Have we considered letting the presidency go fallow, to replenish the political soil #Áras2025

Going through a two candidate election for the first time has made me understand how US and UK politics got the way it is. We need a dozen randos on a two foot ballot paper to stay normal #Áras2025

Something tells me a man wrote this headline

Someone at the IT is having a 'mare rushing out the Budget coverage. This was a sponsored post in my Insta Stories. The social team needs a break and a hug maybe.

Spare a thought for poor @gavreilly.com, sadly putting his smarties back in the box #Aras25

Looks like I'll have to go for the old Students Union classic and write in a vote for RON #aras2025

Can we do an Éirevision Song Contest instead with an act from each county? I vote @pantibliss.bsky.social to host

This has surprised me as much as hearing tonight that Tennessee Williams only died in 1983, meaning he was alive at the same time as Serena and Venus, the other tennisy Williams

This is excellent, and a perfect overlap of my love of political communication and period dramas

It's very hard to take anything on the Path to Power podcast seriously when Matt Cooper repeatedly describes CMAT as a rapper

Ah the dreaded pol comms question, is this in any way measurable

I'm trying out Hardcore Mode on Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, which removes the map, has no fast travel, makes you too awkward to ask for directions, increases your tiredness and gives you a bad back. It's a real insight into how unplayable life in your 30s is

When will they make smart glasses with the features I really need - a mini map and dialogue options

Good Luck Babe! but it’s sung by a hundred boys in bars

I'm currently playing a videogame where the main character is the oldest man alive. He's 32 years old. I mean, there are narrative reasons for this, but it's not great for morale

With the AI-led deterioration of online services, has anyone else found themselves reverting to early 2000s internet habits? I've gone back to bookmarking reliable websites and visiting directly rather than wading through increasingly useless search results

Now this is the sort of thing the internet is for

The EU is tariffing oranges and chainsaws, seems like a direct dig at Trump and Musk www.irishtimes.com/business/202...

At this rate MAGA will only be able to afford to rent the libs.

i know the 'Irish stock market' is a real thing but it sounds vaguely racist to me. like it's what the Americans call a board behind the bar with all the drink prices on it

you merely adopted the economic downturn. i was born in it, molded by it. i didn't see sustained GDP growth until i was already a man. by then it was nothing to me but blinding.

based on how often the naughty teens of major cities throw the rentable scooters directly into the river i've formed a theory that the many iron age swords and cauldrons found in lakes around europe that we've previously assumed were ceremonial and sacrificial in nature were in fact thrown by teens

Your tariff rate is your star sign divided by the number of boys you've kissed, multiplied by one

Weak beef. Incredible.

Here are the US reciprocal tariffs against all the territories mentioned in Enya’s Orinoco Flow

The initial worrying impact of Trump's tarrifs is I can't stop singing 'Trade War' to the tune of Gay Bar by Electric Six

Why does this keep happening?

Bit passive aggressive

Looks like someone managed to copy the plagerism machine. AI productivity gains have really upped the turnaround time for comeuppance

Looks like just three women appointed as Cabinet Ministers in Irish government (20%) - McEntee (Education); Foley (Children & Disability); Carroll McNeill (Health) - down from four women in outgoing Cabinet. Of 219 people appointed to cabinet in Ireland since 1919, just 23 are women (10.5%) #moremná

Click all the images with a member of the opposition in them.

Looks like we can add another example to the list. 2024 - Green Party drops from 12 seats to 1 #GE24

I love that it's 4pm the day after the vote and no one has actually been elected yet #ge24

damn girl are you a PRSTV ballot? Because I wanna go all the way down on you

Voting done. Now I can finally stop pretending I'm going to get around to listening to those daily politics podcasts #GE24

We need an Irish version of Thanksgiving. I propose Outgiving, on which we all gather around to give out.

Latest #GE24 poll predictions

As interesting as the polling for first and second preferences are, I'd love to know everyone's 'nutter buffer' - i.e. your last preferenced candidate before they all become equally unacceptable

Convinced that when the earth is a barren, dried-out husk and only scattered nomads remain in a dystopian post-civilisation... Fianna Fáil will still be on 20-21% and in the hunt for three seats in Carlow-Kilkenny.

@electionlit.bsky.social This flyer came through my door in Dublin Bay North today. The back is blank, there is no further information.

A lot of discussion about incumbency effects at the moment. The plot below maps the trend since 1937. In Irish general elections, around 8 in 10 TDs who choose to stand again are re-elected. This re-election rate ranks among the highest in the world. www.rte.ie/news/electio... #GE24 1/2

#FunFact no three party coalition has been re-elected in Irish history. 1951-Inter Party Govt was defeated (more than three) 1957-FG/Lab/CNT Govt was defeated. 1997-Rainbow Govt was defeated 2011-FF/Greens/PDs Govt was defeated 2024?

Dashboard of Irish Party Manifestos Our website contains over 85 manifestos from General, Local, and EP Elections. You can read/download the documents or search for specific terms. We’ll add more #GE24 manifestos as soon as they get published. ➡️ irishpoliticsdata.shinyapps.io/manifestoexp...

I think this graphic from today’s Sunday Independent is quite informative - putative second preference votes for supporters of each party. #GE24

These are fantastic books for anyone interested in digging into the detail of Irish elections. I genuinely can't wait to read 'How Ireland Voted 2024' and the vote hasn't even happened yet #GE24

This is fascinating. The Greens' Ossian Smyth posted a June 2020 wishlist for government, and they've achieved much of it. Yet, the Greens could lose all their seats. It's a bit depressing.

So far Bluesky doesn't have the same algorithmic whiplash of Instagram. Last week my entire Insta feed was tiny piglets and this week it's people burning things with a blowtorch and I have no idea why.

I don't remember this level of dancing in previous elections #ge24

We’re a week into Ireland’s #GE24 campaign and there’s lots of talk of not only who will top the poll, but what small parties or independents will be asked to ‘make up the numbers’ and form a coalition government.

The Bluesky/X relationship feels like if in 1985, when Coca-Cola introduced the new disastrous New Coke, another company had taken over the classic formula while Coca-Cola doubled down on New Coke and kept adding things like piss and cholera