Remarkable to hear RTE mention the words "shoplifting" at the end of the News but not mention the words "security guards" or "choked" or "physical assault." Despite the fact there's no evidence so far of the first and video evidence of the second.

Ireland didn't just abolish the death penalty, we passed a constitutional ban on ever reintroducing it under any circumstances. it's one of the greatest things we've ever done at the ballot box. death is always, and can only be, an unjust punishment. we must never compromise on that, ever

Three different costs for the same house tells you three different actors are extracting from it. Which cost is the one the person living there needs to pay, and who pockets the rest?

We've created a huge incubator for deadly antibiotic resistant bacteria but neither SF or DUP will vote for measures to curb it because they both want votes from farmers.

Have they shot the owner of the private zoo yet?

Morning sunshine

Simple beauty for this week's Cheering Up Mondays flower. More on the blog: bit.ly/4tqQw1m #UKGardening #CheeringUpMondays #MondayMotivation #BloomScrolling #photography #cotswolds 🌱

Other work of the Ladybird artists Cotswolds Village Artist: SR Badmin

daaaamn london

Common Cowslip (Primula veris) taken today at Leadburn Community Woodland south of Penicuik, Scotland . #Wildflowerhour #Wildflowers #Nature #Photography #iPhone

Primroses, bluebells, stitchwort, wood sorrel, violet, tormentil ... A wildflower explosion throughout Northumberland this week! 🌸🌺🌼🌻🪻 #wildflowerhour

A Dublin #painting. One day when waiting for my Dad in the Mater Hospital I sheltered under the portico of the old entrance on Eccles St, sat on the base of a column, and sketched the view across the Four Masters Park to Berkeley Road and Sarsfield Street. #Art #SpéirGhorm #ArtYear #UrbanSketching

Ireland among 46 countries agreeing to send asylum seekers to third‑country hubs www.irishexaminer.co... #mastodaoine #speirghorm #iepol

At the Ireland Scotland game and before it started they had a minutes silence for the Famine Commemoration which is grand except just as the minute started, my friends dad came down with some chips.

A guy we know pitched a story to a mag about former skateboarders going back to their old haunt in middle age. My BIL(52)went with him as part of the story. BIL is now back home with a broken ankle and the writer is home with a broken vertebrae. The only possible way the story could have gone.

Three different costs of a house in Dublin – who is paying? substack.com/@sineados/p-...

Me, looking at the latest video clip of Trump.

I wrote a post about this recently. It is a central fact about industrial capitalism that real resources are allocated on the basis of hopes and dreams, rather than as a rational response to prices in existing markets. jwmason.org/slackwire/mo...

But ⁉️🙋‍♂️ #Streeting was part of creating the decisions of this Government! www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Irish union @forsatradeunion.bsky.social demands stronger protections for remote working at bi-annual conference Cost of living, affordable housing, quality health are all part of union's a Better Deal, a Better Ireland campaign that sees thousands join the union Forsa go bra @epsu.bsky.social

Stronger remote-working protections for public servants ‘to be priority at upcoming talks’ “It will need to be part of a collective agreement as the [remote working] legislative approach is clearly not working,” - Kevin Callinan, Fórsa General Secretary. www.independent.ie/irish-news/s...

#Forsa2026 (1 minute 45 seconds) youtu.be/vcKJUK7ZltE

"But, hark! some voice like thunder spake: "The West's awake! the West's awake! "Sing oh! hurra! let England quake, We'll watch till death for Erin's sake!"

The Citzizenship Referendum being so quickly memory holed distorts the political picture. As does the idea that FF are somehow less right wing than FG. On immigration, as on social issues in the 80s, FF's record was actually worse. But they were winning in the Tiger era so nobody cared.

I argued against the government line on Questions and Answers at the time. Their rep (I won't name him, he's dead) said to me after, "You know as well as I do that a lot of those Blacks are c**ts." A neat expression of the idea that deep down we all agree with racism but won't say it.

Weird house numbering

FFS, if you're gonna lie, be a little more creative about it.

At some point there needs to be a *proper* conversation about how cruelty has become a new normal for so many people. And we can't just keep putting it down to structures. Too many people with plenty of agency are actively choosing this.

“Stop the small saucers”

Q: Why have we had one third of our post-war prime ministers in the last decade? A: The 2008 financial crash - and the political response - ended sustained improvements to living standards, public services and security. This bakes in permanently high levels of disillusionment.

Open access - Free to download as pdf for personal use “Medieval Rural Settlement and Infrastructure Archaeology Across Europe” edited by Carenza Lewis, Neil Christie, Gareth Davies, Aidan O'Sullivan www.archaeopress.com/Archaeopress...

"Ee are now approaching our last and final stop". Is there any other kind of last stop?

A British political system ruthless enough to topple failing leaders when they have run out of road still looks a lot healthier than an American political system that can't bring itself to topple a failing leader that has tumbled into complete insanity

An investigation by the New York Times has found the Israeli government spent at least $1 million on Eurovision vote promotion campaigns over the past two years - and that the campaign likely earned them the top spot in several countries’ televotes jrnl.ie/7037548

This Day in Labor History: May 12, 1878. Catharine Beecher died. Let's discuss the importance of Beecher’s 1841 book Treatise on Domestic Economy, its influence on housework for middle class women, and the general rise of housework as a modern middle class phenomenon that transformed the nation!

Italy prosecutes its crooked politicians.

Second time in two days, bought a new novel in ebook form from amazon, only to find I'm unable to download it because my kindle reader (2023) is deemed no longer compatible. This is unconscionable. I shan't be buying amazon ebooks again. Tip: AVOID AMAZON E-BOOKS LIKE THE PLAGUE. Use kobo instead.

The key point to note is that the PLP, despite its size, has a dearth of political talent, hence the desperation involved in promoting Streeting and Burnham, and hence the wild claims about Stramer's competence back in 2019. This is a crisis of politics not popularity.

The idea that they'd elect Streeting because he might be a "winner" (i.e. likely to be propular with the media) is naive. This is the worst kind of political analysis: focused on tactical manoeuvering and PLP factionalism, and eschewing any talk of policy.

Do you remember when it came out that Labour PRs had been quietly assuring Seb Payne and Margaret Hodge that Sir Keir’s leadership pitch was all nonsense intended to fool the idiot swine, at the same time they were firmly assuring Owen Jones it was all 100% cast iron guarantees? I remember it.

Slightly increase a band: Exodus

Labour MPs calling for an orderly transition but unfortunately their government needs to be at least 18 years old with four doctors to sign off first

So if Labour do badly in the local elections which include London in May he will be out. Londoners you know what to do 🫡

I see King Charles is boosting his profile just as British electoral democracy unravels.

Local election results: Labour’s Black and Asian voter meltdown in the cities as they switch to the Greens