3 years ago after we married in Nashville we drove down the Natchez Trace . Saw a Tallahatchie bridge but not the right one. I've made a point of talking about BG in my 60s class to get them to dig deeper and beyond. And this is a great read.

Stewart Lee was brilliant tonight: "If you're unsure of which toilets you can use feel free to shit in a bag and mail it to Graham Linehan, he sorts through them by hand"

They hate everyone except the people who hate them.

My modest ability as a guitar player (I stress modest) for being able to sing, even a little bit.

Which one's Official H-R and which one Provisional?

This is horse shit. Universities must do the exact opposite.

I would go further here, Labour's response to far right agitation after the riots in 2024 and again in 2025 has emboldened the far right in a way that has been worse than the last year under Sunak. Sunak sacked Suella, he sacked Anderson, Starmer has been consistently unable to do the same.

The robotic lawnmower is now the SNP spokesbot for rural affairs.

Adieu Areski Belkacem. Tu nous as tellement donné : ta voix, ton esprit unique. Une musique comme ça, ça ne s'oublie pas.

I did not know this.... @sweeneyagonistes.bsky.social Did you?

Looking at a stereo system, assembled entirely second hand, from components made 40 or even 50 years ago and working perfectly. Maintained - new cartridges and belt, and a clean every now and then, otherwise...

Until I read this, I couldn't work out why Daniel Ellis's name seemed familiar from the outset of the by election campaign. He played for Bohs for a season.... saturdaynightwaltz.substack.com/p/will-sinn-...

Conleth Ellis, my English teacher at the Marist College in Athlone, in every other respect the worst of the four secondary schools I went to. No exaggeration to say he changed my life by making it clear that Shakespeare was meant to be funny. www.igp-web.com/Carlow/Elis....

Thank fuck we can keep dangerous terrorists like this off the street so Tommy Robinson can do his little marches

I hope it's not going to force me to think better of Wes.

Reform + Con = 314 Lab+Lib + Nats + Greens = 307 and Burnham is open to coalition. A couple of NI seats could tip the balance....

They could invite him in, and then explain that, just for him, they're doing a bumper version from an actual desert island, and that they'll leave him there for a few hours to get the feel of it ...and forget to come back.

🔥𝐌𝐲 𝐥𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐨𝐝𝐚𝐲’𝐬 𝐈𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐡 𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐬: why should a family in Ireland pay more for electricity so a billion-dollar tech company can pay less? 💵

FF, FG, and Lab, the old two and a half party system on 36%

This is less than coherent. Not sure if he quite means to compare Palestine Action to the RAF, but it's hard to decipher a point; as with most such articles, it's a peg to hang an ad for his book. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

If Beckett wrote Yes, Minister.

"Simon Pook, of Robert Lizar solicitors, said he was making formal representations to GMP on Sadiq’s behalf and described the force’s conduct as reminiscent of that of the British state during the Northern Ireland Troubles" www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

Fantastic footage of Sonny Rollins at Ronnie Scotts from '74 on BBC 4 now, featuring Rufus Harley, Sporran and all.

'No impact at all' is what Micheál promises to achieve every day.

De Tocqueville made nearly the same argument about equality between black and white Americans.

Great to have someone speak so eloquently but also so plainly about this on RTÉ. The games against Israel should very clearly not go ahead and frankly it’s a disgrace that we’re even having this conversation at this point

Children of the Reformation

Maggie, Maybe.

Hmm, he thinks , haven't been to a gig in while; what's on locally, he wonders? first three listings are D:ream (first we get Blair back, then...), Spear of Destiny, and Sugar. Bands I saw in '95, 84, and 93 respectively.

Saw an interesting doc yesterday about the history of water in HK: as the city grew, it outstripped its water supply - the Brits in the 70s didn't want to be dependent on the PRC, so they, very expensively built a de-salination plant to treat sea water. Problem was, it needed oil and then/

This is really important. For a country that's extremely political at electoral level, and democratic in terms of practice, actual policy happens at a remove from what front of house politics presents.

Wait until he hears about the Plantation of Ulster

#speirgorm I need a footnote to explain the word 'culchie' to an audience beyond Ireland. Would 'mildly pejorative' be a) too strong b) not strong enough or c) about right? I realise it's situation dependent, but I don't have space for more than a short explanation.

In many ways, being raised in Ireland prepares you well for dealing with an academic life: great sounding rhetoric but an absolute contempt for most of the population expressed by peevish men who would throw you under the bus to get ahead.

AHSS research is already massively underfunded in Ireland, proposals to restructure funding models and prioritise commercialisation of research will disproportionately impact the humanities - Irish academics, post-docs & post-grads past, current and future please add your voice in opposition 👇

Solidarity is where it’s at. ✊🏽🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

I've a more than accidental knowledge of the Irish Army and its culture (or did) and I can fairly confidently say that a coup d'etat is about as likely as a successful FFG housing policy.

Researchers in AHSS fields with any connection with Ireland might want to consider signing this. openletter.earth/concern-abou...

Tony Blair's Interventions actually sounds like the name of a really bad jazz band - the kind who think they can improvise midway through covers of "Summertime", but can only honk discordantly.

Never ran so fast to the off button: 'Sir Tony Blair joins us in the studio'

Drove a fair bit in Ireland last week for the first time in an age. In a UK reg car, and sticking to the speed limit, but I guess a lot of exasperated drivers on country roads were giving out about the slow Brit, before whizzing past me one eye on the phone.

Often think of this when the Irish govt. line up their excuses for doing nothing at all. www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/51294/...

Can't get near water, so next best thing is this doc about Brockwell Lido from 1995. Best bit is the Catholic guy from Belfast who was born on the 12th and for the first few years of his life, his dad convinced him the bands and the crowds were for his birthday. www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwFD...

Looking more and more like the recovery after 2011 was one long dead cat bounce.

Fun fact from a miserable night: there was a player on the pitch last night who made a significant indirect contribution to our last league title. #bohs

Collins ambushed

Pope believes in God is not really a surprise though.

Almost the entire Irish political culture is based on exactly this - though often as 'first call social worker'