Where we stood footloose, at home beyond the tribe,
More scouts than strangers, ghosts who’d walked abroad
Unfazed by light, to make a new beginning
And make a go of it, alive and spinning,
Ourselves again, free-willed again, not bad.
Seamus Heaney #Irish #Poetry
My Irish Diary from this morning’s @irishtimes.com.
‘A cast of characters: Hamnet, Hamlet, William Shakespeare and James Joyce’
‘Hamlet, the black prince, was Hamnet Shakespeare’ (#Ulysses)
www.irishtimes.com/opinion/an-i...
The leaf-green scurf of pollen on the meadow pond
blizzard of bridal-white blossom in breeze-gust
two redtails idling high on a thermal and higher
in widening circles till they must be near
out of each other’s sight but not sound as one lets out
a cutting screech …
Eamon Grennan
On the water the accumulation of spume,
The hiss and purl of spiralling waves, the skid
And visible snarl of wind, horizon’s disintegration,
The glower and sharp glint of a tired sky.
…
Now for the decisions of the night, the heart’s undoing;
The time where reason & emotions meet.
Valentin Iremonger
We covered a lot of ground on this morning’s newspaper panel @rte.ie’s Brendan O’Connor programme. The war in the Middle East, the evacuation of Irish citizens from the Gulf, the Taoiseach’s White House visit etc.
Early start this morning. On the way to @rte.ie to read the Sunday papers ahead this morning’s newspaper panel on the Brendan O’Connor programme.
I got you banned on X?
I will engage further with you if you lift the veil of unanimity. Otherwise, I don’t know who I am talking to, but the evidence in your post suggests that you are not Irish. Adios.
Your anonymous disdain for our country is noted.
Good economic news for #Ireland. Domestic economy grows by an impressive 4.9% in 2025, exceeding expectations. www.rte.ie/news/busines...
I was given a copy of Valentin Iremonger’s poems some years ago but didn’t pay much attention to them. The more I read him, to more I rate his poetry. He was an accomplished poet & an Irish diplomat with several Ambassadorial postings. Here is his @DIB_RIA entry www.dib.ie/biography/ir...
On the water the accumulation of spume,
The hiss and purl of spiralling waves, the skid
And visible snarl of wind, horizon’s disintegration,
The glower and sharp glint of a tired sky.
…
Now for the decisions of the night, the heart’s undoing;
The time where reason & emotions meet.
Valentin Iremonger
My interview on this evening’s The Hard Shoulder on @newstalkfm.bsky.social in which I discuss the dilemma facing European governments in the wake of the US/Israel assault on Iran.
music.amazon.co.uk/podcasts/7a4...
Should I join them
The old fellas
Above Troy’s gate
Demobbed by age
Their fighting days
Long behind them
Good talkers still
Conversation
Like tree-crickets
Or grasshoppers
Settled on branches
Deep in a wood
Voices gently
Lilting lily-like?
Michael Longley #IrishPoetry
My interview on this evening’s The Hard Shoulder on @newstalkfm.bsky.social in which I discuss the dilemma facing European governments in the wake of the US/Israel assault on Iran.
music.amazon.co.uk/podcasts/7a4...
I will be on
@newstalkfm.bsky.social’s The Hard Shoulder after the 6 pm news discussing the situation in the Middle East. Where stands international law in light of the US/Israel assault on Iran?
In the sunlit courtyard, the great stone curves
Of those wings you sculpted take on the shine
& depth of the fresh chestnuts sprinkled
All over the grass & gravelled paths below,
& engrave the frosty air like cello-music,
A valediction forbidding mourning of the seasons.
Paddy Bushe #Irish #Poetry
A difficult dilemma for Keir Starmer in light of the overwhelming importance attached to ‘the special relationship’ by successive British Governments. But Starmer also has to take account of sentiment within his party & the current vulnerability of his leadership. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
In the sunlit courtyard, the great stone curves
Of those wings you sculpted take on the shine
& depth of the fresh chestnuts sprinkled
All over the grass & gravelled paths below,
& engrave the frosty air like cello-music,
A valediction forbidding mourning of the seasons.
Paddy Bushe #Irish #Poetry
Below us flows an endless white cloudfield
with occasional holes like tiny lavender lakes
like the brown, blue & silver bog lakes
in the half-drowned edges
of Connemara & Labrador
which have almost forgotten
the volcanoes that blew them apart.
Moya Cannon ‘From the Plane’
U.S. & Israel launch attacks on Iran. They can certainly inflict significant damage, but it is hard to see a US ground invasion to bring down the Iranian regime. Regime change probably entails US cajoling elements in the Iranian military to help topple the Ayatollahs.
www.rte.ie/news/2026/02...
Every cloud,even the smallest tuft,
drags its own shadow behind it,
on the skin of the silver-blue sea.
Foam-followed ships are white tadpoles.
They have forsaken,&seek out,
the primal embrace of harbours.
Families of nomads crossed here
before a great inundation,
which parted land masses
MCannon
The Thomas Francis Meagher Tricolour Celebration 178 is coming up next weekend, 6-8 March in #Waterford. Two days of talks and Meagher-related activities. Details below. I will give a talk on Saturday, 7 March on our national flag, its past, present & future. See you there.
meagherstricolour.com
U.S. & Israel launch attacks on Iran. They can certainly inflict significant damage, but it is hard to see a US ground invasion to bring down the Iranian regime. Regime change probably entails US cajoling elements in the Iranian military to help topple the Ayatollahs.
www.rte.ie/news/2026/02...
Every cloud,even the smallest tuft,
drags its own shadow behind it,
on the skin of the silver-blue sea.
Foam-followed ships are white tadpoles.
They have forsaken,&seek out,
the primal embrace of harbours.
Families of nomads crossed here
before a great inundation,
which parted land masses
MCannon
My interview with @newstalkfm.bsky.social Breakfast about US tariffs in light of last week’s developments.
www.newstalk.com/podcasts/hig...
‘Impact of tariff fiasco will take time to become clear’ @rte.ie
Yes, it will. If there needs to be fresh EU-US trade talks, expect them to be more difficult & for the EU to negotiate more robustly.
www.rte.ie/news/analysi...
The fascination of what's difficult
Has dried the sap out of my veins, …There's something ails our colt
That must, as if it had not holy blood
Nor on Olympus leaped from cloud to cloud,
Shiver under the lash, strain, sweat and jolt
As though it dragged road metal.
W.B. Yeats
The long list of 20 contenders for this year’s @dublinlitaward.bsky.social has just been announced. It has been a pleasure for me to be part of this year’s judging panel. We now have the difficult task of choosing a shortlist of 6 & then the ultimate winner. dublinliteraryaward.ie/features/new...
Having a dedicated chair of Irish History at #Cambridge will help future generations of British students acquire a deeper understanding of Irish history. Cambridge, which also hosts an annual Parnell Fellowship at #Magdalene College, is now well served for Irish studies. www.rte.ie/news/ireland...
