a few times but not recently.

Stopped to peer at the farmhouse my ancestors lived at, mused about knocking on the door but chickened out.

Since have learnt one of my elderly Aunties still live there, from a cousin, who i linked with via Ancestry.

He sent me quite a few photos.

It is hard as hell to track Irish ancestors without actually going there.

Afternoon all! Bar gerbil, I'd like a long, cold drink and someone to rant at, please.

Wassup, @Magpiecomplex?

Fairly high order idiocy... Of the sort that says "Hey, you can teach something completely unrelated to your speciality, can't you?". Imagine an art teacher being asked to teach biology for a year because that's the easiest way to make the spreadsheet balance.