Sign in

Lee Hurley

@hleehurley.com
26K followers 1.2K following 25K posts

Belfast writer. He/him. NUJ. I mostly moan about the media, politics & Arsenal. "Big beast transgender activist" [The Telegraph]. The Trans Agenda [on a break] reports on anti-trans media coverage in UK papers, subscribe here transagenda.info

PostsRepliesMedia
Lee Hurley @hleehurley.com · 7h
You can understand why the dumbest fucks on the planet would want to feel they control 'super intelligence'
26811
Lee Hurley @hleehurley.com · 7h
Peter Tatchell is saying things again
6696
Reposted by Lee Hurley
Aida @aidap.bsky.social · 7h
... Like who exactly is labour fighting with over trans rights if they are pro-trans rights?
0443
Lee Hurley @hleehurley.com · 7h
I don't mean to be that person but this is a Labour event and Labour are the government and Labour appointed the chair of the EHRC and Labour could stop this all any time they wanted.
718735
Lee Hurley @hleehurley.com · 8h
They're allowing Nandy out and about. Has she said anything about the biggest British sporting scandal yet given her brief? Apparently City had the verdict in July so if that's true she'd have known then too. Anything?
4243
Reposted by Lee Hurley
A.V. Deggar @avdeggar.bsky.social · 8h
Don’t get me wrong: I’d love to see positive, radical change in this moribund country—this is my home. But that’s also why I have little faith that it’ll happen. The past is prologue, and for most of my life, the only politics allowed has been a competition between different models of decline.
1193
Lee Hurley @hleehurley.com · 8h
If a politician crying on a stage in a speech he would have planned meticulously is all you need to jump back on board the Labour train, you were never really off it and care more about performative politics than actual cruelty.
215324
Lee Hurley @hleehurley.com · 8h
My Arsenal account is barely usable tonight and this one is mostly fine
2120
Lee Hurley @hleehurley.com · 10h
The official verdict is out - £900m of unprecedented financial cheating. The biggest football scandal Britain has ever seen, described today by Jason Burt as a 'rules row'. Read the findings for yourself now:
26911
Lee Hurley @hleehurley.com · 13h
You all know I've been (intermittenly) working on the history of a trans man in Belfast in the late 1800s. There isn't that much actually about him but I have found out loads about the pub he was in on the day he died (he fell drunk down some stairs), including 2 murders, a possibly-connected Lord..
1421
Lee Hurley @hleehurley.com · 14h
I would like it put on record that I fucking hate this tiny bastard of a roundabout. Look how many pedestrian crossings there are, who designed this shit? Pedestrians hate it, too. You need about half an hour to get through this at rush hour.
five exits around a very small roundabout, four of them have a pedestrian crossing about 10 feet from the end of the road. The one without is the entrance to a major college
14361
Reposted by Lee Hurley
John Watts @wattsgoingon.bsky.social · 14h
Also, if a particular behaviour is illegal, it should surely be illegal for everyone - the fact that you're elderly or wearing a dog collar shouldn't matter.
171
Lee Hurley @hleehurley.com · 14h
When I say the north of Ireland has been dealing with the 'flag issue' for a a long time, this is from 1881
ORANGE REGALIA.

NORTH OF IRELAND WHOLESALE AND
RETAIL ORANGE REPOSITORY.

NATHANIEL DANE & CO.,
31, YORK STREET, BELFAST.

WE ARE NOW ENGAGED PAINTING
those historic scenes so highly commemorative of the principles of our Loyal Institution, so that we shall be ready at any moment to supply the brethren all over the globe with our celebrated Flags from £4 15s up; guaranteed not to crack.
1183
Lee Hurley @hleehurley.com · 15h
This would be at least somewhat believable if the police, operating on instruction from the Home Office, hadn't done just exactly that with apparently eager willingness.
812330
Lee Hurley @hleehurley.com · 16h
I'm researching the previous owners of a pub from the late 1800s and have ended up reading about Lord Darnley, who "eschewed all romantic and intimate relationships, as he believe he was a teapot and it might damage his 'spout'"
1112818
Reposted by Lee Hurley
Evan Urquhart @evanurquhart.bsky.social · 16h
As a survivor reading between the lines of this very carefully written story it sounds like Jonathan McKinsey was a trans man in an abusive and controlling marriage who was targeted for violence repeatedly by his ex-wife and her parents and eventually murdered. But as a reporter? I can't be sure.
nytimes.com
Couple Accused of Killing Their Son-in-Law in Bay Area Park (Gift Article)
Jonathan McKinsey, an engineer who worked in the games department for The New York Times, was fatally shot Saturday in a San Francisco suburb. The police have accused his parents-in-law, both 76.
1147792
Lee Hurley @hleehurley.com · 17h
Bought an adapter to allow me to use my Olympus lenses on a Nikon but got the wrong one because I stupidly thought 'Olympus to Nikon' was what I needed and not 'Nikon to Olympus' 🙄
5351
Reposted by Lee Hurley
The National Union of Journalists @nujofficial.bsky.social · 17h
At a vigil in Belfast yesterday, the NUJ's Assistant General Secretary called for the immediate release of the Police Ombudsman’s report into police handling of Martin O'Hagan's murder, and for a new independent investigation. 📷 credit: @kevinc55.bsky.social www.nuj.org.uk/resource/nuj...
nuj.org.uk
NUJ demands justice on 25th anniversary of O’Hagan murder
A large crowd gathered in Belfast yesterday (28 September) to remember NUJ member Martin O’Hagan and demand justice.
067
Reposted by Lee Hurley
Microplastics Inc. @microplasticsinc.bsky.social · 19h
This is the journalistic equivalent of telling ghost stories around a campfire with a torch under your chin. Risible.
07818
Lee Hurley @hleehurley.com · 19h
Happened at the same time as Jack the Ripper, has never been solved. The woman was believed to be around 24 but they don't know who she was. Had never heard of this.
OCTOBER 3, 1888.

THE WHITECHAPEL
TRAGEDIES.

ANOTHER MURDER AND
MUTILATION.

LONDON, TUESDAY.—The Central News learns that there was found in a recess of the foundations of the new police offices, Thames Embankment, the trunk of a female much decomposed, minus head, arms, and legs, tightly bound by a cord and wrapped in some kind of cloth. It is now at the Mortuary, Millbank Street. Dr. Bond, divisional surgeon, has made a preliminary examination. It has been suggested that the two arms recently found near Pimlico may belong to the trunk. The discovery was made by a man in the employ of the builder who has secured the contract for the erection of the new police headquarters upon the site of the abortive National Opera House speculation. The man had occasion to go into a vaulted cellar which was built by the contractor for the “Opera House” some years ago. He was first startled by the horrible stench which filled the place, and which caused him to look around to see whence it came. To his horror he saw a large mass of decomposed flesh, which on closer observation proved to be the headless, armless, legless trunk of a female.
1200
Reposted by Lee Hurley
Press Gazette @pressgazette.co.uk · 19h
Former Conservative Party deputy chairman Lord Ashcroft has acquired a minority stake in Mirror publisher Reach dailybusinessgroup.co.uk/2026/09/tory...
dailybusinessgroup.co.uk
Tory backer Lord Ashcroft takes stake in Reach – Daily Business
Former Conservative party deputy chairman Lord Ashcroft has acquired a minority stake in Reach, publisher of the Daily Record, Mirror and Express
135
Lee Hurley @hleehurley.com · 19h
It's quite a thing to see one of the most well known sports journalists call the biggest cheating scandal in the history of British football a 'rules row'. Telegraph, obviously.
810414
Lee Hurley @hleehurley.com · 20h
How on earth is it over £7 for some instant coffee?
6280
Lee Hurley @hleehurley.com · 20h
Front page of the Telegraph
Screens may harm children more than poverty
The Daily Telegraph29 Sep 2026By Laura Donnelly HEALTH EDITOR
8227
Lee Hurley @hleehurley.com · 20h
The papers are really desperate for that RAF thing to be terrorism, eh...
4862
Lee Hurley @hleehurley.com · 20h
"medieval monarch" wise the fuck up
Belfast Telegraph, Sam McBride - ‘O’neill’s behav­ing like medi­eval mon­arch, flout­ing courts she is bound to respect’
O’neill’s view of her power akin to that of Richard Nixon, and has pro­foundly dis­turb­ing implic­a­tions in other areas
Belfast Telegraph
Sam Mcbride
29 Sep 2026

Rewind 15 seconds

Listen

Forward 15 seconds

Switch to focused listening
What has happened in Portadown over the last 48 hours has rami­fic­a­tions which will echo for years because Michelle O’neill has shown an under­stand­ing of con­sti­tu­tional law, which is closer to that of a medi­eval mon­arch than a demo­cratic gov­ern­ment min­is­ter.

What she has done will be wildly pop­u­lar among many Sinn Féin sup­port­ers, but the First Min­is­ter has brought that pop­ular­ity at the cost of fun­da­mental prin­ciples which exist to pro­tect the wider pub­lic good in a civ­il­ised soci­ety.
4424
Lee Hurley @hleehurley.com · 20h
"Ireland players have alleged that goalscorer Adam Idah was racially abused by Israel fans during the controversial Nations League match in Hungary on Sunday night." [Times]
Ireland accuse Israel fans of racist abuse
Paul Rowan - Irish Football Correspondent, Debrecen

Idah was the subject of chants by the Israel fans
Ireland players have alleged that goalscorer Adam Idah was racially abused by Israel fans during the controversial Nations League match in Hungary on Sunday night.

According to a Football Association of Ireland (FAI) spokesman, Jayson Molumby heard the chants before halftime and the midfielder asked the German referee, Harms Osmers, and the fourth official, Florian Exner, to “listen”.

Because Uefa’s protocol in that situation is to say the word “racism”, European football’s governing body said that no immediate action — such as a warning over the PA system — was taken.

However, the FAI has now said that it will go through the footage to find out if there is any evidence of the alleged abuse and, if so, demand a Uefa investigation into the treatment of Idah, 25, who plays for Swansea City.

There were also reports of confrontations in the tunnel between players, with the Israel captain, Manor Solomon, taking exception to what some Irish players were saying and the opposition bowing their heads during the Israeli national anthem.

In an angry rant after the game, Solomon vowed to get “revenge” on Ireland when the teams meet again on Sunday.

“They said nonsense [to us] during the game, I don’t want to talk about them,” Solomon said. “If I say what I think about them, I’ll probably be banned for a few games so I don’t want to say. Of course they hate us and we don’t like them. I’m already looking forward to the next game against them. What they did with the anthem? I’m not interested in them, we have a country that is ten times better than theirs, stronger, an amazing country with amazing people.
34516
Lee Hurley @hleehurley.com · 20h
Unsolvable mystery on the front page of today's Times
The fairer sex? Men feel happier about their looks than women
Rhys Blakely - Science Editor
Men do not, in general, have a reputation for lingering in front of the mirror. Perhaps they do not need to: new research suggests they are happier than women about what they see in it.

Two studies involving more than 1,000 people asked participants to score their own looks on a scale from zero to 100. Men scored themselves, on average, between 6 and 8 per cent higher than women.

Sex was not the only dividing line.

Britons rated themselves less attractive than Americans, Australians, Canadians and South Africans. The researchers suggested in the journal Evolutionary Psychology that British modesty may help explain the gap. People who scored better on a cognitive ability test also tended to rate themselves as less attractive. By contrast optimists, religious people and those with left-leaning political views tended to give themselves higher marks for physical appeal.
6474
Reposted by Lee Hurley
Mic Wright @brokenbottleboy.bsky.social · 21h
Still putting ‘bomb plot’ in headlines in the glaring absence of any bombs. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
theguardian.com
Rubio says foreign actor was ‘clearly’ behind suspected RAF Fairford bomb plot
The US secretary of state offered no evidence for his claims, and also said many people were ‘disturbed’ that the five suspects had been released on bail
74810220
Reposted by Lee Hurley
Andrew Schreck @andrewschreck.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
i don't think cis guys realize how much power they can shift in a conversation just by casually telling their friends
"that's fucked up, man" when someone says something
80126533433
Reposted by Lee Hurley
Brendan Harkin @brendanjharkin.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Not in a major sense, think it was an opportunistic attack cause some landrovers had stopped up in the street beside the park which was basically entirely dark. Two petrol bombs were thrown and mercifully no further as I skedaddled my way past.
2132
Reposted by Lee Hurley
Brendan Harkin @brendanjharkin.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Actually just dwelling on how insane the aggro must be at the loyalist gathering, which was through the underpass, that a TSG officer would advise "risk the petrol bomb gauntlet instead".
2183
Reposted by Lee Hurley
Brendan Harkin @brendanjharkin.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
I've been advised to keep to one side of the road and move quick to reach the station as petrol bombs had been thrown at landrovers parked along the road here. Small fire still smouldering in the park and landrovers pulling further back.
4374
Lee Hurley @hleehurley.com · 28/09/2026
I turn 51 in two weeks. Epic timing to be born in time to enjoy this.
1621
Reposted by Lee Hurley
Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 28/09/2026
This is a formal request to SCOTUS to forcefully detransition dozens of incarcerated trans people and to subject them to medical experimentation. That's what this is.
7431170
Lee Hurley @hleehurley.com · 28/09/2026
People have been asking why it has all kicked off again at Drumcree after 28 years. The reason is simple. The police said it would all be fine.
618744
Reposted by Lee Hurley
Brendan Harkin @brendanjharkin.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Few hundred people gathered up by Garvaghy Road. Marquees are set up distributing food and coffee. Much livelier than the atmosphere up Drumcree hill where a smaller group of supporters were waiting, a group on folding chairs with a blanket over them.
4377
Reposted by Lee Hurley
Joe Noonan @joenoonan.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
"I repeat and call for the use of the pagers we have distributed throughout Ireland.” - Israeli comedian.
independent.ie
Israeli comedian calls to ‘activate the pagers we scattered in Ireland’ following Nations League defeat
Ivgeni Zarubinski made his comments in response to ‘incitement against Israel’ and ‘anti-semitism’
107237
Reposted by Lee Hurley
Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 28/09/2026
The entire motto of this administration towards LGBTQ youth is "fuck them kids." thehill.com/homenews/edu...
thehill.com
Education Department formally rescinds Title IX protections for LGBTQ students
The Education Department announced Monday it has formally rescinded the Biden-era Title IX interpretation that gave sex-based discrimination protections to students on the basis of sexual orientati…
28927299
Reposted by Lee Hurley
Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
BREAKING: DOJ asks SCOTUS to erase trans people from the law in case over trans care in prison. Solicitor General John Sauer made the alarming, all-encompassing argument — previously covered at Law Dork — to the Supreme Court on Monday morning. Today, at Law Dork:
lawdork.com
Breaking: DOJ asks SCOTUS to erase trans people from the law in case over trans care in prison
Solicitor General John Sauer made the alarming, all-encompassing argument — previously covered at Law Dork — to the Supreme Court on Monday morning.
18506295
Lee Hurley @hleehurley.com · 28/09/2026
Why is there a helicopter out in Belfast?
5170
Lee Hurley @hleehurley.com · 28/09/2026
“We’re proud to wear the national team’s uniform and to be Israelis; proud of our country and our soldiers. And they can pull all the stunts they want and do whatever they want. We are Israelis, we love our country – and that’s how it will always be.” Israeli national team captain after Ire game
1160
Lee Hurley @hleehurley.com · 28/09/2026
This is reaching Trumpian levels of 'what else can we slap it on'
4623
Lee Hurley @hleehurley.com · 28/09/2026
Add colgate to your ever growing shit list
14302113
Reposted by Lee Hurley
gav @gavinmit.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
'i once got the president of the united states to congratulate us on the arrest of some doggers we found in a lane in gloucestershire'
bob mortimer reading a prompt card on would i lie to you?
016434
Lee Hurley @hleehurley.com · 28/09/2026
Northern Ireland's Justice Minister, everyone...
35012
Reposted by Lee Hurley
Rose Schmits @roseschmits.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Basically she has a choice: -implement trans segregation -get yelled at by the telegraph And oppressing an entire minority is a lesser, frivolous cost to her
10575144
Lee Hurley @hleehurley.com · 28/09/2026
There was no COBRA meeting when masked and organised fascists were burning people out of their homes in Belfast in the summer
821755
Reposted by Lee Hurley
Duncan Hothersall @dhothersall.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
For all that it's been barely reported in the UK press, it's still hard to understate the importance of the stance @labourunionsuk.bsky.social has taken on trans and non-binary rights this week. Every single trade union affiliated to the party of government has stood up and said we will not comply.
Joint statement from National TULO

Solidarity with the trans and non-binary community

Labour's 11 affiliated trade unions stand in total solidarity with the trans and non-binary community.

Trans rights are human rights, and trans rights are workers' rights.

We in the trade union movement will do all we can to stand up for our trans members and all our trans siblings, to protect them from persecution, harassment and attack.

The government must act now to protect all trans people, to make sure their rights are protected, expanded and upheld in our workplaces and communities.

Labour Unions
12960354
Lee Hurley @hleehurley.com · 28/09/2026
Completely and utterly out of his depth, which is pretty standard tbf so good job Chris 👍
1313722