The #epstein scandal will not go away. It’s an ugly nexus of money, #humantrafficing, and Russia. Meanwhile #mikejohnson refuses to swear in #adelitagrijalva who is expected to be the final vote to sign off on a discharge petition to release the DOJ Epstein files #uspol #uspolitics […]

Confirming the, disputed-by-some, identity of Éamonn de Valera’s father could likely be solved by #GeneticGenealogy with assistance of family members. Rumors of out of wedlock birth stalked the man that dominated #irishpolitics for decades In modern Ireland, that controversy would now be viewed […]

Excellent piece detailing the extraordinary life of photographer Don McMullin. He learned his craft in the pre-digital age where an efficient eye for composition was essential. He plied his talent in international war zones and domestic social protests. His talent stretches to wonderful […]

Julia O'Faolain is part of a cohort of great 20th century Irish women #writers. She carved out her own distinct space separate from her father Seán. She passed away five years ago #OnThisDay #HerStory #IrishBiography #IrishHistory #Author #IrishArts […] [Original post on mastodon.ie]

Muriel MacSwiney died 43 years ago #OnThisDay One of #Ireland's great revolutionary women who paid a ferocious price for her beliefs #GlobalIrishNation #IrishHistory #IrishBiography #HerStory #OthisDate #OTD #MastoDaoine […] [Original post on mastodon.ie]

November will be a big month for popular history with the release of #kenburns 12 hour American Revolution #documentary Given the fraught state of #uspolitics, will this series widen the chasm, trigger conversation or just be ignored as hopelessly elitist? #uspol #ushistory #history #pbs […]

Trump never misses an opportunity to amplify his greviances nor an opportunity to grift from American taxpayers There is no amount of money nor elimination of the truth that can ever satisfy the gaping emotional emptiness of the man that occupies the presidency #uspol #uspolitics […]

Irish #poet Patrick Kavanagh was born #Monaghan 121 years ago #OnThisDay. Despite his modest origins and limited access to formal education, Kavanagh was broadly acclaimed. Video below 👇 from my recent visit to his hometown of Inniskeen #IrishBiography […] [Original post on mastodon.ie]

If you’re in #dublin on Nov 9th, this is a great opportunity to understand the tendrils of Irish literary connectivity across the Atlantic I’m delighted to see former @IrishStewPodcast guest @POSG featured. Patrick has written an exceptional book on #scottfitzgerald and his conflicted Irish […]

Interesting piece on #ireland being the loneliest country in the EU. If you’re #irish, does that gel with your experience? Are we retreating behind our phones rather than risking social interactions? Is #socialmedia helping or hindering? Do digital connections matter, if they simply remain […]

Excellent piece from Bill McKibben who writes with both clarity and optimism on the #climatecrisis and energy production. While we are daily bombarded by BS from powerful incumbent #energy interests bent on maintaining their profitable inertia, ramming toxic solutions down our throats, there […]

Jane Goodall didn’t mince words on Musk et al. Words recorded in March to be released on her passing - worth a listen #biodiversity #climatecrisis #environnement #uspolitics https://substack.com/@poemz/note/c-163573963

Just finished up a 10 day @IrishStewPodcast trip across the Irish Midlands with my #podcast partner @Johnleemedia We wanted to capture some of the essence of the place and it’s people for a new series which we call #offthebeatencraic We concluded our trip with a chat with Kieran Cuddihy of […]

Woke up yesterday to the sad news that Manchán Magan had passed. This short editorial 👇 from the IT captures what was essential to the man I had the pleasure of talking with Manchán a couple of years back on @IrishStewPodcast. My abiding memory was one of joie de vivre, cultural passion and a […]

1) The declaration of #antifa as a domestic terrorism organization is a sad desperate attempt by the #trump administration to create a fictional sinister enemy which threatens law abiding Americans Of course ANTIFA is more of an ideology rather than an organization, it doesn’t have offices or a […]

Are we at the moment when #trump is getting increasingly desperate and attempting to provoke conflict to justify a police state? Last I checked #portland wasn’t a war zone. Did the restoration of #jimmykimmel fry out the last rage regulating brain cells? #uspol #fascism […]

The US Geological Survey reports seismic activity has detected at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. They advise continuing instability is to be expected along with exploding ketchup sachets #uspolitics #freespeech https://www.npr.org/2025/09/22/nx-s1-5550330/jimmy-kimmel-back-suspended-disney-trump

Excellent piece featuring #zohranmamdani in conversation with #berniesanders #bernie reflects on his time as mayor in Burlington #vermont, and his path to political power rooted in community engagement and building That's the challenge for #zohran in a #nyc mayor's race with a #newsmedia more […]

A reminder of how weird the #billionaire types of. #siliconvalley have become. Ultimately they are threatened by voters who do not share their wealth consolidation drive. The #antichrist thing is just another attempt to distract and vilify those who oppose the goals of tech’s #ultrawealthy […]

The problem with #socialmedia is it has made many less social. New #ai “solutions” are being developed which exacerbate a broad deterioration of many to engage in real world encounters Lonliness is epedemic and #siliconvalley with its doomscrolling algorithms is increasing individual isolation […]

1) Excellent idea from #BillMcKibben and his many supporters who are organizing #sunday. Getting more #cleanenergy solutions installed in every household is an important goal in addressing #climatechange Enabling potential #cleantech adopters to kick the wheels is essential in making Americans […]

Excellent piece from @georgemonbiot.bsky.social “while the pen might be mightier than the sword, the wallet is mightier than the pen” There is truth here👆but there is also an important addendum: The vote is mightier than the wallet Now the wallet is attacking the vote. This is the struggle […]

How are we to understand the Information Disordered Landscape created by #socialmedia ? Is Western Democracy being degraded by #algorithms ? Excellent conversation hosted by Peter Geoghan of #democracyforsale, in conversation with Eliot Higgins of @Bellingcat #disinformation #misinformation […]

Are liberals abandoning #bluesky for #x? That’s what the headline reads in this #newyorker article which forces the reader to consume #NateSilver musings before approaching the headline subject Alternative #social media such as BlueSky or #mastodon has seen a decline in posting volume […]

Looks like #trump got it wrong. The murder of #charliekirk does not appear to be the work of the “radical left” If that’s the case, I can guarantee we will never hear the words “I got it wrong” come out of Trump’s mouth As in the past, he will double down on his efforts to stoke chaos and […]

There was a time, when a crime was committed, that politicians would allow an investigation to take place and avoid jumping to conclusions prematurely Now we have the #trump administration and those adjacent to fact free politics rushing to apportion blame to radical liberals We don’t know why […]

Real tour de force testimony from Peter Geoghan this week in Westminster. For close to a decade Peter has worked to reveal the subterranean influence of money on #ukpolitics #democracyforsale #journalism https://youtu.be/hckxOuguRus?si=9BeK1TF9GdvE4but

Excellent podcast from Drilled featuring economist Mark Blythe delivering a scathing analysis of the #farright and their love of the #carbonarchy. Want to understand how #ai, economics, #climatecrisis and Far Right politics intersect, Blythe and his wonderful #scottish accent is your man […]

1) The second #trump administration has a lot in common with the chaotic governments of Juan Peron. Anybody with a passing interest in #geopolitics and #economics are aware of the cautionary tale of #argentina - a booming country at the beginning of the 20th century, replete with natural […]

Not a good day for #jpmorgan or #trump who would like to see the #epstein story fade. This blockbuster report from the #nytimes will redirect focus to the appalling story and stoke further skepticism of #ultrawealthy men and their predilection or tacit acceptance of #sextrafficing #uspolitics […]

@Catvalente with as perfect a description of #trump II as I’ve come across - all delivered with fury appropriate for those who value #democracy #uspol #uspolitics https://open.substack.com/pub/catvalente/p/the-mask-of-the-orange-death?r=3alg6&utm_medium=ios

#anntelnaes and #andyborowitz continue to make me smile even in this ugliest of times https://open.substack.com/pub/borowitzreport/p/trump-revamps-the-smithsonian-art #cartoon #uspol #uspolitics

Learned a new word: Enshittocene. @pluralistic what have you done. https://cybercultural.com/enshittocene/

Latest data shows an unsatisfactory level of new housing starts in #ireland The difficult in finding a satisfactory place to live is likely to continue unabated #mastodaoine https://www.irishtimes.com/business/2025/08/31/housing-commencement-figures-down-nearly-80-so-far-this-year/

View of the Cinque Terre coastline and the Ligurian Sea after sunset. Taken from above Grotto di Byron at Porto Venere #italy

View featured in the opening scene of one of the most famous novels of the 20th century #books #bookstodon

1) I was a teenager when the #DirtyWar was taking place in #Argentina. I remember the sinister junta generals making their appearance at the 1978 World Cup Haley Cohen Gilliland has written a deeply impactful history of that horror as seen through the eyes of […] [Original post on mastodon.ie]

The #trump war on the #federalreserve continues with the purported and legally questionable firing of #lisacook Trump’s goals - gain control of TheFed and lower interest rates which should only be done when #inflation is low and the #economy needs stimulus - 👆weakens the dollar which #crypto […]

#trump and crew going full Pol Pot on science. Gotta keep the base happy by denying #climatechange science and attacking the undeniable benefit of #vaccines. #maga and its adherents are starting to make the 17th century Vatican look enlightened in their pursuit of Galileo #uspol […]

1) I’ve lived in #nyc for more than 40 years. The national profile of the Mayor’s race has never been so high The anti #zohranmamdani vote is desperately split. #andrewcuomo, in a last gasp effort to reestablish his political relevance is courting the bejeweled set out in the Hamptons and […]

Is the #bolton raid a purity test between hard and disaffected MAGA? #kashpatel using the FBI to demonstrate his fealty to the #trump godhead? A signal to all who oppose #maga that nobody is safe from retribution, even those who were once nominal supporters? Perhaps all of the above? #uspol […]

@gilduran in conversation with astrophysicist Adam Becker who calls bullshit on childish #techbros fantasies of #ai general intelligence, #marscolonization, etc. I was struck by how many #billionaires are wasting their and government money in a selfish quest for #eternallife rather than solve […]

We can speculate endlessly about what went down in the #alaska between two morally depraved men. Was #trump summoned to receive instructions from his controller? Was #putin pushed to end is disasterous war in #ukraine? Was it all just kabuki, a desperate attempt for optics and attempted […]

Excellent piece from #thedaily on Trump’s firing of Dr. Erika McEntarfer, head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics Ben Casselman speaks to methodology behind the numbers and their revisions, the likelihood of rigging the numbers, and the perils of undermining market confidence in government […]

Healthy childhoods are a casualty of fear inducing news media. #socialmedia companies benefit from children restricted to screens rather than unstructured opportunities to play and interact. Social norms encourage a form of extreme parenting which insulates children from extremely low […]

I was struck by Trump’s use of the word “stole” in relation to Virginia Giuffre as a former employee at Mar-a-lago Trump is far from a wordsmith, but his use of that word reveals how he thinks of employees, they are simply possessions. I found it both chilling and unsurprising. Just another […]

A view of the Trauttmansdorff Gardens in Merano which I visited during my recent #SouthTyrol trip The gardens are associated with the Empress” Sissi” who stayed at the property’s castle on two seperate occasions and made Merano a fashionable destination for the […] [Original post on mastodon.ie]

It hasn't been many years since racists felt mostly obliged to keep their ugly views quiet. The Trump era has completely reversed that. Now -- with Dear Leader in the front of the parade -- they flaunt their racism, and threaten people who refuse to be bigots […]

On a bleak day for many of us, something to bring a smile and an opportunity to contemplate https://northwestern.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Embed.aspx?id=8522cc81-318a-4609-88f8-b2c6013fc92a&start=5293.014091