Peter Donaghy

i do not know if this justifies the URGENT

A chart showing the length of Rob Zombie album titles and the Sinn Féin share of the vote at Irish general elections.

Possibly concerning news for Sinn Féin? For nearly 3 decades, the SF share of the vote at Irish general elections has been correlated with the length of the title of Rob Zombie's most recent album. If the pattern continues, it could be ominous for SF at the next general election.

This could cause a deflationary spirali

A chart showing the % share of the population by religion at Northern Ireland censuses since 1926

It's striking how there was very little change in the demographic makeup of Northern Ireland for the first 50 years after partition, followed by rapid change in the 50 years from 1971.

factcheckni.org/articles/dem...

Oasis playing Knebworth, Wimbledon v Man United in the league, we've never been so back

By the end of the 2020s we could end up with:

- Nigel Farage as Prime Minister
- TUV as the largest unionist party
- A nationalist plurality in Stormont

No, it's not possible to physically "throw" a paper plane from Northern Ireland to the Republic of Ireland because the border is an actual physical land boundary, not an aerial one you could cross with a paper aircraft. While you can cross the border with ease for people and goods, the concept of throwing a paper plane across this geographical divide is a physical impossibility. Why It's Not Possible Physical Border: The border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland is a geographical, not an aerial, boundary. There is no open airspace for paper planes to travel across. Distance: The land border is significant, and a paper plane thrown by hand simply lacks the power and range to cover that distance. Gravity and Aerodynamics: A paper plane is subject to gravity and air resistance, which would quickly bring it down after being thrown. In Summary You can move freely between the two jurisdictions, but this doesn't mean you can throw an object across the physical landmass. The question is about a physical action that cannot be performed over the distance between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

Incredible stuff

The shortest distance across the border from England to Scotland is over 130 miles

A chart showing secondary school spending per pupil adjusted for inflation in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

I wonder why spending on schools in Northern Ireland has fallen so far behind GB since 2020.

Print sales are, amazingly, still the main revenue base for most mainstream local newspapers and cross-subsidise the online journalism. As the remaining print readers die, and with online ad revenue flatlining, that journalistic cross-subsidy will fall. So that's an 18% decline year-on-year.

An obviously unsustainable situation. When the Millennials approach retirement age, there will be fewer than 2 working age people for every person over 65 across Europe, with the ratio in Italy close to 1:1. Without enough taxpayers to pay for pensions the system will collapse.

A chart showing median and 95th percentile waiting times at Belfast, Northern and South Eastern HSC Trusts

Figures for the Belfast, Northern and South Eastern Trusts show that median times have increased since 2023, with one in twenty waiting around six years or longer on waiting lists (306 weeks).

A chart showing the number of patients waiting for an outpatient appointment from June 2008 to June 2025 for "All Trusts" and "Belfast, Northern & South Eastern Trusts"

Incredibly, it has now been nearly two years since the last Northern Ireland-wide hospital waiting statistics were published because of the ludicrous time it has taken to roll out the new "encompass" patient record system.

But but Southend

A photo of Lough Neagh taken on 8 September 2025

The latest imagery is partially obscured by cloud but it's obviously not great.

A photo of Lough Neagh on 4 September 2023

A photo of Lough Neagh on 17 August 2025

Comparing the Copernicus imagery of Lough Neagh between 2023 and 2025 shows how the blue-green algae situation has been even worse this year.

Andy Burnham is not gonna become Labour's next leader, come off it, I mean how would that work, needs a winnable by-election in frankly, a handful of seats, to be able to quit as mayor, this is 'Ruth Davidson to save the Tories' all over again.

A chart showing annual average domestic electricity prices in Northern Ireland and the UK from 2021/22 to 2024/25

Until this year, Northern Ireland had cheaper electricity than the UK average, but prices are now marginally higher. Prices in the Republic are around 18% higher but NI still one of the most expensive electricity markets worldwide (prices 17% higher than France and 108% higher than the US).

A chart showing the 30 countries of the world with the highest residential electricity prices in US$/kWh showing Ireland the highest at $0.44/kWh behind only Bermuda

Something I hadn't realised - Ireland has the most expensive electricity in the world (apart from 65k population Bermuda), with prices 59% higher than France and 2.4 times higher than average prices in the United States.

WWE Raw is coming to Belfast in 2026. It hasn’t had much notice outside wrestling circles, but it’s a major coup - the biggest international broadcast event from the city since the 2021 UEFA Super Cup.

By the 2050s Millennials will discover the state pensions system was a Ponzi: pay in for decades, collapse at payout. The electoral nihilism of the Boomers today will seem tame by comparison.

A chart showing a 2050 forecast for the population aged 25-64 divided by the population aged over 65 for a range of countries.

The UK and Ireland are far from the most severe amongst developed economies - by 2050 there will be around 1.2 people aged 25-64 for every person over 65 in Italy and Spain.

A chart showing the Irish population aged 25-64 divided by the population aged over 65 from 1950 to 2100.

A massive shift underway in Ireland as well; when the early 80s baby boom approach retirement age there will be fewer than 1.8 people aged 25-64 for every person aged over 65, down from 5 in 2008.

A chart showing the UK population aged 25-64 divided by the population aged over 65 from 1950 to 2100.

In the UK in 1950 there were 5 people aged 25-64 for every person over 65. When the Millennials start to reach retirement age in the 2050s there'll be fewer than 2, falling to 1.4 by the end of the century. That seems... unworkable?

A chart showing the migrant population as a percentage of the total population 1990-2024 for a range of countries

Surprising that the increase in the foreign born population in the UK in the 2020s wasn't that large by European standards over the period; much smaller than in Ireland or Austria. And the immigrant population % in the United States has barely increased since 2015.

The US-EU deal will greeted with the utmost sensitivity in Ireland, not just because pharma is still not out of the woods, but because it creates a differential in trading rates between Northern Ireland (10% as part of UK deal) and Republic of Ireland (15% as part of EU)

A chart showing the migrant population as a percentage of the total population from 1990 to 2024.

Looking at the updated UN migration data for 2024:

- Share of the UK population born abroad up 1.5 percentage points from 2020-24; lower than most other European states

- Ireland’s foreign-born population share rose by 4.0 points in four years; one of the highest rises globally

On votes at 16 for the 2029 GE in NI. Will mean around an extra 51k potential voters (people aged 8 or 9 at the 2021 census):

49% Catholic
33% Protestant
18% Other

The electorate in 2024 was 1.36m, so it will increase the number of potential voters by about 3.5%.

A photo of a sunset in Adjara, Georgia

The sunsets in Adjara are straight out of Breath of the Wild

Me at the Georgia v Ireland rugby match in Tbilisi wearing a Georgian flag poncho and a cool hat

At a very rainy Mikheil Meskhi Stadium in Tbilisi last weekend for the Georgia v Ireland rugby match.