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Finbarr O'Reilly

@finoreilly

Irish science fiction writer (possibly the world's slowest). Squid, spaceships, síntí fada -- what's not to like? https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/author/finbarr-oreilly/

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Latest posts by Finbarr O'Reilly @finoreilly

Text reads "Nad+ injections now £199 Limited Time Offer Ends Sunday. My London Pharmacy" above picture of black woman with short hair holding giant pill bottle

Text reads "Nad+ injections now £199 Limited Time Offer Ends Sunday. My London Pharmacy" above picture of black woman with short hair holding giant pill bottle

They'll never be able to inject pills that size into my nads

10.03.2026 00:21 👍 4 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
Preview
Did baby boomers eat all the pies? John Lanchester on the truth about the generation gap It’s a grim time to be in your 20s, no doubt, but don’t blame it all on older people: being chopped up into ever smaller rivalries only serves the market

This is excellent. As someone only a little younger than Lanchester, I agree with every word. The stats on Brexit are astonishing.

www.theguardian.com/inequality/2...

08.03.2026 18:09 👍 28 🔁 6 💬 2 📌 0

"I don't want to have to explain to my kids what gay people are" is ridiculous. You have to explain everything to them! They've never seen anything before! What else are you doing this about? You don't like broccoli so you just refuse to ever let your child know about what broccoli is? Okay man

08.03.2026 01:52 👍 1847 🔁 454 💬 9 📌 13
Preview
‘It means missile defence on datacentres’: drone strikes raise doubts over Gulf as AI superpower Iran’s targeting of commercial datacentres in the UAE and Bahrain signals a new frontier in asymmetric warfare

Only a matter of time before the billionaires:
▪️ put missile defences on their data centres (and homes/yachts/bunkers)
▪️put 'AI' in control of them
▪️blow up a passing school bus, ED-209-style
▪️pay PR firms to give victims the full NRA/Alex Jones treatment

www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...

07.03.2026 22:58 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

the point of this story being

- a majority oppose farage
- our stupid electoral system means that he could in theory win even so
- the voters understand this enough to switch votes (i.e. to vote *against* him) so that he doesn't

07.03.2026 10:35 👍 13 🔁 4 💬 1 📌 0
Preview
Nostalgia Ends Here: The 2000s Sucked, Actually A decade of recession, war, and fearmongering. But at least we had clear plastic electronics...

I wrote a whole piece about how dire the media landscape was in the 2000s, and how everything became an apologia for the police state:

www.typebarmagazine.com/2024/05/29/nostalgia-ends-here-the-2000s-sucked-actually/

06.03.2026 01:04 👍 33 🔁 8 💬 1 📌 1

That, as they say, is how you do it.

05.03.2026 17:08 👍 7 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0

Time is the main bit that was missing for me. Pointless to compare the attitudes of 20-somethings and 70-somethings now. What were boomers' attitudes 50 years ago?

05.03.2026 13:15 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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Well I hate to imagine what a *worse* political strategist would do to the polling.

05.03.2026 08:05 👍 632 🔁 132 💬 62 📌 29

Awks.

05.03.2026 09:58 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Sparing a thought for all the parents who remembered at half past eight this morning that its World Book Day.

05.03.2026 09:44 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Oh no, it's a... Farage

05.03.2026 08:00 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Preview
Gen Z men twice as likely as baby boomers to believe wives should obey husbands Global survey shows young men hold more traditional views about gender roles than older generations

'Men in their 20s are fucking eejits' headline aside, what a dumb survey.

Of course fewer boomers believe this now - they've had 50 years of experience with women.

The comparison should surely be 'what did boomers believe when they were eejits in their 20s?'.

www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...

05.03.2026 07:58 👍 4 🔁 2 💬 1 📌 0
04.03.2026 00:59 👍 7576 🔁 1553 💬 91 📌 39
Preview
Trump says he fears Iran’s next leader could be ‘as bad as the previous person’ US president suggests worst-case result of assassination would be regime change that fails to relieve repression

We know what you mean, Don.

www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...

04.03.2026 07:55 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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Oh now I get it. Dubai is Golgafrinchan Ark B.

03.03.2026 15:00 👍 1816 🔁 410 💬 198 📌 107
Preview
An expat in Dubai has a startling revelation: the Stephen Collins cartoon Reality check …

Just outstanding.
www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

03.03.2026 20:54 👍 1 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0

Mine was more Secret Seven than Mallory Towers, but otherwise almost identical. Is it an Irish thing, I wonder?
In fact, the first thing I remember writing was a terrible knock-off of a Three Investigators story. I loved those books so much.

03.03.2026 13:21 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

This is nothing. Just send Mahmood out again to announce some more anti-refugee policies and you can easily find your way to fifth place.

03.03.2026 06:50 👍 955 🔁 218 💬 41 📌 7

The Luvvie Spoonful

02.03.2026 14:06 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Screen grab from FT:
Trump 'very disappointed' in Starmer's stance on Iran strikes
US president says prime minister 'took far too long' to allow UK bases to be used for strikes
Image shows B-1 bomber taking off from Diego Garcia

Screen grab from FT: Trump 'very disappointed' in Starmer's stance on Iran strikes US president says prime minister 'took far too long' to allow UK bases to be used for strikes Image shows B-1 bomber taking off from Diego Garcia

Britain knew this once, but despite all the flag-waving, 'history' podcasts and Spitfire flypasts, it has forgotten the lesson:

Nothing will ever be enough for fascists.

02.03.2026 12:48 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

"A mensch": an honuorable, decent, and upstanding individual.

"A Louise Mensch": an almost forgotten type of nutjob who texts the Pope to complain that his anti-war stance is woke.

02.03.2026 11:23 👍 15 🔁 3 💬 1 📌 1

Neil Patrick Harris in Starship Troopers?

02.03.2026 08:49 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Preview
Refugee status to be temporary as Shabana Mahmood rips up rules on UK asylum Home secretary announces 30-month protection limit, with refugees required to leave if their home countries are later judged safe

We just have to hope she never gets Starkiller Base operational www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

01.03.2026 23:47 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
01.03.2026 15:41 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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a less affluent suburb of manchester just elected a plumber & those who insist we listen to the working class are furious

turns out it doesn't count if you're pro-trans & pro-immigration

01.03.2026 13:06 👍 1959 🔁 324 💬 19 📌 26

As an academic born and raised in Denmark who researches and writes about Danish politics, I can confidently say that Cowley has no idea what he’s talking about. The piece is full of factual errors and falsehoods

01.03.2026 13:19 👍 299 🔁 62 💬 8 📌 8
Preview
A Danish lesson for Labour on how to stop migrants and start winning Like the home secretary, I visited recently to learn how the centre-left is riding high and reclaiming the asylum debate from the populist right

Denmark has *far* worse outcomes - economic, social and integration - than the UK.

Just a fantasyland for those who want an excuse for their own xenophobia and/or are incapable of doing the hard work of confronting the UK's real problems.

www.thetimes.com/world/europe...

01.03.2026 09:50 👍 618 🔁 155 💬 25 📌 26
The Telegraph Tom Sharpe 
Ireland’s freeloading on the Royal Navy has plumbed new depths. It must stop
We don’t have enough resources to look after ourselves properly – let alone carry the Irish

The Telegraph Tom Sharpe Ireland’s freeloading on the Royal Navy has plumbed new depths. It must stop We don’t have enough resources to look after ourselves properly – let alone carry the Irish

They're are at it again, lads.

Next they'll need Irish waters for their defence, need to stop craic traffickers and want to mine for Kerrygold.

Maybe we can lease some Martello towers back to ye, Tom, eh?

28.02.2026 20:22 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
But a party source said Mahmood would not learn “the wrong lessons” from the byelection. “The idea that we are losing Muslim voters over immigration is plain wrong,” a party source said.

But a party source said Mahmood would not learn “the wrong lessons” from the byelection. “The idea that we are losing Muslim voters over immigration is plain wrong,” a party source said.

True. For example, Labour has lost my vote over immigration and I'm not a Muslim.

28.02.2026 19:06 👍 6 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 0