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Cathal Mac Coille

@cathalmaccoille.bsky.social
2.8K followers 718 following 1.3K posts

I write for Tuairisc.ie and post in English and Irish. Iománaí ar an gclaí. Politics. 🎶 Ceol. Hurling. Cyclist. Deep down quite shallow. 🟩⬜️🟪

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Cathal Mac Coille @cathalmaccoille.bsky.social · 8h
Gonna miss this on Friday nights. Neil Delamere explaining Northern Ireland politics and other edgy comedy gems on ‘The Blame Game’ - latest victim of BBC budget cuts. m.youtube.com/watch?v=6cL8...
m.youtube.com
Northern Ireland politics as a Western
YouTube video by BBC Northern Ireland
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Agnes C. Poirier @agnescpoirier.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
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Cathal Mac Coille @cathalmaccoille.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
On the surface, the public finances look healthy, but… Must read by RTE’s David Murphy. #Budget2027
rte.ie
Alarming truth about Budget 2027 buried in detail
On the surface, the public finances look healthy with unemployment low and the economy purring along nicely, but the alarming truth about the Budget is buried in the detail, writes David Murphy.
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Cathal Mac Coille @cathalmaccoille.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Gnó an lae: páirt a ghlacadh i gcíoradh TG4 ar an mBuiséad. Beo ó 2.30pm. @tg4.bsky.social
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Cathal Mac Coille @cathalmaccoille.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
‘To understand this complex situation is to keep in mind that the Orange Order is a thoroughly sectarian organisation for Protestant people only. ‘This is what the Order says about itself. No Catholics need apply…’ Eamon McCann cuts through lazy ‘two sides’ coverage of the Garvaghy Road stand-off
rebelnews.ie
Garvaghy Road: There Are Not Two Sides - REBEL
The clashes in Portadown between Orange marchers and nationalist residents have widely…
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Philip Boucher-Hayes @philipb-h.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Ireland imports 80% of its wheat. Not great food security. Concentration on livestock farming elbowed Irish wheat out. Imported wheat and flour add considerably to the cost of living crisis. But new crop science opens the door to Irish grown wheat. Listen: 👉 www.rte.ie/listen/clip/...
rte.ie
Food Security: Bread
Only the tiniest fraction of the flour needed to bake the 50kg of bread we eat a year is grown and milled in Ireland, and the cost of what we import is sky rocketing. We take a look at what needs to b...
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Cathal Mac Coille @cathalmaccoille.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Solution?
belfasttelegraph.co.uk
Drumcree deal offered as Orange Order puts forward ‘one and done’ forever march
Loyalists warn Fleadh could face protests if Garvaghy Road offer rejected
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Nicolas Hénin @nicolashenin.net · 04/10/2026
If you're still on X, this is what you endorse.
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Cathal Mac Coille @cathalmaccoille.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Mo cholún. 🇮🇪 🇫🇷
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Cathal Mac Coille @cathalmaccoille.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Machnamh ar cháin turasóireachta in Éirinn ó chathair álainn Angers na Fraince (CT: €1.50 in aghaidh na h-oíche). Mo cholún ar @tuairisc.bsky.social, Dé Sathairn.
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Claire Mitchell @clairemitchell.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
🚨 Open letter from people of Protestant backgrounds concerning the Garvaghy Road 🚨 We feel compelled to speak publicly about what is happening in Portadown 🚨Over the past few hours we have collected over 140 signatures
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Cathal Mac Coille @cathalmaccoille.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Open letter on the Drumcree and Garvaghy Road row signed by people from a Protestant background. Impressive.
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Cathal Mac Coille @cathalmaccoille.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Powerful, brave writing by unionist columnist Sarah Creighton. ‘Drumcree is part of a planned, wider culture war. The belief that unionism must assert itself through a battle a day. ‘There is no sympathy for nationalism here, no shared future where they are our neighbours.’
irishnews.com
Sarah Creighton: Drumcree is a f*** you to nationalism. Is this really what victory looks like for unionism?
If the Drumcree parade is forced down the Garvaghy Road, our peace process will lie in tatters on the tarmac
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Cathal Mac Coille @cathalmaccoille.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Miriam Lord, a true National Treasure, retires.
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Cathal Mac Coille @cathalmaccoille.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Reasoned analysis of the Drumcree/Garvaghy Road crisis and how it could be brought to an end. sluggerotoole.com/2026/09/30/d...
sluggerotoole.com
Drumcree and the limits of law and people power…
Bridgewater is a Slugger reader from Belfast. At the risk of losing half the readership immediately, I should disclose at the outset I am from the nationalist community. Like the vast majority of that...
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Cathal Mac Coille @cathalmaccoille.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
‘His message is clear – wanting kids to be able to walk and cycle is not radical, wanting them to be safe is not radical, and expecting paint to protect them is absurd’. From notes on Tom Flood’s speech in Dublin. Well worth a read by all road-users.
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Cathal Mac Coille @cathalmaccoille.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
The case for planning for the inevitable, well made.
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Cathal Mac Coille @cathalmaccoille.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
‘You can’t both sides this one’ - Claire Hannah.
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Cathal Mac Coille @cathalmaccoille.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Creid nó ná creid… Deascéal ó Phort an Dúnáin.
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Cathal Mac Coille @cathalmaccoille.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
‘The [Parade] commissioners have turned a process lapse into a judgemental catastrophe… Now the courts have taken a mess and managed to make it a tragedy. Watch as seemingly settled disputes unravel across the north’ - Tom Kelly in the @irishnews.com. Too true. www.irishnews.com/opinion/tom-...
irishnews.com
Tom Kelly: The Parades Commission has taken a wrecking ball to power-sharing
This stand-off will have no winner – not the residents or their children, not the PSNI, and not the Executive
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Cathal Mac Coille @cathalmaccoille.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Zero-sum politics in Northern Ireland / the North lead to outcomes that cannot be good - the reason extremists like them. So simplistic statements about what should happen on the Garvaghy Road aren’t much use.
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Cathal Mac Coille @cathalmaccoille.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
On a train from Ventigmiglia in Italy to nearby Menton in France, we stop for 15 minutes while French police board to check nearly every passenger’s ID (I was overlooked for some reason). Heard before about it on this rail line. Still a shock to witness border checks from the EU’s pre-Schengen era.
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Cathal Mac Coille @cathalmaccoille.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Paddy Keenan 1950-2026, music and words. Informed and informative interview by Aoife Nic Cormaic. 💎
rte.ie
The Rolling Wave - 13 September 2026
Traditional and Folk Music in Ireland with Aoife Nic Cormaic. Named after a famous traditional Irish tune.
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David McCann @dmcbfs.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Stephen was such a decent and warm person. He had a great depth of knowledge about politics and history. Always helpful and encouraging. Condolences to his family and his many friends. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Former BBC NI Political Correspondent Stephen walker dies
During a high-profile career at the BBC for three decades, he was an investigative reporter on the Spotlight programme, as well as being both London correspondent and political correspondent.
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Cathal Mac Coille @cathalmaccoille.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
‘Frank made a difference… reporting on how the relationship between money and politics was shaping Dublin city and county contributed substantially to the series of reforms which have limited the impact of that unhealthy relationship’ - Mark Brennock on Frank McDonald, a giant of Irish journalism.
irishtimes.com
Frank McDonald obituary: campaigning journalist changed how we think about urban planning
His reporting was relentless and led to the publication in January 1985 of his ground-breaking book The Destruction of Dublin
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Cathal Mac Coille @cathalmaccoille.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Idir an Dáil linn… Mo cholun. #Gaeilge
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Cathal Mac Coille @cathalmaccoille.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
The best way to pretend Ireland will reduce our fossil fuel emissions is 1 To say they must be reduced, 2 To raise the cost of public transport, 3 To keep down the cost of fossil fuels. Catch: this will only fool those who want to be fooled.
rte.ie
Bus, rail users funding excise cuts, commuter groups say
Increases in public transport fares for adults have been described as "absolutely unacceptable" by commuter groups.
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Cathal Mac Coille @cathalmaccoille.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Good article on the Irish media climate that still blocks reasonable people from expressing reasonable views on ‘trans’ issues. Fair play to the Irish Catholic for standing out against the no-discussion trend by publishing Stella O’Malley’s article.
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Cathal Mac Coille @cathalmaccoille.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
‘This summer’s scorching heat, raging wildfires and deadly floods are a warning of what lies ahead. We must make the overshoot above 1.5 degrees as small and short as possible’ - UN Secretary-General Antőnio Guterres. The title of this climate change report, Limiting Overshoot, says it all.
unep.org
UNEP: World set to cross 1.5°C global warming, but can still limit, adapt to and return from higher temperatures
Global temperature rise is set to cross 1.5°C, likely within the next few years, pushing climate risks and impacts to increasingly dangerous heights, but it is still possible to bring temperatures dow...
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Cathal Mac Coille @cathalmaccoille.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Good analysis by an experienced professional into the positive and negative aspects of Ireland’s pilot drug referral scheme which introduces possible referral to health servicesas an alternative to prosecution.
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Cathal Mac Coille @cathalmaccoille.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
EU ministers discuss the usual European choices on Israel as state violence continues in the Occupied Territories. 1 Say nothing and do nothing OR 2 Say something and do nothing.
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Cathal Mac Coille @cathalmaccoille.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
That feeling when you’re in a club another one of your neighbours doesn’t want to be part of. Iceland votes 52.8/47.2 against talks about EU membership.
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Cathal Mac Coille @cathalmaccoille.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Enthralling drama and compelling French history lesson, with another reminder that war is hell. De Gaulle: Résistance. (at the IFI until Thursday) www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHfh...
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Cathal Mac Coille @cathalmaccoille.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Mo cholún. 🇮🇪 🇮🇸
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Cathal Mac Coille @cathalmaccoille.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
There is another Israel.
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Cathal Mac Coille @cathalmaccoille.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
‘We are a country that believes in having twin official languages’ - Mélanie Joly, Canadian industry minister. m.youtube.com/watch?v=04KT...
m.youtube.com
'We all love French Canadians': Joly hits back at Trump denying attacks on language
YouTube video by CityNews
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Cathal Mac Coille @cathalmaccoille.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
‘Ireland should be a country its own citizens can afford to come home to’ - Niamh O’Donnell, Naples
irishtimes.com
What about us Irish who are stuck abroad because we can’t afford anywhere to live at home?
Housing policy should put people who need homes ahead of those who simply want another investment
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Cathal Mac Coille @cathalmaccoille.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Trí scéal faoi na luachanna daonna is gá a chosaint ón dochar a dhéanann X, TikTok agus na meáin fhrithshóisialta eile. Mo cholún.
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Fietser @americanfietser.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
"But I have kids. Bikes aren't practical!" It's not about the vehicle, it's about the infrastructure. Families don't need to default to cars, but they're often forced into them to exist. 📸 @dutchcycling.nl
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Cathal Mac Coille @cathalmaccoille.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
Oíche mhaith i gCuan Bheanntraí.
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Cathal Mac Coille @cathalmaccoille.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
Na meáin fhrithshóisialta*. Mo cholún. #Gaeilge * The anti-social media.
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Cathal Mac Coille @cathalmaccoille.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
In a Bantry coffee shop. Agreed 💯.
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Tony - Pod Guy - Groves @tonygroves.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
BBC invited Palestinian writer, researcher and analyst Muhammad Shehada on to talk about Israel’s decision to investigate the killing of Hind Rajab. Below is Muhammad’s account of what happened next. Full disclosure: I know him years and he’s a regular on the pod. So naturally I believe him 100%.
@muhammadshehad2
Disappointed the BBC cancelled my interview on
Israel's killing of Hind Rajab
2 producers eagerly reached out. They confirmed the time & one called to prepare a brief for the anchor
She asked me whether Israel's announcement is positive, I explained in detail it was a cover up.
The IDF is blaming the killing of Hind, her uncle, aunt & 4 cousins on the family itself for trying to flee by car & on the ambulance sent to rescue her for "failures in the co-ordination of the movement."
None of this is remotely true! The Red Cross immediately informed the IDF about 5-year-old Hind who was hiding in that motionless car, & they requested permission from Israel to allow an ambulance to rescue them.
After multiple long hours, Israel granted greenlight to the ambulance & provided them with a designated route on a GPS to drive on.soon as the ambulance reached Hind's car, the IDF ambushed & bombed them immediately with an American made anti-tank missile then opened fire on Hind's car. The car was hit with 355 bullets.
Israel then kept that area under lockdown for 12 days, & prevented anyone from approaching.
Hind's mom went daily to the Ahli baptist hospital hoping to find her daughter, until her lifeless body was brought in along with the charred remains of the ambulance men.
Israel then claimed after an "initial investigation" that its troops were NEVER in that area to begin with. They maintained that claim for 2 years despite ample recordings & satellite images debunking this lie.
The only reason Israel is now making this new announcement of a deeper investigation is to shield its soldiers & generals from the International Criminal Court by invoking the principle of "complementarity;" that the ICC cannot investigate a state that is already investigating itself in good faith.I told the BBC producer Israel today also quietly shut down the investigation into the triple tap killing of American, Canadian, British, Australian & Polish citizens in the WCK massacre. Israel blamed the massacre on the aid workers themselves for "deviating from the predesignated route" & for hiring an armed security guard "without informing the IDF" (both claims where debunked by WCK themselves, who had coordinates their every step with the IDF).
I told the producer the Israeli commander responsible for this massacre, Nochi Mendel, is a fanatical settler who had signed a petition calling for starving Gaza & that he was celebrated by settler leaders & supported by Israeli government leaders after what he did.
Mendel even received a box of chocolate from the settler council's leader & a letter of support for what he did.
Mendel was initially dismissed by the IDF & blamed for the massacre, but was quickly & quietly reinstated & promoted in the Defence Ministry as the head of the settlements and notionol infroctrunturo unitIt's abundantly clear Israel is NOT serious about prosecuting any of the atrocities committed in Gaza. Since the genocide began, only two soldiers were punished by the IDF; one for microwaving a living frog & another for cooking sausages in the army kitchen on Shabbat.
The producer asked me: What about the 150 cases the IDF said are pending review?
I answered: it's just a number designed to give the appearance of seriousness, but it's essentially meaningless.
If it took the IDF two whole years to admit the simplest of facts that the entire world had already known, which is that their troops were the ones who fired on Hind Rajab's car, how do you expect them to do with the remaining cases that are not as high profile?
Five minutes after the call, the producer wrote me that they decided to cancel the interview & will not even host anyone else to comment on the issue, & instead they'll play archival footage!
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Cathal Mac Coille @cathalmaccoille.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
How UUP leader Jon Burrows chose local issues over leadership and lost Mike Nesbitt, the party’s only minister in the Stormont Executive. Great backgrounder by @freyamcc.bsky.social
irishtimes.com
Why did the UUP’s Mike Nesbitt resign as Northern Ireland’s minister for health?
Leader Jon Burrows is under pressure to bring stability to a party that finds itself in a political crisis
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Cathal Mac Coille @cathalmaccoille.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Good guide to seeing the ‘spectacular coast’ of our place by train, from Balbriggan at County Dublin’s northern tip to Killiney in the south.
bbc.com
The best way to explore Dublin's spectacular coast is by rail
Many visitors don't realise Dublin has a coastline. Now, a newly expanded rail trail makes it easy to explore the world's only capital city within a Unesco Biosphere Reserve.
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Cathal Mac Coille @cathalmaccoille.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
‘Chasing the market with more incentives, exemptions and subsidies is not an effective - or financially sustainable - response to housing affordability.’ Wise words and alternative ideas in Lorcan Sirr’s op-ed on our endless housing crisis.
irishtimes.com
If our Government wants to make housing more affordable, there is plenty it could do
The Coalition could invest wisely in building more social housing directly, as just 16% of this valuable stock was built by councils last year
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Tjeerd Royaards @tjeerdroyaards.com · 17/08/2026
Peace plan. Cartoon for Dutch newspaper @trouw.nl. #Trump #Netanyahu #BoardOfPeace
Cartoon showing Donald Trump being carried by servants in a golden chair with a Board of Peace banner behind him. In front of the chair, a herald is reading from a document titled 'Gaza peace plan'. Trump is being carried alongside a wall that separates Gaza from Israel, following Netanyahu, who is standing on an elevated platform  attached to a carriage on train tracks running parallel to the wall. He is using a machine gun to shoot down into Gaza. A sign on the platform reads 'Do not disturb'.
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Cathal Mac Coille @cathalmaccoille.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
‘Bímis buíoch mar sin don Uachtarán Trump…’ Mo cholún ar @tuairisc.bsky.social
tuairisc.ie
Tá a dhícheall á dhéanamh ag Trump chun brú a chur orainn déileáil le hathrú aeráide
Tá méadú 82 faoin gcéad ar dhíolachán gluaisteán leictreach mar gheall ar an gcogadh a bhlocáil Caolas Hormuz
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Cathal Mac Coille @cathalmaccoille.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
‘Despite attempts by the Israeli army to block the aid…’ Says it all.
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Cathal Mac Coille @cathalmaccoille.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
News you can use: e-scooters. Safescoot.ie cautions it does not offer legal advice — but a Cork councillor has welcomed the website's 'easier-to-understand' information on whether e-scooters meet legal requirements. Irish Examiner
irishexaminer.com
E-scooters: Website offers help to check if your scooter is legal
Warren Brandt's Safescoot.ie cautions that it does not offer legal advice — but a Cork councillor has welcomed the website's 'easier-to-understand' information
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