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Cathal Malone

@cathalmalone.bsky.social

Corkonian-in-exile in the Pale. Lawyer. Liúdramán. He/him.

2271 Posts1693 Follower 3532 Folgt

Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 53m ago

Badenoch's two biggest flaws are that she's nowhere near as smart as she thinks she is and is incapable of admitting error. Both well illustrated by this fiasco.

Alex Partridge@alexpartridge87.bsky.social · 1h ago

Joshua Bonehill-Paine steps back from being a Conservative council candidate following backlash

Jonn Elledge @jonnelledge.bsky.social · 2h ago

"A decision that made sense in a British Rail spreadsheet does not in a regional economy." In praise of inefficiency.

Drought conditions

This week: southern Britain has too little water; this map projection has far too much. But first: in praise of inefficiency.

jonn.substack.com

Rae Radford @raeradford.bsky.social · 43m ago

100% #BookSky

Ciara | Ciaraíoch 🎨@ciaraioch.bsky.social · 7h ago

The printer is out of cyan ink so can't print a monochrome black and white print :( I'm also out of minced beef so I can't make an apple pie :(

Timothy @landbeforetim.myatproto.social · 6h ago

I’m still thinking about that 9th century Irish monk who loved his cat Pangur Bán so much he wrote a poem about him

Gaelic
Messe agus Pangur Bán, cechtar nathar fria shaindán: bíth a menmasam fri seilgg.
mu menma céin im shaincheirdd.
Caraimse fos, ferr cach clú oc mu lebrán, léir ingnu;
ní foirmtech frimm Pangur bán
caraid cesin a maccdán
Ó ru biam, scél gan scís innar tegdais, ar n-endís,
táithiunn, díchríchide clius
ni fris tarddam ar n-áthius
Gnáth, húaraib, ar gressaib gal
glenaid luch inna línsam; os mé, du-fuit im lín chéin
dliged ndoraid cu ndronchéill
Fúachaidsem fri frega fál
a rosc, a nglése comlán; fúachimm chéin fri fégi fis
mu rosc réil, cesu imdis.
Fáclidsem cu ndéne dul
hi nglen luch inna gérchrub; hi tucu cheist ndoraid ndil os mé chene am fáelid.
Cia beimmi a-min nach ré ni derban cách a chéile maith la cechtar nár a dán; subaigthius a oenurán
Hé fesin as choimsid dáu;
in muid du-ngní cach enláu;
du thabairt doraid du glé for mu muid céin am messe.
Aistrithe ag Robin Flower

English
I and Pangur Bán, my cat
"Tis a like task we are at;
Hunting mice is his delight
Hunting words I sit all night.
Better far than praise of men
"Tis to sit with book and pen;
Pangur bears me no ill will, He too plies his simple skill.
"Tis a merry thing to see
At our tasks how glad are we, When at home we sit and find Entertainment to our mind.
Oftentimes a mouse will stray
In the hero Pangur's way:
Oftentimes my keen thought set
Takes a meaning in its net.
'Gainst the wall he sets his eye Full and fierce and sharp and sly;
Gainst the wall of knowledge I All my little wisdom try.
When a mouse darts from its den, O how glad is Pangur then!
O what gladness do I prove
When I solve the doubts I love!
So in peace our tasks we ply, Pangur Bán, my cat, and I;
In our arts we find our bliss, I have mine and he has his.
Practice every day has made Pangur perfect in his trade;
I get wisdom day and night Turning darkness into light.
Translated by Robin Flower

The Author, Séamas O'Reilly @seamas.bsky.social · 7h ago

True story.

There’s a story my family tells around Christmas. As kids,
that time of year was obviously pretty manic, but made
more so by the fact each of us fancied ourselves as having prom
inent careers in showbusiness. We all sang in choirs at one time
or another, and some of us in several at the same time.
I was less involved than most, yet even I sang in choirs for at
least ten years, and the Christmas period was a time of constant
shuttling between different masses or meetings or festive per
formances. Most of us were then also in school shows, nativities
or orchestra recitals, and in the run- up to Christmas, a few of
us even did the fully produced commercial pantos in town. I
somehow never made the cut for those things, which I found
odd because my kind eyes and easy way with people reminded
many of a young Marlon Brando.
In any case, quite aside from the rigmarole of cooking
and presents and the management of infant expectations
that Christmas would demand from a single parent of eleven

children, my father was rushed off his feet getting us to and
from these various functions, and dealing with the preparations
for overlapping performances. Walking through our house
over Christmas was like a trip through the Warner Bros. lot
in late- seventies Hollywood, only instead of showgirls and
spacemen there would be assembled children dressed in their
Sunday best, or as shepherds, or in the costume of some brutally
crowbarred topical character favoured by school plays at the
time. Many will remember my delighted turn as Reuben, the
inexplicably French brother in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor
Dreamcoat, not least for my having done the entire thing dressed
as Eric Cantona.

One of those Christmassy mornings, my brother
Shane was singing at three Masses in a row. That’s the 10,
the 11 and the 12:15. After each, my dad would talk to a few fellow parishioners here and there, and pick up others of us
who were at other Masses or concerts nearby. Owing to the
comings and goings, headcounts got twisted, and on the
drive back Shane turned round, surveyed the contents of the
minibus and noticed that Dearbhaile was missing. She had
been there in the chapel after the service, but had obviously
stayed too long chatting to a friend and Daddy, understand
ably frazzled and depleted, had taken off without realising
she wasn’t on board.

He turned tail and raced back to the church to pick her up.
He was furious. ‘How did none of you notice she was missing?’
he fumed, and everyone felt chastened at their lack of aware
ness, imagining her now crying on the steps of the church
alone, or worse, in the company of scandalised and judgemental
parishioners – or clergy – wringing their hands, apt to be tell
ing tales very soon about the poor, rudderless O’Reilly clan,
demented by grief, incapable even of counting themselves.
When the bus finally reached Dearbhaile, however, she was
smiling and happy, and neither in the company of some sour-
faced scold among the congregation, nor alone.

I was standing there, unmissed, beside her.

Dara O'Reilly@daraor.bsky.social · 7h ago

There's a heartwarming story, in @seamas.bsky.social ' best-selling memoir "Did Ye Hear Mammy Died?" (available in all good, and many mediocre, bookshops) where Séamas is forgotten at Mass, and we only realised we'd lost him because we'd also lost another sibling, who we returned to collect.

Flannel, Steady Diet of @flanneloccluded.bsky.social · 6h ago

Everything bagel implies the existence of nothing bagels. Antimatter bagels. Bagels of the void.

Joe Griffin @thejoegriffin.bsky.social · 3h ago

My daughter is watching Cruella, or as I like to call it, 'The Devil Wears Madra'.

Aidan O’Brien @aidanobrien.bsky.social · 7h ago

First, you tell me to get a hobby; now it's an “appropriate hobby”.

MIRROR NEVS CELAS FOOTBAL LIESME MORE
INYOURAREA
FUNERAL NOTICES
SHOP
COMPETITIONS
OFFERS
Man arrested after dressing up in 'Grim Reaper' costume on hospital roof and staring at patients
A 26-year-old man climbed on a hospital roof dressed as a 'crow' which resembles a Grim Reaper outfit, as he flaunted a long knife has now been fined for his nuisance behaviour

The Author, Séamas O'Reilly @seamas.bsky.social · 9h ago

Worth remembering how mind-bogglingly recent the Magdalene Laundries were. The last one closed down on 25th September 1996, which means the Magdalene system outlived Tupac by two weeks.

Saoirse Ní Chiaragáin@miseryvulture.bsky.social · 9h ago

The last Magdalene laundry closed in my lifetime. Homosexuality was decriminalised in Ireland in my lifetime. Access to condoms without a prescription in Ireland only came in 1985. We repealed the 8th. There's a lot of ways in which Ireland is still bad, but it is an entirely different country.

Joe Noonan @joenoonan.bsky.social · 8h ago

One day.

Chatham House@chathamhouse.org · 8h ago

Pressure on Hamas has been necessary and fully warranted. It remains so – both for Gaza’s stability and Israel’s security. But it must now be met with pressure on Israel too.

Ben Collins @bencollins.bsky.social · 20h ago

Oh my god the dietician who is telling everyone in the White House to only eat steak and sauerkraut doesn't wipe his ass.

To O’Mara, the diet is not just a temporary means of losing weight but a way to eat for good. He has been doing it for 10 years, and credits it with turning his life around. At one point in our conversation he pulled up the Bristol Stool Chart, which ranges from Type 1 (“separate, hard pellets”) to Type 7 (“watery, no solid pieces”). O’Mara is consistently delivering Type 4 (“smooth, soft, like a snake”), with pointed ends, indicative of healthy rectal function, he told me. “When you start eating healthy, you don’t need toilet paper,” he claimed. “Animals in the wild have no residual stool on their anus.” He described a proper bowel movement to me this way: odorless, wipe-free, over in three to seven seconds and “nearly orgasmic.”

“I could have a bowel movement behind a sheet at a dinner party in the corner of the room,” he said, “and nobody would know.”

Donncha O’Connell @donnchalaw.bsky.social · 9h ago

Great Irish Examiner piece by Liz Carolan: Migrants pay a deadly price in Ceuta disinformation disaster. All the layers of neglected dysfunction in our information environment have come together into one deadly, toxic mess for Moroccans in Ceuta. www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/comm...

Liz Carolan: Migrants pay a deadly price in Ceuta disinformation disaster

All the layers of neglected dysfunction in our information environment have come together into one deadly, toxic mess for Moroccans in Ceuta, writes Liz Carolan

irishexaminer.com

Dmitry Grozoubinski @explaintrade.com · yesterday

Zohran, call me.

Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈@josephpolitano.bsky.social · yesterday

DSA-aligned Democrats are now the most pro-free-trade voting bloc in the United States, in an incredible turn of events www.theargumentmag.com/p/who-suppor...

A graph showing whether voters support or oppose free trade by party identification, showing 54% of "Dems favorable to DSA" strongly support free trade agreements

Darach Ó Séaghdha @darach.bsky.social · 24h ago

Seriously. It’s like Black Mirror made an episode about Ceefax being taken over by Nazis who can’t shut up.

Dave Vetter@davidrvetter.bsky.social · last wk.

It's increasingly clear that spending any amount of time on X in 2026 is tantamount to incurring a head injury.

Dave Vetter @davidrvetter.bsky.social · last wk.

It's increasingly clear that spending any amount of time on X in 2026 is tantamount to incurring a head injury.

Dean Buckley @deanbuckley.bsky.social · 23h ago

as @feljin.ie rightly points out, this raises serious questions about illusory numbers in social housing delivery reports

Irish Independent@independent.ie · 24h ago

Department of Housing pulls funding for 140 social homes as units move to private market at rents up to €4,500 www.independent.ie/county/dubli...

Dr Panti Bliss-Cabrera @pantibliss.bsky.social · yesterday

To be very clear, extrajudiciously killing people you suspect are drug traffickers is *also* murder

CNN@cnn.com · 2d ago

The US military’s strikes on alleged drug boats have likely illegally killed “individuals who are not involved in narcotrafficking,” Sen. Tim Kaine told the White House, following “a careful review” of classified information he has seen so far.

Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · 23h ago

I recall we had a period of time where the response of Starmer and Cooper to concerns about these groups was ‘I like flags’

Oxford Clarion@oxfordclarion.bsky.social · yesterday

Leaders of flag-raising group Raise the Colours Oxfordshire placed trackers on highway workers’ cars to find out their home addresses, the High Court has heard. RTC then attempted to intimidate the highway staff into no longer removing flags by repeating their addresses to them.

Ben Zipperer @benzipperer.org · 2d ago

public libraries ftw

Dmitry Grozoubinski @explaintrade.com · yesterday

Checking in with Elbridge Colby who assured me that the US couldn't spare a single bullet for Ukraine because they were all needed to deter a Chinese invasion of Taiwan.

George Pearkes@peark.es · yesterday

Okay Reuters on a heater this morning *US ARMY USED 'VIRTUALLY ALL' LONG-RANGE PRECISION MISSILES:RTRS

Aidan O’Brien @aidanobrien.bsky.social · yesterday

Many people are asking this.

Ea-nāṣir a purveyor of purportedly poor-quality copper ingots according to a clay tablet that was sent to the ancient city-state Ur, written c. 1750 BC. The tablet, which measures 11.6 centimetres high and 5.0 centimetres wide, documents a transaction in which Ea-nāṣir, a trader, allegedly sold sub-standard copper

Faine Greenwood@faineg.bsky.social · 2d ago

chat can anyone verify that every single Flock camera has about 2-3 Ibs of copper and about 1-2 grams of gold

appodlachia
› › SurveillanceState 1h
Listen to this king at a Huntington City Council meeting on Flock Cameras:
"I'm not gonna waste your time, I'm kinda hungry, but one last thing. Every single Flock camera has about 2-3 Ibs of copper and about 1-2 grams of gold. Do with that information what will."

Neon Genesis Ewangelion @ewacat.bsky.social · yesterday

I AM SO FUCKING TIRED OF WW2 BEING THEIR FUCKING TOUCHSTONE FOR ~BRITISHNESS~ N SHIT BUT THEY DON'T KNOW THE FIRST FUCKING THING ABOUT WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED

Northern & proud 👊@gazlancs.bsky.social · yesterday

French forces held a fierce defensive perimeter around Dunkirk and lost 18,000 souls. 40,000 became POWs. Without their resolve we wouldn’t have our nation’s story. It’s estimated 20-60k French resistance fighters died during the war. These fuckers really are vile bastards 😡😡

Darach Ó Séaghdha @darach.bsky.social · yesterday

It's true that Tice isn't a big deal (although he is an MP) and that The Telegraph isn't admired for its journalism. We could spend all day minimising it. But it's fair to say if a TD made a remark like this about Britain, it would be a big story and consequences would be expected.

Des Fitzgerald@desfitzgerald.bsky.social · 2d ago

I think we're generally much too chill about how mainstream and normal this weird, obsessive anti-Irish stuff is in the UK. #speirgorm

Richard Tice quoting a telegraph headline about Ireland being Europe's most ridiculous country.

Ken Tremendous @kentremendous.bsky.social · 2d ago

That's what taxes are, man. That's the definition of taxes. "You are subsidizing things you might never use" man shut the fuck up. My taxes currently subsidize like oil company exec private jets, you think I'm upset at low-income people eating inexpensive bananas?

USA TODAY Opinion@usatodayopinion.usatoday.com · 2d ago

Opinion: Mamdani's idea may sound appealing, but it's NYC taxpayers who will take the hit, subsidizing discounts they may never even use.

Cethan Leahy @cethanleahy.com · yesterday

Martha's Vineyard and Widow's Bay are competing over tourist numbers so they send each others ghosts and sharks.

weinberg@weinbergs.bsky.social · 7mo ago

let's pretend: Universal announces a screenwriting contest for Jaws 5. What's your pitch?

Darach Ó Séaghdha @darach.bsky.social · yesterday

The political echo chamber is a very serious problem. I can't make a joke about Galway people juggling and riding unicycles without heilmusk1488 slithering into my replies saying "every boy born in Galway is called Muhammed now" You'd really miss that kind of constructive engagement.

Ciara | Ciaraíoch 🎨@ciaraioch.bsky.social · yesterday

"Bluesky is a political echo chamber" okay but I'm mostly here to chat with fun internet people and post art and make jokes, I cannot stress how much I don't care

James Ball @jamesrball.com · yesterday

It is the single worst deliberate change I have ever seen made to a product, and might be what stops me using Microsoft Office after…25+ years? Imbecilic product decision, but just one among *many*.

Heather Burns@heatherburnstech.bsky.social · yesterday

The most terrifying enshittification I've discovered has been learning that Microsoft Word documents no longer auto-save if you are not saving them to one of their own proprietary cloud services. I'm slapping control-S like it's 1999.

Sean Jones KC @seanjones.org · yesterday

What I love about Bluesky is what I loved about old Twitter: if I want to find out about something (however recondite) there will be someone here (often with a PhD in it) and the time and patience to share their knowledge. /1

Sally Hayden @sallyhayd.bsky.social · yesterday

With Europe’s borders back in the headlines, please consider reading ‘My Fourth Time, We Drowned’ if you haven’t already. It’s very important to have a fuller picture before weighing in.

Sally Hayden@sallyhayd.bsky.social · 2y ago

A reminder that 'My Fourth Time, We Drowned' is now available in Spanish 🇪🇸: capitanswing.com/libros/cuand... Italian 🇮🇹: www.bollatiboringhieri.it/libri/sally-... French 🇫🇷: www.buchetchastel.fr/catalogue/bi... Dutch 🇳🇱: nieuwamsterdam.nl/producten/en... Polish 🇵🇱: soniadraga.pl/postfactum/p...