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Reposted by Mick Fealty

Office of Public Works @opwireland.bsky.social · Sep 7

Online applications are open for the Newgrange Winter Solstice Lottery.
Winners will experience the rare moment when sunlight floods the chamber at dawn.

Free entry | Limited spaces | Apply now: solsticelottery.ie

#Newgrange #WinterSolstice #HeritageIreland

A dimly lit tunnel with a rocky floor leads to a bright, starburst light source at the end, illuminating the path with a warm glow and casting shadows on the rock walls inside Newgrange.

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Jo Wolff @jowolff.bsky.social · Sep 6

An energy economist once told me that he was very enthusiastic about wind and solar energy supply because it was much harder to use for corrupt and political purposes than oil.

The New York Times @nytimes.com · Sep 6

Energy Secretary Chris Wright on Friday defended the Trump administration’s decision to block a nearly completed $6.2 billion wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island by saying offshore wind increases electricity prices and by downplaying the jobs at stake.

Energy Secretary Attacks Offshore Wind and Dismisses Climate Change

Chris Wright, who travels to Europe next week to promote American gas, called climate change “not incredibly important.”

nyti.ms

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Richard Francis @linguafrancis.bsky.social · Sep 7

It’s an often remarked upon thing but searches for “What is the EU” and “What is Brexit” spiked in the UK after the vote. A failure of the media to explain, yes, but also an indication of how risky referendums are. Huge numbers didn’t know what they were voting for.

www.npr.org/sections/all...

After Brexit Vote, Britain Asks Google: 'What Is The EU?'

Google Trends shows that this was the second-searched EU-related question in the United Kingdom after polls closed. The first was "What does it mean to leave the EU?"

www.npr.org

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Mick Fealty @mickfealty.bsky.social · Sep 7

My @interraileu.bsky.social experience of Italy was in July 1980 and I only rode the system again in 2018 on a long family trip from Stroud via stopovers in Cologne, Munich, Pisa, Rome and finally Naples. The transformation is gobsmacking. In ‘80 Rome to Naples took three hours, in ‘18 just one.

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Paul Evans @pauliewaulie.bsky.social · Sep 6

We have an odd set of blinkers about the ability of government to shape the media in the UK. It’s a kind of despair/complacency that has a historical explanation. 🧵

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Mick Fealty @mickfealty.bsky.social · Sep 7

Aha, if you’re fairly quick you can read my 2007 essay on the life of Ian Paisley (as he was on the brink of doing what he often swore he would never do) for free until 4pm tomorrow: www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/essays/57825...

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Laura Phillips @lauraphillips.bsky.social · Sep 6

I have never been so disappointed in a BBC piece. Breathless admiration is, as far as I knew, not the role of the BBC’s political editor when describing a party political conference. Description+detail yes, rigorous examination of the conference content, yes. This, absolutely no, in my opinion.

Chris Mason: Reform conference shows party's growing ambition like never before

The conference feels like that of a big party - but retains the insurgency vibe that the party is seeking to channel.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Mick Fealty @mickfealty.bsky.social · Sep 7

It’s not just the top rank either. I’ve heard the self same solipsistic guff coming out of regional pol corrs…

Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · Sep 7

The BBC has always bent towards the status quo. But since Brexit it’s top journalists - who like Mason & Kuenssberg think they’re celebrities - have fawned over the protagonists of that ‘exciting story’: the rise of hard right populism. They’ve stopped being journalists & become celebrants.

Laura Phillips @lauraphillips.bsky.social · Sep 6

I have never been so disappointed in a BBC piece. Breathless admiration is, as far as I knew, not the role of the BBC’s political editor when describing a party political conference. Description+detail yes, rigorous examination of the conference content, yes. This, absolutely no, in my opinion.

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Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · Sep 6

Reform call Connolly "Britain's favourite political prisoner"

Soft on crime, soft on racism

We don't have political prisoners.

The woman who posted "“Mass deportation now, set fire to all the fucking hotels full of the bastards for all I care” is not a national treasure, ouside their conference.

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Mick Fealty @mickfealty.bsky.social · Sep 7

Ireland has a national blind spot. Michael D’s personal understanding of the role of President is based on the flawed idea that its office is co-equal to the Houses of the Oireachtas. It’s not. Dáil Éireann is the unrivalled base of power and democratic legitimacy. sluggerotoole.com/2023/06/21/p...

Mick Fealty @mickfealty.bsky.social · Sep 7

Go girl!!

Mick Fealty @mickfealty.bsky.social · Sep 7

Never thought sobriety could be actively harmful? Think again…

Scott Galloway @profgalloway.com · Aug 30

I will always be a Democrat

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Mick Fealty @mickfealty.bsky.social · Sep 7

What’s the point of worrying about Labour’s media strategy when successive governments have allowed the wider landscape to turn feral and nihilistic… Good, McLuhan rich thread from Paul…

Paul Evans @pauliewaulie.bsky.social · Sep 6

We have an odd set of blinkers about the ability of government to shape the media in the UK. It’s a kind of despair/complacency that has a historical explanation. 🧵

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Mick Fealty @mickfealty.bsky.social · Jul 12

There’s your epistemological crisis right there….

Will Jennings 🗳️ @drjennings.bsky.social · Jul 12

The deep state got to him...

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Mick Fealty @mickfealty.bsky.social · Jun 21

There is a large cohort of British and Irish journalists that I’ve admired for many years, and they exist across the political spectrum. But sometimes you have to mentally weaken the narrative frame through which it’s pitched and wait for the data (the editor hasn’t quite spotted) to land.

Jonathan Portes @jdportes.bsky.social · Jun 21

If you read down this Mail article long enough, you get to this grudging admission:

"76% of pupils at Kobi Nazrul are meeting 'expected standards' in reading, writing and maths.

That compares with a local average of 71 per cent and an average of 61 per cent in England."
.
archive.ph/wip/lmv8G

Mail headline: the school where NONE of the pupils speak English as first language

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Mick Fealty @mickfealty.bsky.social · Jun 21

@profgalloway.com if the Prof is heading home soon, I’d love a coffee with him beforehand. Been holding plural space in Northern Ireland since 2002, and see parallels between his challenge to grift and drift from orderly accountability and the long stoicism of my @sluggerotoolepols.bsky.social blog.

Mick Fealty @mickfealty.bsky.social · Jun 15

Spot on…

Daniel Drezner @dandrezner.bsky.social · Jun 15

My favorite sign from the No Kings Day protest.

What was yours?

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Resolution Foundation @resfoundation.bsky.social · Jun 15

How ambitious is the Government’s newly announced affordable homes programme?

It is significantly bigger than recent funding packages, and almost as big (in annual terms) as the programme delivered by the last Labour government ⤵️

Chart showing Affordable housing commitments over time, 2025-26 prices : England

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Mick Fealty @mickfealty.bsky.social · Jun 10

The brilliant Mark Blyth on #Inflation: nextbigideaclub.com/magazine/inf...

Inflation Explained: Why Most People Lose, and Some Win Big

Co-authors Mark Blyth and Nicolo Fraccaroli share 5 key insights from their new book, Inflation: A Guide for Users and Losers.

nextbigideaclub.com

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Planet Belfast @planetbelfast.bsky.social · May 27

So sorry to learn that the great Barry McIlheney has died suddenly

Here's a podcast recorded for @sluggerotoolepols.bsky.social with Mick Fealty a few years ago

sluggerotoole.com/2020/07/22/c...

#CargoOfBricks: From library assistant in Oldpark to Smash Hits boss in four years…

Talking to a retired nationalist politician recently he recounted how important it was for him to get out of Belfast in the early days of the troubles to UCD and a Dublin in which society and its oper...

sluggerotoole.com

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Mick Fealty @mickfealty.bsky.social · May 11

Currently making my brain positively hurt with @markblyth.bsky.social’s #Inflation…

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Mick Fealty @mickfealty.bsky.social · May 11

Digging it out as we speak…

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Mick Fealty @mickfealty.bsky.social · May 11

Page numbers Stephen?

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Charlie Taylor @charlietaylor.bsky.social · Apr 23

It’s a sob story for the ages. Meta, the global tech giant, is being cut down in its prime by the nasty old European Commission. As fairy tales go, there are plenty of tropes being served up here. It’s just a pity that none of them are true...

www.businesspost.ie/article/char...

Charlie Taylor: The gloves are off in the battle between Big Tech and the EU

Meta has broken from its usual diplomacy with a blistering rebuke that accuses the bloc of unfairly penalising US firms

www.businesspost.ie

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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · Apr 21

So many small powerful moments like this. RIP Pope Francis.

www.cnn.com/2013/11/07/w...

Pope Francis’ embrace of a severely disfigured man touches world | CNN

It was the embrace that melted hearts worldwide.

www.cnn.com

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