This is getting very interesting. Die Linke, the German Left party, is now at 20% leading in the opinion poll for the State election in Berlin in September. Along with the Greens at 19%, they have pushed the AFD into third place. SPD at 13% gives a clear left majority. 44% for a majority.

And, yes, I turned off my television set. Just before the ads by the way.

@news.rte.ie this applies precisely to the interview going out on Six One this evening. Where is the alternative left of centre vision of the EU to be represented. Where is the voice to question militarism, to question deregulation, to demand a Delors and Palme type of EU?

@news.rte.ie I am very disappointed to see two speakers about to be interviewed from what any reasonable person would call the EPP/Renew Europe camp, and nobody from a social democratic or socialist viewpoint on the future direction of the EU. That is not a balanced interview. @cnam-ie.bsky.social

www.rte.ie/news/2026/05... Very sorry to hear of this wonderful man’s passing. I am glad that he told his story in later years.

I have just seen a diesel train city bound pulling up at Clongriffin at 0922. From my bus. Something is moving again.

www.thejournal.ie/readme/irela.... This is a first rate article that everyone in this country of not just my son’s generation but also my generation should read.

For the Seanad By-Election, could I suggest that the broad republican left coalesce behind a single non party candidate such as Brian Feeney of Ireland’s Future, or Colin Harvey, with a view to a serious challenge that might win.

@irishtimes.com Rhun ap Iorwerth was elected by the Senedd as First Minister of Wales three hours ago, leading the first ever Plaid Cymru Welsh Government. His district is within 100 km of Dublin. Where is my push notification of this news? And you ask for a subscription? And you deny any agenda?

So yesterday Scotland and Wales elected pro-independence governments. On top of that, today, Europe Day, has been declared Republic Day in Britain, and an English Republican movement is operating alongside the ones in Scotland and Wales. With rallies. And a LibDem ex minister and MP has joined them.

@irishtimes.com Why is this not your headline this morning instead of pushing the far right racist angle? Why not a few opinion columns backing this? And you ask for a subscription?

www.irishtimes.com/crime-law/co... @tagesspiegel.de @gregorgysi.dielinkebt.de Siehe an Ende, über OB Wegner. Nicht gut für Wahlkampf. Ich muss sagen, in 2025 war der Deutscher Botschafter in Irland sehr verständnisvoll über dieser Sache. Es war ein Shitstorm in Irland.

@railusersie.bsky.social Only four carriages on the 1723 Pearse to Drogheda and it is jammed full at Pearse. No hope at Tara Street or Connolly

@news.rte.ie @irishtimes.com @irishexaminer.bsky.social All of you are pushing a theme about a non existent heave against the SF leader so much that it looks like acting in concert. I am surprised not to read headlines about “Sinn Féin open up 9 point lead over both FF and FG.” That is the story.

I have seen BS in my day, but this crap in the BP beats all. How in the hell do darker summer evenings save energy? Daylight Saving Time had to be reintroduced after the 1973 oil crisis having been stupidly abolished in 1969. Save our long summer evenings! What’s the real BP agenda here?

@irelandvotes.bsky.social There’s a Red C BP poll tomorrow apparently. All I know so far is FF 16% FG 16% leaked by Shane Coleman of all people in an advance promotion of his article. This is not good for the government.

Feachtas iontach dúinn don samhradh, ach ní foláir dúinn feachtas eile a bhunú, chun Gaeilge cheart chruinn a chur ar logainmneacha cosúil le Durlas Éile, Brí Chualann, Máigh Eala, 7rl.

Census 1926. Dev’s form is correctly filled out by him in Irish but the digitised version has him living in his next door neighbour’s house while the rest of his family is in his own house! Amazed that the digitisation people didn’t spot that and get it right.

The Government needs to demand a European windfall tax on oil company profits. Five EU Governments including Germany have signed a letter to the EU Commission calling for this. Why has Ireland not signed?

www.irishtimes.com/politics/202... Meloni’s government supporting US corporate interests against the people of Ireland and doing Trump’s laundry for him, to my mind. Not good for relationship with Italy and not good for Meloni’s cheerleaders in Ireland.

www.rte.ie/news/world/2... Whoa! @news.rte.ie you are way out of line here. What do you mean referring to Iran wanting an end to “its” war with the US and Israel. That war belongs to the US & Israel. As a national broadcaster you must be a trusted source. You cannot spread misinformation like this.

Why is Ireland not one of the countries which has signed this letter?

Delighted with Council of State appointments. Especially Colin Harvey of Ireland’s Future, Donncha O’Connell, and Linda Ervine who has done so much to break down barriers. It was Linda’s brother in law David whose arguments persuaded me to vote yes and accept revised Articles 2&3 in 1998.

www.rte.ie/news/2026/03... Why don’t we get a bill through Dáil Éireann to set up a sovereign banking facility with cards as well for allocation of accounts to these ICC judges?

www.thejournal.ie/israel-churc.... Has our foreign minister got anything to say about this? Or indeed high profile Irish Catholic supporters of Israel and its current government? Any pretence that Israel is going to respect holy places has just gone out the window.

www.france24.com/en/middle-ea... The Meloni and Tajani government of Italy is starting to learn where consorting with Trump and his ilk leads to. What does Huckabee have to say about this?

I have a policy of refusing to drink any beverage produced by Coca Cola group. I always ask for the alternative. What I usually end up with is high quality local produce with a low carbon footprint and for the same price. This example in Wexford city centre today.

Business Post RedC opinion poll breaking with Sinn Féin in the lead. Haven’t seen detailed figures yet.

www.rte.ie/news/2026/03... This should be a resigning issue for our Foreign Minister. A Dáil resolution should be brought to mandate Ireland to issue a letter to the UN asking for its vote to be recorded in favour of the resolution against slavery.

www.rte.ie/news/connach.... The key piece of information that we need reported here is: who is legally challenging the cross-city bus link in Galway?

We have a great team again. They have given the whole country a huge lift. This will be controversial but if ever there was a World Cup to miss, it was this one, to be honest. Onward to Euros 2028 and World Cup 2030 nearer home. COYBIG. You did us proud over this past six months.

The Irish Times is happy to platform the far right (as gauged by the cheerleaders over on Twitter) in order to attack President Connolly and in effect support Trump. And they ask for a subscription…

www.rte.ie/news/2026/03.... Éist lenár Uachtarán! Listen to our President.

German Greens ahead of CDU in Baden-Württemberg state election, meaning that former federal agriculture minister Cem Özdemir will succeed the 15-year incumbent Green minister-president Winfried Kretschmann. The Greens overhauled a CDU lead of 8% in three weeks, helped by anti-conscription sentiment.

And freedom must mean freedom not just from the mullahs and their secret police, but also from the shah and his secret police that was there before 1978, and from US and Israeli hegemony. It must mean the restoration of independent social democracy as the Iranian people had under Mossadegh.

Remembering Olof Palme on his 40th anniversary. I wish the EU could have a leader like him.

The voice of the people of Ireland. Certainly speaks for me.

Today is the fortieth anniversary of the assassination of one of Europe’s greatest statesmen, Olof Palme, Social Democratic prime minister of Sweden. May he rest in peace. He is probably the greatest example of what the EU leadership could and should be. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olof_Pa...

However, they are this afternoon running under Top Stories the declaration of a Cllr that he will seek the FG nomination for Dublin Central.

Incredibly RTÉ News still has the selection of the FG candidate in Galway West from last Sunday on its website when you scroll down a bit. It has a PBP council Co option as a major headline. Of Janice Boylan’s selection as Dublin Central SF candidate there is no mention.

No sign of it on the Independent this morning but they have three stories on another candidate in Dublin Central whom they seem content to publicise widely.

And now it has been “disappeared” out of sight from the Examiner. I have screenshots of all the coverage of the Galway West FG candidate from last Sunday. They show the benchmark that all other major party candidates should expect for coverage of their selection. This is going further.

And come morning, it’s taken back down off the Irish Times website, lest it be seen by anyone other than taxi drivers, insomniacs, and people keeping an eye out for media bias.

And it’s now up on the Irish Times website but away down the site, not prominently like the FG candidate in Galway. And they ask me for a subscription…

So tonight @dublincentralsf.bsky.social selected Cllr Janice Boylan for the Dublin Central by election in a democratic convention. The Journal has the report up. So has the Examiner in Cork. But not RTÉ News or The Irish Times. Both had wide coverage of the Galway Fine Gael candidate last Sunday.

Very sorry to learn of the death of Rev Jesse Jackson today. A great friend of Ireland and a great pioneer who achieved so much despite never holding office. Some of his ideas were just pure genius. An inspiration. May he rest in peace.

When are we going to get fritz-kola in Ireland? A European alternative. @fritz-kola.bsky.social

www.rte.ie/news/ireland... This is why FF FG and far right candidates should be voted out in Dublin Central and Galway West by elections. The government and their right wing “independent” allies are undermining social housing as a matter of policy.

@garda.ie I just got a call from a family member to say that the back road between old Portmarnock and Malahide is blocked just after the new Lakeside Memorial Park after Chapel Lane Junction due to flooding, ice and possibly some other hazard. Cars turning back. 0935 hrs Saturday.

www.thejournal.ie/trinity-coll.... Absolutely delighted with this decision having raised the issue a couple of years ago.