Hope everyone has a lovely time, but there's no universe in which Belfast is receiving 800,000 visitors in eight days and it's bizarre this is being parroted without scrutiny.

The ‘RA has led west Belfast through 30 years of war and latterly 30 years of peace, all the while no closer to its goal of Irish unity. Thousands of young people living their best lives and singing their praises only reveals that the heart of Irish republicanism is performance not results.

Excellent tactical analysis here. In the big picture, what's too often lost in our fog of (cold) war is the cast iron resilience of the union, despite unionist political incompetence and even malignance. Seems the only solution permitting dual identity and promoting alliance not enmity has legs.

Mick Fealty@mickfealty.bsky.social · 5d ago

1/ Outsiders keep misreading Northern Ireland. They hear "border poll" and assume a united Ireland is on the horizon. This week's poll says the opposite: both the unionist and nationalist blocs are bleeding to voter apathy. Neither is going anywhere soon: an existential nettle, best grasped now.

Guide for enthusiastic Americans: - the entire tournament played across the last 5.5 weeks was the World Cup finals - the game played on Sunday was the World Cup final

Once pointed Gary Sobers in the direction of the local bookie when he was visiting Carrickfergus C.C..

It comes to an end. When all is said and done, this remains the pinnacle.

And yet he stays on as white ball coach. The ECB is a mess, every decision a fudge.

Listen it sounds like Jeffrey Donaldson enjoyed a drink but I’m not sure I trust DUP/TUV politicians to define a “drink problem”.

Stokes decision feels very hasty. You don't walk away from 13 years of Test cricket based on a few weeks of the doldrums. Entire set-up seems dysfunctional. Six wasted months since the Ashes and now only 12 months until the next.

Simply too many left handed batters this series. ICC needs to cap that if we want the format to survive and thrive.

Ben Stokes turning from perpetrator to victim has been a crisis management masterclass.

Is it necessary to call going to the pub to watch the game a "watch party"?

View from the Boundary with the former MI6 head is the most British listen ever. open.spotify.com/episode/5e1d...

View from the Boundary: Richard Moore

Test Match Special · Episode

open.spotify.com

If you want to see what McCullum does to a cricketer and a cricketing culture, look at Harry Brook.

Great to see the UK summer of Test cricket open up once again in Belfast.

We're going to start to see many articles like this. Ticketing calamity ahead...

Risk-free rate at 5.1% annualised.

J.D. Vance's new memoir is going to be a difficult read for the right-wing unionists who fawn over him.

Another of these idiots who wants "disruption" of a world order and political economy that has made him fabulously wealthy.

PSA for all the Irish-American "progressives" calling for a United Ireland today. The people of Northern Ireland don't want it. And the peoples of NI, ROI, GB and entire international community agreed in 1998 that their opinion's kinda important in this question.

Something on World Cup ticketing and demand isn't adding up.

Barbaric. The symptom of a sick society.

The New York Times@nytimes.com · 5mo ago

In @nytopinion.nytimes.com “Sonny Burton is not a killer. No one disputes this. Yet he has spent nearly half his life on death row,” Elizabeth Vartkessian writes. “Unless Kay Ivey, the governor of Alabama, decides to commute Mr. Burton’s sentence, the state is set to kill him on March 12.”

Are there six words in world football that make me less likely to want to see a game than Liverpool versus Wrexham at Yankee Stadium?

Glentoran 9-1 North Belfast.

I feel like renaming Defense to the Department of War was a clue.

Re. Chris Atherton, his dad is quoted as saying he is "Irish...and wants to play for Ireland". Simple reminder that NI is Ireland. Indeed, the original "Ireland" in footballing terms.

Nice to see baseball fans excited for pre-season but - as with NFL - no-one seems to question or even mind that the major league teams just play each other in pre-season (before then playing each other over and over again in regular season) because there's no-one else to play.

Worth fighting for, just not knowing how to spell it.

There is not a football fan on earth who would describe any player as a "FIFA legend".

Setting aside the right’s attempt to wage culture war over this year’s performance, I don’t think it has yet sunk in that the abomination of the halftime show is coming to the World Cup final this July.

The New York Times@nytimes.com · 6mo ago

Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime set featured songs from his Grammy-winning album “Debí Tirar Más Fotos,” celebrity cameos and a joyful celebration of Latin heritage. Here’s a rundown of its high and low points.