Unfortunately the Lagan has burst its banks and the towpath is blocked in a number of places.

Probably best avoided.

Andrew O’Hagan · Push Me Pull You: Creating the Beckhams In his best moments, David Beckham is a reverse Dorothy Parker, curving another déclaration folle into the back of the...

‘In his best moments, David Beckham is a reverse Dorothy Parker, curving another déclaration folle into the back of the net.

“We’re definitely going to get Brooklyn christened,” he said, “but we don’t know into which religion.”’

Andrew O’Hagan in 2024:

www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Ironic too that the right to self-determination is what the US celebrates every 4th of July. Turns out little has changed is 250 yrs….

Great work by @lukejbutterly.bsky.social here…

Can we just get to the second Tuesday of the year?

Interview with John Bew - adviser to four Prime Ministers On Whitehall, Ukraine, Trump and the global challenges facing Britain

Absolutely magisterial interview with John Bew by @samfr.bsky.social and @ldfreedman.bsky.social. In a highly competitive field the most interesting thing I've read on Comment is Freed, on everything from the style of four administrations to our foreign policy challenges:

If you're Irish you recognise ICE. They're the Black and Tans.

A bad verb for a bad thing.

This week we are featuring some extraordinary Irish women in honour of #NollaignamBan. Mary Ann McCracken campaigned for the abolition of slavery, and argued that the liberty and equality sought by the United Irishmen should be extended to women. www.dib.ie/biography/mc... #DIBLives @ria.ie

Colourised isn’t a great verb is it?

This was at the start of Lucy Worsley's Victorian Murder Club, just so you know how things are going ethically at the BBC.

A brilliant listen, shortened the walk home on the first working day of the year.

Jan. 6, 2021: A visual archive of the Capitol attack NPR’s Jan. 6 archive brings together reporting, video, documents and testimony to show what really happened during the Capitol riot. Explore the timeline, cases and evidence behind the attack.

NPR’s Jan. 6 archive brings together reporting, video, documents and testimony to show what really happened during the Capitol riot. Explore the timeline, cases and evidence behind the attack.

Can you imagine the two of them in a Dublin pub together?

We’re embracing the cold today with Colin Middleton’s Winter: Camden street, and all of its crisp, frosty vibes! ❄️ With its cool palette it evokes fog and wintry air, especially the silvery-blues of the upper portion of the painting.

#CrawfordArtGallery #WinterVibes

That would be James Larkin surely and not his more poet cousin from Hull…..

I really enjoyed doing this.

Please do listen in on Sunday (or listen back afterwards) to hear me discuss Leonard and Hungry Paul with James Naughtie and a roomful of readers with interesting questions.

Am kinda blown away to win this tbh. The last time (actually the only time) I won anything at BJA was with openDemocracy and I couldn’t attend as was sick with long covid. Really nice to be here this evening

The quality of the contributions (all day) more than matched the environs. First class from start to finish.

Immense thanks due to @ronanhession.bsky.social

0.00003% of annual GDP ?

PSNI failed to disclose information about surveillance of journalist to spy tribunal PSNI failed to disclose information about surveillance of journalist to spy tribunal

In the two weeks alone the PSNI has admitted to:
- additional surveillance of a journalist, and which they withheld from Tribunal;
- keeping journalists data for 7 years after court ordered it destroyed;
- withholding two spying ops from oversight body www.irishnews.com/news/norther...

Palestine This is "Palestine" by Below the Radar on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.

Campaigners hold a monthly vigil to protest the use of Belfast International Airport by the US military.

Over 60 military flights landed at Belfast between October 2023 and December 2024, including to Israel.

WATCH: vimeo.com/1119366838?f...

This is a model podcast. At last intelligent political conversation.

Indispensable listening. After the slabberfest of daytime speech radio, it’s time for well-chosen music.

Regional daily ABCs: Print circulation down by average of 18% in H1 2025 ABC regional daily newspaper circulation fell by 18% in in the first half of 2025, with one daily paper climbing above a 20,000 circulation.

Regional daily ABCs: Print circulation is down by average of 18% in H1 2025, with The Irish News the only UK regional daily with circulation above 20,000

Interesting responses from McAlinden J to oral argument in the Judicial Review of Irish language signage at Central Station. Not only judicial exasperation with the farcical scenes of different Exec departments on different sides of the case but also an invocation of parity of esteem from the bench:

Michael Longley obituary: Award-winning poet of emotional and intellectual depth He was the last survivor of the Belfast triumvirate of poets which also included Derek Mahon and Seamus Heaney

Michael Longley obituary in today's Irish Times: www.irishtimes.com/obituaries/2...

Front cover of Private Eye.

📊 RED C POLL 📊

Fianna Fáil - 21% (-)
Sinn Féin - 20% (+2)
Fine Gael - 20% (-2)
Independents - 14% (-1)
Social Democrats - 6% (-)
Labour - 4% (+1)
Ind Ireland - 4% (+1)
Greens - 4% (-)
Aontú – 4% (-1)
PBP - 2% (-)

Read more here - https://buff.ly/4i8N0nR