I will not be watching Eurovision, a thing I love deeply because I am queer and European, because they once again are choosing to include a state that is actively committing genocide, and also because I’m in Ireland and the whole country is not broadcasting the show for the same reason.

Campaign managers may know this already but yes, voters might swing for Hutch because they "are waiting for a party that sounds like it’s on their side against a system that isn’t working for them". Written about 2024 US election but also applicable here. www.thebulwark.com/p/heres-what...

Let’s be clear, HAP was never meant to be a solution to the housing crisis. It was a way to rebrand private tenancies as social housing, further outsourcing Govt responsibility for providing public housing. It did what the Govt wanted it to do.

During Repeal canvassing, I personally found the 3 day wait time etc didn’t come up as being a reason people voted yes. It was a vote for autonomy, genuinely. The demographic this is supposed to appeal to wouldn’t ever vote for abortion provision no matter way “safeguards” are put in

We’re so going backwards in this backwater country

folx, I’ve been working on AI "ethics" for almost a decade now & hate to tell you there’s no such thing as "ethical AI" the only "ethical principle" that works is regulating the shit out of the industry & to take back control of our autonomy, fundamental rights, freedoms & right to exist w/out AI

Very much enjoying this show -

This is a lot of my students as well.

We need so much more training around this for people in journalism ⬇️⬇️⬇️ www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2026...

This is what normalisation looks like.

Not that this will stop rightward lurchers - “While it is well-documented that mainstream parties react to radical right success by shifting toward their policy position (van Spanje, 2010; Han, 2015; Abou-Chadi, 2016; Abou-Chadi and Krause 2020), these strategies do not seem to pay off electorally”

Not that this will stop rightward lurchers - “While it is well-documented that mainstream parties react to radical right success by shifting toward their policy position (van Spanje, 2010; Han, 2015; Abou-Chadi, 2016; Abou-Chadi and Krause 2020), these strategies do not seem to pay off electorally”

I'm going to start calling all multi story car parks 'car sheds'

The inspiring GP quoted in this piece is now unable to work as a GP after being brutally injured when knocked off his bicycle by a distracted driver. The case is currently before the courts. What on earth is it going to take to stop these preventable catastrophes? m.independent.ie/life/health-...

Let's see a modicum of that energy given to inspecting the greyhound and horse racing money. It's always things like park benches or bus shelters or bike parking that get people jumped up, not subsidies to gambling companies, endless road network expansion, or fossil fuel subsidies

People complaining about the 127k for a bike parking facility obviously have not tried to buy a window or get any work done recently. This seems like it's just anti public services sentiment with a particular anti cycling flavour to it.

Really good visualization 👏👏👏

“Let universities be weird” is a campaign that needs to happen. They don’t work as regulated, rationalised, education providers. Attempting to run them as businesses just results in failed businesses. Let universities be universities.

If your institution is affected by this cursed Canvas hack now might be a good time to change your password IF you use single-sign-on to access Canvas as your log-in details are the same for Uni systems and Canvas - this is the link to reset your password for Galway passwordreset.microsoftonline.com

Toad just learned about the Canvas outage.

A child of immigrants here. Decent people don't have concerns, unless stirred up by racists.

Intussen in Duitsland 👇

Out of the noise and into the evening with the Creedon Show. RTE Radio 1, weeknights 8-10 pm.

A new film carefully explores the interpersonal toll of falling for hate. “What I tried to do was that two different people could watch this movie, and have two different reactions,” said director Alan Hopkins.

Real shame to see this narrative creeping in. Ireland has held the line so far largely because the mainstream has held the line. Evidence elsewhere in the world is that once mainstream elites start confecting narratives of "real, decent people" who feel far-right feelings, the door is kicked open.

If anti-immigrant sentiment is *down* why would media commentary telling us we had to recognise how widespread it was be up? Because the political and media class are being targeted by algorithmic foreign political interference campaigns. They are seeing a funhouse mirror version of Ireland.

Our political and media system has been sitting in a pot of social media water, slowling boiling itself in a targeted foreign far-right propaganda campaign and seems unable to notice it happening. www.thegist.ie/the-gist-sun...

Back when Twitter had normal people on it, it was "an echo chamber" and "not the real world" . Now that it's only politicians, journalists and far right bots it's apparently the voice of the people and must be heeded

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.

Galway locked out of housing – Mark Lohan vows to make crisis top priority if elected "Across Galway city and county today we heard the same message again and again – people are being locked out of housing and left without options." sinnfein.ie/news/galway-...

Learning is a difficult and slow process. There are no shortcuts. And it is this process (reading, thinking, engaging) that makes analysis itself possible - to suggest that the heavy lifting can be outsourced in this way fundamentally misunderstands, and indeed undermines, the purpose of education.

I am reading a PDF. "This appears to be a long document. Save time by reading a summary using AI assistant." Seriously, they want us to be fucking stupid. Again: the least curious and laziest employees and students are most likely to be taken in by this stuff.

So the constant foregrounding of far-right talking points and subsequent shift in that direction by the established parties has only benefited the far right politically? Wow, that's never happened before. 🙄 🙃

I'm not sure if Sinéad O'Sullivan is on the bluesky but she puts it better than I did right here. www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2026...

this should disqualify everything this man touches in a democracy @ec.europa.eu

Useful thing to use here

Every weekend in Irish papers you will find at least 2 or 3 columns by opinion writers trying to shoehorn anti trans rhetoric and arguments from the UK into Ireland. Alongside a relentless slew of transphobia online. but that manifestly hasn’t equated into a hardening of Irish public opinion.

This is from Ireland, but it's true elsewhere, as well. I talk about the Availability Bias in this week's episode - what you see a lot of you assume to be true. Some voices have mastered this and it's making you distrust neighbors who actually agree with you. www.rte.ie/news/ireland...

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)

Now for something a little different Me & @judesherry.bsky.social are excited to bring #DerelictIreland to Boyne Music Festival (23rd-26th July) We'll chat to Philip Denvir following screening of his documentary ‘Leave Only Footprints’ which examines dereliction in Northern Ireland #speirghorm

Born and raised in rural Ireland. Currently living in rural Ireland. You know what rural Ireland needs? Funding, for everything from basic public services to housing; proper housing that isn't a short-term rental i.e., AirBnB.

Remember guys: In Ireland you are officially counted as homeless *only* if you are in emergency accommodation. In your parents' box room? Not homeless. Sleeping on a friend's couch? Not homeless. In a tent on the Sam Beckett Bridge? Not homeless. In the same house as your abusive ex? Not homeless.

Allowing profiteers to keep displacing people like me and my partner from rural communities across Ireland by hoarding all the housing ACTUALLY IS an attack on rural Ireland.

Actual journalism, a vanishing rarity.

Very little coverage in Ireland of the Santa Marta “ Transition Away from Fossil Fuels” conference. With the absence of fossil fuel lobbyists, I think it has scope to move the green transition forward significantly. Noting on @deptcee.bsky.social that I can see. #ClimateAction

OR JUST WRITE THE THING YOURSELF FOR FUCK'S SAKE IT WILL TAKE LESS TIME THAN WHATEVER THE FUCK THIS IS mashable.com/article/sinc...

Obviously this wouldn’t have happened if everyone outside had been wearing a high vis and a helmet. Right?