@researchireland.ie is continuing a path laid down by the old (and old-fashioned) SFI in failing to work to build a national research ecosystem. Their strategy is something one might expect from a sectoral agency, not a national one. And that's been noticed www.irishtimes.com/ireland/educ...

“Drawing borders on a map might make a fellow feel powerful and important. But to become a big important Empire fellow, you have to accept borders drawn all around inside your head too.” www.thegist.ie/the-gist-tra...

Great piece on the gullibility of the Irish state on AI.

This ... is not true. Not really. Though it does require making a series of decisions that don't fit with most TD's world view.

Wow. The UK has really gone to a very dark place indeed. Ireland needs to develop a strategy for managing a potentially very hostile neighbour (again).

Seems like perhaps the "wage-price" spiral is more often a "price-wage" spiral.

Interesting that the @irishtimes.com have given such top billing to the minutiae of the political shenanigans going on in the UK. They don't seem to want to give such profile to what's going on in Germany, or France, when the latter two are so important to Ireland's interests.

It would be just so good if the Irish State (including, obviously, the politicians) began to *actually* plan for a united Ireland. The Shared Island effort is great, and it has little to do with a united (or otherwise) Ireland. www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2026...

This is sort of a necessary response to the price hikes by corporates over the past two years - the price-wage spiral in full flow. www.irishtimes.com/politics/202...

Are you a speaker of Irish English? If so, would you share your thoughts on “only” with me for academic research? umfragen.tu-dortmund.de/index.php/42... Thank you very much!!!!🙏🙏🙏

Ah yes - let's steal some impetus from actually doing something ambitious with renewables by drawing focus onto unproven technology (SMRs) which also requires around a decade in regulatory development before anyone can even put out a tender. Brilliant. www.irishtimes.com/politics/202...

Time to get an EV, if you can: #spéirgorm Further fuel protests expected before the autumn Budget, spokesmen say www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2026...

For so long Ireland has forgotten that the main reason for boosting GDP is to tax it and use the money to build quality of life. We forgot because, in the eighties and early nineties, things got *so* bad. By the 2000s we should haved moved on from that www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2026...

CATL (world's biggest battery manufacturer) just announced that sodium-ion batteries are now ready for commercial use. Investing a billion into an LNG terminal was a bad idea before this news, now it is just plain foolish to invest in yesterday's tech. www.energy-storage.news/a-turning-po...

My own home's solar story for this week: I imported 2.4 kWh of electricity, consumed 65.8 kWh (including car charging) and exported 16.4 kWh. It's not just utility scale solar that makes sense, and March - Sept are amazing months for solar in Ireland.

🚨 For the second day in a row, we have a new record in Irish solar! Output reached 1207MW shortly after 2pm, iching past yesterdays' 1179MW. With demand lower on the weekend this was equal to 29.5% of the island's electricity demand; *significantly* higher than yesterday's peak of 25.7%. ☀️ 📊

This 👇 Perhaps paradoxically, AI developers are not the ones best placed to know either what AI can do, or what its impact will be.

If we had to sum up our little account here, it would exactly mirror long-time supporter @tdownes.bsky.social: "more renewables, and faster!" 🙏

This is great! I always enjoy seeing these posts - look at all that gas we didn't have to import. More renewables, and faster, please!

It's a red flag when an article refers to returning immigrants as "ex-pats". And quite ironic that it then suggests a US driver's license meets the requirements to get an Irish one 🤷‍♂️ Seasoned drivers treated like learners due to licence-exchange issues www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2026...

The Irish version is people who think this bleak dead brown nothing is ruined by a wind turbine #speirgorm

I disagree with many things Patrick Honohan says, but this looks really good. It is as if the Irish State has forgotten that its quality of life, prosperity and national security is a thing that it is actually responsible for, and has agency over. www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2026...

Sigh. Such clarity now that the US is a strategic hhreat to the EU , and to Ireland specifically Trump says US will blockade Strait of Hormuz after failure to reach agreement with Iran www.irishtimes.com/world/us/202...

Renewable generation and discharging storage equalled 60% of yesterday's electricity demand, with a peak of 71% at 21:45. Fossil fuel generation (mostly gas) equalled 25% of demand. 0% of generation was exported, 14% of demand was met by imports.

For about 4 years it's been clear this would happen, even without the issues of the unreliability of fossil fuels that we've seen in the last month or 6 weeks. EVs are just better products for almost everyone. www.irishtimes.com/business/202...

Lads, those bucks wudda blockaded Trump's golf course if they were serious about fuel prices. So they aren't. They screwed the people they've been scaring away from EVs for years. If everyone is using fossil fuel then they can get power. Solar power and EVs. The answer. #spéirgorm

This is an excellent piece - well worth a read. It has been frustrating to watch the people who complain about climate action complaining about the results of climate inaction. #spéirgorm aislinna.substack.com/p/tractor-ru...

Our island is tip to toe ~500km, we absolutely should be a European gem in the use of electric vehicles. Yes, the government are shit at infrastructure (we should be rolling out electric trains instead of data centres and we should be partnering with UK for wind and solar). #speirgorm

The US clearly and unambiguously lost the war with Iran. It is odd indeed that some think otherwise.

I am impressed by the degree to which the protesters have been facilitated by the Gardaí. I don't want the protesters beaten up and dragged away. But I do want equal treatment for people protesting genocide. Facilitate their blocking roads and refineries just as much. That'd be a healthy democracy.

Very much enjoyed the responses to this. Maith sibh go léir! 🙂

Right folks as one of the few farmers on here let me explain something really simple. We're currently in the busiest time of year, calving & lambing is ongoing and crops need tending The awful weather means contractors are also flat out So how representative do you think this lad is? #speirgorm

I really amn't sure that an unknown group blockading a refinery is a public order issue. It seems like much more akin to a national security issue. ##spéirgorm

Thinking tonight of my Iranian colleagues with whom I have enjoyed many conversations and collaborations over the years. #Iran #US

Renewable generation and discharging storage equalled 78% of yesterday's electricity demand, with a peak of 86% at 14:45. Fossil fuel generation (mostly gas) equalled 23% of demand. 5% of generation was exported, 2% of demand was met by imports.

The EU is free to invoke its anti-coercion instrument at any time. If anyone wants a response to a "nuclear" option.

Too many people ignored and normalised genocide to the point that we've got world leaders openly threatening to commit another one.

If you have an EV none of this matters. Now would be a good time to go back to seriously incentivising electric vehicles of all types. They are better products, and better insulated from international events. www.rte.ie/news/ireland...

Return to work edicts appear to be just an exercise of power, which negatively impacts productivity, not to mention damaging citizens' quality of life. www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2...

We can use this crisis for good. 🚲 Roll out temporary cycle lanes 🚋 Make public transport free for a time ⚽ Car free days in cities 🚘 30 km/h speed limit in urban areas We do not have to double down on fossil fuels. We can choose a different path. My piece in the Journal this week.

From the article below: "classic imperialism, as the historian Daniel Immerwahr recently put it, “sought to bind disparate places together under a vast administrative structure, animated by a civilising mission" Surely no one still believes that last motivation? Imperialism is and was barbarism.

Sigh. This is fine for a short term, tactical move. But for energy security the medium/long game is renewables, fusion and maybe (the very costly) fission.

I wonder whether, on this Irish day, Ireland might once again offer to educate Britain as we did about 1,150 years ago. This time, perhaps, focused on what the EU is all about 🙂 www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...

Per @irishtimes.com : "The European Union’s foreign policy chief is encouraging member states to redirect the bloc’s Red Sea naval mission to help restart oil and gas shipments in the Strait of Hormuz ...." I cannot think of a more foolish strategic move. [Not sure the IT is actually correct]

Lovely thread on a particular piece of weak work published by Nature. Research will be better off when we stop automatically ascribing high quality to Nature papers. Some are good and, in my field at least, some are very poor and ill-thought out. At its core Nature is more a magazine than a journal

The US just doesn't seem to want any friends at the moment. It seems really .. grumpy? That's the only word I can think of for it.

And still the legal system of that country can't spell, or even capitalise, his name correctly 🤷‍♂️ There's just such a distance to be travelled in the relations between the British and Ireland.

Wow. Have the US and Israel really lost this war that quickly? www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...

Thankfully we have a fair amount of wind and some solar insulating us to some extent. But why not get energy independence? We have that possibility, once we decide to have that ambition! www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Does Ireland have a moral obligation to Irish immigrants (expats is such a racist term) in the middle east? So many are there to avoid paying tax in Ireland, so why do Irish taxpayers need to bail them out? I mean, we do have an obligation, but it's a curious one www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2026...