Whatever your view on judicial review and NIMBY-ism, this is an appalling attack on the rule-of-law — If a person successfully (successfully!) proves wrongdoing by the state, the state will bankrupt them? Cui bono? Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael conies and the worst days of An Bord Pleanála corruption.

The Government's new stated aim is to make it so unattractive for lawyers to take good cases against the State that they will stop. Not bad cases. Good ones. Successful ones. This new rule only applies if you *win* your case. Doesn't that worry anyone slightly? m.independent.ie/irish-news/o...

My favourite part of the North Dublin Coastline at Bremore. Hundreds of finches, larks, and Tree Sparrow today, as well as Curlew, Common Scoter and Red-Throated Diver. And a reminder that Johnny Ronan’s company is in pre-planning stage to concrete this over and turn it into a Port!!

This entire piece is very, very good and well worth your time to read — but this bit had me rolling lithub.com/maybe-dont-t...

Article by @bobbyduffy.bsky.social (author of The Perils of Perception) on “Imagined Immigration” in the UK - very relevant to current debates in Ireland too: blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandp...

Accountability sinks aworkinglibrary.com/writing/acco...

This is one of my favourite albums - the only reason it’s not definitively my favourite album is because The Clientele have released other albums.

I wanted to repost every part of this excellent thread. This one will do. Amen.

I would genuinely love to know how this figure is arrived at

A ten-year programme of qualitative knowledge, rich with insight into young fathers' lived experiences, needs, and perspectives, is deemed insufficient because it can't be reduced to a single quantifiable figure or because the sample size (44 is large for a qual study) is considered inadequate

I'm recently noticing a pattern emerging in how my research on young fathers gets received and whether or not it is deemed to ‘count’ and have impact. A short thread 🧵🧵🧵

I cannot wait to read this!

I feel like this is a recurring theme for radio panels in Ireland - and a gripe I had about the post-Presidential election coverage here - there is too much weight given to panellists' incumbency/availability as professional opinion-havers over any actual appreciation of a given political event.

This is particularly true in anything to do with climate policy, especially sustainable mobility - we've committed as a state to do lots of things which will require some form of change but we've elected people who are unwilling to express even the positive articulations of such changes...

Fresh from my research on delivery of Active Travel infrastructure in Dublin...

Bíonn na daoine seo ag caint faoin nGaeilge mar a bheadh comhartha stádais inti. An fhírinne ná gur mionteanga í, agus nach bhfuil muid ag iarraidh ach na caighdeáin chéanna agus an meas céanna a thugtar d’aon teanga eile

Whilst we celebrate the Ringways Map, it's worth remembering that it wasn't just London in these islands where there were large plans for urban road networks that never came to pass.

Similarly, in Dublin, it’s amazing to see how car-dominated Dublin’s inner core is now and realise that we still dodged a bullet when you consider the historical transport plans for the city were never implemented - via @randall.ie’s brilliant site - randall.ie/unfinished-d...

“In recent decades we have been living through an ever-intensifying social experiment. Can housing, a fundamental need for all human beings, be successfully delivered under the machinations of finance capitalism? The evidence now seems overwhelming: no.”

"The scale of institutional ownership in certain places is staggering. In Ireland, nearly half of all units delivered since 2017 were purchased by investment funds." www.theguardian.com/commentisfre... #housing #profitcentre

Evidence of the last 30-40 years is that, generally, once you start reducing the state’s role in pursuit of efficiency, there is no point at which people will believe “value for money” has been achieved. It just undermines the state’s capacity to deliver (and people’s trust in public institutions).

How I discovered that the film I knew as "Catholic Boys" was released in the US as "Heaven Help Us"...

We've written about some of the records broken and incredible statistics behind the season of dreams for Irish athletes: www.trackathletes.ie/articles/202...

If you're in the vicinity of @dculibrary.bsky.social, please pop in to see an exhibition selected from the archive material I've donated. It relates to my first book, The Destruction of Dublin (1985), and the Dublin Crisis Conference I helped to organise in February 1986. A blast from the past!

“Replication is an ethnography of science, a reflection by the scientists themselves on the scientific process and the challenges of producing results, while being engaged in that very process.” New ethnographic work by Brenninkmeijer et al. Open Access: doi.org/10.1177/0306... 🧵

hostile horticulture/ defensive planters @abbey street

Broadstone Plaza in French

most significant design movement of the last decade

Super bit of social history - 1st Dublin City Marathon 1980 (a year before the first London one!) fascinating following the route through the city youtu.be/02Cxf0be8Rg?...

this case was foreshadowed by the Horrible Histories song: "Thought I did a good job Why do you disagree? There's a lot of people Spreading nasty rumors bout me Every word is a lie So I'm singing this song 'Cause the history books Have been telling it wrong!" www.bbc.com/news/article...

Toghchán a bhuaigh MAGA. Meas Ar Ghaeilge Arís. Ar chúiseanna eile chomh maith a bhuaigh Catherine Connolly an toghchán, ach ní beag tábhacht an bhua seo don teanga.

Calm before the storm … (actually there’s a bit of a wind) At the 4 mile mark…

this is a great analogy - too many people have a platform on these panels because of their talent for generating compellingly stupid content

Every time I see pictures of politicians or public figures in the press, I am reminded of undergraduate courses in semiotic theory and the idea that any single photograph is one of many possible representations (+ that editors make discrete choices about the photos they choose for public figures).

From a research interview.... "Somebody said to me, road engineers...if they were to build a house, it would be all corridors." It's a good line, and also probably quite relevant to what we currently prioritise in developing environments to support walking & cycling in urban areas.

“A family based in north London seeks an extraordinary and experienced Tutor to support their youngest child on his first steps to becoming an English gentleman” £180,000 a year 🤓 jobs.tutors.international/advert/612

What a graph 👇 "English-speaking countries have fared far worse at increasing housing supply than other developed nations, and have generally seen steeper price rises..."

In the @uk.theconversation.com, I rehearse - in briefer form - my arguments _for_ play in grey space, arguing that it affords opportunities for play, connection and care that green space often can’t, and that it’s politically important to value play in these spaces.

@businesspost.bsky.social our final presidential poll for @businesspost.bsky.social will be released tonight at 8pm.

We used to be a country...a proper country.

what with the Catherine Connolly deepfake and the AWS outage this week, i'm starting to think that insisting educators use commercial amoral generative technology, from cradle to grave, might have been a mistake

more on the unintended consequences of abandoning shame as a positive normative mechanism in the social media age

😂

With BikeBunkers coming to Dublin, this UK article on the political considerations involved in accelerating delivery is extremely relevant... "Politicians must be prepared to respectfully disagree with their residents, to deliver for their other residents." movepeople.substack.com/p/bread-bin-...

game of the pawns - white gives up their queen in exchange for eight extra pawns 🤓

all of my niche, but serious, ethical stances involve deliberately choosing less efficient ways of doing things over the alternative technologies of convenience (on the basis that most interventions to promote efficiency also undermine sociality)

That’s quite the gap in support for govt parties and support for Sinn Féin amongst younger voters

"Who cares what Foucault says?", Rod Watson asks, "he's just another member!" 🤷‍♂️ #emca