President Connolly's Council of State meets to discuss government's draft asylum laws The council was convened to examine the constitutionality of the International Protection Bill 2026.

President Connolly's Council of State meets to discuss government's draft asylum laws jrnl.ie/7017964

President Connolly to meet with Council of State The Council of State is to meet today to consider the constitutionality of the International Protection Bill 2026.

The Council of State is to meet today to consider the constitutionality of the International Protection Bill 2026.

Stage 1: make a fake claim on X/Twitter. Let it circulate

Stage 2: post someone else’s AI generated image that “proves” your claim.

Stage 3: Get Grok to “confirm” this bullshit is true.

I'm open to correction on this point. (Note though that any time spent by teachers using this is publicly funded.) But regardless, the other points all hold and amount to a lamentable situation.

This is a genuinely mindblowing combination. 1) Deliberately false information, 2) promoted in schools, 3) using public money, 4) in the service of private profits, 5) at the cost of our collapsing ecosystem.

President Connolly to convene meeting of the Council of State regarding the International Protection Bill 2026 | President of Ireland Welcome to the website of the President of Ireland.

President Connolly to convene meeting of the Council of State regarding the International Protection Bill 2026

president.ie/en/media-lib...

Book Launch: The Rights of Children and Youth in the Climate Crisis: Action and Litigation by Aoife Daly, Florencia Paz Landeira and Liesl Muller

Join us on Thurs 21 May,The Hub, @ucc.ie

More info & registration: www.ucc.ie/en/law/news/...

It's worth noting here that these aren't bombings. This is demolition

The IDF are able to freely walk around here and rig these obviously residential properties with demolition explosives, so it's not like there's any threat at all to them

This is, VERY clearly, the war crime of wanton destruction

Let's see why clean energy technologies are so much more energy secure than oil.

A single solar panel (450W) costs about €100, same as a tank of petrol.

How many EV kilometres can the solar panel power compared to the tank of diesel?

Take a guess while I work it out on the back of an envelope.

Remember when they wouldn't pass the Occupied Territories Bill because it would violate EU rules? Was Israel violating international law and committing a genocide an insufficiently "acute" situation? #Spéirgorm

Pete Hegseth is a disaster of a defense secretary. It’s no surprise | Margaret Sullivan The former Fox host has misled the public, prayed for violence and clashed with the press. This is not a serious military leader

"With his bloodthirsty utterances, his fierce loyalty to Trump and his appalling inability to manage this huge moment in world history, Hegseth is every bit the disaster that anybody sensible could have seen coming," writes @sulliview.bsky.social.

For those asking about VAT: similar directives require motor fuels to be subject to the ‘standard’ rate of VAT, which in Ireland is 23%. Lowering VAT on motor fuels means having to cut the 23% rate for everything. Each 1% cut would cost the State €684m per year and reduce a litre of fuel by c. 1.7c.

Having already cut excise by 20c/l, and increased the rebate for hauliers and transport companies, it’s already pretty much at the legal floor. There would have to be a change of EU directives to go any lower. (2/2)

Just worth saying, for absolutely legal clarity: the government does not have the legal prerogative to abolish carbon tax in its entirety. Carbon tax is a form of excise, and EU directives require excise on diesel to be a minimum of 33c per litre. (1/2)

Sorry, what now?

You want the carbon tax abolished and VAT and excise cut, but it transpires that you don’t actually pay your taxes.

Right so.

Western Governments will no doubt continue to support this on some pretext along the lines of "Israel is the only democracy in the region."

As should be abundantly clear by now, mass slaughter can be perpetrated by all sorts of regimes - democratic or otherwise.

Israel ordered civilians to evacuate south Beirut and then bombed north Beirut

The Blasket Islands viewed from Dún Chaoin, with waves breaking on the rocks.

There are still pure and beautiful things in the world ...

The Blasket Islands on a sunny Spring day.

Genocidal rhetoric against Iran only strengthens the Iranian regime—regardless of whether or not that rhetoric is acted upon.

Such rhetoric also provides proof of concept for any perceived need within the regime to obtain nuclear weapons and makes them less likely to negotiate away the possibility.

This is precisely what many have feared and warned about: a manufactured crisis or security threat could be invoked to create an emergency, enabling Orbán to justify postponing or cancelling the elections.

Hard to believe that in what used to be one of world’s most prestigious newspapers, neither the NYT writers nor editors appear to know what the not-so-obscure acronym NATO stands for.
(Hint: it’s *not* the below)

BTW, a whopper like this probably would get you fired from a college paper in Ireland.

The world looks on and shrugs as over half a million people are expelled from their homes - again - in clear disregard and violation of every relevant norm. Larger in scale than what Russia did in Mariupol (which the whole Western world condemned).

My latest column: Ireland’s data centre policy will drive significantly greater fossil fuel use, contradicting multiple statutory and policy targets which require rapid reductions instead.

www.irishtimes.com/environment/...

These are the seven people President Catherine Connolly has appointed to the Council of State The group has a background in human rights and legal work.

I am tremendously honoured to have been appointed today to the Council of State by President Catherine Connolly. It's great to be joined by such distinguished members, with the academy strongly represented. In Ireland, at least, expertise still matters. jrnl.ie/6999677

CNN exposes the mindset of the IDF.

An Israeli soldier openly admits on camera that they are helping illegal settlers steal Palestinian land and justifies settler violence as ’revenge’.

A demonstration from the Simon Community, coinciding with today’s figures.

1️⃣7️⃣,3️⃣0️⃣8️⃣

Another new record for people living in emergency accommodation, as of the end of February 2026. The overall number includes 5,457 children, and is up 12.5% in a year.

@virginmedianews.bsky.social

Seen in this context, the prospect of deradicalization is nothing more than a forlorn hope for avoiding the harsh reality, which is the following: The only way Israel can ensure how the Gaza Strip will be governed, and who will govern it, is to govern it itself. Moreover, the only way Israel can govern the Gaza Strip without becoming an external oppressor of "another people" is to remove "the other people" from the confines of the Gaza Strip itself. This is the only feasible path to durable deradicalization of Gaza. This is not radical right-wing radicalism. It is merely sound and sober political science. The writer spent seven years in operational capacities in the Israeli defense establishment, is the founder of the Israel Institute for Strategic Studies, a member of the Israel Defense & Security Forum

Open call for the full ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Gaza on the Jerusalem Post.

This is Israeli political culture, and as the author note: “This is not radical right-wing radicalism. It is merely sound and sober political science.”

Genocide as as a science.

Something else very fucked up about the whole Grok story in retrospect, as relates to Ireland at least, is that the government's approach was to stick their fingers in their ears and hope people would stop caring and... it kind of worked?

Russia plans to illegally annex lands it invaded, even as its military falters. Israel Plans to Control Large Parts of Southern Lebanon, Defense Minister Says

The difference between these two is racism

State system failing vulnerable children - Ombudsman The State's child care system is failing to protect some of its most vulnerable according to a report published by the Ombudsman for Children's Office (OCO).

The State's child care system is failing to protect some of its most vulnerable according to a report published by the Ombudsman for Children's Office