County cricket talking points: old timers show that class is permanent Tom Abell, Keith Barker, Keaton Jennings and Sam Robson all enjoyed a good week in the County ChampionshipBy the 99.94 Cricket Blog

www.theguardian.com/sport/99-94-...

Cricket, lovely cricket! Go on you cidermen. #blackbird

Irish Culture and Partition, 1920-1955 (Stephen O'Neill Book Launch) Join Stephen O'Neill in conversation with Eamonn Hughes.

Belfast launch of Irish Culture and Partition 1920-1955 will be at the Seamus Heaney Centre on May 1, from 5.30pm to 7pm. Bígí Linn

Another season done. Up the rip roaring Duns.

A worthy cause. Barry Hines 4eva. ✊

I interviewed him once at a screening of Kes, lovely fella, constantly nurturing the flame of that film.

Patrick Freyne: Here’s why AI is making us dumber and more lonely Writing forces people to resolve internal contradictions and confront their own bullshit. It’s why it’s hard. It’s why it’s beautiful

I wrote about why we should keep reading and writing

www.irishtimes.com/life-style/p...

On Alex Manninger Morning. Hope you’re all well this Friday. I don’t really know where to begin, to be honest. I’ve done as much introspection as I can about the Sporting game. We won. We’re through. That is the most i...

A beautiful, deeply moving tribute by @arseblog.com to Alex Manninger, who died yesterday at the age of 48. arseblog.com/2026/04/on-a...

Very sad news. His contribution to that double winning season will never be forgotten.

RIP.

First highlights revealed for Cinema Rediscovered 10th edition as Early Bird bookings open Early Bird passes are now on sale for the 10

www.watershed.co.uk/news/first-h...

The book cover for Belfastmen: An Intimate History of Life before Gay Liberation. It shows two men sat on a bench in the 1930s.

"Belfastmen: An Intimate History of Life before Gay Liberation" is published TODAY by @cornellupress.bsky.social! I tell the story of how queer men didn't just exist in Belfast but could be accepted by friends, family & colleagues... at least until a moral panic about homosexuality in the 1950s. 🧵

The Arsenal cult hero who also shone at Sporting Before Viktor Gyokeres, Raphael Meade starred for both clubs after switching to Sporting from north London in 1985

Tomorrow night is the 'Raphael Meade derby.' Here's my new piece on the elusive striker who scored a good few goals for both Arsenal and SportingLisbon in the ‘80s - enjoy! arsenal.com/news/arsenal...

Some night for it.

Cannibalism and jail: the funny side of the Russian Revolution Anatoly Marienhof’s newly reissued novel of 1928 is a subversive comedy about the horrors of Bolshevism

“The most delightful thing about a revolution is the element of surprise.”

People jailed “for not understanding the revolution aright”; peasants eating roaches - then each other. I reviewed Anatoly Marienhof’s funny, horrifying Cynics (1928), in a dashing new translation by Bryan Karetnyk:

Decimal penis?

The Actualities, Stephen Sexton - View media Over 129 years of moving images from Northern Ireland, featuring amateur and professional films from 1897 to 2026, brought to you by Northern Ireland Screen.

#Archives30 #ArchivesPast
We invite artists to look at the archive. Poet Stephen Sexton thought about those filmed looking directly into the camera. The resulting poem is stunning and poignant, enhanced by a soundtrack by Ian Livingstone.

digitalfilmarchive.net/media/the-ac...

Great Silence - CQAF “Because wherever he goes, the silence of death follows” On an unforgiving, snow-swept, frontier a group of bloodthirsty bounty hunters, led […]

Coming next, with @cqaf.bsky.social, 'The Great Silence'. Starring Jean-Louis Trintignant and Klaus Kinski, this snow western is a classic anti-western that echoes the political paranoia of Europe of the time.

Screening at the Beanbag Cinema, 6th May, 7pm.

👉🎟️https://cqaf.com/great-silence/

I've said it before and I'll say it again, Mikel Arteta is John Bond with an iPad.

Long suffering postman?

Hugh Odling-Smee - Archive at 25 Over 129 years of moving images from Northern Ireland, featuring amateur and professional films from 1897 to 2026, brought to you by Northern Ireland Screen.

Thanks to our great friend @smeeho7.bsky.social and his selection of Vox Populi for his reflection on our 25th anniversary.

Vox Pops on the streets of Northern Ireland never fail to produce conversations gems - something we hope to continue in Belfast Stories.

Got my copy last week, and am trying to find a bit of time to sit down and get it read.

Among Communists by Sinéad Morrissey: memoir captures North in pressure cooker of weirdness Memoir expresses an attitude of observation that rhymes quietly with poetry, a revelation of a writer and her experience

My review of Sinead Morrissey’s excellent memoir, Among Communists.

www.irishtimes.com/culture/book...

#airmailspecial

We are delighted to announce that Patrick Radden Keefe is returning to HomePlace to discuss his highly anticipated new book, London Falling, in conversation with John Self!

📅 Date: Monday 8th June
⏰ Time: 7.30pm
🎟️ Tickets: £15 (or £37 Ticket & Book Bundle)

Tickets on sale Thursday 2nd April at 2pm

Went to see Weisman’s documentary Ex Libris about the New York Public Library @qftbelfast this afternoon and it was so good I didn’t even notice the 3.5 hours going in. I wish more documentary makers gave the footage this much room to resonate.

Jimmy Stewart rode the same horse, Pie, in 17 films—including 'The Far Country’. A scene required Pie to walk alone down the middle of a street alone. Jimmy leaned in and quietly gave Pie instructions about what to do.

It was filmed in a single take.

See ‘The Far Country' as our matinee at 1 pm.

Maybe international football has run its course. It had a decent crack for the whip, but all the fun went out of it years ago.

This is extraordinary. Words like bells ringing.

Picture of people watching a western film starring Robert Duvall.

Thanks to all who avoided the dissapointment of football and came down to the Beanbag last night to watch 'Open Range' - one of Duvall's last great performances - never has a man looked more like he was enjoying his work.