A January morning in west of Ireland

So the US president doesn’t need to consult US Congress now to start a war

2025 EV sales in Europe: ⬆️ 28% In Ireland: ⬆️ 36% = noticeable growth/demand for EVs. … Except Tesla (once the leader): EU ⤵️ -7% to -60% depending on country Ireland ⤵️ -5% (Globally, it’s ⤵️ -9%) What’s going on? Why are Tesla car sales falling in a booming EU market?

Finished Pluribus. Pros and cons. But overall, the most thought-provoking TV series, by a mile, in quite some time. —> Which is better, sustainability or freedom? Art and self determination or peace, security and harmony? So many big, big questions. It’s VERY well done.

Every year, I make 10 predictions about what will happen in the coming 12 months. (Mostly tech and tech-adjacent.) Here are my 2026 predictions. From AI to dodgy boxes; transatlantic tension to mandatory-but-not-compulsory digital ID for social media. m.independent.ie/business/tec...

Who will stop the Piano Man's reign of terror?!

2025’s legacy

Dublin Airport says it issued 1,931 fines in 2025 to cars sneakily dawdling in its departure drop-off zones. Over 300 extra fines for ‘tailgating’ through the car park gates. And top 5 ‘lost property’ items named: bags, sunglasses, phones, keys, laptops www.independent.ie/business/193...

The idea that you’d need to upload your passport (or equivalent digital ID) to wish your auntie happy birthday on Facebook, or send a WhatsApp, will make for an interesting national debate. Maybe entering a new era of ‘mandatory but not compulsory’ for national IDs in Ireland.

Today's column is on the relentless march of blithering idiocy, which includes denying climate science while your house is - literally in this case - burning down. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

8.40am sunrises in Dublin’s Dollymount

Christmas pressies. (Also: is this the most iconic character who never appears in the film?)

Happy Christmas! And merry Winterval!

Grand stretch in the evenings

2025 footnote — Google became a bigger company than Microsoft ($3.75tn market cap Goog vs $3.6tn Msft) The only non-Nvidia tech giant making actual gains from AI?

Ireland’s newest world champion, Excel World Champ Dermot Early, tells me why he’s so good between the sheets (Pod) open.spotify.com/episode/2gtu...

20,000 Irish Vodafone customers to be refunded almost €900k in roaming fees m.independent.ie/business/tec...

Not sure people know — HSE is starting to pay out (€750+ per person) to people affected by the 2021 ransomware cyberattack. 90,000+ people were affected (says HSE). BUT unclear whether it’s everyone (you) or just those with lawyers. Worth asking them www.independent.ie/irish-news/h...

A Grafton Street Christmas

TikTok’s US unit has been sold to Oracle and others (TikTok calls it a ‘joint venture’). Explainer on what it means for TikTok in Ireland, including what you see in the app and its employment here www.independent.ie/business/tec...

Eerie lull in +44 scam robocallers… We scared them off*

For flu/Covid jab before Christmas — lots of local pharmacies doing walk-ins. As I just discovered :) Wouldn’t have known from HSE’s online portal on where to get it, as it mainly points to online reservations with big chains (Boots, McCabe’s etc), which are mostly booked out.

Often slagged but O’Connell St looks great this year — really Christmassy and loads of people

Dublin’s new tallest building (left) and its 7th tallest (right). The skyline of Ireland’s capital is changing quickly — 4 of the tallest 6 built in the last 7 years

How to make a sad tragedy somehow about you

6 weeks ago vs today

A reminder of how to curb scam +44 robocalls. -> Call screening on iPhones /Google Pixel phones. iPhone: Settings -> Apps -> Phone -> Screen Unknown Callers. Pixels: within the phone app, ‘More’ -> Settings -> Call Screen -> Automatically Screen Calls. m.independent.ie/business/tec...

US ‘censorship’ meme against Europe jars with its own 5-year social media witch hunt against visitors. Or cutting funding from colleges that aren’t ideologically pure. Or firing people who post nasty things about assassinated pundits. = Hypocrisy. Today’s column: m.independent.ie/business/iri...

Live Translation (different languages translated live on a call) is now active on EU iPhones/AirPods via iOS 26.2. Settings -> Software Update -> Apple Intelligence & Siri It was held up by Apple saying that EU’s DMA regs made it harder to launch here

Jessie Buckley has the Golden Globe in the bag, according to Polymarket (and most bookies)

Presented without comment

Here’s a way to curb those +44 robocalls. iPhones and Pixels can now ‘screen’ calls from unknown numbers for you — getting them to identify themselves before connecting you to the call. You can turn it on in settings — the attached pic shows how. More: www.independent.ie/business/tec...

Here’s one problem with answering those scam +44 robocalls: you put yourself on wider scammer databases (cos you’re now a certified mark). Within days of answering the +44 robocalls, I’m getting more of these

Are you seeing a surge in +44 scam calls lately? If so, what ‘services’ are they pretending to be?

EU’s plan to ditch the petrol/diesel car ban 2035 has little effect on Ireland’s EV trajectory — we never took any ban seriously. EV sales are up over a third this year (after an awful 2024) for basic reasons: more, better, cheaper models. www.independent.ie/irish-news/a...

Trump Calls Groceries ‘A Hoax’

Is ‘muppet’ mostly an Irish thing?

89% of Irish premises can now get 1Gbs. Broadband availability, as a news story, is over

Talbot St is northside Dublin’s urban sunset capital

Eileen Higgins became the first Democrat to win the Miami mayor’s office in around three decades, defeating a Republican opponent backed by President Trump.

Exclusive: HSE has begun offering €750 to victims of the massive cyberattack in 2021. There are over 90,000 affected people, all of whom the HSE wrote to at the time. m.independent.ie/business/tec...

A company director being pursued for €765,000 following the collapse of her packaging firm has been using artificial intelligence to “churn out reams” of legal papers, the High Court has heard. One AI-assisted affidavit cited case law that did not exist. www.independent.ie/business/iri...

A great win for Adrian Weckler @adrianweckler.bsky.social in the highly competitive Business Feature of the Year category for his video feature illustrating how AI video is changing Ireland and the world. #SmurfitAwards @Independent_ie

A good day for the Irish Independent parish: 3 out of 7 at the country’s most prestigious business journalism awards ceremony today. (Best podcast, best interview, best feature.) m.independent.ie/irish-news/i...

You’d never guess Elon Musk just got a fine for deceiving people on X

Sad about Salah, all-time great. But rightly benched - not performing. Can’t say stuff like that. Departure surely likely.

Musk’s response to the fine and one fan’s reply

EU Commission hits X with €120m fine over the “deception” that blue tick accounts are verified or trustworthy. Says blue tick accounts are often scammers and grifters masquerading as decent folks. ec.europa.eu/commission/p...

A few things to consider from the $83bn Netflix Warner Bros deal. 1. Will cinemas close (Netflix doesn’t like them!) 2. Does it guarantee a Netflix subscription price rise soon? (Yes) 3. What does it mean for Sky (HBO etc)? m.independent.ie/business/tec...

Cloudflare outage again. Hitting multiple websites and services. Imagine an agentic AI near-future where 30% of your day is automated and… m.independent.ie/business/tec...