But we also replaced one Khamenei with another; empowered the IRGC; did nothing for the protesters, killed over a thousand civilians, including hundreds of children and lost at least 13 US service members, alongside over 500 wounded); left Iran with enough highly enriched uranium to make 10-12 nuclear weapons; gave it greater incentive to try to build them; irreparably tarnished America's reputation; did lasting damage to the US and world economies; depleted our arsenal of scarce missile-defence interceptors; diverted valuable military assets from other regions; empowered Russia with an oil price windfall; triggered further conflict in Lebanon; further eroded domestic and international law; and may have left Iran in control of the most valuable waterway in the world, in a position to earn tens of billions of dollars in revenue per year through tolls, while holding the world economy hostage.

So @jderbyshire.ft.com asked @philgordondc.bsky.social if the Iran war is the US’s Suez moment. He said no, but then pithily and pitilessly sums up how it has been a comprehensive strategic failure. Oof!
www.ft.com/content/0cbc...

Elias Amro

Palestinian student Elias Amro overcame significant personal challenges to graduate top of his class at DCU and develop a groundbreaking AI-powered app. Read more via RTÉ News: launch.dcu.ie/3OglSt0

"allowed a bull to become trapped between a pillar and concrete wall where it died, records state."
Jesus
www.irishtimes.com/crime-law/20...

Fuel protest organiser had tax judgments of €550,000 and was convicted of cruelty after 60 cattle died on farm One of the main organisers of the fuel blockades has had six judgments for a total of almost €550,000 secured against him by the Revenue Commissioners.

It's always the ones you suspect the most...

"He was fined €6,250 in connection with a number of offences including leaving an animal with its head trapped, not providing water, not burying carcasses and not feeding animals a wholesome diet."

www.independent.ie/irish-news/f...

#Spéirghorm

Select tickets – Protecting human rights on a shared island: Achievements, challenges and prospects – Royal Irish Academy, 19 Dawson Street, Dublin 2 Protecting human rights on a shared island: Achievements, challenges and prospects – Royal Irish Academy, 19 Dawson Street, Dublin 2, Tue 12 May 2026 - Protecting Human Rights on a Shared Island: Achi...

Protecting human rights on a shared island: Achievements, challenges and prospects @arinsproject.bsky.social
www.tickettailor.com/events/royal...

Congrats Fionnuala

New student housing strategy distinctly underwhelming The new student housing strategy puts the creation of 32,000 additional places completely into the hands of the private sector, writes Emma O'Kelly.

www.rte.ie/news/2026/03...

Dr Vincent Tawiah

China in Africa: investment and trade work well when there’s strong oversight, and badly when there isn’t.
Piece by Dr Vincent Tawiah, Associate Professor of Accounting at DCU Business School, for The Conversation UK.
Read more: launch.dcu.ie/410dFvK

President Catherine Connolly has warned the catastrophic consequences of violating the UN Charter cannot be ignored.

🧵 [1/2]

'Shocking and numbing': President Connolly condemns 'horror of war' in the Middle East Catherine Connolly said on this day ‘the catastrophic consequences of violating the UN Charter cannot be ignored’.

President Catherine Connolly said the war in the Middle East constitutes 'deliberate assaults on international law' and affirmed Ireland's constitutional commitment to peace jrnl.ie/6978670

It’ll be ironic if the EU’s anti coercion toolkit gets deployed first against the US rather than China, as first envisioned.

The real threat to democracy doesn't come from 'family voting'. It comes from the losing side refusing go accept they've lost

Reacting to Labour's devastating loss to the Green Party in Gorton and Denton, Keir Starmer claims that only Labour can unite communities. I agree. He convinced Muslims to vote for a white working class woman representing a party led by a gay Jewish man.

Over the past eighteen months, the political science consensus on the nature of Labour's vote has been absolutely correct - and yet also completely ignored by pundits and strategists who continue to get it wrong.

Article - Nuffield Politics Research Centre

@martamiori.bsky.social and I have been writing, since 2024, about why Labour's 'Reform' challenge and emphasis was based on a misunderstanding of Labour's vote. Here for anyone interested: politicscentre.nuffield.ox.ac.uk/news-and-eve...

The number of people living in emergency homelessness accommodation has surpassed 17,000 for the first time - the figure stood at 17,112 at the end of January 2026, including 5,319 children. The overall figure is up 10.6% in the last twelve months. @virginmedianews.bsky.social

Green win shows progressive voters are now voting against Labour as well as Reform Gorton and Denton byelection shatters Labour strategy of neglecting its core base while focusing on Reform defectors

Following up some of my morning thoughts: "Labour’s basic electoral problem comes from the fact that left-leaning voters are indeed choosing to vote against rather than for parties. The problem is that progressives aren’t just voting against Reform. They are now actively voting against Labour."

Keir Starmer's attempt to paint the Greens as extremists yet again reveals his intolerance of political difference. His instincts are illiberal and authoritarian.

Labour MP Ian Byrne: "The lines from the PM and Cabinet today essentially labelling the Green Party as extremist is appalling, desperate and frankly embarrassing.

"It also makes very clear that the leadership has zero understanding of where it has been going wrong."

The current argument of the British right is that Muslims turned out in "blocs" with "family voting" to cast their ballots for a party led by a gay Jewish man, and this shows that multiculturalism has failed, voting is "sectarian" and we are in a crisis.

Hmmmmmm.

“Can you imagine explaining being afraid of UEFA “disciplinary measures” to an orphan amputee who lives in a tent?”
~Aoife Moore

The Irish News

☕️🥐

Breaking Europe’s Trans-Atlantic Habit: The End of the Senior Partner Myth When U.S. President Donald Trump floated the possibility of taking Greenland by force, European leaders reacted with outrage — and then, almost

Remember when Rutte said Europe should stop dreaming about defending itself?

Moritz Graefrath and I wrote an answer to that claim in @warontherocks.bsky.social.

warontherocks.com/2026/02/brea...

Communities fight 'corporate' bid for seaweed rights Communities on Ireland's west coast say they will fight to safeguard their traditional seaweed rights against what they describe as a "corporate takeover "of their livelihoods.

Communities on Ireland's west coast say they will fight to safeguard their traditional seaweed rights against what they describe as a "corporate takeover "of their livelihoods.

Screenshot of a CNN segment shared by Acyn. A split-screen shows commentator Lydia Moynihan on the left and Kevin O’Leary on the right during a heated exchange. The chyron reads, “Obama: Dems need to avoid scolding and ‘virtue-signaling.’” The post quotes O’Leary referencing China and concentration camps, and McGowan responding about West Virginia.

I spent my childhood inside of American concentration camps. I know one when I see one. And that is what ICE is building.

First article of 2026 out. "India’s security approach and its space in global politics", with Vidushi Kaushik (lead author), @dublincityuni.bsky.social, in Revista UNISCI, Universidad Complutense de Madrid - issue focused on India's new role in Global Politics.
www.unisci.es/indias-secur...

Taskforce to tackle high electricity prices has met just three times Record disclosed to Sinn Féin TD Pa Daly, who said it was a ‘talking shop’ to deflect from crisis

We all dread the arrival of our monthly electricity and gas energy bills

And the govt task force hasn’t bothered their backsides

www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2026...

If you're a victim of repeated flooding, you need to start looking at land use upstream.

One of these sponges up vast amounts of water, releasing it slowly, the other does not. One reduces flooding, the other *increases* it.

Without addressing this core driver, it'll just keep on getting worse.

No 10 says customs union still ‘red line’ after EU suggests bloc ‘open’ to talks Downing Street has rejected the prospect of rejoining an EU customs union after an official from the bloc said Brussels would have an “open mind” to discussing it. European commissioner for finance Va...

Downing Street has rejected the prospect of rejoining an EU customs union after an official from the bloc said Brussels would have an “open mind” to discussing it