Nollaig shona daoibh and Happy Christmas from UCD Library! We hope you enjoy your holiday break.☃️ All UCD libraries will close tomorrow afternoon (23 Dec) & will reopen Fri, 2 Jan 2026. The Vet Medicine Library will reopen on Mon, 5 Jan. See our opening hours schedule at www.ucd.ie/library/use/....

The Winter Solstice sunrise at Newgrange is one of Ireland’s most powerful connections to the past✨ This RTÉ Brainstorm article by Terry Clavin of the @dib.ie (based at @ria.ie) explores how archaeologist Michael J. O’Kelly rediscovered the alignment in the 1960s. www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2...

Just a little "head up". The December solstice will be at on the 21st (Sunday) at 15:02 Dublin time. That is the shortest day, so Monday is when the days start to get longer.

'John Muir, co-founder of the Corsi-Rosenthal Foundation, a UK charity campaigning for the improvement of clean indoor air, said any investment in the devices was well worth the money'. There's a poll in this article - please vote. www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/educati...

We have the tools to “dramatically cut the spread of respiratory infections” such as flu, Covid, RSV, measles, etc It is a political choice not to tell people how to reduce the spread of airborne disease spread… & to let Ireland’s hospitals fill with sick adults & children this Christmas

Fixing South Kerry's depopulation problem An alarming drop in the number of children in South Kerry is running counter to the population rise elsewhere, and it's all down to housing policy” ..my piece in @irishexaminer.bsky.social today www.irishexaminer.com/news/munster...

🚈 2 days of traffic chaos from the #Luas shutdown confirms that the (abandoned) plan for *2 years* of traffic chaos for digging up the Luas & replacing it with Metro tracks wasn’t a good idea

“252 walk-up apartments from 3 to 4 storeys” *not currently permitted under Building Regs Lifts aren’t just for wheelchairs, they’re for parents, prams, pregnancy, disability, aging, paramedics, undertakers, furniture delivery, bicycles, laundry & much much more www.irishtimes.com/business/202...

“Half of Irish businesses view housing as biggest barrier to competitiveness” .. I bet all of Irish businesses don’t know that the plan for achieving “housing affordability” is wage inflation. What will that do for competitiveness? www.irishtimes.com/business/202...

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“2,000-year-old building site reveals raw ingredients for ancient Roman self-healing concrete” “Ancient Romans could make exceptional concrete mortars but as Pliny the Elder [23 or 24- 79BC] notes, poor mortar was cause of the collapse of buildings in Rome” theconversation.com/a-2-000-year...

Never forget, if you design a city for cars, it fails for everyone, including drivers. If you design a multi-modal city that makes walking, biking & public transit attractive options, it works better for everyone, including drivers. INCLUDING DRIVERS. The “war on cars” has always been a lie.

Why is Dublin such an outlier on the price of apartments?

“Government has been incentivising supply at a high cost in a “mistaken belief” that more supply & wage inflation will achieve affordability” www.irishtimes.com/property/res...

TIME person of the year “The Architects of AI” Real architects are ethical. They care about people’s lives, the planet & the climate emergency

“on conservative & rough assumption total capital investment [in apartments] could be €2.5 -€3 billion, & more to buyers” .. this lobbyist “industry research” of costs has be challenged hard. It’s not independent, & we can’t afford it @clifftaylorit.bsky.social www.irishtimes.com/your-money/2...

Paywall lifted on the #EchoChamberPod with the powerhouse @judesherry.bsky.social and not awful @frankoconnor.bsky.social Derelict Ireland - Awareness Is Not Enough Listen: podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/t...

Ireland’s natural habitats decline further with 90% officially in poor condition www.irishtimes.com/environment/...

We are building a resource hub that will support educators of children and young people with Long Covid and overlapping illness. Thanks to all our #volunteers who make this possible. www.longcovidkids.org/education-pr... #Education #Inclusion #EquitableEducation #SEND #Disability

“it remains to be seen if building high-cost apartments will do anything to square the affordability circle at the heart of the country’s housing challenge” ..high cost claims from development sector need to be challenged www.irishtimes.com/business/202...

This is a photo of all the workers who have spent more than five years restoring the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris

Clean air, ventilation & masks all stop the spread of disease “Flu Season” is just cold weather.. leading to closed windows.. leading to inadequately ventilated buildings.. leading to a build up of virus in the air #FluIsAirborne

🪧Current new build 2-bed apartment sales price in Europe Dublin €600,000 Belfast £189,950 (€216,000) 🇬🇧Manchester £299,995 (€341,000) 🇫🇷Le Mans <hour from Paris from €159,100 🇩🇪Essen <hour from Düsseldorf Large 1-bed €265,500 🇵🇹Porto Large 1-bed €240,000 🇮🇹Turin Large 1-bed €190,000 links below

Health Services Executive telling schools & childcare in North West to “keep rooms well ventilated” .. yet still in the media still telling everyone else to “cough in your elbow & wash your hands” 🤦🏻‍♀️ #FluIsAirborne #CovidIsAirborne

New Gist: Waving the Ban Hammer Patrick O'Donovan has proposed a National ID system, a Meta-endorsed regulation model and a mass surveillance machine, all in one. It's government by Dunning-Kruger. www.thegist.ie/the-gist-wav...

“The World Economic Forum estimated a one-megawatt data centre could consume up to 25.5 million litres of water each year just for cooling, comparable to the daily water use of about 300,000 people” www.abc.net.au/news/2025-12...

🪧Current new build 2-bed apartment sales price in Europe Dublin €600,000 Belfast £189,950 (€216,000) 🇬🇧Manchester £299,995 (€341,000) 🇫🇷Le Mans <hour from Paris from €159,100 🇩🇪Essen <hour from Düsseldorf Large 1-bed €265,500 🇵🇹Porto Large 1-bed €240,000 🇮🇹Turin Large 1-bed €190,000 links below

🏗️ 🇮🇪 “Construction Activity in Ireland has now decreased in each of the past seven months” “faster pace of contraction in November.. weakness in activity levels across commercial, residential & civil engineering being the weakest performing sub-sector” www.pmi.spglobal.com/Public/Home/...

🏗️ SCSI apartment cost report It makes ZERO sense to claim hard construction cost inflation is 49% for suburban apartments.. but only 22% & 19% for urban apartments. What’s going on? Cat 2 suburban 3-6 storey Cat 3 urban 5-8 storey Cat 4 urban 9-15 storey scsi.ie/wp-content/u...

Got flu problems? Try this.

'Our waters are crying out for a break from the pollution, Irish people are calling for clean water, but our voices are being drowned out in a world of political wrangling and vested interest. And the thing is, you can’t drink politics.' www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/comm...

“We really ought to knock this idea on the head that building high reduces sprawl The most sustainable, liveable, affordable & dense cities grow through mid-rise gentle densities & this should be precisely the ambition for Dublin” #speirgorm @gavinjdaly.bsky.social www.irishtimes.com/opinion/lett...

🏗️ 🇮🇪 “Construction Activity in Ireland has now decreased in each of the past seven months” “faster pace of contraction in November.. weakness in activity levels across commercial, residential & civil engineering being the weakest performing sub-sector” www.pmi.spglobal.com/Public/Home/...

PSA: SCSI apartment report on development costs is an industry report, not independently audited costs, & it’s framed to support a lobbying position (see next post) #Speirgorm #Planning #Housing

“Almost half of planned new Northern Ireland social homes at risk of not being built as not “financially viable”” .. social homes in NI cost average £206,100 (€236,000) build cost .. yes yes we are told it’s double that in Dublin 🧐 www.bbc.com/news/article...

📻 I’ll be speaking to Pat Kenny @newstalkfm.bsky.social about this after 9am

“Proposal to allow more rent hikes for student accommodation to attract developers to sector” “aiming to deliver 42,000 beds by 2029” ..a need for student beds ≠ market for beds at €1,000+++/month, it’s just not affordable for most @irishexaminer.bsky.social www.irishexaminer.com/news/politic...

Reminders, as public health officials warn of a very bad flu season: 🧵 * Washing hands is not a strategy for a respiratory virus. N95s, ventilation, air filtration -- especially in hospitals. * We should have been cleaning indoor air with the same effort we put into cleaning drinking water. 1/

Yet another example of what Michael Lewis has described as “an experiment in capitalism with too much money”. Searching for this kind of ‘spatial fix’ not new, as @quinnslobodian.com describes in Crack-up Capitalism. www.ft.com/content/b127... Tech elites are starting their own for-profit cities

🏗️ “Construction Information Services (CIS) reckons that despite huge demand in Ireland for homes, the residential sector here will deliver cumulative growth of just 5% between 2026 & end of 2027” www.independent.ie/business/ire...

The Government is emailing landlords advising them that they're 'encouraged to maintain all current tenancies' ahead of changes to the rental sector in March. Landlords who have began eviction proceedings have received the correspondence in recent weeks. www.thejournal.ie/rental-secto...

Headline: “Housing targets at risk as Dublin apartment build costs top €600k” Fact: Assuming Dept Housing using same basis as previous years, this is an “estimate” from industry from one unnamed project, not independent, not market research, & not audited costs www.businesspost.ie/politics/hou...

Flu is airborne, Covid is airborne, & clean air prevents the spread Ventilation & masking are very effective protections - yet these simple scientific measure are *still* not advised or adopted by health services in Ireland 😷

“What will Irish towns look like in the future? ..housing is just start of things, towns are facing challenges such as dealing with vacant properties, impact of climate change, lack of local development to keep people local & problems caused by changing demographics” www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2...

ICYMI Government claim that Judicial Reviews will be up 30% this year & will “drown the courts” is false, they’ll be down about 15% in 2025 #Planning #Speirgorm

A new architect is stepping in to build Trump's "big, beautiful" ballroom after a disagreement with the former lead architect over the proposed building's massive size. f-st.co/Z5ge8dg

Germany: 104m2 (1,120 sqft) new build family apartment, daylight on 3 sides, cross ventilation, proper balcony 12.5m2 (135 sqft) for €2,500/month ..this is sustainable urban living that people need & want, at density to support public transport & facilities..not small dark rooms on long corridors

Judicial reviews are not the enemy of progress — they are a vital safeguard Recent headlines have been flooded with a false narrative about the planning system www.independent.ie/opinion/comm...

Interesting thread “Framing #GenAI as a battle between teachers & students is a red herring. Students & educators are on the same side. The real opposition are the data extraction firms”

“Dublin drainage project to move forward after court challenge settled ..settlement was achieved following constructive engagement & avoids need for full court hearing.. Uisce Éireann committed to some additional measures, to enhance public confidence” www.irishtimes.com/ireland/hous...