The strong geese claim the sky again & tell us … of the many shifts & weathers of the long-boned earth. Blind to their huge, water-carved charts, our blood dull to the the tug of poles, we are tuned still to the rising & dying of light & we still share their need to nest & to journey. Moya Cannon

Long after my dead time I survive To see snow melt on the lifeless icicles Off the coast of Atlantis The ocean has shrunk to expose The bleak creatures of coral animation. Thoughts roam in aimless shoals with giddy dolphins There are visions & revisions. I remain in the Land of Doubt Hayden Murphy

As a vetrran of #Stuttgart 1988, I will be watching tonight’s game with fingers crossed that #Prague 2026 will come to be remembered as another epic day for Irish football. www.rte.ie/sport/soccer...

It’s hard to think of a more brilliant Irish family in modern times than the Yeatses. 👇 www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2...

Sing carnival when the mind freezes Then turns on its own meat, carnival Before the long fast, carnival that we turn To drink at the blood wells of memory. Savage simplicity, in the bleached palms Of the self-regarding dancers; Savage & clear, the energy Of the self-disclosing dancers. Theo Dorgan

It’s hard to know what the believe at this stage as the narrative from Washington keeps changing. My best guess is that the end is nigh for this war, but that the future for the region will remain highly uncertain with a continuing stand-off between Iran & Israel.

As you plaited the harvest bow You implicated the mellowed silence in you In wheat that does not rust But brightens as it tightens twist by twist Into a knowable corona, A throwaway love-knot of straw. Seamus Heaney ‘The Harvest Bow’

Water was the first mirror, drinking images of beauty, showing their wrinkled future in the mildest breeze. Water clings to its neutrality, changes state at boiling point, finds the level at which tensions cool, limbs relax. Dennis O’Driscoll ‘Water’ #Irish #Poetry

I will be on BBC Northern Ireland’s The View at 11 pm reviewing a busy Irish week in Washington for #StPatricksDay.

Ireland needs to grow up & get serious about its interests Interesting reflections by ex-Irish Ambassador Bobby McDonagh & Prof Emeritus Brigid Laffan on the clouded horizons for Irish foreign policy. A wake up call for us to get serious about our future security www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2026...

Here is a link to my interview @rteradio1.bsky.social’s Morning Ireland reviewing the Taoiseach’s meeting with President Trump. The Taoiseach came through it all with great credit for his defence of Keir Starmer & the EU. www.rte.ie/radio/radio1...

Waif of the afterglow On summer nights you meet your mate & jink Over sea-cliff & graveyard … To hatch an egg in a hermit’s skull. Pulse of the rock You throb till daybreak on your cryptic nest A song older than fossils, Ephemeral as thrift It ends with a gasp. Richard Murphy ‘Stormpetrel’

A cast of characters: Hamnet, Hamlet, William Shakespeare and James Joyce On a big day at the #Oscars for Jessie Buckley & #Hamnet, a reminder that in #Ulysses James Joyce wrote about the Hamnet/Hamlet link that runs through the film. www.irishtimes.com/opinion/an-i...

… His thoughts altered the deepest enmities. Like a woman who gathers her husband’s arrogance into a basket of love, he took our wars into the palm of his thought and stroked the poisons from where we had fought. Thomas McCarthy ‘The Wisdom of AE’

A cast of characters: Hamnet, Hamlet, William Shakespeare and James Joyce On a big day at the #Oscars for Jessie Buckley & #Hamnet, a reminder that in #Ulysses James Joyce wrote about the Hamnet/Hamlet link that runs through the film. www.irishtimes.com/opinion/an-i...

Good point.👇

Her eyes are pebbles. Her dress is seaweed. Her legs are driftwood that needs to float, but for now she keeps wading, slicing the waves that keep on offering their myriad loves. Matthew Sweeney ‘Wading’ #Irish #Poetry

A preview of next week’s White House visit by the Taoiseach Micheál Martin @theguardian.com to which I contributed. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...

A preview of next week’s White House visit by the Taoiseach Micheál Martin @theguardian.com to which I contributed. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...

My Irish Diary from this morning’s @irishtimes.com. ‘A cast of characters: Hamnet, Hamlet, William Shakespeare and James Joyce’ ‘Hamlet, the black prince, was Hamnet Shakespeare’ (#Ulysses) www.irishtimes.com/opinion/an-i...

I had a thought for no one’s but your ears:    That you were beautiful, and that I strove    To love you in the old high way of love; That it had all seemed happy, and yet we’d grown    As weary-hearted as that hollow moon. W.B. #Yeats ‘Adam’s Curse’ #Irish #Poetry

Where we stood footloose, at home beyond the tribe, More scouts than strangers, ghosts who’d walked abroad Unfazed by light, to make a new beginning And make a go of it, alive and spinning, Ourselves again, free-willed again, not bad. Seamus Heaney #Irish #Poetry

My Irish Diary from this morning’s @irishtimes.com. ‘A cast of characters: Hamnet, Hamlet, William Shakespeare and James Joyce’ ‘Hamlet, the black prince, was Hamnet Shakespeare’ (#Ulysses) www.irishtimes.com/opinion/an-i...

The leaf-green scurf of pollen on the meadow pond blizzard of bridal-white blossom in breeze-gust two redtails idling high on a thermal and higher in widening circles till they must be near out of each other’s sight but not sound as one lets out a cutting screech … Eamon Grennan

On the water the accumulation of spume, The hiss and purl of spiralling waves, the skid And visible snarl of wind, horizon’s disintegration, The glower and sharp glint of a tired sky. … Now for the decisions of the night, the heart’s undoing; The time where reason & emotions meet. Valentin Iremonger

We covered a lot of ground on this morning’s newspaper panel @rte.ie’s Brendan O’Connor programme. The war in the Middle East, the evacuation of Irish citizens from the Gulf, the Taoiseach’s White House visit etc.

Early start this morning. On the way to @rte.ie to read the Sunday papers ahead this morning’s newspaper panel on the Brendan O’Connor programme.

Good economic news for #Ireland. Domestic economy grows by an impressive 4.9% in 2025, exceeding expectations. www.rte.ie/news/busines...

I was given a copy of Valentin Iremonger’s poems some years ago but didn’t pay much attention to them. The more I read him, to more I rate his poetry. He was an accomplished poet & an Irish diplomat with several Ambassadorial postings. Here is his @DIB_RIA entry www.dib.ie/biography/ir...

On the water the accumulation of spume, The hiss and purl of spiralling waves, the skid And visible snarl of wind, horizon’s disintegration, The glower and sharp glint of a tired sky. … Now for the decisions of the night, the heart’s undoing; The time where reason & emotions meet. Valentin Iremonger

My interview on this evening’s The Hard Shoulder on @newstalkfm.bsky.social in which I discuss the dilemma facing European governments in the wake of the US/Israel assault on Iran. music.amazon.co.uk/podcasts/7a4...

Should I join them The old fellas Above Troy’s gate Demobbed by age Their fighting days Long behind them Good talkers still Conversation Like tree-crickets Or grasshoppers Settled on branches Deep in a wood Voices gently Lilting lily-like? Michael Longley #IrishPoetry

My interview on this evening’s The Hard Shoulder on @newstalkfm.bsky.social in which I discuss the dilemma facing European governments in the wake of the US/Israel assault on Iran. music.amazon.co.uk/podcasts/7a4...

I will be on @newstalkfm.bsky.social’s The Hard Shoulder after the 6 pm news discussing the situation in the Middle East. Where stands international law in light of the US/Israel assault on Iran?

In the sunlit courtyard, the great stone curves Of those wings you sculpted take on the shine & depth of the fresh chestnuts sprinkled All over the grass & gravelled paths below, & engrave the frosty air like cello-music, A valediction forbidding mourning of the seasons. Paddy Bushe #Irish #Poetry

A difficult dilemma for Keir Starmer in light of the overwhelming importance attached to ‘the special relationship’ by successive British Governments. But Starmer also has to take account of sentiment within his party & the current vulnerability of his leadership. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

In the sunlit courtyard, the great stone curves Of those wings you sculpted take on the shine & depth of the fresh chestnuts sprinkled All over the grass & gravelled paths below, & engrave the frosty air like cello-music, A valediction forbidding mourning of the seasons. Paddy Bushe #Irish #Poetry

Below us flows an endless white cloudfield with occasional holes like tiny lavender lakes like the brown, blue & silver bog lakes in the half-drowned edges of Connemara & Labrador which have almost forgotten the volcanoes that blew them apart. Moya Cannon ‘From the Plane’

U.S. & Israel launch attacks on Iran. They can certainly inflict significant damage, but it is hard to see a US ground invasion to bring down the Iranian regime. Regime change probably entails US cajoling elements in the Iranian military to help topple the Ayatollahs. www.rte.ie/news/2026/02...

Every cloud,even the smallest tuft, drags its own shadow behind it, on the skin of the silver-blue sea. Foam-followed ships are white tadpoles. They have forsaken,&seek out, the primal embrace of harbours. Families of nomads crossed here before a great inundation, which parted land masses MCannon

The Thomas Francis Meagher Tricolour Celebration 178 is coming up next weekend, 6-8 March in #Waterford. Two days of talks and Meagher-related activities. Details below. I will give a talk on Saturday, 7 March on our national flag, its past, present & future. See you there. meagherstricolour.com

U.S. & Israel launch attacks on Iran. They can certainly inflict significant damage, but it is hard to see a US ground invasion to bring down the Iranian regime. Regime change probably entails US cajoling elements in the Iranian military to help topple the Ayatollahs. www.rte.ie/news/2026/02...

Every cloud,even the smallest tuft, drags its own shadow behind it, on the skin of the silver-blue sea. Foam-followed ships are white tadpoles. They have forsaken,&seek out, the primal embrace of harbours. Families of nomads crossed here before a great inundation, which parted land masses MCannon

My interview with @newstalkfm.bsky.social Breakfast about US tariffs in light of last week’s developments. www.newstalk.com/podcasts/hig...

‘Impact of tariff fiasco will take time to become clear’ @rte.ie Yes, it will. If there needs to be fresh EU-US trade talks, expect them to be more difficult & for the EU to negotiate more robustly. www.rte.ie/news/analysi...

The fascination of what's difficult Has dried the sap out of my veins, …There's something ails our colt That must, as if it had not holy blood Nor on Olympus leaped from cloud to cloud, Shiver under the lash, strain, sweat and jolt As though it dragged road metal. W.B. Yeats

The long list of 20 contenders for this year’s @dublinlitaward.bsky.social has just been announced. It has been a pleasure for me to be part of this year’s judging panel. We now have the difficult task of choosing a shortlist of 6 & then the ultimate winner. dublinliteraryaward.ie/features/new...

Having a dedicated chair of Irish History at #Cambridge will help future generations of British students acquire a deeper understanding of Irish history. Cambridge, which also hosts an annual Parnell Fellowship at #Magdalene College, is now well served for Irish studies. www.rte.ie/news/ireland...

We sat grown quiet at the name of love;    We saw the last embers of daylight die,    And in the trembling blue-green of the sky    A moon, worn as if it had been a shell    Washed by time’s waters as they rose and fell    About the stars and broke in days and years. W.B. #Yeats