Áthas mar chineál friotaíochta. It was lovely to join dear friends and new friends alike at St. Pat’s for All earlier this month in Queens, New York.

I’m sure I’m not the only person to notice an Irish political party is mocking all their graphics up to look like @joedotie.bsky.social graphics? I’m presuming that’s so that the Meta algorithm puts them in front of more people 😅

They paid a lot of people good wages to do the job effectively, thank you for coming to my socialism talk

Carolan Rd needs a solution to its traffic problems. Previous interventions by DfI haven’t helped. Today I met with Principals of Forge Integrated & Wellington College to agree some actions & I’m now writing to the Infrastructure Minister to ask for her assistance to protect children and residents.

Another delay from the Infrastructure Minister in delivering Glider. East & West Belfast have benefited massively from Glider, with a huge increase in passenger journeys & footfall, yet communities in North & South Belfast are once again expected to wait for the infrastructure we desperately need.

I don’t know who needs to hear Jesse Jackson leading the kids on Sesame Street in this beautiful call-and-response reminding them that every child is somebody, but here it is

🚦 Earlier today @otoolematthew.bsky.social and I met with senior Department for Infrastructure Engineers on the Knockbreda Road. We expressed our extreme frustration at the prolonged delay in delivering the crossing, which will allow us to open the gate in to Cherryvale.

“They’ll grow out of it” I don’t know how many times I heard that growing up about gay people. Very happy in my life as a gay adult, and that I didn’t try to suppress reality in order to “grow out of it”. Wishing the same for Trans folks.

So much dysfunction at the heart of the Stormont Executive, yet the two largest parties in Government are arguing over whether a billboard has planning permission or not…

💕 Happy Valentine’s Day ✨

💕 Happy Valentine’s Day ✨

Glad we were able to work with other parties tonight to move ahead with the Belfast Pitches Strategy. SDLP, Greens & Sinn Féin voted for a proposal that would see GAA provision committed to, alongside provision for soccer & other codes. It’s disappointing that Alliance & Unionism couldn’t join us.

Disappointing tonight that the DUP & Alliance joined together in City Hall to try to pitch Music & the GAA against each other. That’s not the approach that will lift up Belfast. It’s not the approach that has worked in the past. Much more work to be done to build an inclusive and vibrant city.

We’ve been campaigning to get the worst part of the Ormeau Road resurfaced. Now the Minister has promised a resurfacing scheme from the Rosetta Roundabout to the junction at Forestside. We’ll be keeping the pressure up to make sure it happens.

There is an ongoing scoping exercise by Belfast City Council to identify major event spaces in the city, which will tie in to our emerging major events strategy. It’s disappointing to see people who voted FOR more pitches last week coming out against them this week. This process is far from over.

The weather as soon as I go to leave the house:

DfI have done the first in a series of temporary patches of the potholes I raised with them on the Ormeau Road. These are just until they do a full resurfacing scheme that the Minister has told me will happen this summer - I’ll be keeping the pressure up to make sure this happens!

Break out your fruit wine and toast to one of the greats tonight 😭

Just two folks who believe in building an independent, equitable new future for their countries, inside the European Union ☺️

So done with this rain.

We have to get any planning application right for the Good Shepherd Centre. I won’t be opposing housing in the middle of a housing crisis, but I will be opposing unnecessary tearing down of trees to be replaced by cars. There’s some good news for Carolan Rd in plans to permanently close the gate.

Bins update. A lot have been missed today, and will have to be lifted tomorrow or later this week. If your bin has been missed today, let me know. I’d also appreciate anyone letting me know if the contents of bins end up all over the street, so that we can get those areas flagged for cleansing.

Out around Rosetta & Ballynafeigh this morning to cover off some of our expected flooding spots. Thankfully the fact DfI finally cleared drains we’d reported means that flooding in these areas is at a minimum, including on Knockbreda Rd - which @otoolematthew.bsky.social & I worked to get cleared.

Grateful to the NI Water contractors who are out in Kingsberry to clear the combined water sewers - this should hopefully alleviate any potential flooding over the rest of the day.

⚡️ There are a number of power cuts around the Ravenhill area. NIE are struggling to get engineers to places because of the weather but we’re working with them to get things sorted. Please ring in any outages you experience.

Normally a fairly confident flyer, but you couldn’t pay me to be a passenger taking off from Belfast City Airport today…

Chandra is certainly making herself heard this morning, with thunder and lightning over Belfast already.

⚠️ Storm Chandra - School Closures A number of local schools have now announced closures due to tomorrow’s Amber weather warning. The BBC are keeping a live list of closures here:

I fear I may be responsible for about a third of the one billion streams of Total Eclipse of the Heart...

Andy Burnham decision is so utterly daft and looks entirely factional. Not how parties should select candidates.

🚍 Everyone’s probably sick of hearing me go on about lowering bus fares, but this is what I spotted when over in Newcastle. A whole region where fares are capped at low prices. Imagine we could do that for Belfast’s Metro buses? We could cut congestion & make it cheaper for folks to get around.

Good news on a Friday. Committee agreed today to a proposal from Cllr. Tomás Ó Néill & I for a new piece of LGBT+ street art in Bank Square, on the tower of 2 Royal Ave. This will highlight the importance of our new LGBT+ Hub. Work will now take place on how we make it happen, including design etc.

So, so lovely to be at the launch of the Imagination Library’s 2026 book list. Getting free books into hands of kids is such a powerful thing, yet so simple. Our pilot across Belfast has just started, but I’m determined to grow it. Thank you Dolly Parton & the incredible Imagination Library team.

The Ormeau Road is in desperate need of repair. Over the last number of years I’ve been asking the Infrastructure Department to do more than just patch the potholes between Rosetta roundabout and Annadale Avenue. Over the past few weeks the road surface has deteriorated again.

We’re working to support small businesses and social enterprises with grants of up to £25k for capital works. Gary McKeown and I dropped in to the second South Belfast info session about the Vacant to Vibrant programme today at Cregagh Sports Club.

This old telephone box on the Cregagh Road is being used as a dumping ground and the internal electrical connections have been ripped out and exposed. I’ve contacted BT today to get it removed, and asked Council teams to help get the area tidied up.

Pedestrians can still cross the bridge for anyone walking that route

The Ormeau Road is currently closed at the Ormeau Bridge due to an ongoing incident. Please seek alternate routes.

🥳 Happy 80th Birthday to our Dolly! I’m looking forward to spending some time with the folks at the Imagination Library later this week!

Redemption Song is one of those books I return to often for a much needed dose of optimism. In today’s post-factual world I’m incredibly glad that a South Belfast man is holding the powerful to account - fair play to Niall Stanage for continuing to ask difficult questions, and speak truth to power.

I know y’all are too smart and fabulous to fall for distraction politics. There are 14,500 people on the housing waiting list in Belfast. Those trying to distract you are running our public services in to the ground.

Just leaving City Hall. We had v useful meeting w/ Council officers about bin collections. All outstanding missed bins are now flagged for collections, but most have been collected by now. Cleansing teams also been flagged for streets where uncollected bins have resulted in rubbish everywhere.

The Air Ambulance is currently at Cherryvale, following an incident nearby. Please give emergency services the space to do their work. My thoughts are with those involved.

Happened to find myself on Hill Street this afternoon, well after the loading zone hours were finished. The vehicle breaking the “pedestrianisation” is a Department for Infrastructure van… Set. Up. To. Fail.

🎄 CHRISTMAS DONATION DRIVE 🎄 DATE 📅: Saturday 13th December 2025 LOCATION📍: QUB Library Car Park TIME 🕰️: 12pm-6pm In the spirit of solidarity, the Global Shapers Belfast Hub will be collecting donations for Foodstock, Storehouse, Belfast and The People’s Kitchen this holiday season! #Belfast

🎄I’ve been asked by quite a few people this past fortnight when the Christmas trees are coming back to Rosario Youth Club - well you’re in luck this Sunday!

🌹 Beautiful morning in Ballynafeigh to mark a new milestone for Rosario and Ulidia. The Roses will take on a new long term lease of the pitches here from Belfast City Council - something we’ve been working to support for a long time.

Efforts to sectarianise poverty are a cheap attempt to deflect from the NI Executive’s own failings and the DUP Communities Minister’s paltry Anti-Poverty Strategy. Stormont isn’t working for people - it has to urgently address that.

🚦 As a local representative you should always try to bend over backwards for your area, but the same can’t be said for what local infrastructure should do… These pedestrian signals at the junction of Rosetta Road and Knockbreda Road have been reported in to DfI…