Two days of hot weather and Kildare residents are already being put on notice to use less water. And yet, Kildare CoCo has approved a €3 billion data centre for Naas, which at full build out will use between 4-9 million litres of water a day. www.kfmradio.com/news/localne...

A tiny work of art #CommonBlueButterfly

Eímear, a dedicated primary school teacher, is facing a life-threatening situation that requires urgent surgery. Your support can make a real difference in her fight for survival. Please consider donating or sharing her GoFundMe link to help her get the care she needs. Thank you! gofund.me/8dc7216f6

Rob O'Sullivan: My partner and I are worth more to our town than short-term tourists www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/comm...

For that rent to be deemed affordable (30% of your income), you need to be bringing in €7,253 a month or €87,040 a year. The median income in Ireland is closer to €60,000 per household. The housing crisis begets the cost-of-living crisis #Spéirgorm

Minister for Housing James Browne has defended the government’s controversial rental reforms after new figures showed rents rising at their fastest pace in 25 years. Browne insisted that “the plan is working” despite criticism from opposition parties. www.thejournal.ie/minister-jam...

Inea’s story is one of home, tradition, and memory over generations.

Today marks Nakba Day, an annual day of remembrance to commemorate the expulsion of more than 700,000 Palestinians between 1947 and 1949 during the creation of the State of Israel and the year that followed.   Inea is a New Yorker and a Nakba survivor. She shared her story with us.

One of the things that strikes me about the Guardian 100 novels thing. Outside of the top ten there really isn't much consensus – you're already down below 20 votes. In the 90s you're down to three votes.

Powerful reporting on how security forces in Israel use rape and sexual abuse as a form of torture against Palestinian men, women, and children (CW: This piece includes graphic details of sexual trauma.) By @nickkristof.bsky.social Gift link:

Today's NYT article reinforces what I wrote yesterday about what Israel has done to Eurovision. "To the 🇮🇱government, Eurovision became more than just a celebration of glittery outfits...It became a chance to burnish the country’s flagging reputation and rally international support."

this graduation speech moment is notable, and her amazed shock at having failed to read the room feels instructive. when you're inside the bubble, you think everybody else is. but everybody isn't.

Today marks 500 days of Dr Hussam Abu Safiya’s cruel arbitrary detention by Israeli authorities. He was arrested after approaching an Israeli tank that was storming Kamal Adwan Hospital - which at the time was the last functioning hospital in North Gaza & the hospital Dr Safiya is the director of.

I don't know who needs to hear this, but an economy controlled by a handful of oligarchs isn't a "free market."

Roscommon so impressive Their energy, speed, finding their man, fightback...fair play to bainisteoir, Mark Dowd. Roscommon beat Galway 3.21 v 2.22 A lot of learning for Galway. #Connaught #GAA #SpéirGhorm

Fair play, Roscommon deserved that win! Connacht Senior Football Champions 2026. #gaa #speirgorm

Cuireadh cosc ar an leabhar 'The Tailor and Ansty', leabhar a d'inis scéalta tíorúla lanúin ó Ghaeltacht Mhúscraí, i 1942. Tá an reachtaíocht a chuir cosc air fós beo - ach ar tí bheith aisghairmthe. #Gaeilge jrnl.ie/7025057

Latest figures show another increase in record numbers in emergency accommodation - 17,517 at the end of March. The figure is up over 2000 since the same period last year, while more than half of the increase in March 2026 is children, perhaps reflecting impact of tenancy reforms

Saturday morning views at sunrise.

Oligarchs have always been a threat, but tech oligarchs represent a new level of danger. Their wealth dwarfs historical tycoons and their control over algorithms allows them to curate human reality. They own the digital infrastructure of thought

If you’re in town, Dublin Castle’s Coach House has a truly fantastic exhibition on the 1926 Census on, for free.

Temperature Change in Ireland since 1850 showyourstripes.info/c/europe/ire...

Wrote a piece for @irishtimes.com, with @drreznicek.bsky.social and Bridget English, about our edited collection The Corpse in Modern Irish Literature, out recently from @livunipress.bsky.social. www.irishtimes.com/culture/book...

Next in our line-up of dawn chorus singers come the Blackbirds. Carefree, rich, fluted notes, drifting through the trees just as the light grows. A sound loved by many...have you heard one singing this week? 🐦‍⬛ #DawnChorusClub

Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft are all planning huge layoffs. Amazon got $17.5B in federal tax breaks last year. Jeff Bezos is worth $271B. Meta saved $13.7B in taxes. Mark Zuckerberg is worth $231B. Microsoft saved $12.5B last year. Its CEO is worth $1.3B. This is what a rigged economy looks like.

Officials hugely underestimated impact of AI datacentres on UK carbon emissions

The price of green diesel must be reduced because using green diesel is a necessity. The price of renting somewhere to live must be allowed to soar to the 'market rate' because having a roof over your head is not. Priorities.

On a day I was talking to IT colleagues who all got laid off with me and can't even get an interview in this market, I'm simply thrilled that the Minister for Innovation is boosting AI and completely ignoring the growing unemployment issue.

The first notes of the dawn chorus often belong to the Robin. Clear and soulful, singing even before the first glimmer of light. Have you heard a Robin greeting the morning? 😍 #DawnChorusClub

Controversial children's book on Sitka spruce with misleading environmental claims originally produced in UK by Morgan Sindall Construction was sent to UK schools Version funded by Irish industry bodies distributed in Irish schools had a foreward by recently-resigned former Irish minister of state

"We're going to increase HAP for renters struggling to make rent" "Great, are you also legislating to cap rents to prevent landlords raising rent by the same amount as the HAP increases?" "No?" "So you're just financially encouraging landlords to skyrocket rents?" "Landlords are people too!"

FFS this is ridiculous: "We'll give more spending power for first time buyers" "Great, are you going to also legislate to prevent raising house prices by the same amount?" "No?" "So you're just financially encouraging developers to raise prices again" "Developers are people too!"

Today is publication day for this beautiful book. Inspiration for it came from seeing @billyshortall.bsky.social talk about his brilliant PhD research at the IHSA in @tlrhub.bsky.social in 2017. One of those joyful collaborations that come along sometimes in academia. Cover is a Paul Henry painting

🔥OUT NOW!🔥 "Edna O’Brien’s Neglected Widows & Spinsters" by Maureen O'Connor The 5th article in "Celibacy in Irish Women's Writing"! On the role celibate women play in O’Brien’s examination of Irish patriarchy & the alternative models of Irish womanhood they represent 🔗 www.mdpi.com/2076-0787/15...

Palantir's 'manifesto' has been described as an 'AI-driven threat to humanity's existence' and 'technofascism'.

Almost everything we argue about is a substitute for the thing we should be arguing about: the immense wealth & power of an oligarchic class, which captures governments, ruins lives and wrecks the living planet. This class redirects our rage at scapegoats. To resist its lies is to resist its power.

450 redundancies announced at the Ulster University. The impact of this will be devastating to staff, students & the functioning of the North as a whole. From social sciences speaking truth to power, to art giving this place joy - the decision must be reversed. Can you sign & share this petition?

Meta just paid the lowest effective federal tax rate in its history. Thanks to tax breaks and loopholes, it avoided $13.7B in 2025 federal income taxes. But now it's planning to lay off 10% of its global workforce (8,000 people) by May 20 — with more job cuts later this year. Trickle down hoax.

In advance of tomorrow's release here is a short piece on the historical Irish censuses based on my past and ongoing research #spéirgorm theconversation.com/80-million-p...

Stamp doodle logo for the @cnagaeilge.bsky.social AthGhaelú campaign "to encourage people to use Irish placenames instead of English placenames in all aspects of life." They've also created a Gealltanas Logainmneacha "to encourage individuals and groups to use Irish-only placenames" #SpéirGhorm

New in Irish Studies | @oneillsb.bsky.social's Irish Culture and Partition, 1920-1955, is the first book dedicated to examining culture and partition in Ireland. Discover more here ⬇️ www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/book/10....

The father of a disabled child has been refused access to a disabled car parking spot in his complex. He has a blue badge, he has offered to pay, but as a social tenant, he is shut out.

This is a genuinely mindblowing combination. 1) Deliberately false information, 2) promoted in schools, 3) using public money, 4) in the service of private profits, 5) at the cost of our collapsing ecosystem.

From paper to pixels, how the 1926 Census was brought to life. It took many years to conserve, digitise and index millions of records to get the 1926 Census ready for publication, explains @zoereid.bsky.social National Archives of Ireland www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2...

Absolutely magical. Handel's Messiah on Dublin's Fishamble Street this lunchtime, 284 years after it was first performed. Proinnsías Ó Duinn, 85 years young conducting, a living legend.

The fuel protests in Ireland are a Trojan Horse that aim to bring fascism to Ireland. We are witnessing the birth of an Irish version MAGA. The more you look, the more obvious it is that many of the key spokesmen (and they are all men) are dangerous anti-immigrant far right agitators.Wake up.

Utterly depressing political moment in Ireland as a lot of people obviously do seem to believe their interests are at one with those of haulage companies blocking the country’s only fuel refinery, where the electorally unsuccessful hard right feels empowered by it and even left feels has to pander

two weeks shy of a year ago, I recorded Tom in the racist X Space of Off-Grid Ireland, freely talking about wanting to rally the far right from across Ireland to converge on Dublin and topple the government I'm not saying that's what's happening, but it's what Tom and the far right want to happen

On different groups online the idea of blockading Dublin or ports has been pushed for literal years. the idea that this is a spontaneous escalation seems to have taken root as opposed to it being opportunistically actioned cause of the fuel price