Interesting part of The Sindo poll - overwhelming support for public sector workers. Hopefully government ministers will take this as seriously as they seem to take Far Right talking points amplified by bots on social media!

This is correct. Pointing at within-MoE-movement is prudent for a single poll, but if you do it for every poll you end up deliberately ignoring the broader pattern. And the current pattern is that the gov pandering rightward has backfired significantly

Gavan Reilly@gavreilly.com · 19h ago

I see a lot of complaint that the reporting makes too much of margin-of-error movement. That’s fair but as the saying goes, ‘the trend is your friend’: SF 21 (+2.0 since GE24) FG 18 (-2.8) FF 16 (-5.9) SD 11 (+6.2) Aon 9 (+5.1) II 7 (+3.4) Lab 3 (-1.7) PBPS 3 (+0.2) Greens 3 Inds/others 10 (-5.5)

Well done Sinn Féin's Matt Carthy for joining this cynical effort by the Gov to threaten vital service providers with funding cuts for raising awareness about the importance of children's consent to intimate contact. Liberationist Irish republicanism is in good hands

The Journal@thejournal.ie · 3d ago

A recent ad on consent produced by the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre is one of a number of 'warning signs' regarding the use of public money by external organisations, said Simon Harris jrnl.ie/7210067

The more I think about it, the more Jim O'Callaghan reminds me of Liz Truss or Dominic Cummings. He thinks he's this great genius reformer when in reality, everything he touches turns to shit. www.irishtimes.com/crime-law/co...

O’Callaghan focusing on reforms that are ‘emphatically not at the lucrative end of legal practice’

Law professor says new flat-payment model could incentivise guilty pleas, while a High Court judge has previously criticised State’s ‘fundamentally incoherent’ approach to justice

irishtimes.com

Britain's universities are in freefall. If we go on like this a large number cannot and will not survive. Here's some ideas about how to save them. Clue: abolish the Office for Students immediately. www.arguably.uk/p/how-to-sav...

How to save British universities

Underfunding, marketisation and managerial failure have created an avoidable disaster

arguably.uk

Simon Harris doesn't want children to learn that it's okay to say no to unwanted physical contact.

The Journal@thejournal.ie · 3d ago

A recent ad on consent produced by the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre is one of a number of 'warning signs' regarding the use of public money by external organisations, said Simon Harris jrnl.ie/7210067

So here’s a thing I wrote about the new Irish citizenship proposals for @ancloganmag.bsky.social #speirghorm www.anclogan.ie/the-politics...

The Politics of Exclusion: Ireland's New Citizenship Bill.

The Government's proposed citizenship bill is being presented as a common-sense reform of Ireland's naturalisation system. Yet behind the language of integration, standards and international best prac...

anclogan.ie

rest in peace, Dolores Huerta

Dolores Huerta, Who Founded United Farm Workers With Cesar Chavez, Dies (Gift Article)

She founded the United Farm Workers with Cesar Chavez. In early 2026, she told The Times that she had been raped by him decades earlier. She was 96.

nytimes.com

What sort of knuckle-brained braying is this?

polifeed@feed.gavreilly.com · 5d ago

Irish Examiner: Sinn Féin proposes long-term residency permit as alternative to citizenship

Jim O'Callaghan has caused these students all this stress and delay. When they have plenty of stress living through a genocide. And he's done it with our money and fought it in the high court with our money. Jim O'Callaghan needs to resign. For this and so much more.

Una Mullally@unamullally.bsky.social · 6d ago

The High Court in Ireland has overturned a decision by the Minister for Justice to refuse a study visa to a Gazan student and ordered that the application be reconsidered.

"What, according to Jim O’Callaghan, is supposed to happen when a child expresses discomfort about hugging an older relative? Their parents should make them do it anyway?" Here's a Surrealing in the Years Bank Holiday Special. The commenters absolutely love this one, I'm sure you can imagine.

Seems like Jim O'Callaghan really wants us all to notice he's a tough guy

You’re very tough, Jim.

thejournal.ie

The proposed social media ban, the EU KIDS Act, is perhaps the most chaotic law I have ever read! New paper: Are EU Kidding Me? Notes from a Poorly Drafted Social Media Ban. files.michae.lv/papers/veale_areEUkiddingme.pdf In the spirit of the proposal I have stayed offline and read no takes.

This, from the hugely experienced Irish courts reporter, Isabel Hayes, on the Minister for Justice’s performative outrage over an ad about children and consent, is worth reading.

As a parent I find Peadar Tóibín's comment in the context of a discussion around consent to intimate contact extremely disturbing Will the TD explain why Irish children should be training themselves to be resilient towards forced acceptance of unwanted intimate contact by adults?

Let’s not forget that even before Jim was the minister, his department refused to fund the only sex worker-led organisation in Ireland because it didn’t support the government position on sex work

Sarah Clancy@sarahmaintains.bsky.social · last wk.

1. A minister should not be able to censor the work of an NGO or advocacy group. The point of NGOs is to challenge, influence policy or act in the interests of their issue. 2. No one should touch a child without consent. 3. Jim O'Callaghan wants to be in the media every day this is a tactic.

I find it quite odd that Jim O Callaghan, minister for justice is complaining that the only cases affected by the legal work to rule are rape cases. He was the one who pushed for therapy notes to be made available for this sort of trial. He does not have to best interest of the victim at heart.

You'd assume our Minister for Justice would have better things to this week that embroil himself in a manufactured online controversy over a video posted by the Dublin Right Crisis Center, but... you'd be absolutely wrong.

The Journal@thejournal.ie · 2w ago

Adverts run by the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre looking at consensual hugs between children and their grandparents has been suspended after criticism. Aontú's Peader Tóibín called the ad "bonkers", as he urged a "need to build resilience" among children. www.thejournal.ie/grandparents...

There’s nothing bonkers about teaching kids that their body is their own and that *they* make the decisions about who touches or embraces them. Do we really need to spell out why that’s a good idea?

The Journal@thejournal.ie · 2w ago

Adverts run by the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre looking at consensual hugs between children and their grandparents has been suspended after criticism. Aontú's Peader Tóibín called the ad "bonkers", as he urged a "need to build resilience" among children. www.thejournal.ie/grandparents...

Worth pointing out how low Irish bank taxes are in this model.

Dan Neidle@danneidle.bsky.social · 2w ago

So should we put up bank tax? And what would that do to the UK's relative position? An 8% surcharge would move the UK from the cheaper end of Europe to the middle of the pack, and a 16% surcharge would put us near the top, second only to the Netherlands.

narrator: he did not, in fact, want house prices to stabilise either

The Journal@thejournal.ie · 2w ago

Pressed on the issue during an interview on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, housing minister James Browne has repeatedly declined to say whether he wants house prices to fall, instead saying he wants them to "stabilise" jrnl.ie/7200251

Pick a random decision of the DOJ and you'll find an error like this. That's why there are so many Judicial Reviews - it's the only avenue to have these things examined independently. Big Jim has responded by making it significantly harder to take a Judicial Review. www.rte.ie/news/2026/10...

'Substantial hole' in defence of Gaza student visa denial

A judge hearing a judicial review of a Minister for Justice decision to deny a study visa to a student in Gaza has said there is "a substantial hole" in the case being put forward by the minister in d...

rte.ie

The Minister for Justice must meet his responsibilities for all victims of crime and accused persons. We need a lasting resolution to months of disruption in the courts which have significantly impacted the rights of victims of crime and accused persons. www.iccl.ie/news/justice...

Justice Minister must meet his responsibilities for all victims of crime and accused persons

Months of deadlock must end: Minister must engage in urgent, meaningful talks with solicitors and vindicate the justice rights of all.

iccl.ie

Ulster University spent £800,000 on a project that was then abandoned. They are now proposing up to 450 staff redundancies. We have to expose the hypocrisy and incompetence of many of those leading the higher education sector in 2026. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Ulster University: £800,000 spent on scrapped sports dome plans

Ulster University has also revealed the multi-million pound dome would have cost a further £1m to run each year.

bbc.co.uk

he could immediately fund more than half of this by scrapping the €150m allocation for "AI upskilling"

RTÉ News@news.rte.ie · 2w ago

Minister for Higher and Further Education James Lawless has said the demand from Irish universities for €250 million to bridge a core funding gap is "significantly in excess" of the previously agreed figure.

“The bourgeoisie has torn away from the family its sentimental veil, and has reduced the family relation to a mere money relation.” Marx and Engels unbelievably vindicated

🎃👻🧙‍♀️ Vio the VVitch 🧙‍♀️👻🎃@viothevvitch.myatproto.social · 4w ago

this is so fucking sad

A working, independent judicial system is necessary for the functioning of any healthy democracy. Jim O’Callaghan has crippled ours. This should be a massive story with public outcry. Maybe it would help if the law society rented a bunch of Massey Fergusons & parked them outside the four courts?

The consequences of Jim O’Callaghan’s obdurate and belligerent refusal to negotiate a settlement here has already created an immense backlog in our legal system. It is profoundly unfair to the victims of crimes, & it is an almost certainty that someone will be hurt or killed because…

Widespread criticism after woman cross-examined by man alleged to have threatened to kill her

The situation arose because the man was unable to secure legal representation as a result of the criminal legal aid solicitor’s strike.

thejournal.ie

Irish Independent@independent.ie · 2w ago

Major escalation of legal aid dispute as solicitors set to withdraw all criminal defence services from Monday www.independent.ie/irish-news/c...

friends, comrades, baffled but intrigued onlookers! we have an Isaac Wunder order! I repeat, we have an Isaac Wunder order! every time a pseudolaw crank gets an Isaac Wunder order, an angel gets its wings!

Delighted to have hosted a consortium meeting for @sustwellbeing.bsky.social at @maynoothuniversity.ie the past two days - very productive and good company!

Doing our bit on the picket line!