Orla

A post from Instagram stories with a swipe up link for the Irish Times. A composite image of Leinster House, Jack Chambers and Paschal Donohoe is titled "Budget 2026: Main Points" but the bullet points that follow comprise non-sensical filler text (Lorem ipsum) and snippets apparently borrowed from a restaurant review (One point reads: "Borgo review: Well-priced and welcoming", the next "everything a good neighborhood", and finally "restaurant needsLorem ipsum dolor sit amet")

Someone at the IT is having a 'mare rushing out the Budget coverage.

This was a sponsored post in my Insta Stories.

The social team needs a break and a hug maybe.

Environmental Sign-Posts for the 34th Dáil (Episode 10) For something that dominates a few days of news cycle every year, the national budget is not particularly well understood. Media coverage tends towards giving headline updates from the governing pa…

I make this point halfway through my last From the Roots Episode before the hiatus. 27% of carbon tax revenue is not spent on the intended projects and a number of other projects included are a real stretch for climate or energy mitigation (source the C&AG report linked at the end)

The Basic Income for the Arts Scheme is €325 a week, similar to what they gave out during the pandemic. This is how much they've deemed one needs in order to live in Ireland. So why is disability benefit only €244? Why are disabled and sick people expected to live so far below the poverty line?

Only half of the allegedly ring fenced funding for environmental mitigation/ retro fitting that the carbon tax is meant to fund is actually spent on that

This doesn't even make sense for a US election. Trump can't have another term regardless??

Some big implications for journalism, too, where reporters often mistake trending posts as a reasonable reflection of public opinion.

On 21 September 1937: J.R.R. #Tolkien's The Hobbit was published.

The book tells of a hobbit, Bilbo Baggins, and his journey with thirteen dwarves to recover their treasure from a dragon, Smaug. It's sold over 100 million copies and is one of the best-selling books of all time. #BookSky

A circular watercolour painting of a spiralling oak tree with some associated insect life around the edges of the tree

A little watercolour I’ve been working on, which all got a bit hypnotic for some reason.

#oaktrees
#savethebutterflies
#inverts
#nature
#wildlifeart
#teammoth

The time to listen to trans people was 10 years ago but, you know, you can start any time you're ready.

Same with stacking rocks on beaches and mountains. Rocks are where animals live! It also demonstrates a particularly unpleasant arrogance and lack of appreciation for nature IMO

Honey coloured bracket fungi on an upright trunk among lush green undergrowth

Honey coloured toadstool fungi among autumn leaves, ferns and feathered moss

White mushroom being held

Comparison of a brown mushroom, the brown birch boletus, held up next to the botanical drawing of the same mushrooms entry in a field guide

Great ecology walk in Brackloon Woods with the Mayo Queer Sheds on Sunday (before I got this wicked cold) for the start of fungi season

Once edited an article hidden in the space between a sofa and the wall in a house share, it's all uphill from there

Chopping white ocean crashing into rocky shore, looking out across the bay of Dooega, Achill

Chopping white ocean crashing into rocky shore, looking out across the bay of Dooega, Achill

Autumn seas in Achill

"Payne was pictured alongside convicted loyalist killer Glen Kane being interviewed by convicted armed robber Mark Sinclair, who calls himself ‘Freedom Dad’ and claims to be a citizen journalist."

The entire country should be up in arms about this
But they are not
@judesherry.bsky.social & I are 2 of lucky ones
We can walk away
For so many there is no walking away from decades of a governmemt manufactured housing crisis leaving over 16,000 incl. 5,000 children without a home #DerelictIreland

The latest spate of attacks on Indian people is simply the outworking of a renormalisation of racism within our public discourse.

No but there's a line "Oh the envelopes they hurt me, I was 12 when the das started killing themselves around me" that I think didn't need further explanation cus the effect of the word envelope

Heard the new CMAT song?

Inside Europe’s billion-dollar anti-gender movement A new report reveals how groups critical of so-called gender ideology across Europe raised $1.18 billion to target abortion, sex education and LGBT...

Inside Europe’s billion-dollar anti-gender movement

A new report reveals how groups critical of so-called gender ideology across Europe raised $1.18 billion to target abortion, sex education and LGBTQ+ rights.

Donohoe signals caution as Ireland posts €4.5bn surplus ahead of budget talks Ireland’s €4.5bn surplus for the first half of 2025 sparks cautious tone as budget preparations begin

We have a €4.5bn surplus, and 2 days ago our Housing Minister was saying they are powerless to stop more children being made homeless.

They have successfully normalised so much stuff I thought it would be impossible to normalise.

‘The Projected Public Finances of the Early Years of a United Ireland, and the Northern Ireland Subvention’ updated analysis with 2023 data, responding to debate & new info of recent years. Models public finances for the first 10 years of a united Ireland
all-islandeconomy.com/analysing-th...

You can blame online misinformation all you want, but as long as you have a justice minister boasting about deportations, and far right groups are setting up stall outside schools to harass foreign students and parents to little pushback, no misinformation is needed for the racists to do their thing

I'm in Achill too and it is pretty bad here. Legally you can't force your neighbours to cooperate but mostly people just don't have the time or money, so just talking to people helps. No ones minded me on the commonage so far either

Very unfortunately!

After I was done getting soaked from the thigh down and cover head to toe in mud while making this video about removing gunnera, a neighbour I hadn't met before stopped me on the road to say their son had sent her my tiktoks, I can only assume the mud gave me away 😂

And it's up. This was an interesting experiment on writing without system, definitely open to notes on how to make it work better.

The Valley at DriveThruRPG.com

The Valley is available now from @somebogwitch.bsky.social

Get it here: tinyurl.com/ycxb6xe6

The Valley is a system agnostic murder mystery game where the players have been invited to Zazen, a small town at the heart of a secluded wooded valley, with one road in and one road out. #ttrpgs

YouTube video by Sophia Tung This is where all of The Internet is stored

📹 Setting up a livestream isn’t easy. That’s why we turned to an expert: Sophia Tung.

See how this creative software engineer brought her signature mix of tech + chill to our new microfiche scanning livestream—now preserving government records in real time. www.youtube.com/watch?v=r93Q...

A useful FYI for newcomers surprised at Ireland's consistently robust stance on the genocide in Gaza; in addition to being a rare Western country that knows how the pointy end of colonialism feels, our UN peacekeeping troops in Lebanon have been weathering IDF attacks for <decades>.