Klippenstein is a great journalist and I generally respect his work very highly, but claiming Susan Collins is the one throwing disabled people under the bus here is just absurd.

I also firmly believe that you can be pro age limits for serious political positions and not ableist at the same time, but some people have problems with that.

Someone (who I blocked) replied to me saying politicians' should have stamina. That takes out a lot of people with chronic illnesses, including people like me, so not going to entertain that (no, not going into politics lol)

How we talk about older politicians' disabilities IMO plays a role in it making it harder for younger, visibly disabled people to even get into politics. Because it's framed in a mockery way.

This is a more thorough deep dive. justinebarron.substack.com/p/ken-klippe...

I have a hard time taking this seriously from someone whose initial posts about politicians' disability very much seems to be "look what we see here!" which very much stigmatizes disability, irregardless of the person in question.

oh no it's another surprise that can be invoked as an excuse for the government's failure to address housing supply, and just in time for two bye-elections

FG candidate uses mayoral car to drop by community-organised hustings just long enough to give a speech, refuse to sign a pledge and then leave to have a few scoops with the party leader

Aontú formed as the only pro-life party in the Dáil after a referendum in which a third of the electorate voted to maintain a constitutional ban on abortion more than seven years later, they celebrated when they finally went over 6% in a poll for the first time and I just think that's interesting

Every odd Ben Kingsley decision can be explained with this: they gave him a big bag of money

Dublin City Council and probably all councils here, seem to operate under a structure that no public or civil service body would be able to.

In today's Irish Times, @emptywheel.bsky.social and I talk about Pizzagate, Jack Posobiec, and the Irish Fuel Protests. And why the increased attention paid to Ireland by American far-right social media influencers is more sinister than you probably realise.

A couple were charged close to €14,000 in added-on service charges by their landlord during one year of renting in Galway city. Such charges have been criticised as a grey area with little legal definition. www.thejournal.ie/renting-7012...

Turkey and Azerbaijan have had Armenia under an illegal blockade for over thirty years, but Turkey is in NATO and Azerbaijan has tons of crude, so other countries just let them

Turkey got away with murder then, it gets away with murder now www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2026...

the Association of Irish Local Government is running courses for councillors on how to integrate Copilot into their work

Marjorie Taylor Green isn’t a known antisemite because she criticizes Israel, she’s a known antisemite because of all the talk about secret cabals, Jewish space lasers, Great Replacement theory, and Jews killing Jesus. Hope this helps some leftists who are mad at AOC for being right about her today

"Writer, hypnotist and paedophile: The Irish fake journalist who ‘duped’ two abuse survivors. Edward White wrote books with two women while claiming to be a journalist. He was later convicted of assaulting a nine-year-old girl."

We're here to fight against the political establishment. We want to end the Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael duopoly. We will to put an end to corruption and waste. We represent a clean break from the dirty past of Irish politics. Anyway here's our newest supporter, Bertie Ahern

It's very, very hard to read something like this and not conclude that the Department of Justice are deliberately mismanaging this in order to make the process as miserable and disruptive for everyone

There is no such thing as a frictionless existence, just an existence where friction is offloaded to others - and it's only right to debate the amount and the kind that we offload, and the proper restitution to whom we do

the collision was not during a sulky race, but who needs to do basic fact checking when you can just defame a traumatised teenage boy who has had the worst mistake of his young life turned into a political and media circus and used to justify attacks on his community 👍

the very thin pretext that today's anti-sulky protest in Clonmel had anything to do with animal welfare evaporated the second it was addressed by Mattie McGrath, the biggest supporter of hare coursing in national politics fair embarrassed for the Party for Animal Welfare holding a banner behind him

I wish Maria well, especially since she's about to endure months, if not years, of reactionaries being absolute fucking freaks about this

less than two years ago, Nick Del was citing his familial connections to Irish republican and nationalist figures for clout on X, now he's posting in support of a far right British unionist party lmao

It’s an absolutely open and admitted policy of the Department of Justice that non-EU/UK citizens without either a Stamp 4 or an employment permit should NOT be facilitated to integrate. The fewer roots they put down the fewer rights they have under Article 8 ECHR and the easier they are to deport.

Irish government: migrants and refugees need to integrate into local communities *migrants and refugees integrate, build families and community, get educated, get jobs* Irish government: not like that!

A completely ordinary recording session which starts on the rails and over which I maintain tight control for the duration of the runtime.

New episode of The 250, with @ciaramoloney.bsky.social and @deanbuckley.bsky.social joining us to talk about Kirk Jones' "I Swear." And "Michael." And "The Boss Baby." And what "The Long Good Friday" has in common with "Spiceworld." soundcloud.com/the250/446-i...

The Department acting as if the dispersed nature of direct provision centres is an unfortunate reality they have to work around rather than how the system was designed, from the start, is ridiculous. the policy is literally called dispersal

[guy who learned about vietnam from movies] the vietnam war is mostly about stuff that happened to the estevez family

every time Sinn Féin find a new bike shed to complain about, I drop them one place down my preferences in the next election

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.

I've seen a few people say there's one notable member of Gript not mentioned in McGuirk's response, by which they all seem to mean Fatima Gunning, but Gary Kavanagh isn't mentioned either and he's the deputy editor

Hearing rumours that John McGuirk of Gript Media is hiding out in the Magazine Fort

this statement says the dispute is not due to editorial differences "contrary to reports", but no one has reported it was due to editorial differences. no one has reported it was due to anything at all.

this march was organised by two councillors who aren't from and don't represent Clonmel, but who took it upon themselves to stage a protest in our town, with a charity from Offaly, because they're both running in the next general election and want to build their profile in South Tipp's biggest town

Okay we need legislation to ban AI slop election posters. Not joking in the slightest. That Hutch one is a monstrosity, on the heels of whatever the fuck the Galway fash have been putting up

one of the most baffling bits of pseudo media criticism is people complaining when the press refers to activists for causes they oppose as activists, as if "activist" is a term of endearment and not a perfectly neutral descriptor

I've rarely felt more vindicated than identifying this guy and the threat he poses to the rule of law two years ago in remarks at @dublinfreelance.org's freelance forum in March, Justice Barniville cited Patrick McGreal along with the Burkes as abusive litigants m.independent.ie/irish-news/c...

if I were booking a Galway West debate based on that poll, I'd be putting in everyone whose first and second preferences add to more than fifteen: Kyne, Thomas, Ogbu, Nic Fhionnlaoich, Keane, Lohan and Welby

everyone who listens to Behind the Bastards long enough has the moment where they listen to an episode on a topic they're far more knowledgeable about than Robert and realise in real-time the show's research is shoddy and slapdash at best

the latest episode of QAA, on the growth of the very online, extremely pilled neo-Palahvist movement among the Iranian diaspora over the last few years, is both fantastic and foreboding open.spotify.com/episode/3kYc...

A harrowing article that is well worth a read exposing the extent to which the lives of women and those of their babies in institutions that claimed to cherish them were treated as less valuable, if not disposable. Also so impressive that this is the work of an undergraduate, Maya Conners.

Which is a bit like saying tobacco isn’t addictive because it’s up to the user to light another cigarette

A TikTok rep before the Oireachtas Children’s Committee has denied the platform is designed to be addictive, on the basis that the app will continually replay the same video unless the user actively scrolls to another one. ??

a bleak article that reinforces the extent of collaboration between the state and religious institutions in the abuse of children. Regina Coeli is still held up today by apologists for mother and baby homes, its relatively preferable conditions used to argue the Legion of Mary should pay no redress

Stephen's Green is a monument to bad taste. the new design is a monument to tastelessness. the latter is worse imo

it really annoys me that politicians keep talking about artifacts being archived at museums as if it's a "waste", rather than one of the primary functions of museums it undermines advocacy on the issue of cultural repatriation to be so demonstrably ignorant on the nature of preservation

interesting split among South Tipp independents as Cllr. Richie Molloy of Clonmel backs Tom Welby in the Galway West by-election while Mattie McGrath curiously backs Mike Cubbard