The place of ideas in Ireland: Village editor Michael Smith, London-based barrister David Langwallner and Amsterdam-based author Patrick Healy look at the place of 'The Intellectual' in Irish life — from John Scottus via Bishop Berkeley & James Joyce to Sally Rooney. www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMOE...

Village is looking to recruit a very experienced investigative journalist. Please apply with samples of best work to [email protected].

Many *Irish* people at the top of *British* Petroleum: Peter Sutherland (onetime Chair) was from Foxrock, Bernard Looney (fired CEO) from Kenmare, Albert Manifold (newly fired Chair) from Templeogue. New interim Chair Ian Tyler lives in Dublin. CEO Meg O'Neill presumably not UnIrish. #BP. Yeuch.

Many *Irish* people at the top of *British* Petroleum: Peter Sutherland (onetime Chair) was from Foxrock, Bernard Looney (fired CEO) from Kenmare, Albert Manifold (newly fired Chair) from Templeogue. New interim Chair Ian Tyler lives in Dublin. CEO Meg O'Neill presumably not UnIrish. #BP. Yeuch.

Legally fraught for John McGuirk,who failed to show up in court today, to maintain a defamation case against Paddy Cosgrave who said he was a racist, when McGuirk didn't pursue Village for calling him a racist (& a liar & a stirrer of hatred) in the courts or, in the end, through the Press Council.

Legally fraught for John McGuirk,who failed to show up in court today, to maintain a defamation case against Paddy Cosgrave who said he was a racist, when McGuirk didn't pursue Village for calling him a racist (& a liar & a stirrer of hatred) in the courts or, in the end, through the Press Council.

Ormond Quay, April 2026, until recently the best preserved part of the quays: derelict, demolished, made tacky, cluttered and crassly oversailed, facilitated by the clowns in Dublin City Council opposite. You can see why they're abandoning it and moving their offices elsewhere.

Complaint to the Press Council about Gript and to the Garda about one of its journalists. Read to the bottom of this long piece in the most recent Village magazine and consider the editorial direction of Gript under John McGuirk who's been "relieved of his duties" villagemagazine.ie/open-letter-...

Man with same name as protestors' leader John Dallon has convictions for drunk driving and refusing to give breath sample: "While waiting to give a breath sample Dallon attempted to put his fingers down his throat as if he was trying to make himself sick". www.independent.ie/regionals/mo...

Overboard broadband! Ireland now has rural fibre but the NBP remains a monument to bad planning, political avoidance and a settlement pattern that makes every infrastructure project cost more than it should. By Michael Smith villagemagazine.ie/overboard-ba...

RTÉ needs security so it can do the stuff other broadcasters can’t but it should modernise including by focusing on its player, social platforms, podcasts, video, and archives; and leveraging trust. By @faduda.bsky.social villagemagazine.ie/rtes-signal-...

Journosaurs The main problem with Irish media isn’t newspaper closures it’s lack of investigation, narrow-ranged reporting, big tech, and feebleness. By Suzie Mélange villagemagazine.ie/the-main-pro...

RTÉ needs security so it can do the stuff other broadcasters can’t but it should modernise including by focusing on its player, social platforms, podcasts, video, and archives; and leveraging trust. By @faduda.bsky.social villagemagazine.ie/rtes-signal-...

'One of the most remarkable recent literary works'. Brendan O’Byrne reviews ‘Beyond the Pale’ by Patrick Healy: 'A sustained prose poem which touches moments of lyric intensity, multilayered, rich in inventive imagery...' villagemagazine.ie/review-patri...

Journosaurs The main problem with Irish media isn’t newspaper closures it’s lack of investigation, narrow-ranged reporting, big tech, and feebleness. By Suzie Mélange villagemagazine.ie/the-main-pro...

What that fool has done to the discourse: what brutality, what crassness he has normalised! #Trump

Peak Trump. Too many people are sick or bored of him and his bag of tricks is played out (Feb Village). villagemagazine.ie/peak-trump/

What that fool has done to the discourse: what brutality, what crassness he has normalised! #Trump

'One of the most remarkable recent literary works'. Brendan O’Byrne reviews ‘Beyond the Pale’ by Patrick Healy: 'A sustained prose poem which touches moments of lyric intensity, multilayered, rich in inventive imagery...' villagemagazine.ie/review-patri...

Peak Trump. Too many people are sick or bored of him and his bag of tricks is played out (Feb Village). villagemagazine.ie/peak-trump/

The supercilious #Spectator is known to lack genuine class. Here, typically, a precious and judgmental piece about language manages to misuse barbarity (the word is barbarism) and spell supersession wrong — just when it thought it was at its cleverest. spectator.com/article/link...

The supercilious #Spectator is known to lack genuine class. Here, typically, a precious and judgmental piece about language manages to misuse barbarity (the word is barbarism) and spell supersession wrong — just when it thought it was at its cleverest. spectator.com/article/link...

Not Guilty! Episode 3 of Village's podcast on Law and Literature considers miscarriages of justice: Dreyfus, Oscar Wilde, Roy Cohn and Joe McCarthy podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/e...

Whistleblownout Professor Dympna Waldron still reels more than twenty years after she blew the whistle on opioids in Irish hospitals, an extraordinary service if we lo0k to what happened in US hospitals By Michael Smith villagemagazine.ie/whistleblownout/

Village's podcast: literature and the contemporary breakdown of the rule of law: Aristophanes via Ibsen to Lord Bingham studio.youtube.com/channel/UCxK...

Whistleblownout Professor Dympna Waldron still reels more than twenty years after she blew the whistle on opioids in Irish hospitals, an extraordinary service if we lo0k to what happened in US hospitals By Michael Smith villagemagazine.ie/whistleblownout/

Village's podcast: literature and the contemporary breakdown of the rule of law: Aristophanes via Ibsen to Lord Bingham studio.youtube.com/channel/UCxK...

Not Guilty! Episode 3 of Village's podcast on Law and Literature considers miscarriages of justice: Dreyfus, Oscar Wilde, Roy Cohn and Joe McCarthy podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/e...

Episode Two of Village's Law and Literature Podcast is now live on Youtube, Spotify, Amazon, Apple. David Langwallner takes us from Shakespeare to the Nineteenth Century www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmn8...

David Langwallner on Law and Literature: from Shakespeare to the Supreme Court. First episode in a series of Village podcasts. Now available on Youtube, Apple, Spotify etc www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJug...

David Langwallner on Law and Literature: from Shakespeare to the Supreme Court. First episode in a series of Village podcasts. Now available on Youtube, Apple, Spotify etc www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJug...

Do U2 deserve a chance in 2026, after their reticence to criticise Israel on Gaza? Also, why do they still deliver all their stuff in a nasal fake-American accent? It was always culturally crass and now it's geopolitically illiterate too. www.theguardian.com/music/2026/f...

Do U2 deserve a chance in 2026, after their reticence to criticise Israel on Gaza? Also why do they still deliver all their stuff in a nasal fake-American accent. It was always culturally crass and now it's geopolitically illiterate too. www.theguardian.com/music/2026/f...

Do U2 deserve a chance in 2026, after their reticence to criticise Israel on Gaza? Also, why do they still deliver all their stuff in a nasal fake-American accent? It was always culturally crass and now it's geopolitically illiterate too. www.theguardian.com/music/2026/f...

Village Feb-March in shops now

Good to see this. SF was long too forgiving of US foreign-policy lawlessness.

Most EU countries have moved to a similar model by now (I've written about this in the latest @villagemagazine.bsky.social)

Today's easily given pledge on misogyny in the Garda doesn't extend to doing anything at all about abuser Noel McMahon getting Scott medal, despite now-quiescent @MichealMartinTD 's promises to look into it (article by Frank Connolly from Feb-Mar Village). independent.ie/irish-news/c...

Today's easily given pledge on misogyny in the Garda doesn't extend to doing anything at all about abuser Noel McMahon getting Scott medal, despite now-quiescent @MichealMartinTD 's promises to look into it (article by Frank Connolly from Feb-Mar Village). independent.ie/irish-news/c...

www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2026... Fintan O'Toole is way too indulgent of Gordon Brown. Here's George Monbiot:

There is a lot of convenient amnesia about Peter Mandelson’s New Labour days. Let’s jog some memories | George Monbiot

New episode of @hereshow.bsky.social is up! In collaboration with @villagemagazine.bsky.social Listen: open.spotify.com/episode/5iCR...

Village Feb-March in shops now

A long thread of the voting record of Not So Independent Ireland and many of the other fake independents who are actually FF/FG sheep in wolves' clothing. Please share and make sure your friends don't end up voting for people who will put FF/FG back in power in #ge24. #SpeirGorm #KickOutFFFG

Churning them out here.. This is a (first?) poll of BlueSky users from a representative sample. (Voting intentions of those that reported that they used BlueSky in the preceding 24 hours). Quite similar to what Twitter used to look like.

Excellent piece on the makeup of @RadioBrendanRTE panels & how they are used to shape public opinion. #Brendan #RTÉ #GE24 #GE2024 No sign of Alison O’Connor this week however Brendan made sure to plug her column. @villagemagazine.bsky.social #HowIrelandWorks villagemagazine.ie/the-brendan-...

Israel is plotting to colonise Gaza. This is all being openly discussed in the Israeli media. It is a damning indictment that Israeli newspapers offer more details of what's actually happening than newspapers in, say, the US or UK. New post 👇 www.owenjones.news/p/israeli-me...

Trump spent the last years dealing with the flaming ignominy of being the wrong end of allegations about sex offences. Now he's regained power it's unsurprising he's favouring a rabble who have been, ideally still are, in the same position. Unsurprising, but dysfunctional he's getting away with it.

Meta loses ground to Bluesky as users abandon Elon Musk’s X https://www.ft.com/content/e1b52147-c171-4902-8bce-204ba0905912

Irish Bluesky has started beautifully: wholesome, civic and collegiate. A downside is that it's easy to imagine (fantasise?) that the people and organisations who don't politely follow back are steaming with pointed and toxic antipathy.