Happy Birthday Debbie!! 🎈🎂🎁 #Musicsky #MusicOfBlueSky

The Williams sisters, 'whose combined age is 90': how daft a comment is that? Serena Williams in race against time to be fit for Wimbledon doubles with sister Venus www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/j...

28 years a resident of Ireland 🇮🇪 today!

For the first time ever, our Phormium (New Zealand flax) has produced a tall flowering stalk this year!

Yes. England are a mess in this Test: isn’t it about time the Brendon McCullum era ended? | Andy Bull www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/j...

Burnham Beeches, Buckinghamshire: 'a little chaos of Mountains and Precipices' (Thomas Gray, letter to Walpole, 1737). Tread carefully, Andy.

'I hate theory.' Elizabeth Gaskell's Mr Thornton (North and South) puts it succinctly.

A great artist. Has left us so much. David Hockney, revolutionary British artist, dies aged 88 www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...

Why is The World At One reading out Rupert Lowe's posts on the Northern Ireland attack, at the start of the bulletin? He leads a party that is polling at about 3%. This is not about "censorship": it's about the choices media outlets make concerning which voices to amplify.

This. Yves Sakila’s death has echoes of George Floyd. When will we in Ireland confront our own racism? www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Just finished Any Questions, up against Richard Tice. I knew there would be plenty of BS on climate, but he spouted rubbish on *every* subject. Even claimed that the EU is not our biggest trading partner, but the US. In fact, we have 3x more trade with the EU. He believes whatever he wants to.

Prospect of Maynooth from the Carton demesne; on the right, the spire of Maynooth College chapel (Sean O'Casey's 'dagger through the heart of Ireland').

All v interesting, but, um, the 'secret code that Farmelo has managed to crack' is not exactly Enigma if you know the Greek alphabet. Stephen Hawking’s father worried his son ‘does not study much’, diaries reveal www.theguardian.com/science/2026...

Shared from Yuliia Bond's facebook page

So we have full 2025 immigration stats - Total net down by 2/3rds in 2025 (3/4 from peak) - Small boat arrivals in 2026 down 40%. Asylum backlog down 48%; returns up 9% - Asylum seekers in hotels down 35% (down 48% from peak) YET PUBLIC PERCEPTION 49% think 2025 saw increase; only 16% know it fell

As far as I’m concerned, there’s only one team in Glasgow, and that’s Partick Thistle.

Yes, I know these things are meaningless and personal,and it's brilliant to see 5 Woolf novels on the list, but how could anyone at all think Coetzee's Disgrace (58) better than his Life & Times of Michael K (not listed)? The story behind our 100 best novels list www.theguardian.com/books/ng-int...

I hope this isn’t true. There are times when it’s more important to put country before party. This is one of them. Burnham’s longstanding commitment to a fairer voting system could transform our democracy & counter the dire threat of a Reform UK government elected on a minority of the vote

'Common sense': habitual refuge of a scoundrel.

If only a head of government could be removed after bad mid-term elections in some other countries.

Never grows stale. Comic timing always perfect.

💯 "The @appgfairelections.bsky.social is calling for a national commission on electoral reform, with a ready-made terms of reference... This time, we need a voting system that serves citizens, first and foremost. This is now within our grasp, and we need it more than anything else in politics."

Support minority languages. What happens when we lose a language? www.theguardian.com/science/2026...

Lib Dems control more English councils than the Conservative Party, the Green Party and Reform UK. Not that you'd know this from yesterday's coverage. The media's lack of curiosity and imagination and its inability to explore beyond the populist noise is as depressing as it is boringly predictable.

The marvellous Alan Bennett.

Come on, Oriel, show us that you support the east Oxford community and the arts. Historic Oxford cinema under threat as Oriel College refuses to extend lease www.theguardian.com/culture/2026...

Must be really weird times politically when I frequently find myself agreeing with both Owen Jones and Fraser Nelson. Zack Polanski’s Jewish identity is being erased because he is leftwing | Owen Jones www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Sorry, what? A reason to vote Labour tomorrow: we are the only party taking the climate crisis seriously | Katie White www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Wales and the encouraging model of Ireland If I could vote in next week’s Senedd election, I’d choose Plaid Cymru. Here’s why | Simon Jenkins www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Interviewed on Sky News tonight, Kemi Badenoch somehow told us that the Conservative Party had been around for 200 years, but that it is also a 'new' Conservative Party. 🤔

A favourite tree at its spring best today.

'The beaming Iranian was warmly congratulated by Trump' (chortle). Vafaei launches epic comeback to stun Trump and reach last eight for first time www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/a...

This is a national disgrace.

Gorse looking very fine in Maynooth (Carton) yesterday. The top of Conolly's Folly (1740) looms in the distance.

Good to see that he distinguishes America as separate from the free world.

The performative cruelty is boundless.

Introducing the Tommy Robinson fans, conspiracy theorists, and far-right activists standing for Reform in Norfolk. hopenothate.org.uk/2026/04/23/i...

“To say that President Trump is corrupt is to somehow understate the size, scope and magnitude of his corruption. It is as if you were to describe a modern thermonuclear device as a ‘bomb.’ That is true enough, but it is not quite the truth. It does not capture the nature of the thing in full.”

Beggars belief that Met Police is in talks with #Palantir about giving them access to highly sensitive data, when there’s already such concern over its links with ICE & Israeli military. Palantir already has UK contracts worth over £500m, incl. with NHS. We should be scrapping them not signing more

So much for the Theban hegemony.

'Oh no, we don't want our kids to discover there are other ways of looking at the world.'

Hedgehog semiotics

Harassment, personal abuse, & threats have become an endemic part of Irish political life. & it’s by & large driven by social media, which has played a major part in all of these incidents. All of these incidents have been shocking but pale into insignificance compared to what happened this week.

Whatever happened to 'Education, education, education'?

On this day, 16 April, I think particularly of my parents, Elizabeth (d. 16.04.2003, aged 73) and Jim (d. 16.04.2024, aged 99). Same day, 21 years apart. Never forgotten. Byth anghofio.

When you aggregate the comments of various Reform UK candidates, you find they: Hate the NHS Hate immigrants Hate Black people Hate Brown people Hate Muslims Hate Jews Hate women Hate students Hate LGTBQ people Hate the unemployed Hate disabled people Hate everyone ... But claim to love the country.

There are only 44 female TD’s in the Dáil. Each female Minister who stood up to speak during the confidence motion was heckled and shouted over during their speaking time by Independent Ireland. It is not acceptable.

On why reparations are (a) right, (b) expedient. Good article. Reform’s temper tantrum about slavery reparations shows it doesn’t understand Britain’s place in the modern world | Kojo Koram www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

So: Reform, 331 seats and an overall majority on 25% of the total vote; Labour and Conservative 48 seats between them on a combined 33% of the total vote. You'd think Lab and Con would want PR out of self-preservation.

Very important. The Welsh history I was taught in Welsh primary and secondary schools in the 1960s/1970s extended as far as the Red Lady of Paviland and 'Edward I gave us a prince'.