Crowning achievement even, though Sonny Dewey isn't averse to a bit of crowing either.

Duvall's crowing achievement might be The Apostle where he gave a stunning central performance while also directing and writing one of the best American movies of the nineties. Examined the coexistence of good and evil in one person with a rare seriousness for Hollywood. youtu.be/fQe1Kehx110?...

These are wonderful but poor old Cú na mBaskerville looks like he'd be hard pressed to finish his dinner never mind terrorise the moors.

Whining about people not speaking fluent English takes the biscuit. Spain and France are heaving with English immigrants who not only don't speak the native language but complain that the locals won't speak to them in English. What skin off anyone's nose is a bilingual sign? You can still read it.

Not just the usual right wing suspects doing the 'time to move on' number. Jonathan Freedland's insistence in the Guardian that Mandelson's downfall shouldn't be seen as reflecting badly on New Labour also seemed an odd take. As if denying any boost to the Labour left was crucial.

Watched this again last night. The acting always gets the plaudits but the energy and invention of Edward Albee's writing is incredible. You could heat the house with it. Couldn't help feeling that the least likable character is actually George Segal's normal guy. youtu.be/4vIUGN8CGjE?...

The same crew pretend that the 'Real Story' of the presidential election was a few spoiled votes rather than victory for a candidate they portrayed as a far left extremist. They also keep making the daft claim that voters are turning left because they hanker to vote far right. They're out of step.

Cutler and himself were enjoying life. youtu.be/rw1yI7amccA?...

Hence the shameful attempts to discredit Irish ICE captive Seamus Culleton. Those responsible would hate to see us look at what's going on in the US, draw the obvious conclusions and make common cause with our own immigrants.

This is very important to stay aware of and fight against - not to mention the mass graveyard that is the Mediterranean, which almost everyone seems happy to turn a blind eye to

US culture is much less great looked at this way. Top 10 films in the AFI all-time list include movies by Coppola, Scorsese, Spielberg, Donen and Curtiz. Of the ten top US albums in the Rolling Stone 500 only one, Nevermind, is by someone with any British roots. The common culture is a hybrid one.

The title 'Strangers when we Meet' always reminds me of the line from the heartbreaking Dark End of the Street (a Sirk melodrama in miniature) "If we should meet just walk on by." youtu.be/HC3AXQ8dPJM?...

Good old Kim. Bell, Book and Candle is fun and with director Richard Quine she also made Strangers When We Meet which contains maybe her best performance after Vertigo.Rarely shown but a must for lovers of Sirkian melodrama. Quine's life was a bit Sirkian itself. youtu.be/Dx7p41XJZXQ?...

RIP & thanks for all the music, Mr. Jerry Kennedy who passed away this week. He's the opening guitar you hear on Orbison's "Pretty Woman," the lead on Wynette's "Stand By Your Man," he's on Blonde on Blonde album, Tom T. Hall's producer. One of the greats, without a doubt. youtu.be/REOgLaIQD5U?...

Remarkable track record. Didn't just sign Tom T Hall but produced and played on his great run of albums in the late sixties and early seventies. Which included this immortal eulogy. "The good Lord likes a little pickin' too." Amen. RIP. youtu.be/rcSUIkglCQw?...

Really good piece lent weight by coming from someone whose label released work from the likes of Sharon Van Etten, Angel Olsen, Bon Ives, Black Mountain et al. To paraphrase S Van E, a lack of love is killing music. If the future isn't independent, there might be no future. youtu.be/nyuPWHwZru0?...

And it's not over yet by a long chalk.

Máiréad Ní Ghráda's An Triail is studied for the Leaving Cert. My daughters say its laceration of intolerance stands up well. The play opened in 1964 at the Damer Theatre and my mother had a small part. Lead actor for most of the run was Fionnuala Flanagan, later the housekeeper in The Others.

Now have a really good excuse, if one were needed, to watch All About Eve again tonight.

Her murder in Pickup on South Street, a woman so worn out by life that she's almost resigned to death is one of cinema's saddest. Also delivers maybe the best line in that film of great lines All About Eve, 'Everything but the bloodhounds snappin' at her rear end' when Eve delivers her sob story.

Running style spookily similar to that of another great athlete. youtu.be/JHpl634BHSU?...

Happy birthday to the wondrous Harriet Andersson, 94 years old today. Star of several great Ingmar Bergman films, including SMILES OF A SUMMER NIGHT, which would be a lovely watch for Valentine's Day; and SUMMER WITH MONIKA, which would not.

Never knew this existed. Short story I wrote in 1996 (second thing I ever had published, in the legendary Force 10 magazine edited by the equally legendary Dermot Healy in Sligo. Man, those were fun times) Apprentice work. God knows what it sounds like now. But nice to have. youtu.be/si9MVZYhB7A?...

Trump's motley crew "repealing science," on global warming. Like a cross between the Church making Galileo recant by showing him the instruments of torture, King Canute ordering the waves to stop and Ed Harris going "cue the sun" in The Truman Show. The nuttiest government since Caligula led Rome.

"Something is happening here but you don't know what it is, do you Mister Starmer?"

It belatedly occurs to me that Micheál Martin told the Dáil on Tuesday that Brad Pitt was visiting Timoleague… only after AI-generated images of “his presence” started showing up on Monday. This goes all the way to the top

When government policy has always been to make room for private profit in the health system this is what you end up with. It's practically the desired result. Cancer services were axed at Sligo Hospital in 2009 at the height of the Tiger era when privatising the system further was all the rage.

He can say what he wants but he won't change my mind. Oh hang on, he did. Good piece.

Terrific to see Everybody Digs Bill Evans getting such good reviews at the Berlin Film Festival. 1. Because it's about such a wonderful artist. 2. Because the screenplay is by Mark O'Halloran who scripted the immortal Adam and Paul. Here's why everyone digs Bill. youtu.be/dH3GSrCmzC8?...

Do the FAI think that the likes of Spain and Norway would stand by and allow UEFA to unilaterally punish Ireland for not playing Israel? It seems just as likely that a principled move would crystallise the concerns of other countries and force things to a head.

Ostrich legs are objectively ridiculous. Get this guy some pants.

People ask why Russia is banned and Israel isn't. A point made, to his credit, by Ireland's manager. But FIFA and UEFA only banned Russia because they knew countries would refuse to play them. The onus is on countries to force the hand of governing bodies. Walk the walk is dead right.

P Pearse Passport application

Keir today gone tomorrow.

A wizard, a true star.

Of course it was.

Interesting insights into and from someone who's written brilliant stuff for decades in the NYRB. "The twentieth century's great utopian experiments, including consumer capitalism, are exhausted.

French food safety agency report, as reported in Le Monde, says that consumers are subjected to unhealthy levels of chemicals, Cadmium in breakfast cereal, Aluminium in pastries and biscuits, Mercury in fish, among others. Wonder if this situation is mirrored elsewhere in Europe.

Shyam Benegal hitting the sweet spot between arthouse and Bollywood, between agit prop and entertainment, between empathy and sentimentality. An inspiring political movie financed by its subjects, the dairy farmers of Gujarat. Benegal's Mandi and Bhumika are also great. youtu.be/m7uKpeGI6v0?...

Sondheim at his greatest and saddest. The evanescent quality of it heightened by coming from a TV production recorded live and shown only once. And the song being sung by Charmian Carr (Liesl from Sound of Music) who ended her brief showbiz career shortly after. youtu.be/UEkR1z4RRq8?...

The big man desperately wresting beauty from the chaos of his life. Genius. youtu.be/gcjk6jrPZnA?...

Bridge to nowhere would be a perfect title for a book on the current government. Those sods are not for turning unfortunately.

2045. As London finally sinks below the waters of the climate apocalypse a conservative columnist frantically scribbles, "Labour's obsession with Trans rights . . . (bubble, bubble.)"

"Sir' Jim Ratcliffe. 'Lord' Peter Mandelson. Two finer arguments for republicanism you couldn't find.

What good does this information being made public do? Call me mad, but whatever someone does, I would say they don't deserve to be in a concentration camp because of it. Odd timing given the family said on the Tonight Show that they haven't had much help from the gov other than consular support.

Absolutely grotesque (and false) quote from a “senior figure” and I’m sure Shipman loved typing it up

Pete Paphides' Broken Greek is a classic, moving and funny account of the lives of immigrants and their children in England (which rings quite a few Irish bells). Ratcliffe should ask someone to read it to him.

Good piece which nails the self-serving gymnastics of Starmer's apology.

Gerry Hutch's apparent decision to contest Dublin Central is good news for pundits who, after either Sinn Fein or the Social Democrats win the by-electon, will claim that 'the real story' is the smaller level of support for someone to their right. Check presidential election for details.

This is rather special. Marc Bloch was a titan of modern historiography, and a big influence on me as a young history student. He was a brilliant French medievalist murdered by the Gestapo for both his Jewishness and his contribution to French resistance, but they couldn’t kill his work