I can't pretend it doesn't feel quietly dehumanising that political discourse around autism in Ireland forefronts not even autistic children, but their parents, while autistic adults are largely absent from the discussion unless they're the Tánaiste's brother

Maybe next time don't play coy with the country for two years pretending like you're not running, then? It's maddening. Just the same as Simon Harris pretending the government would go the full term before the last election. I think they love the feeling of keeping secrets from the public.

Cathal Berry on Newstalk there saying the Russian’s will have a preferred candidate in the Irish presidential election and will interfere on their behalf. His wink wink ‘you know who’, nods as subtle as a hammer. Establishment terrified their plans to scrap the triple lock could be scuppered.

River Blackwater: "This kill will reverberate out through the system, to the birds, bats, otters & other animals which fed on fish and insects from the river, having a much greater impact than thousands of dead fish" Dr Elaine McGoff, Head of Advocacy An Taisce www.irishtimes.com/environment/...

“Ikea enters Irish housing market with €73m investment in Dublin Ingka said it would treat rental payments as mortgage repayments w/ transfer of all 150 homes to local authorities at end of lease” Why can’t this be a condition of all local authority purchases? www.irishtimes.com/ireland/hous...

“Dublin is becoming a place of extremes, home to only the very richest and the poorest More than 3,300 new houses were built in Dublin city last year. Just 155 were bought by households” -Lorcan Sirr @irishtimes.com www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2025...

TDs should not be allowed be landlords. This has should never have been a controversial idea, but it's always treated like an outrageous suggestion. My guess is more people are finding it less outrageous by the day.

cant believe that this is the first-ever time that liberalism has been ill-equipped to stand up to fascism. crazy stuff that nobody could have predicted

It really, really isn't. Finland solved the problem almost entirely through Housing First years ago, and they told the Irish government how to do it - the Irish govt just ... didn't bother. This is from 2019: www.broadsheet.ie/2019/05/01/a...

Landlords fleeing the market

I have written and deleted a lot of posts but I keep thinking about how the brutal assassination of Minnesota State senator Melissa Hortman, her husband Mark, and their beloved dog Gilbert in June did not prompt this same level of calls for empathy, sympathy, and flags at half-mast.

Mourning fascists for the sake of "civility" is an attempt at maintaining perceived neutrality, and it tells the oppressed people in your life exactly who you *actually* stand with, whether you claim to have "good intentions" towards everyone or not. (2/3)

I just think if your definition of civility is about the volume and tone of speech and ignores the content of the speech you probably need to start over

I mean, call me a Loony Lefty if you want, but it *is* starting to look a bit weird arresting disabled pensioners protesting peacefully one day and telling coked up bellends attacking you to “calm down” another day the same month. Obviously, just my opinion. I might have got it wrong.

RTE quoting landlord lobbyist nonsense as news and fact. We get an article like this every few months about how moderate changes in law will lead to an exodus of landlords. Tax was the thing last time and when landlord’s who left the market were surveyed by the RTB only 5% said it was due to tax.

"Political violence" is a term that exists to suggest a moral distinction between "violence against politicians" and "violence by politicians" - so that one can be condemned while the other can be normalized. Obviously, no such distinction exists in reality: violence is violence.

IDF sniper from Chicago who says he killed Gazan teenager just for trying to retrieve his brother's corpse: “They’re thinking, ‘Oh I don’t think [I’ll get shot] because I’m wearing civilian clothes and I am not carrying a weapon' and all that, but they were wrong. That’s what you have snipers for.”

“Bush did 9/11”

The belief that poverty and homelessness are about "individual choices" didn't arise on its own. It was manufactured through decades of messaging designed to protect the policies and interests that create mass precarity. As this new poll shows, that propaganda campaign has been wildly successful.

Just a reminder to check for your name in this list of books that OpenAI trained from. If your name is there, they probably owe you several thousand dollars. OpenAI cried that if everyone eligible author files, the company will go bankrupt, so I'm alerting every author I have ever spoken to.

We have applied to intervene in the judicial review of the proscription of Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation, saying the ban has undermined our freedom of religion. Quakers have a long history of non-violent action against injustice and oppose war and violence of any kind.

Man I love pedantry

Episode 2, The Writers Roundtable, is out, a 6-part series produced by @dublincityoflit.bsky.social & the Centre, featuring Aoife Barry, Kevin Curran, Olivia Fitzsimons, Victoria Kennefick & Emmet Kirwan. Watch on the website of @dublincityoflit.bsky.social or irishwriterscentre.ie/video-series...

The formal stigmatization of autism is rooted in eugenics and goes all the way back to Hans Asperger’s work in Nazi Vienna. RFK reviles autistic children and is part of a long history of extremists who have worked to discriminate against them. www.liberalcurrents.com/degenerate-n...

This article hits the nail on the head. What we get from our Government is nice words, empty promises and little action, while our precious waterways die. 'That response highlights again our enthusiasm for enacting laws but not enforcing them.' www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/comm...

Threshold housing charity: “When changes to rent controls kick in, the government will have to hike the amount that it spends on rental subsidies if it is to avoid near-catastrophic levels of homelessness” @dublininquirer.com @laoiseneylon.bsky.social www.dublininquirer.com/government-w...

Writers round table for Dublin, one city, many stories. Brought to you by @irishwriterscentre.bsky.social www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvYJ...

I really dislike how science has started calling almost any fancy computational technique AI. 🧪 The framing of this entire article makes it sound like a benevolent AI independently made these drugs. That is *pure fantasy*. Instead: a team of scientists made a machine learning model for a study.

Apologies for repeating myself but this prick turns up every seven years like he's some sort of racist comet.

Mariam Dagga, a journalist killed yesterday by the IDF left behind two sets of instructions: that her colleagues not cry at her funeral, and asked her 11-year-old son to make her proud. Murdering journalists. Bombing hospitals. Causing a manmade famine. Slaughtering children. This horror has to end.

Lying comes naturally for genocidaires.

8/25/25: Backlash grows: Rep. Mark Alford (R, MO) holds a town hall. Constituent lets him have it.

The genocide reaches its end stages and we still have op-eds about how the people opposing genocide have been a bit too bloody woke about the whole thing

Three apartments in Smithfield going for €1.2 million. No news in that these days, but in the ad they make a point of highlighting that the units are vacant and have been for three years, and as such no rent caps will apply.

Gonna be on the Sean Moncrieff show on Newstalk this afternoon between 2pm and 3pm, talking about office life and my new book (out in two weeks!). Tune in if you can!

Correct use of language is essential for all BBC entrants As is kowtowing to the propaganda need of the British Establishment "BBC News is a disgrace." via @dailypolitik.bsky.social

This takes about one minute to do, it’s extremely simple, just a few simple questions, and you don’t need to be an artist to do it, it’s open to the general public. And the far right are trying to load it, so please take a moment and fill it out

Would you like to contribute to the public consultation about the Basic Income for the Arts? 💡 Fill out this survey from Minister O’Donovan at the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport: ec.europa.eu/eusurvey/run...

three thoughts on AI this morning: 1. AI is changing how we speak. this reminds me of how big systems (countries, religions) tend to end up with everyone within them speaking at least one language in common. (YES THIS IS COMPLEX and sometimes enforced ie bad.) www.theverge.com/openai/68674...

More than 200 journalists have now been killed by the IDF in Gaza. And so many journalists here haven’t expressed a single sliver of solidarity or outrage about it.

Letter of the day (in the Times)

Don’t worry. The BBC has cast doubt on it so now you can pop your head over the parapet and say killing journalists is bad. (Jeremy Bowen is great by the way.)

Wall to wall hacks sharing solemn “press freedom” posts whenever Donald Trump calls Chuck Blastoise of WBYN News a silly name - but multiple targeted strikes on the only ones documenting Gaza and it’s crickets. Shameful.

For reals. Humanity has had access to ChatGPT for several years now and no one has generated a single piece of creative art or media that has had any impact whatsoever. If ChatGPT did what they say it does, we would be witnessing a huge influx of culture shattering novels, movies, etc.

Saw ‘Riot’ last night at Vicar Street. Wildly entertaining, a circus for grownups! Specifically Irish too. Highly irreverent, hugely relevant to our times. @pantibliss.bsky.social & @emmetkirwan.bsky.social on top form. Plus AMAZING sean nós dancers! @thisispopbaby.bsky.social

What a shot of sheer joy Riot is. Part comedy, aerial show, political pulpit, circus… and a mankini. Full of heart, energy and craft. Ends tomorrow - well done @pantibliss.bsky.social @thisispopbaby.bsky.social @emmetkirwan.bsky.social Lords of Strut, Omar Cortes Gonzalez, The Sirens, Up & Over It.

Two leading historians on why "Originalism" is bogus and very very bad for the republic. www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...

Highland towns and villages are utlra woke now.

But not disgusted and sickened enough to vote against facilitating the sale of Israeli war bonds. The Irish people are against the genocide of the Palestinian people, but the government is actively aiding it in every was it can. Never judge them on what they say - judge them by what they do.