Before Mary was lost she was the mother of Jesus, a woman who lived in relative poverty in Palestine and gave birth in a manger. She lived without money but with great care for her son and others, and this love for her son and family is something I would take as suggested proof that she has not always been lost, however, as both our culture and history teach us, on the island of Ireland, Mary has been employed as a means of not only divorcing women from their own bodies and sexualities for hundreds of years, but of punishing them for their bodies and sexualities as well. The fact that a marketing executive has found a way to sell this intergenerational repression back to young women is irksome and suggests our schools could use some more gender studies curriculum. I was raised a Catholic as part of the Irish diaspora, and many of the knowledges I have of popular historical Marys who were and were not ‘lost’ have been acquired through community and popular education: Church and Sunday School, as well as community based research. The trope of a Lost Mary as signifier of Irish femininity that I am identifying began well before the offensive e-cigarette boxes that seem destined to ruin any last patch of nature in urban spaces. Think of Ann Lovett, leaving this world in the freezing January of 1984 and the thousands of women locked away in laundries before her, so many of whom were made responsible for their own rape.

These thoughts prickle angrily at my mind as I look at marketing of the LOST MARY e-cigarettes, which has been hugely successful for many reasons: the colour scheme looks like sweets and signifies popular ‘femininity’. The vapes are sold everywhere. Like lollies in the check-out aisle of Lidl, the coloured plastic boxes scream out at young people from shop windows across the city, always at a reduced rate: die in style with me. The brand designer was really on to something in naming the way that the disembodied and highly contradictory treatment of women that has been tied to the figure of Mary. This training in disembodiment has even led to some young women surrendering to the armour of fake tan and “I really don’t care – in fact I don’t even feel the cold”. Who could blame them? One does not have to look far to see a long tradition of Lost Marys, girls and women whose lives were lost through cruel practices and ideas associated either with the Virgin Mary, with the Catholic religion or the patriarchal nature of the society that upheld Catholicism in Ireland.

My father was a popular folk singer in Dublin in the 60’s and early 70’s and I grew up listening to folk songs that have been around for generations. Many of these are still in circulation. One of these often plays on my mind when I see the brightly coloured e-cig boxes in shop windows:

Step it out Mary, my fine daughter

Step it out Mary, if you can

Step it out Mary, my fine daughter

Show your legs to the Countryman

These lyrics are the chorus of the folk song "Step It Out Mary", which tells a tragic story of a young woman’s suicide, set against the backdrop of arranged marriage and class divisions. The song, as my father sang it, was a modern folk composition, often attributed to the Kerry songwriter and musician Seán McCarthy (1923–1990), who was known for his storytelling and ability to capture emotions. It follows the tale of young Mary, who is in love with a poor soldier. However, her father, driven by financial concerns, arranges for her to marry a wealthy old man. On the day of the wedding, Mary chooses to end her life rather than lie with a man she does not love, and is found in the river, drowned. The refrain, "Step it out, Mary, my fine daughter," is an ironic and sorrowful command, as she is urged to dance for a wedding she never wanted. The song captures love, loss, and the consequences of forced choices, resonating with listeners familiar with Ireland’s history of arranged marriages and economic struggles. Though often performed in traditional folk settings, "Step It Out Mary" has been covered by numerous Irish bands. Each version varies slightly in arrangement, but the core narrative remains the same, and rather unnervingly foreshadows the many lost marys who are ‘stepping it out’ not at their father’s command, but just for fun. Fair play to them. Having survived generations of repressed approaches to female sexuality, these women wear their sexuality proudly. I just wish it did not extend to generating seemingly endless amounts of coloured plastic waste and the sense that owning one’s sexuality required such bravery they don’t even need clothes in winter. Spray tan may not always suffice. Can’t one be sensible and sexy at the same time? Across my university campus and Dublin city, these LOST MARY boxes and the young women clutching them remind me of the urgency that accompanies the need for Irish culture to see Women’s and Gender Studies as more than a historical project. Contemporary Women’s and Gender Studies in Ireland remains overshadowed by historical approaches, which I love, and consume voraciously, but the prevalence of which implies that women’s liberation has happened, not that it is an ongoing issue which is increasingly interwoven with climate change. #feminism #Ireland #Mary #climatechange #sexuality #gender

The energy demands of Bitcoin mining and the data centres used by tech companies like Google had become the world’s largest sources of carbon emissions, and while Asher would never imagine his work might be compared to industries like brown coal mining, or the Lithium mines that now surrounded him, these industries had more in common than he had ever realised. Bitcoin, and cryptocurrencies in general, rely on energy-intensive mining process[i]. The process of verifying transactions and adding them to the blockchain (known as "mining") requires vast amounts of computational power….. This electricity comes from fossil fuels, including coal and natural gas.

[i] Bitcoin mining alone is responsible for roughly 100 million metric tons of CO2 annually, which is comparable to all the annual emissions of small countries like New Zealand or Argentina. Bitcoin's energy consumption is staggering, often exceeding that of entire nations. A single Bitcoin transaction can consume as much electricity as an average household in the U.S. does over several weeks. This is because the decentralized nature of Bitcoin requires multiple miners around the world to use high-powered computers to solve complex mathematical puzzles.

Low set in its aqua blue surrounds

Curranulla comes in,

heavy with school children and swimmers.

Miners and cockatoos light the airways.

Warbles, craws, cries,

carry on the eucalyptus air.

Ceiling fans hum.

Sand underfoot.

My white stomach is buoyed by the salt blue.

Insects and birds continue the debate.

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The women with chattering teeth are freezing in the icy queue for buses that either never arrive, or are too full to let them on. They look like they live in Soviet Russia. So too does my reflection after waiting for two hours for a bus that would actually let me on.

The Senior Academic Leadership Ireland (SALI) scheme was developed to remedy the lack of senior women in Irish universities. It’s an overdue action, which is indeed making headway. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it is very difficult to recruit for the SALI positions. Ireland is the second most expensive country in the European Union. Housing is incredibly difficult to access, expensive and of very poor quality. The weather is damp, cold and grey.

Now is the moment I am supposed to present a silver lining of some kind. There really isn’t one. Colleagues who have become friends have literally helped me stay, and without a very select few there is no way I would have made it through the first year and a half.

I have spent the past month trying to convince my husband to move here to join me. We have a home in Australia that I want to rent out so that I can buy here. After hours upon hours of looking at grey interiors on daft.ie I am running out of approaches to this topic. With the election being counted, people keep telling me there will be no change and things are only going to get worse.

If I really am the kind of skilled migrant the Republic needs, then there needs to be some serious changes made. Yes, I have learnt the real value of gortex and potatoes. I have had a delicious break from the rabidly neoliberal Australian academic culture. I have, and do, also continue to work hard. I love my job. As a woman born to an Irish father, with more family living in Dublin than anywhere in the world, I have experienced more extreme racism and hostility here than in any other country in Europe, Asia or America. The lack of warmth in the community and the profound absence of infrastructure, resources and hope makes the lives of skilled migrants such as myself nearly impossible. This country needs change, we need infrastructure and compassion not more bike shelters and rage.

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