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Exciting launch of the Dragon of Shandon — celebrating 20 years of the dragon at St Peter's on North Main Street last Saturday night. Thank you to Cork Community Art Link in Blackpool and all the volunteers who make this celebration every year! 📹 in the 🧵

The richest man owns X. The second richest man owns The Washington Post. The third and fifth richest men control Google. The sixth richest man owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. And the eighth richest man now owns both Paramount and Warner Bros. See the problem here?

Naomi Klein Is Spot On.......

'Stop the Fare Hikes' campaign continued today in my constituency in Douglas Court and Village Shopping Centres and at some of our bus stops. Great support and encouragement received from many people who support this campaign.

Can you just imagine, for a moment, if this had been done to Tel Aviv, New York, London or Berlin? The repercussions would be immediate and devastating. But since it's only Palestinians who refuse to leave their homeland of Palestine... not even sanctions. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/o...

After the 'Stop the Fare Hikes' leafleting I was delighted to visit the Mahon Men Shed. It was established in October 2025 & it is now a member of the Irish Men Sheds Association. The group has undertaken a wide range of works. This is a valuable community which is accessible and affordable.

We stand with the day of action for LGBTQI+ rights in Türkiye outside Europe House today at 6pm. What we are witnessing in Türkiye right now comes at a time of deepening concerning backsliding on LGBTQi+ rights globally, including in the United States under President Trump.

Fuck! Opportunity to take a stance against Israeli genocide in Gaza lost. #SpéirGhorm FREE PALESTINE

I miss Aertel, and I miss Ceefax. Aertel was better, though. I've found myself especially missing it recently, sitting on the couch thinking I'd like a quick read of the news without venturing online. You can't doomscroll teletext!!

Radio today about back problems from desks. Recommends breaks to stretch and move. Stretching is great. I'd put out a break from a desk is needed for mental health, as well. 10 minutes fresh air, in peace. To clear your thoughts. There's already plenty with Executive Disfunction from info overload.

ADHD and other neurodivergences are a pain and people need and deserve help, something I've campaigned for and been published about. Broadly, I hold back full trust with private medicine especially as it's a profit making endeavour.

The RNLI has always been above politics. A little known (over here, at least) example - after the Irish War of Independence , the new Dáil Éireann asked the RNLI to stay on and continue its life saving work, which it does to this day Even Sinn Fein are cool with the RNLI rnli.org/about-us/our...

Chana masala is great for chickpeas Lentils can rock a soup or a veggie bolognese

It would be nice, too, if as well as letting teens spend money on consuming the arts they ensured they could make art. Pencil and paper isn't expensive Libraries can loan instruments It takes encouragement and support

The Government is planning to give a free €100 voucher to all 16-year-olds to spend on arts, cultural and music venues next year

An article on Cork's old revenue building - Bam plans for student apartments + what I had in the paper. I made reference to acknowledging history, especially in light of the Douglas Street renovations. An Taisce agrees-ish. I add, now, also, what about green space for city residents? #SpeirGorm

- Everything is political meets - Look after yourself, switch off when you need to The two contradictory positions handed out by the same people. Failing to understand that someone may be extremely political in one sphere, making a genuine difference. And without shouting it everywhere they go.

In Temple Bar where #Culturenight began before it became nationwide! Asking people passing on our favourite night about importance of arts and culture and why we need to invest in access. @greenparty.ie

Be me, plans for today. Meds hit. You had plans? lol

'[Those] who man the lifeboat do not ask credentials from the crew of a sinking ship; they launch their boats, risk their lives in the raging waves, & sometimes perish, all to save men whom they do not even know. And what need to know them? 'They are human beings...that is enough' (Peter Kropotkin)

hildegarde naughton on the radio - up to 1 in 5 children will need additional support over the course of their school years That's up to 1 in 5 people who, as things are now, won't have their needs addressed in the workplace or in self-employment as adults, if history is anything to go by.

Things to note from Leonard Cohen's first book 1. If you take his word, being a Jew, in the West, was a profoundly different experience to current climes—a lot of comparison to Christianity. 2. His sense of pride and confidence is palpable. 3. He liked women... Nothing new there. Thanks, Library!

the myth of Simon Harris as some champion for disabled people was always nonsense, but it should be well and truly dead now. he gets his hands on the purse strings and it's not long-promised cost of disability payments he prioritises, or scrapping means tests, it's tax cuts and investment incentives

A poem by what I assume is an #LGBTQ poet printed in Poetry Ireland Review. (of course the poet could be writing from someone else's perspective, so it's difficult to be sure.) Writing on going slow. Beautiful words to live by. #PoetSky #Poem #Queer #Poet

I searched for it, and I don't if it's just a timing thing, needing extra development, but the @rteradio1.bsky.social @rte.ie new RTÉ Listen app isn't on the Amazon store for various devices.

In Government the Greens cut average fares by 20% and slashed prices by 50% for young adults. Don't hike prices in a cost of living crisis Minister Darragh O'Brien.

In 2022, the Green Party cut public transport fares by 20% This was the first reduction in public transport fares in 75 years. Now fares are going up by an average of 15% under FF/FG. For Cork, where congestion is getting worse and BusConnects is badly needed, this is just wrong.

The last line of a #poem I wrote: "Fed on digital streams of piss" Furious millennial writing, writing being the correct home for fury, imho. This especially in light of politicians somehow thinking the internet is new. Invented in the past five years.

An issue with rising bus fares is elements of Bus Connects—bringing new routes and facilities to places around the country—is moving incredibly slowly. Increasing fares on a route is one problem. But no route means no worry about fares. Funding Bus Connects' new/improved routes is important.

This year, the Azures had their best performance yet, securing second place and bringing home a trophy 🎉 👉 buff.ly/YHxq8Zo #GCNnews

'Setting the Land Free - Visions of a Rewilded Ireland' comes out this day next week!! (Thursday the 10th.) The main launch will be on the 9th in Cork @waterstones.bsky.social at 6.30pm, with Seán Ronayne @seanronayne.bsky.social speaking. If you're around, do drop in!

Yeah also surprise surprise the kid with special needs might have more frustration to deal with than the other kids

Darragh O'Brien and the government letting the NTA take the blame while they ignore press requests. I don't remember seeing Revenue staff wheeled out to announce fuel tax cuts while the ministers took a backseat.

You can draw curtains to night-time light, a smell will drift away, constant noise is impossible to block out.

I wrote a #poem for disaffected millennials who grew up on a nascent internet, games, online culture. It being the wild west. Especially when we only now see politics trying to deal with social media like the 'web' is new. Many of us have been online for 30+ years. No idea where to submit it, tho.?

Hospital tea & toast really is one of the best things (well I had coffee) 😊. Feel such huge gratitude to all hospital workers and all health care profs, they deserve the very best of everything. #SpéirGorm

Writing is a low monetary cost hobby until you get into ancillary parts. If you consider publishing ancillary. Getting eyes on your writing as an indie is tough. Illustrators, tho, damn! Prints/Printers are 'spensive. Doing my bit, tho. A small print, affordable art from a local artist.

The Scottish Poetry Library kindly selected a poem from my new collection Disco Biscuits to feature in today’s Scotsman newspaper as poem of the week! Thanks to them and to Rob Mackenzie at Blue Diode and Stephen Watt at Nutmeg magazine, where it first appeared. @ByLeavesWeLive

Double points in Waterstones this weekend, although I'm good with Amazon ebooks as well... Are there Irish #scifi writers writing spaceship adventures? - I'm looking for evening reading and have an itch. - Space escapades with a big Irish head on him. #SpeirGorm #SpéirGhorm

Just had a minor freak as I couldn't find a book I had in my hand the other day. Checked everywhere, multiple times. Bookshelves, bedrooms, everywhere. It turns out the spine of the book, in dull light, makes it look like a faded Penguin Classic from the 70s. Great book, too. Deserved Penguin-ing.

My first time encountering a book explicitly forbidding training AIs on the contents of the book. Can't say it hasn't been in other books, I was just going to read everything in Annemarie Ní Churreàin's collection.

I read a poetry collection from a #queer man who grew up under Section 28/Thatcher. His #LGBTQ collection was filled with anger and defiance. It was quite offputting. It feels to me that access to anger, and the ability to display anger and its sister emotion sadness in public is quite a privilege.