Kim Bielenberg

'Ireland are a team in decline.' #EngvIre

We had the upbeat weather forecast from Met Eireann today - "Rain clearing to showers"

"This is not who we are" part 2 @aiannucci.bsky.social

Lucy Powell deploys the identity denial defence of PM: " [Keir Starmer] is distraught about the whole thing because it's not who he is." @aiannucci.bsky.social #strongmessagehere

Being slaughtered in Paris makes me feel nostalgic for the seventies #FravIre

At some point Ireland might realise that kicking the ball to the French is perhaps not the best idea #FravIre

Early reviews are in:
‘Even if they showed this on a plane, people would still walk out’

Tom Lehrer famously remarked that political satire became obsolete when Henry Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
And now Vladimir Putin has been asked to join Donald Trump's "Board of Peace".

Climate Changemakers: The Wexford charity that rescues and rehabilitates stranded seals Seal Rescue Ireland is a charity dedicated to the rescue, rehabilitation and release of sick, injured, or orphaned seals. Founded in 2010, the charity was originally based in Dingle, Co Kerry, before…

Climate Changemakers: The Wexford charity that rescues and rehabilitates stranded seals www.independent.ie/life/climate...

The EU's Digital Services Act which Trump objects to requires platforms to act quickly and transparently when illegal content is flagged. Topics covered include instructions for committing terrorist attacks. Also sharing or hosting child sexual exploitation material.

Rose of Tralee 2025 review: From dog yoga to dancing, the opening show didn’t take long to induce a crisis of sanity It’s around the two-hour mark on night one of The Rose of Tralee (RTÉ One, Monday, August 18) that the existential mini-crisis hits: did what I’ve been watching really happen, or did I just imagine al...

Pat Stacey reviews the Rose of Tralee coverage: "Maybe I’m dying and the whole thing is a hallucination. Or maybe I’m already dead and this is a waiting room in hell..." #roseoftralee
www.independent.ie/entertainmen...

So, it was Tom Lehrer who said: "Political satire became obsolete when Henry Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.”

Don’t sing a song or drink too slowly in Mulligan’s, the pub that welcomed JFK The 250-year-old history of Mulligan’s of Poolbeg Street is dominated by the quirky approach of its bar staff and the oddball antics of some of its regulars.

Don’t sing a song or drink too slowly in Mulligan’s, the pub that welcomed JFK

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

Runaway actors, ‘pint commando’ feminists and a corpse calling in for a parting glass: the pub that has made a name for the dramatic entrance At first glance, Neary’s pub on Chatham Street seems sedate and genteel with its timeless ruby red curtains and ancient gas lamps.

Runaway actors, ‘pint commando’ feminists and a corpse calling in for a parting glass - Neary's pub is known for the dramatic entrance www.independent.ie/irish-news/r...

@anniewestdotcom.bsky.social

How spies, rebels and James Joyce’s singing brought colour to the Yellow House pub If ever there was an outstanding example of a landmark pub in South County Dublin, it is surely the Yellow House in Rathfarnham.

How spies, rebels and James Joyce’s singing brought colour to the Yellow House pub
www.independent.ie/irish-news/h...

In Trump's America, free speech no longer means a range of opinions

The bar where you can find drinking cats, a 100-year-old fish and a moose head donated by Peter O’Toole The actor Peter O’Toole liked to tell a story about the time he bought a pub in Wicklow when he was out on the tear one night.

The bar where you can find drinking cats, a 100-year-old fish and a moose head donated by Peter O’Toole
www.independent.ie/irish-news/t...

Ireland need to avoid kicking the ball back to England. That was what led to the English try #ireveng

Cuala fans stream through Dalkey to catch specially commissioned DART trains to the All Ireland Club Final at Croke Park

RG Snyman should have been Player of the Match, even as a sub #leinstervbath

Sex workers, a murdered Marxist friend and prayers for a pain-free death: God is in the details as Pope Francis tells his life story The opening of Pope Francis’s memoir, a historic first for a sitting pontiff, sets out how he might easily have never been born. His grandparents, and their son Mario, Pope Francis’ father, had been b...

And here’s the text of the review:

m.independent.ie/entertainmen...

The Pope has published his Autobiography Salvador Ryan, Professor of Ecclesiastial History, Maynooth University, gives his opinion on the first ever autobiography published by a sitting Pope.

On this morning’s Morning Ireland @rte.ie I spoke with @audreycarville.bsky.social about Pope Francis’s new memoir “Hope”, which I review today in the @independent.ie online:

www.rte.ie/radio/radio1...

It's surely high time that BBC2 had a countdown show looking back at the best of its retrospectives - with a repeat at Christmas #60songs

All comments on December 22 about there being a commendable "stretch in the evening" have officially been transferred from Twitter to Blue Sky @theauldsthretch.bsky.social

Katy Hayes: From Magdalene laundries to racy Jilly Cooper novels, Ireland in the 1980s was full of contradictions It was announced last week that Disney+ is green-lighting a second series of the TV series Rivals, based on Jilly Cooper’s 1980s novels.

This piece by Katy Hayes on the parallel lives led in 1980s Ireland rings true. A signficant section of the population simply ignored Catholic strictures.
From Magdalene laundries to racy Jilly Cooper novels, Ireland in the 1980s was full of contradictions www.independent.ie/opinion/comm...

A CNN team rescued a prisoner from Syrian jail – but all may not have been as it seemed After airing an emotional segment showing a man supposedly freed from a Syrian prison after spending three months in the dark, CNN now says it’s investigating whether he gave a “false identity” after ...

A CNN team rescued a "prisoner "from a Syrian jail – but all may not have been as it seemed
www.independent.ie/world-news/m...

"Magisterial"

Said almost in the same sentence as "the people have spoken"