One of those people way off in the distance is John Stephens canvassing at Broombridge…

I absolutely refuse to hear how boring Irish elections are from journalists who directly contribute to how boring they are by never grilling candidates on anything hard

This is absolutely infuriating and just “more of it” from a very crooked and shady state organisation.

More importantly, she called out Bertie's racism in her acceptance speech, called him a c**t and said fuck Farage and Reform, but for some reason that's not included in RTE's report.

Vote early, vote often!

IDK this journalist at all but I wish they would do all the political coverage everywhere. Masterclass #speirghorm

The Bat(ty)mobile is flaking around Cabra pumping out ‘A Nation Once Again’…

i'll be at the protest outside the dáil tomorrow, against the killing of yves sakila if you're in dublin, come along 1pm

A lot of people (myself included) pausing to read dedications to Yves Sakali outside Arnotts today.

Almost a month and two follow-up “why isn’t this sorted yet?” emails later, I can finally enrol in the “new” pension platform. It has zero multi-factor security options 👍👍👍

Hearing about the Mayor of Stoneybatter hosting community groups from across Dublin 7 in the Mansion House last week. Even the kids were invited, had a marvellous time and now want mammy and daddy to vote for Ray. I’m sure he’s making the most of what any mayor could technically do at any time…

Immigration make Britain brilliant

Third time we’ve had SF canvassers call in Dublin Central. They are putting in the ground work!

Some tea regarding the handball alley/community centre at Croke Park in my post box today. Never heard a peep about it before. Think I got a booster in there though!

The absolute best thing about RTE's two fingers to the Eurovision and broadcasting the Song for Europe episode of Father Ted is that Graham is fuming about it, and not getting a penny for it

Why does RTÉ stop short of landing the reality that WE are part of that “tens of millions” facing food shortages? This avoidable clusterf*ck has huge global impact.

🎭

Would people rather the money be flung from the deck of an open top bus? 3.3c of every Euro - to ensure things like: basic due diligence & fraud prevention, assessing where the money can have greatest impact, making sure it’s spent well - feels pretty light TBH

Second visit by SF canvassers in Cabra West. Is it just there’s way more resources to intensify efforts for a bye-election or…?

I did not have most of this on my bingo card, particularly the wind turbine and solar panels but I guess he gets a lot of inspo from his time in Spain.

See also the ~€3 million to be spent on a temporary train station in Adare for The Golf People. You could maybe hope this temporary thing will prove the case for putting passenger services in on a permanent basis, but you could get a lot of bike infra for €3m.

The OPW spends €1.2m of our money each year on car parking for civil servants. If a bike shed costing €127,000 stands for 20 years, the OPW will have, in that time, spent €24,000,000 of our money to rent car parking for well-paid office workers. www.thejournal.ie/readme/bike-...

Truly believe that all that yap about considering nuclear as an energy source (never happening) was to distract from the government’s inability to deliver renewable energy projects that could be making an impact in a matter of a few years, even months.

I know a person who would get up at 6.05AM and proceed to the pool area where they would throw all the towels from the loungers into the pool. www.thejournal.ie/german-touri...

Still choosing to use a total of zero AI tools in my product design work for similar reasons. Can’t do much about what’s forced via some tools, however.

I'm a decent Irish person and I have concerns about Michael McDowell.

“Year-on-year datasets tracking changes in public sentiment in Ireland between 2024 and 2025 show that 66% agree that immigrants contribute positively to Irish culture and community, which is up 2 percentage points from 64% in 2024.” Not sure how he might square that data with his opinions…

Chrome is reaching into users' machines and writing a 4 GB on-device AI model file to disk without asking. It is the weights for Gemini Nano, Google's on-device LLM. Chrome did not ask. Chrome does not surface it. If the user deletes it, Chrome re-downloads it. www.thatprivacyguy.com/blog/chrome-...

Just a note to political parties contesting the Dublin byelection that, rather than sitting silently on the sidelines, you need to come out and condemn Hutch's racist comments on immigration. In a democracy, it's not enough to be not racist; one must be actively anti-racist. Silence is complicity.

Can’t believe it’s a full year since we took home the title at Cork Choral, even despite standing a half mile away from the piano so we could just about hear it. I proposed we were going for a golden ratio look to change things up, after the fact 😂

Can’t help but feel that we are living in an era of overwhelming anti-intellectualism on every front, with AI being the corporate vanguard of this cultural emptiness.

Fired on Jon Hopkins on the hifi after buying tickets to the NCH show. Album I’ve listened to umpteen times, sounding new and magical. Continuously surprised and delighted by how a pair of passive speakers deliver such an experience. Best gift to myself ever, can’t recommend enough!

Unable to do anything of worth our government resorts to picking on the weakest possible opponents to look strong. The main opposition party cheers them on.

Grandala. The grandala (Grandala coelicolor) is a species of bird in the thrush family Turdidae. It is an arboreal insectivore. It ranges across the northeastern Indian Subcontinent and some adjoining regions, existing primarily in the low-to-mid altitudes of the Himalayas. 📸: @sakthithulir

“Stabilisation”… ring the bell

Could he not just re-use the giant St Patrick-with-a-pint that’s languishing in a hangar somewhere?

Canvassers wearing party/candidate-branded high vis… is this signalling or aligning with something? Or am I over-reading? SF the latest high vis crew to ring the bell in Dublin Central.

This is just huge and, you know, maybe battery capacity might be a better use of the state’s attention than building a gas storage unit just as they’re on the way out. Like Dublin Bus investing in Carriage Horse Stables.

Ask yourself if the media environment has reflected these numbers since 2024: - 66% agree that immigrants contribute positively to Irish culture and community, up from 64% in 2024. - 75% agree that, Trans individuals should have the freedom to live their lives, up from 70% in 2024 Now ask why.

These numbers should be amplified everywhere there is a flat surface. The 3,000 person sample size was statistically significant. The direction of travel is positive but runs directly contrary to the perception born in the echo-chamber of Twitter-brained media and politics. (H&CC is a client)

📣 We are launching a survey today on the M50 and the impacts congestion is having! If you can, please complete the survey if you are an M50 user and share! Survey Link: eu.surveymonkey.com/r/D6TSRX7

Can you afford to live? We need to learn the lessons of the fuel protest - we need to move into a next phase of protest, involving trade unions, communities, and workers. Everyone has to get organised in their area. Join the May Day march tomorrow, beginning at 6.30pm at the Garden of Remembrance.

We could do with a bit more MDH spirit across the board 👏

There are rules/guidelines on how/where you can hang election posters, right? I’m not a tall being.

I wonder how far away we are from a gov contract with Palantir…

Imagine a world where BAM were held to any accountability. Where they were blocked from being able to tender for any government project until this was delivered. Where procurement wasn’t heavily weighted towards the cheapest bid which will mean nothing once the project starts…

One last thing before we go. Today, after 2+ (or 10+??) years of work, we’re launching XOXO Explore, a complete archive of all eight years of the festival. xoxofest.com

Stood outside the shop waiting for my mother to get the minimum weekly “lotto ticket” on Sat and wondered how this form of gambling became so normalised in Ireland. Is it a generational thing too? I never “play” and am trying to find a gentle way to stop the annual Xmas scratchcard mayhem too.

I was too busy tutting the choice of his beloved Stoneybatter for the posters to notice the apocalyptic sky. Probably some irony there 😅

Spent a chunk of the weekend hearing about how milk prices are poor but prices for bull calves are amazing. And a whole heap of other detail on current breeding practices that might put you in a spin if I shared them. The longer I’m away from the detail, the more bananas farming in Ireland seems.