Electric cars have overtaken diesel cars in sales in Ireland for the first time. Still behind both petrol and hybrids, but that’s a milestone. www.independent.ie/business/tec...
Virgin Media News Correspondent but these are my own views and not those of my employer.
10,776 followers 540 following 757 posts
view profile on Bluesky
Electric cars have overtaken diesel cars in sales in Ireland for the first time. Still behind both petrol and hybrids, but that’s a milestone. www.independent.ie/business/tec...
Protect Journalists in Gaza. rsf.org/en/rsf-and-a...
That is kind of our thing now, actually.
Israeli campaign in Gaza meets definition of genocide, say scholars on.ft.com/4mH73M6
Good day down at the Stradbally jamboree yesterday. Group Chat live, bumped into Shee, and saw the absolutely class Vittorio Angelone.
Monday’s UK Independent #TomorrowsPapersToday
Béal Feirste ❤️
For the first time ever, more than 5,000 children have been recorded living in emergency homeless accommodation (Dept of Housing, July 2025) Another new record of 16,058 people in homeless accommodation was also recorded.
"I'm 26 years in the job. This is the first time I've ever missed the opening of the school... I've got no pension, no bereavement leave, no real sick leave..." Out on the street speaking with the school caretakers and secretaries beginning an indefinite strike today.
I’m gonna say I’m strongly considering my options to see if anyone picks it up and does a story on it.
Anyone going to Stradbally? We’re doing the podcast stage at 4pm on Sunday talking Gaza, #Aras25 and more. Come along!
CNN analysis of new footage shows the “double-tap” attack on Gaza’s Nasser Hospital was in fact three strikes. The first shell hit at 10:08 a.m., killing Reuters cameraman Hussam Al-Masri. Nine minutes later, as journalists, medics, and first responders rushed to help, two near-
BREAKING: FBI director says a Minneapolis shooting is being investigated as domestic terrorism and a hate crime targeting Catholics.
At the UN security council this afternoon Algeria held up a photograph of three month old Yahya Najjar, starved to death by Israel.
Catherine Connolly on Mick Wallace – 'Guilty by association' is a very worrying way to go 📺Watch the full interview ➡️ https://youtu.be/CWRc1Xrj0GU | @newschambers.bsky.social
Throw up the “I’m doing my part” gif
And I don’t think she’s going to move any of those answers. Def different approach to the Independent interview last week - but she’s not going to move away from Clare and Mick and she’s not going to push off saying Syria was a good idea,
🤝
Italian photographer Ray Giubilo with a one-in-a-million shot of Jasmine Paolini at the US Open
EXCLUSIVE: Presidential candidate Catherine Connolly tells Virgin Media News the delay by bigger parties in naming nominees is “disrespectful” and “says a lot” about their approach to the Constitution. Full Interview: https://f.mtr.cool/pcslztrqnm #VMNews | @newschambers.bsky.social
bsky.app/profile/news...
Full Catherine Connolly interview @virginmedianews.bsky.social ⬇️⬇️ youtu.be/CWRc1Xrj0GU?...
📺 Catherine Connolly on #Aras25 Neutrality 🇺🇳 Mick Wallace and Ukraine 🇺🇦 Welcoming Donald Trump to Áras 🇺🇸 “Disrespectful” delay by the “big parties” in fielding candidates 🗳️ @virginmedianews.bsky.social
She’s she’d welcome Donald Trump to the Áras - pointing out as Leas Ceann Comhairle she welcomed Biden and Von der Leyen to Leinster House. She says it’s “volatile” that we’re dependent on Trump for a solution in Ukraine when he’s “totally behind Israel in a genocide”.
Loads in it listening back. Asked her about Mick Wallace’s views on Ukraine’s “Nazi orientation”, she praises contributions of MW & CD and says this idea of “by association to be guilty is a very, very worrying way to go.” Says it’s for the people to decide - but “I’ve never hesitated” on Ukraine
Timely - full sit down with Catherine Connolly out today. Chunk on the news on @virginmedianews.bsky.social at 12.30, 5.30 and 7. Comprehensive topics: - Can she win if Sinn Féin enters the race? - Frustration at being the only candidate in it. - The Syria trip. - Are Labour fully behind her?
NEW: It’s official - KPop Demon Hunters is now Netflix’s most-watched film ever. Also setting records in movie theatres and music charts this weekend. Down with remakes and IP exploitation. Up with original animation that millennials don’t understand. Story: www.theguardian.com/media/2025/a...
There will be demands to look more solemn/jubilant but they haven't decided which is more appropriate yet.
Yes, sorry. Relevant?
Revelant?
"I am speaking to you from the Cabinet Room at 10, Downing Street... ...unless we heard from them by 11 0'clock that a state of engagement would exist.. I have to tell you now that no such undertaking has been received, and that consequently Taylor Swift is engaged with Travis Kelce."
BBC live coverage? www.bbc.com/news/live/c3...
The guns have fallen silent. The stars have aligned.
How did this happen in the middle of interviewing Catherine Connolly. Bring her back out to account for this.
Still a lot of 'they said this' in the media today - without any sense of 'hey, they've said things like this before' or 'haven't they lied about targeting journalists in the past?'
Wearing your glasses on the news is a good way to distract from a big splodge of milky coffee on your jacket btw - powerful millennial media insight there
Nick Delahanty campaign launch this morning. Asked him if he know who Gavin Lowbridge is (he said “No”) - after he appeared on his Spaces last week. Delahanty says he doesn’t agree with Lowbridge’s views (as below) after sharing the space with him and that we “should engage with people”.
Second sit-down of the Áras campaign this week 📑
“We wanted to disable a security camera on a hospital we suspected might be used to monitor troop movements… to do this, we fired tank rounds at a hospital (war crime) and then when medical workers and journalists were visibly on the balcony, we did it again (multiple war crimes)… nothing matters.”
“Confirmed”. Did they? That’s what definitely happened is it?
The parents of Harvey Morrisson Sherratt (9), who died last month after waiting years for scoliosis surgery, spoke at a Dublin protest this weekend. The protest was attended by over a thousand people, appealing for change in children’s healthcare. Full Interview: https://f.mtr.cool/iaqniiiqyx
Four journalists were killed by an Israeli strike on a Gaza hospital today, including Mariam Dagga, a freelancer with the @apnews.com. She has a 12-year-old son, who was evacuated from Gaza earlier in the war. She was a true hero, like all of our Palestinian colleagues in Gaza. tinyurl.com/3cn5c9vb
Israel deliberately depriving Gaza of clean water: Doctors Without Borders
Exclusive: Ghislaine Maxwell was honored at a prestigious Clinton event years after sexual misconduct allegations surfaced www.cnn.com/2025/08/24/p...
Such a nice story this - community. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/26/w...
Entirely man-made famine.
The internet is healing
One Fianna Fáil TD went mad at me one year for it - rang me and all to ask if I was taking the piss out of him directly. Good times
(Brought it out of retirement for the day)
Best of luck to all the TDs wishing students the best of luck in the Leaving Cert results today.
Israeli army database suggests at least 83% of Gaza dead were civilians Classified intelligence from May reveals Israel believed it had killed ~8,900 militants in Gaza, indicating a proportion of civilian slaughter with few parallels in modern warfare. www.972mag.com/israeli-inte...
Fans of flagrant breaches of international will be shocked, appalled, and gobsmacked to see 21 western countries sign another letter of condemnation today.
Doherty says he looks forward to a campaign in which “Heather Humphreys will have to defend her record around the Cabinet table” on Housing and support for people with disabilities.
Pearse Doherty says Sinn Féin isn’t ruling out supporting Catherine Connolly — he says Sinn Féin’s position will be discussed in the “coming weeks”. I put it to him that Mary Lou told us that about a month ago - he says it’s an important decision and proper deliberations are needed within the party
And in Dublin - particularly stark on properties registered by owners of 10+ properties. (Many of which will be apartments in blocks built to rent)
Nationwide registrations - excluding properties owned by Local Authorities and Approved Housing Bodies.
Also, new figures on @virginmedianews.bsky.social from SF's Pearse Doherty about homes newly registered for the LPT. >50% of priv properties newly-registered for LPT last year were registered by owners of multiple properties. Mr Doherty says the game is 'rigged' against individuals and families
House prices up by almost 8% year-on-year. That's 22 months in a row now.
Three apartments in Smithfield going for €1.2 million. No news in that these days, but in the ad they make a point of highlighting that the units are vacant and have been for three years, and as such no rent caps will apply.
Oasis fans are still buzzing after the band’s reunion in Dublin - and the city’s economy is too. The return of the Gallagher brothers at Croke Park is estimated to have generated a spend of up to €50 million. #VMNews
Keir Starmer's spokesman asked about author Sally Rooney's plans to donate her royalties to Palestine Action, says that supporting the group is a terrorist offence and "obviously the police will implement the law"
Ex-Israeli intelligence chief said 50 Palestinians must die for every 7 October victim
“He surely can’t push us ALL over” might be the move
On their way to Washington: Rutte, who rolled and called Trump “daddy” at NATO. Von Der Leyen, who rolled and signed a very one-sided trade deal. Starmer, ditto. Zelenskyy’s allies haven’t had much recent success in tough negotiations with Donald Trump.
I’ve seen a good bit of it. It also comes through by not sharing Palestinian journalists’ material until it’s shared days later by the BBC or Guardian. It’s most definitely been a thing
(obvs international journalists should have access etc - but you see my point)
"Many" does not mean all though. I completely agree with you about all of the above - but there have been some colleagues in the western world who have cast doubt on reporting from Gaza and repeated this "we can't tell what's happening in there because no journos are allowed in" thing insultingly
"Many Western journalists do not regard Palestinian journalists as colleagues and that’s why those reporting from Gaza can be killed by Israel with impunity." www.irishexaminer.com/news/spotlig...
If you want to support an English football team, that's all your business - just do it! My word. Please. No need lol.
"7 men will appear in court today charged in relation to the ongoing protests outside an Essex hotel where migrants are being housed.. charged with violent disorder, 2 face further counts of criminal damage while another faces an assault charge for allegedly beating an emergency worker"
In one incident, bake sales organised for the Irish Red Cross were allegedly criticised as being "antisemitic". http://jrnl.ie/6788593t
Interesting thread
If this is some elaborate cat wheeze to wind up Michael O’Leary and Dermot Desmond, I’m applauding.
Insane behaviour. Had a look at setlistfm and popped out during the Noel set in Cardiff back for Little By Little. A well-executed mission.
“I’ll hang on and grab a pint after”
Saw a columnist giving out that the idea of free sunscreen in public parks (as is quite common in Europe) was beyond parody. Launchpad for replies full of “poison”, “trying to kill us”, “mind control”. Class all around
The internet is a death cult. m.independent.ie/irish-news/a...
fucking hell lol
Irish Sunday newspaper #frontpages - for Aug 17 [Updated] derekmooney.ie/2025/08/16/i...
Basically, because everyone looks at infrastructure with the question "how does this most impact Me, the protagonist of reality?" - the focus of MetroLink discourse by billionaires and yak-yak columnists has been purely on Dublin Airport. A good shift away from that here 🔽
Too soon.
Surely no reason Putin (the election respecter) would say this just to get his way
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...
Exclusive: ICC arrest warrant applications ready for Israel's Ben Gvir and Smotrich on apartheid charges If the warrants are issued, it will be the first time that the crime of apartheid is charged at an international court.
There is not enough food in Gaza to sustain life, Oxfam's Humanitarian Response Adviser in the enclave has said
Swiss chocolatier Lindt may shift production of its world-famous, gold-wrapped Easter bunnies to the US to sidestep import tariffs imposed by the Trump administration
Really annoying - also makes everything a discussion about the most incremental changes.
For a daily snapshot of three under-reported international stories, sign up to the Proximities newsletter by @barrymalone.bsky.social open.substack.com/pub/proximit...
Fine Gael's executive will meet in the coming days to discuss the next steps. MEP Seán Kelly; former Tánaiste Frances Fitzgerald and former Minister Heather Humphreys had all considered contesting the party's nomination before the race began.
McGuinness: "I also want to thank all of those people who have done so much to support me, now and in the past. My focus now is my health and my family, and I ask for privacy in the time ahead."
Breaking - Mairead McGuinness out of #Aras25
A reminder that my dad, also called Seán Gallagher, owned the domain name seangallagher dot ie, and (according to him) when SG's presidential campaign called to try and buy it off him, he responded "There's only one Seán Gallagher" and hung up the phone.
All this live at 12.30 now on @virginmedianews.bsky.social - tune in!!!
Describes racist attacks on Indian community as “troubling”. He says it’s an “unfortunate change” and he stresses if you support racism that “I’m not your candidate.”
Who does he admire? Michael D, Mary Robinson. Says she was inspiring and changed opportunities for women and he hopes to do the same on behalf of younger people.
What councils has he got? Says he has proposer and seconder in as many as six councils. He says he has a proposer and seconder in Tipperary and Laois Co Council but he won’t say the other ones.