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Matthew Parkinson-Bennett

@matthewpb.bsky.social

2.7K followers 1.8K following 8.9K posts

Publisher, Little Island Books @littleislandbooks.bsky.social. The best new Irish writing for young readers.

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Matthew Parkinson-Bennett @matthewpb.bsky.social · 16d

Reposted by Matthew Parkinson-Bennett

Michael Birtwhistle @salfordmh.bsky.social · 1h

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Matthew Parkinson-Bennett @matthewpb.bsky.social · 2h

And before that France, Italy, Germany. Maybe he just doesn’t have a fanbase here. But there’s one great way of building one…

Matthew Parkinson-Bennett @matthewpb.bsky.social · 2h

He’s going to Holland!

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Matthew Parkinson-Bennett @matthewpb.bsky.social · 2h

Ugh sorry, I’ve let myself down there

two men are standing next to each other with the words " it 's such a fine line between stupid and clever "

ALT: two men are standing next to each other with the words " it 's such a fine line between stupid and clever "

media.tenor.com

Matthew Parkinson-Bennett @matthewpb.bsky.social · 2h

The numbers of colleges in Dublin is in double digits!

Matthew Parkinson-Bennett @matthewpb.bsky.social · 2h

Are the days when musicians skipped Dublin on their world tours back? I seem to keep seeing tours like the below. This is Blood Orange. Netherlands, all over UK, and then… NYC.

Tour dates: Urecht, multiple UK venues, and then New York. No Ireland gig!

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Matthew Parkinson-Bennett @matthewpb.bsky.social · 5h

… When he is un-shrunken again, everything seems back to the way it was, but for one detail: his red baseball cap no longer fits him right.

From this moment on he is a kind and loving father.

Matthew Parkinson-Bennett @matthewpb.bsky.social · 5h

essentially the same name

And the asshole angry macho NFL obsessed dad and his angry asshole son both wear red baseball caps. The angry dad gets shrunk and re-embiggened to test the machine before it’s turned on the shrunken kids, an out-of-character moment of selflessness. …

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Matthew Parkinson-Bennett @matthewpb.bsky.social · 5h

Honey I Shrunk the Kids (1989): breaks with shrunk-people-literature tradition by actually being quite consistent about the sizes of the shrunk people relative to other things.

Two funny details for the 2025 watcher: the main characters’ surname is Zelenskyy (not spelt that way but I presume its…

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Matthew Parkinson-Bennett @matthewpb.bsky.social · 8h

That’s gas!

Matthew Parkinson-Bennett @matthewpb.bsky.social · 12h

Massive fan of non-competitive sport for kids – in the end the reason we stopped going to the soccer club was they wanted the under 8s playing league matches

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Matthew Parkinson-Bennett @matthewpb.bsky.social · 12h

I had to look him up – I’d no idea MM’s son played for Cork!

Matthew Parkinson-Bennett @matthewpb.bsky.social · 12h

The place was pretty chaotic overall so maybe it’s just not a well run place. It was inclusive in so far as anyone could just show up and join in.

Matthew Parkinson-Bennett @matthewpb.bsky.social · 12h

What part of the country is this? You’d often here “he’s inside in the pub” but “idin” is a new one to me!

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Matthew Parkinson-Bennett @matthewpb.bsky.social · 12h

I’ve never heard it said in Ireland?

Matthew Parkinson-Bennett @matthewpb.bsky.social · 12h

Like, if a Leinster player from the professional era became a senior FF figure in the Dáil, that background would be all anyone ever talked about him

Matthew Parkinson-Bennett @matthewpb.bsky.social · 12h

Tangentially related, yesterday I was thinking that a measure of how radically professionalisation changed rugby that Jim O’Callaghan’s career, which included playing for Leinster right at the end of the amateur era, is rarely mentioned.

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Matthew Parkinson-Bennett @matthewpb.bsky.social · 12h

It’s only just occurring to me that there’s a logical connection between thr meanings, and they are really the same word

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Matthew Parkinson-Bennett @matthewpb.bsky.social · 12h

He was a rugby man first and foremost I think though

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Matthew Parkinson-Bennett @matthewpb.bsky.social · 12h

Is that related to soccer?

Matthew Parkinson-Bennett @matthewpb.bsky.social · 12h

Have you ever thought about “again” and “against”

You can find the former used for the latter in Hiberno English, like the Christie Moore song: “And if you need to do it you can do it agin the wall”

Do they use “again” to mean “against” in Scotland too? North of England?

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Matthew Parkinson-Bennett @matthewpb.bsky.social · 12h

Nobody liked Mitchell; nobody other than Mitchell could possibly like Mitchell

Matthew Parkinson-Bennett @matthewpb.bsky.social · 12h

For the past 14 years we’ve enjoyed our first and only soccer president!

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Matthew Parkinson-Bennett @matthewpb.bsky.social · 12h

The idea that MDH’s interventions on Israel may have been coordinated with government isn’t something that had ever occurred to me but it’s certainly an interesting one

Mick Muldoon @mickmuldoon.bsky.social · 13h

She’s smart enough and more experienced than some to meddle too closely like that. I was thinking more like what Miggeldy did where he was out front a long way on Israel, and I get the feeling that was planned. Govt deniability but they can also say “he’s not wrong”

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Matthew Parkinson-Bennett @matthewpb.bsky.social · 12h

Very much so the second time around at any rate. Don’t forget G Mitchell in 2011, though in the end some in FG may have been glad the other guy won.