If you can spare a couple of bucks, the wonderful writer @ccohanlon.bsky.social and his wife Given could really use the help. gofund.me/93c724837

If only...

Ditto.

After a few days of low-calorie rations, no fruit, no veg, an unexpected windfall allowed Given to shop for fresh groceries today and prepare a 'proper' lunch. Our metabolisms were unprepared — we've spent the afternoon laid out on our bunks, in 'food comas'. Photo by Finn O'Hanlon.

The cattle, behind the wire, three strands of green barbed wire. A fence to keep them in but more importantly to keep us, the people, out. The city dwellers, ear plugs in, phones out, choose to walk this narrow rural road, rather than stay on the tow path. Country code a distant tv ad unseen today.

Watercolour describing sky & sea. Pen and ink overwriting my impatience with my limitations. Movement, the hardest to translate. #watercolour

Wake to clear skies and stillness...but wait, what are all these Prada-adjacent Luna Rossa flags along our pontoon? Oh, right. The bloated, billionaire-funded boat races — a.k.a. the Preliminary Regatta of the Louis Vuitton 38th America's Cup — kick off in Cagliari today. [sigh]

Watercolour describing sky & sea. Pen and ink overwriting my impatience with my limitations. Movement, the hardest to translate. #watercolour

.. a patch of boggy hillside in the Nephin Beg Range in #Mayo as the most remote point in the country, at just under 8km from the nearest road. The point - it's hard to pinpoint it exactly - lies fairly close to the Bangor Trail, the 30km walking route that passes through the heart of the mountains.

Buttercups, celandine and gorse, furze we call it at home. The yellows. Hawthorn, whitethorn or blackthorn, who can tell, the white. Shouting their colours to the dawn chorus. At my feet a sprinkle of sugary pinks, sweet clover. I'm living in Ulster clover, at the edge of The Giant's Ring. Hey ho!

Minnowburn beeches, shallow rooted, dug in, gripping the mossy drumlin. Elephant feet securing their pitch, just about. Annual Orange parades, no longer march past these sentinels, on route to the Ulster says No festival, in the nearby farmer's field. Quiet restored to the ancient trees #Belfast

An uncomfortable day aboard: a strong mistral, gusting Force 7 at times, has driven a short, steep chop into our corner of the harbour. Wrack is hobby-horsing between her lines, snatching at them violently. Moving around the boat, inside or out, is impossible and even lying down is a challenge.

A long update posted to @liznangel3.bsky.social's appeal for us, about our efforts to settle ashore, repair Wrack, find regular income, and overcome the risk not just of being homeless but shelterless. Please read and if you can, help us. The appeal closes soon. www.gofundme.com/f/a-voyage-i...

Digging me out of my frozen sea @ccohanlon.bsky.social gave me a brutally honest kick start. And Kafka, of course. He's also championing my future sainthood. Winterspring in N. Irl almost sank me, endless dreary cold and rain. Misery + #Copenhagen 2017 with my one & only. Our last family trip.

I wonder did Harry Clarke think of Vincent‘s flowers when Clarke made his stained glass anemones later

Pinguiní beaga gorma ag teacht i dtír le clapsholas.

Enrich your reading in 2026 - get ‘Consolamentum’ by James McConachie. Get to inland Spain without the hassle of travel! 💝 www.blackboughpoetry.com/consolamentu... @jamesmcconachie1.bsky.social

Ar scáth a chéile a mhaireann na daoine People survive in each other's shelter. scáth also means shadow, adding another layer of meaning about living in each other's shared unconscious. www.gofundme.com/f/a-voyage-i...

#PoemsAbout #Money from my collection ‘Consolamentum’ from @blackboughpoetry.bsky.social with thanks to @alanparrywriter.co.uk at @thebrokenspine.co.uk

When we all get imprisoned for posting I’m definitely gonna be going around the yard asking what y’all said that got you locked up & it better be a banger because that’s how we’ll be establishing our hierarchy

Ar scáth a chéile a mhaireann na daoine People survive in each other's shelter. scáth also means shadow, adding another layer of meaning about living in each other's shared unconscious. www.gofundme.com/f/a-voyage-i...

We had been hoping to move ashore for winter, this year, but no joy. The last third of 2025 has been dispiriting and hard but we're working towards a change for the better in 2026. Thank you, everyone, who has supported us — with funds. reposts, and personal notes. It has all helped a lot.

Ar scáth a chéile a mhaireann na daoine literally translates as: People survive in each other's shelter. scáth also means shadow, adding another layer of meaning about living in each other's shared unconscious. gofund.me/e6ef6add7

I only know C.C. through his posts here and links to other sites…but consider him a mentor. I look forward to him opening my mind and nudging it toward far flung destinations.

#Achill skies

Today's bake. A ginger cake for @ccohanlon.bsky.social probably a bit much for a diabetic but hopefully restraint will be used. CC has been a mentor to me in many respects. And not just me. I hope he's feeling able to mentor others in 2026 #Christmas #Gift. #ItalianPostalService relying on you 🤞🏼

💋 on a pint glass, lady pint 🤔

Booked today, my first event to look forward to in 2026. Amazing value for money at the beautiful Seamus Heaney Homeplace 💚

"...it turns out that not knowing much about politics is sometimes indistinguishable from knowing a lot. Which is not to say we should opt out of politics. It’s just that our understanding of it is invariably limited." A(nother) political perspective from Peter Bach, @lyst.bsky.social

A brilliant article by Irish writer Cauvery Madhavan. @cauverymadhavan.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

First time in many years having a tree, not usually my best time of year. Giving it another go. 🎄💚🎄

The Ten Commandments for artists: I Thou shalt fight conformism yeah, and... IX Thou shalt not know exactly what thou dost, but thou shalt do it X Thou shalt give something back

We weren’t queen-and-crumpet Anglophiles of the sort who buy checkout magazines about royal weddings. We liked a certain idea of Englishness that was eccentric and knowing and understated: not high-posh, more like mid-posh.

!! Ireland has a unique opportunity to end foxhunting on Dec 17th when the Dail will vote on a proposed ban. Please contact your TDs and ask them to support a ban. #speirgorm Print used with kind permission by @katelouisepowell.bsky.social, find her lovely work here: www.etsy.com/ie/shop/Kate...

No bird soars too high if he soars with his own wings William Blake

"Ireland is sheltered. And we revere writers. It helps to settle their nerves." A line from @liznangel3.bsky.social during a whatsapp exchange this evening — cracked me up.

#Belfast #BéalFeirste Peace People hdqrs, NO WAR KNOW PEACE!

#Christmas #poetry 💚

On 3 December a century ago, the Irish border was set for major change. In this @rtebrainstorm.bsky.social piece, John Gibney, @difp-ria.bsky.social explores how the 1925 Boundary Commission cemented the partition we still live with today. Read the full piece: www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2...

What someone you love needs for Christmas is obviously my ‘strong, masculine collection filled with brooding Spanish vistas and culture.’ Asi de claro. Ugh. Self-promo. @blackboughpoetry.bsky.social

Overlooked by a distant Minaun, an fharraige, the sea, pounding out the shore at Dooagh, Dumha Acha. Calling out the rocks, churning up buried treasure below, a life force in full flow.... risking being drawn in by the froth.. i ngrá, in love with the green-glass sea #Achill #MaighEo 🇮🇪