Santa is on his way.... Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night. #NightBeforeChristmas #HappyChristmas2025🎅🌲🎁💖 #JesseWillcoxSmith

US bars former EU commissioner Breton and others over tech rules ft.trib.al/TgoG45B

In these last 2 days of Christmas shopping, SUPPORT SMALL, LOCAL BUSINESSES. They are your family, your friends and your community...and they really need your support. #supportsmallbusiness #BuyLocal #livegalwaylovegalwayshopgalway #SupportADream🌲❄️🎅

Blessings for the Winter Solstice. Blessings for Yule. We have turned the year.

Marys' Advent Calendar of Kids Books-Week 4: to take us right up to the big day! As the man himself would say, "Happy Christmas to all and to all a good night." @walkerbooksuk.bsky.social @puffinbooksuk.bsky.social @andersenpress.bsky.social fallenstarstories.wordpress.com/2025/12/19/m...

LET'S MAKE COMPASSION THE REAL WINNER THIS CHRISTMAS. BUY IT NOW AND GET LULLABY BY TOGETHER FOR PALESTINE TO NUMBER ONE - EVERY PURCHASE COUNTS. THANK YOU togetherforpalestine.org

Ireland is the 4th freest country in the world according to the new Human Freedom Index 2025. 🇮🇪👏 Irish residents enjoy exceptionally strong freedom of movement, of religion, of relationships, and of expression. Only the Swiss, Danes and New Zealanders rank higher. www.cato.org/human-freedo...

Frog and Toad sat close by the fire. They were scared. The teacups shook in their hands. They were having the shivers. It was a good, warm feeling.

Moving right along in a seasonal fashion, it's...Marys' Advent Calendar of Kids Books- Week 3. 6 more of the best for holiday season. @andersenpress.bsky.social @puffinbooksuk.bsky.social @littletigeruk.bsky.social #ChristmasBooksForKids fallenstarstories.wordpress.com/2025/12/13/m...

Sunrise 13 December 2025 #itsthesimplethings

The most perfect gift! Cailín Sinséir Bhéal Feirste/The Belfast Gingerbread Girl by Marianne McShane & Mr Ando: captures all the fun, happiness, magic of the season; imaginative, joyous and utterly wondrous! #leabharasgaeilge #DiscoverIrishKidsBooks fallenstarstories.wordpress.com/2025/12/12/g...

Enemies-to-lovers has never tasted so sweet! @meabhmcdonnell.bsky.social’s debut YA has charmed reviewers all over Ireland and is set to delight many more! Grab your copy and get reading, you’ll find that one slice just won’t do 🍰

My dearest friends have returned! Mouse & Mole: Odd Socks by Joyce Dunbar & James Mayhew: wonderful, 3 heartwarming tales; gentle, beautifully illustrated; funny, charming with a very “real-life” touch; perfect! It will lift your heart! @graffeg fallenstarstories.wordpress.com/2025/12/11/m...

#bookpost really is the best post! Receiving this gift; The Belfast Gingerbread Girl/Cailìn Sinsèir Bhèal Feirste from An TSnàthhaid Mhòr; Marianne McShane & Andrew Whitson is wonderful! I am completely charmed@ Thankyou! #FallenStarStories #HappyChristmas🎄🎁🎅 #NollaigShona🎄❄️🎁 #DiscoverIrishKidsBooks

It's time for Week 2 of Marys' Advent Calendar of Kids Books! Six more fun and festive tales and treasures to add extra joy to the Christmas season.... #FallenStarStories #AdventCalendarofBooks fallenstarstories.wordpress.com/2025/12/07/m...

From tomorrow, 5th Dec #BookElves2025 will be on hand to recommend brilliant Irish books for all ages - from tots to teens. if you'd like a recommendation - ask away below. I'd be delighted to help! And I'll be posting some of my favourite Irish books of the year every day. #discoveririshkidsbooks

Here it is! Week one of Marys' Advent Calendar of Kids Books! Six days, six books & six of my favourites for the time of year! @andersenpress.bsky.social @theobrienpress.bsky.social @harpercollins.bsky.social fallenstarstories.wordpress.com/2025/12/01/m...

Announcement! It's time for the return of Marys' Advent Calendar of Books! #FallenStarStories #AdventCalendarOfBooks #jolabokaflod fallenstarstories.wordpress.com/2025/12/01/h...

And the winners are... a quick but enthusiastic shout out to the winners of the #AnPostIrishBookAwards 2025, in the childrens categories. #FallenStarStories #DiscoverIrishKidsBooks fallenstarstories.wordpress.com/2025/11/28/a...

Today is Black Friday...so today of all shopping days, support your small, local businesses, artists & craftspeople. Support your neighbours & community. They need you; big businesses don't. #BuyLocal #supportsmallbusiness #livegalwaylovegalwayshopgalway #buyconsciously

Welcome to....Fear Files: Hide and Seek by Christopher Edge: This is incredibly, deliciously creepy; so scary; so riveting, full-on & suspenseful; Short, sharp & completely delectable. @walkerbooksuk.bsky.social fallenstarstories.wordpress.com/2025/11/27/w...

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you who celebrate. #Thanksgiving2025

Harriet Tubman: Force of Nature by Caoline Brewer: beautiful book reviewed for Childrens’ Books Ireland/Inis Magazine; life of Harriet Tubman presented as poetry; factual, expressed lyrically, flowing, moving & entirely memorable. Just beautiful. fallenstarstories.wordpress.com/2025/11/25/h...

After living through the Nazi & atomic bomb eras, Tove Jansson writings would often encompass fearful ideas about loss of a familiar world. However she would balance this with characters who encompassed #kindness & #community, even in the darkest times #WomensArt #WorldKindnessDay

The Daily Bear: LB invites you to see the world with fresh eyes: Baxters' View by Murphys' Sketches; full of life & understanding, warmhearted & playful; slow down & experience the world with fresh eyes! @foxandinkbooks.bsky.social #LBKoala fallenstarstories.wordpress.com/2025/11/15/s...

Lilys' Monster by Cliff McNish: a psychological, chilling story that exams grief & haunting; complex, emotional, intriguing, consuming; a ghost story that will stay with you for a long time. This is one you cannot out down. @foxandinkbooks.bsky.social fallenstarstories.wordpress.com/2025/11/08/l...

Where The Shadows Hide by @amyclarkinwrites.bsky.social PSI are back with their most gripping investigation yet; intriguing & emotional;twists in both the plot & the lives of our characters; intense; thrilling ghost story. @theobrienpress.bsky.social fallenstarstories.wordpress.com/2025/11/04/w...

We are BEYOND delighted to have two nominations for the 2026 Carnegie Medal for Writing! A FIX OF LIGHT and SOLO! Huge congratulations to YA debut authors Kel Menton and Gráinne O’Brien! @kelmenton.bsky.social @grainneobrien.bsky.social @carnegiemedals.bsky.social #Carnegies2026

"Oh! Hello...I have been waiting. Are the others coming?....Good. I'll put the kettle on...." #HappyHalloween🎃👻🧙🧙🧙🎃

Tonight....we fly. Happy Halloween! #HappyHalloween🎃👻🧙

Late October rainbows bring the most joy...and the most rejuvenation. #OctoberOctober #octoberrainbow🌈🍁

Hurricane Melissa hits Jamaica. 175mph sustained winds, 13ft storm surge, 40 inches of rainfall in some areas. Beyond catastrophic. #hurricanemelissa

The Cloud Kingdom by Máire Zepf & Andrew Whitson: stories within a story; seamlessly woven together; Magical, imaginative, playful & utterly, magnificently beautiful. One to cherish. @littleislandbooks.bsky.social #DiscoverIrishKidsBooks fallenstarstories.wordpress.com/2025/10/28/w...

Congratulations, Catherine Connolly!!! I could not be happier with this result!

Just a reminder...the time goes back one hour at 2am.So an extra hour gets added tomorrow morning. It all happens online now. But I miss the simple little ritual of setting the clocks back. It felt somehow...human? Anyway, happy time change eve, everyone. #TimeChange🕰

A good news story! Lovely idea 👏👏👏https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/oct/24/booker-prize-launches-childrens-booker-frank-cottrell-boyce

Return to Old Ireland! Tír Na n'Og by @erikamcgann.bsky.social & Conor Busuttil & The Stolen Child by W.B.Yeats, illustrated by Erin Brown; glorious gifts that evoke a timeless, magical past. Perfect! @theobrienpress.bsky.social #DiscoverIrishKidsBooks fallenstarstories.wordpress.com/2025/10/24/r...

The Grand Central Cinema Club by Alan Nolan: Dublin 1937; a story that combines friendship, love of cinema & a renowned sneak-thief; imaginative, memorable, fast-paced, fun, clever, heart-warming; a five-star adventure! @theobrienpress.bsky.social fallenstarstories.wordpress.com/2025/10/23/t...

Meanwhile, outside the U.S. Embassy in Dublin....

Happy Dwali!!! One Dwali Day by Dev Kothari & Aditi Anand: celebration of the Indian Festival Lights with family & community; warm, welcoming; filled with family & happiness...and making Dwali Lanterns and Dwali pedas (yum!) @walkerbooksuk.bsky.social fallenstarstories.wordpress.com/2025/10/18/c...

Daily Bear: LB has 2 new recommends from @theobrienpress.bsky.social Puffling & the Stormy Sea by Erika McGann & Gerry Daly; Run Home, Little Fox by Tom McCaughren, Erika McGann & Shannon Bergin; heartfelt, full of adventure & fun & the natural world. fallenstarstories.wordpress.com/2025/10/16/l...

Trump, speaking in the Israeli parliament, boasts about the weapons the U.S. has provided and says "you obviously used them very well." An estimated 20,000 children have died in the war in Gaza.

AI DEEPFAKE OF ME SPEWING RUSSIAN PROPAGANDA. This is very disturbing because, with the exception of the moving image of me at the beginning of my segment, the words and images are not mine. My voice is AI generated and - I assume - sounds very like me. (I can't hear the join) Disgraceful.

Making It Up As You Go Along by @pforde123.bsky.social ; a wondrous guide to encourage childrens' writing & creativity; imaginative, exciting, funny, joyous! This is no ordinary creative writing guide…not by a long shot. @littleislandbooks.bsky.social fallenstarstories.wordpress.com/2025/10/11/m...

One of the things about this study is that a lot of baby and toddler books are written in house, by editors. So the study reveals the whiteness of editorial in kidlit even if not explicitly. But, big picture, this trend is unacceptable. I remember so many promises www.theguardian.com/books/2025/o...

Calling all nature people and orgs, please consider adding your name to Naturalists for Palestine. It's essential we recognise that ecocide and genocide are two sides of the same coin, and resist both. share.google/gLPRtQzDGC3v...

‘Really shocking’: Independent Dublin bookstore damaged in arson attack

Happy 28th Birthday to my oldest grandson, Jackson Layton ...who continues to amaze and astound me every day. Jack, you are a hero. 💖🧁🎈🎉 (Here he is...my oldest grandchild holding my youngest grandchild.)

These teeny little superguys turned 1 a couple of weeks ago...which hardly seems possible. I love them so much! 💙💙