Una Mullally

Una Mullally: Remembering Kate Millett and her Irish Loony-Bin Trip The late American feminist was committed to an Irish mental hospital and rescued by friends

Back in 2017, I wrote about how Kate Millett was rescued by a bunch of friends from an institution in Ennis; Margaretta D'Arcy, Sylvia Meehan, Nell McCafferty, Ivor Browne, Deirdre McCarten, Maere Rountree amongst them.

Millett wrote about this in her 1990 book The Loony-Bin Trip.

Activist and artist Margaretta D’Arcy dies aged 91 Anti-war protester from Greenham Common to Shannon Airport had ‘life fully and purposefully lived’

Very sad to hear Margaretta D'Arcy has died.

Besides her relentless anti-war activism, her book on the women protesting in Armagh Prison, Tell Them Everything, is such an important piece of writing.

She was also key to springing Kate Millett from institutional confinement in Clare in 1980.

Una Mullally: Ireland can’t compete in the race to build AI data centres, and shouldn’t try Our capacity to emulate massive developments happening elsewhere is not currently realistic

Wrote about the massive energy requirements of AI data centres in the context of Ireland’s previous data centre development “boom” and squeezed electricity grid.

On Environmental Democracy and the Collisons’ “Abundance-Verse” Andrew Jackson 21 November 2025 I. Introduction A clamour of praise greeted John Collison’s “how to get Ireland moving” Op-Ed following its publication in the Irish Times on 25th October: the Irish…

I’ve written something on John Collison’s Op-Ed and environmental democracy

Next time you’re out in Dublin, check if you’re being “socially de-risked” by a friendly face from his think-tank

elajucd.com/2025/11/21/o...

‘We’ve got to release the dead hand of the past’: how Ireland created the world’s best alternative music scene Irish indie acts used to be ignored, even on Irish radio. But songs confronting the Troubles, poverty and oppression are now going global – and changing how Ireland sees itself

Great piece by Anna Cafolla on Ireland's brilliant alternative and independent music scenes.

Was the Department of Justice using experimental chatbots to give immigration advice? “The public should not be used as guinea pigs, particularly vulnerable groups in a legal process which could be impacted by a chatbot giving an incorrect answer.”

Was the Department of Justice using experimental chatbots to give immigration advice? It has now retired its asylum chatbot Erin, but has infused Tara, the non-asylum immigration chatbot with AI. Read more here www.dublininquirer.com/was-the-depa...

Paschal Donohoe’s resignation leaves Government substantially weaker with problems piling up Less than a year after Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil were returned to power, problems are piling up

Paschal Donohoe quitting the Irish government is a huge blow to Fine Gael.

Whatever you think about him / his politics, he was the most important figure in the party, and many people who don't even like FG at least believed he was smart.

He was also perceived as a heavyweight, unlike Harris.

Ireland’s Edge — Welcome Here, Kind Stranger / Fáilte Romhat, a Strainséir Shéimh | Ireland's Edge Events The Dingle Skellig Hotel Nov 29, 2024 - Nov 28, 2025

Looking forward to speaking at @irelandsedge.bsky.social in Dingle next weekend. I'll be talking about corporate gentrification in Dublin City, agus fás na Gaeilge sa chultúr.

Loads of great speakers including: Ed Caesar, Dr. Mohammed Abu Mughaisib, Caoimhe Butterly, Roisin Kiberd + more.

Troy Parrott gave us a chance to be innocently happy. Whatever happens from here, that lasts forever Over the campaign, this Ireland side showed themselves to be all the things you’d want from a team representing the country

Brilliant piece by Malachy Clerkin on the everlasting gift of Troy Parrott’s epic winner.

A Playful City Come join us at Trinity College Dublin for two days of creativity and design. BOUNCE is a celebration of process, of critical discourse–of bouncing ideas, and embracing the craft of design that fuels ...

I’m hosting a conversation this evening in Temple Bar about community-first public space design in relation to Drury St in Dublin.

Tickets are free, more details here ⬇️

🇮🇪

TROY PARROTT KING OF IRELAND

When a Crackdown Involving the I.R.A. Backfired, Comically, in “The Ban” In 1988, when the British government declared that the voices of Sinn Féin or I.R.A. leaders were not to be heard, broadcasters soon discovered a loophole.

You can now watch Roisin Agnew’s film The Ban on the New Yorker website.

Nice one. Matt Lambert is amazing.

💜

Sliver Salon 004: Memoir Raving with Julie Fogarty and Una Mullally Sliver Salon: off-the-record author conversations in intimate settings. Julie Fogarty will discus her upcoming memoir, Plan Life Go.

Sliver Salon is coming to Dingle on the eve of @othervoiceslive.bsky.social

Tickets are free but limited.

Design by Sarah Moloney.

Excited to announce the first book on my press.

Plan Life Go, by Julie Fogarty, Sliver Editions, Spring 2026.

An incredible debut memoir rooted in 1990s Dublin's explosive rave scene and devastating heroin epidemic.

Design by Matt Lambert.

More details here ⬇️

www.sliverpress.com/editions

Inaugural Speech of President Catherine Connolly | President of Ireland A Thaoisigh, A Phríomhbhreithimh, Airí, Baill Chomhairle an Stáit, Baill an Oireachtais, Ambasadóirí, Ceannairí Eaglaise, agus dhaoine...

President Catherine Connolly’s inaugural speech.

“As I speak, I am acutely conscious of the 165 million people currently forcibly displaced from their homes and countries due to war, famine and climate change. We cannot turn back the clock nor close our eyes to these realities.”

President Catherine Connolly has called for action on war, genocide and climate change, saying the normalisation of war “has never been and will never be acceptable” to Ireland, a nation with a long tradition of neutrality and peacekeeping.

#VMNews

Ireland’s electricity infrastructure policy rewiring should be a matter of public debate This nation is known as the data centre capital of the world - unfortunately, we are not the energy infrastructure capital too

Back in August, I wrote about the Irish government's plan for a radical change to the country's electricity infrastructure with a new private wires policy proposal.

Data centres consume 22 per cent of all metered electricity in Ireland, representing a 531 per cent rise in a decade.

Una Mullally: The man in Data Centre Alley couldn’t conceal his shock. ‘You’re screwed’ In the US, data centres will be powered by small modular nuclear reactors to help cope with demands of AI. What is the plan for Ireland?

I went to data centre alley in Virginia last year to learn more about the constraints on electricity grids, and how the power required to meet AI’s data processing demands - which will dwarf the current power requirements of data centres - is an existential problem.

Whatever about companies being over-valued etc., there's a fundamental issue at the heart of this: AI data centres cannot be built at the necessary scale in the time required, because the energy to power them does not yet exist.

It's very simple: physical infrastructure reality meeting AI fantasy.

Good point.

FAI votes to suspend Israel from all Uefa competitions Emergency General Meeting voted 74 in favour, with seven against and two abstaining

FAI votes to suspend Israel from all Uefa competitions

Sex With a Stranger: How Actors Do It Onstage

Great piece on Dead Centre and Emilie Pine’s Good Sex in the NYT.

Was delighted to use some of my speaking time at the Irish Landscape Institute’s conference in Dublin yesterday to screen Louis O’Flynn-Martin’s short film, City In Crisis, and to talk about prosocial urban design.

It’s a great piece of filmmaking that offers a skateboarder’s view of the city.

End of The Line: how Saudi Arabia’s Neom dream unravelled Mohammed bin Salman’s utopian city was undone by the laws of physics and finance

NEW: The End of the Line: the centrepiece of Saudi Arabia’s Neom gigaproject - a 500m tall, 170km long wall-like building intended ultimately to house 9 million people - can’t get out of the ground, say more than 20 former Neom architects, engineers and senior executives.
ig.ft.com/saudi-neom-l...

RTÉ set to close in-house documentary unit Unions criticise decision to ‘dramatically increase commercialisation’ via outsourcing

Outsourcing / hollowing out of RTÉ continues as bosses close its in-house doc unit.

"Instead of a return to the core values of our public-service remit, we have dramatically increased commercialisation, with whole swathes of the organisation now being primed for outsourcing." - union spokesperson

Yes absolutely. People need to get off the platform.