I'm so tired of being expected to read things that no one has bothered to write.

www.irishnews.com/opinion/tom-... My column in today’s @irishnews.com online and in the shops

Essential read: Newry Reporter's interview with Newry's own Mairead McKinley – Nora in Centre Stage's Bold Girls. Delighted to bring this wonderful actress back to a Northern Ireland stage where she belongs. Tickets available on Lyric Theatre, Belfast website. www.newryreporter.com/news/people/...

Delighted to announce an extra performance of Centre Stage's Bold Girls at Lyric Theatre, Belfast on Sunday June 14 at 3pm. Congrats to the wonderful cast – Annie McIlwaine, Mairead McKinley, Caroline Curran, Hannah Carnegie – and company. New tickets available at: lyrictheatre.co.uk/whats-on/bol...

Scotland’s Creative workers deserve respect, opportunity and security, sign the petition to cement Fair Work in the art of Scotland! www.megaphone.org.uk/petitions/no...

www.irishnews.com/opinion/tom-... My column in today’s @irishnews.com online and in the shops

Sad to hear of soprano Felicity Lott's death, a radiant figure vocally and physically both on and off the concert platform and opera stage. A superb interpreter of Richard Strauss, here's her sublime Vier Letzte Lieder from 1986 with @rsno.bsky.social and Neeme Järvi. www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFqm...

Always flattering to write programme notes for the National Concert Hall in Dublin, especially for tonight's standout concert from stellar talents, violinist Hilary Hahn and pianist Tom Poster, featuring music by Ravel, Boulanger, Debussy and Fauré.

If anyone thinks that Wes Streeting is going to inspire Britain and turnaround Labour's fortune then look hard at his relations with Mandelson and his record of managing Palantir's exploitation of the NHS. He isn't the messiah. He is a very naughty boy. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Theatre in the Dark event to promote audio described performances at Derry’s Millennium Forum in collaboration with @rnib.bsky.social and @rnibni.bsky.social. My @britishtheatreguide.info news story:

The pantomime of parliament has never looked more absurd www.independent.co.uk/voices/parli...

Abigail Youngman's adaptation of Beryl Bainbridge's The Bottle Factory Outing with Maxine Peake, Diane Morgan, Sue Johnston and Jonathan Keeble, produced by Beth O'Dea, on BBCS Sounds is a joyful example of BBC Radio Drama at its most entertaining. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Incremental change. www.gov.uk/government/n...

It’s over for Starmer because he never knew why he wanted to be PM. Now Labour must focus on policy not personality - my piece for @theobserveruk.bsky.social observer.co.uk/news/politic...

www.irishnews.com/opinion/tom-... My column in today’s @irishnews.com online and in the shops

The biggest majority in the modern era, and terrified of your own shadow for two years. It beggars belief. I've never known any govt. to have less to lose, and never known a greater need for political honesty than now. But, hey, best stay cautious. You don't want to become unpopular do you?

When you need to deliver the most important speech of your life to save your Premiership but remember you're dreadful at public speaking...

Whatever you think of these two Labour veterans, it's hard to think of a better illustration of quite how tin-eared Keir Starmer (or whoever suggested this to him) is. Why would anybody in their right mind think this was even part of the answer to his or Labour's problems? Absolutely extraordinary.

On this “good night for the Tories” narrative, there is no world in which the main opposition party making net losses is a good night.

Eluned Morgan, Labour first minister in Wales has lost her seat. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland all now have govts which reject Westminster rule. In a normal country that would provoke a constitutional crisis, but in the UK the Labour govt and London centric media will try and ignore it.

In 1592, James Stewart, the “Bonnie Earl” of Moray, was murdered by George Gordon, 1st Marquis of Huntly. Denied justice, Moray’s mother, Lady Margaret Campbell, displayed her son’s body in Edinburgh & refused to bury him, instead commissioning a “vendetta portrait” of the corpse #WyrdWednesday

www.irishnews.com/opinion/tom-... On the day Trump picks another fight with the Pope my column in @irishnews.com

www.irishnews.com/opinion/tom-... today’s @irishnews.com online and in the shops

When a King and direct descendent of King George III has to remind the American government about the utmost importance of checks and balances, you know we're in deep trouble.

Union's tribute to Jim McDowell 27 Apr 2026 www.nuj.org.uk/resource/tri...

Let’s stick with E. J. Smith as captain of Titanic for now. Yes, we’ve hit an iceberg; yes, we’re going down; but the thing is the captain blocked his replacement so we need time to get him into position, even if that position will be 12,500 ft underwater by the time he’s here.

Congratulations to @stephenking.bsky.social for this well-deserved honor!👍 (Novels/Novellas: Approximately 65 to 67 Non-fiction books: 5 books. Short Stories: Over 200 Pseudonyms: 7 novels were published as Richard Bachman. Frequency: He has published at least one book almost every year since 1974)

Pope Leo turned the question around like the boss he is.

Which is a great way to bankrupt the journalists you like reading. We need paid for our labour just like you and everyone else. Does a cook give you a free lunch? A taxi driver a free ride home? But sure, use Musk’s Nazi chatbot to totally fuck over the few progressive journalists left on the planet

Great to see them putting women right at the front of sport …

My own answer to this pretty odd question would be that I wouldn’t choose to taser anyone. Who would? And framing this around political opponents is really problematic.

Worrying news with funding decisions for 2026-27 not due until May: Arts Council NI withdraws funding from Belfast's Grand Opera House 50 years after saving it from demolition. Doesn't bode well for NI's arts community. Care to explain @communitiesni.bsky.social? www.thestage.co.uk/news/belfast...

If nothing else, the decision to sack Robbins, when he didn't need to, must rank as one of the most absurd acts of political self-harm any prime minister has yet committed. All of this eminently foreseeable.

Terrific piece by @tcollins.bsky.social in today's @irishnews.com arguing the case for the complete restructuring of UU. www.irishnews.com/opinion/tom-...

www.irishnews.com/opinion/tom-... Today’s column in @irishnews.com online and in the shops

It's going to be even worse the next time they appoint Peter Mandelson

St Patrick will be turning in his grave.

Words Of Al Jazeera Columnist......

‘Directly appointed by ministers’ suggests this civil servant had no say whatsoever on Mandelson’s appointment and it’s hard not to read into his use of the phrase a sense of exasperation that his advice was ignored.

Seems like the Strait of Hormuz is only open when the stock market is.

I think the challenge for Starmer now is that the only way he can convince the public of his integrity is by convincing them that he's totally incompetent.

A wonderful clip I have seen being shared recently. www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGJH...

How many more people are going to have to resign for Keir Starmer's decision to ignore the advice of every single person who told him not to appoint Peter Mandelson?

BBC News leading all its bulletins on demands by former Government advisor Lord Robertson for more defence spending, without at any point mentioning his current paid senior role for US defence lobbyists

www.irishnews.com/opinion/tom-... @irishnews.com online today and in the shops.

www.irishnews.com/opinion/tom-... My take on Trump and the Pope in today’s @irishnews.com online and in the shops.

Pope Leo: "I don't look at my role as being political, I don't want to get into a debate with Trump, I don't think that the message of the gospel is meant to be abused in the way that some people are doing. I will continue to speak out loudly against war."

If evangelicals think Pope Leo is too”woke” just wait until they hear about this fellow called Jesus.