Karl McDonald @karlusss.bsky.social · 4hCelebrity Traitors even clearer than Normie UK Traitors in the general presumption that posh people are smart. They're not, necessarily! However, this often gets them voted off for being too smart, even if they are not smart. 010
Karl McDonald @karlusss.bsky.social · 11hCosycore grow your own expert Bob Flowerdew blackballed by Gardeners Question Time. What a world. 000
Karl McDonald @karlusss.bsky.social · 01/10/2026Easily the greatest player in the history of the world. 000
Reposted by Karl McDonaldUncleofJamiroquai @jessefarrar.com · 01/10/2026It seems quaint now that we do all our banking and race science there, but, nevertheless, it's true: at one time, people mostly wrote jokes on Twitter. 10 years ago, I wrote one about an old asshole and it kinda changed my life. Not his, though. www.cnn.com/2026/10/01/u...cnn.comThe tweet that defined a decade of Trump | CNNIt’s been 10 years since Jesse Farrar accidentally defined a political era with one pithy, prescient tweet. He wishes it never happened. 872219381
Karl McDonald @karlusss.bsky.social · 01/10/2026Garvaghy: Garbhachach - rough field www.logainm.ie/en/56618logainm.ieGarbhachadh/GarvaghyPlacenames and other information associated with this location. 110
Karl McDonald @karlusss.bsky.social · 30/09/2026Chris Bryant asks both sides to "search deep in their souls for another chunk of compromise". 100
Karl McDonald @karlusss.bsky.social · 30/09/2026Was clever to peg it to "national care". Care is something that strikes people as a potential cost that might easily outstrip anything they might gain from the triple lock, or force them to make decisions they don't want to make etc. 100
Karl McDonald @karlusss.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Between tourism and the film tax incentive stuff, there is no American celebrity you might not see in Dublin. For example, I saw Ron Perlman the other day. 130
Karl McDonald @karlusss.bsky.social · 29/09/2026I write it out in a verse— Doonbeg and Knockanore And Abbyleix and Adare Now and in time to be, Wherever green is worn, Are changed, changed utterly: A terrible beauty is born. www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic...irishtimes.comMark Zuckerberg donates €150,000 to Waterford GAA clubs after buying castle in the areaMeta founder and his wife Priscilla Chan bought Strancally Castle in August 010
Karl McDonald @karlusss.bsky.social · 29/09/2026V interesting imo.giftarticle.ft.comFalkland Islanders grapple with Argentina’s ‘economic warfare’Restrictions from Buenos Aires have shaped life for remote archipelago 13,000km from the UK 010
Karl McDonald @karlusss.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Looking up various things described as "Orange riots" on Wikipedia. Did we know about the time clowns and firemen got into a brawl on the Twelfth in Toronto, thus offending the Orange Order who joined the riot on the side of the firemen? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toronto...en.wikipedia.orgToronto circus riot - Wikipedia 121
Karl McDonald @karlusss.bsky.social · 28/09/2026Real "Saxons inherit London, don't really know what to do with it, just live alongside the crumbling ruins of what was once the Roman city" energy to this. 17512
Karl McDonald @karlusss.bsky.social · 28/09/2026The reason there are barbers, chicken shops and vape shops left on high streets is because they are things you have to do in person, ideally very locally, and they can generate enough money to survive. Banning them isn't going to make cobblers profitable again. www.ft.com/content/1bc8...ft.comThe west London high street fighting against bookies and chicken shopsResidents’ campaign to diversify Uxbridge Road comes as prime minister pledges to tackle UK’s ‘hollowed out’ neighbourhoods 3224
Karl McDonald @karlusss.bsky.social · 28/09/2026Saw some efforts to whatabout the Irish cricket team playing Afghanistan. I am sorry to say this because I do like cricket, but nobody cares about cricket. The cricket team could have discovered life on Mars and it would have gone unnoticed because everyone would have zoned out at 'cricket'. 180
Karl McDonald @karlusss.bsky.social · 28/09/2026Something intensely estate agent about the phrase 'international foreigners'. 040
Karl McDonald @karlusss.bsky.social · 26/09/2026Is there no standalone fishmonger in Dublin 2 at all? We need a Sheridans of fish. 000
Karl McDonald @karlusss.bsky.social · 25/09/2026Could there be a transatlantic beef angle to ice coffee interview discourse? Could it be... Treatlerism? 020
Karl McDonald @karlusss.bsky.social · 25/09/2026The gap there is University Challenge which the system appears to have discarded and also I am referring to the web series Hardy Bucks primarily 010
Karl McDonald @karlusss.bsky.social · 25/09/2026Jose Mourinho, title-winning former manager of Manchester United. 010
Karl McDonald @karlusss.bsky.social · 25/09/2026The non-New York Times having fun with a New York Times-format headline here. 020
Karl McDonald @karlusss.bsky.social · 25/09/2026Funny to claim a data centre is "very popular". In the best case scenario it is a large box you never see or think about unless you are its electrical engineer or security guard. 130
Karl McDonald @karlusss.bsky.social · 25/09/2026Have to say that while my brain responds to anti-Gen Z content as you'd expect, my real-world experience is that they work plenty hard. The anecdotal stuff applied to every generation, this is just the one that is currently 25. 110
Karl McDonald @karlusss.bsky.social · 24/09/2026Really interesting! We (and I am speaking for Catholics here on the basis of Confirmation alone, really) do claim Donne, for the record. Irish-wise there is Moore, who is of course not very good, but excludes Heaney, Boland... reminds you how different Irish poetry looked from a 1946 vantage. 120
Karl McDonald @karlusss.bsky.social · 24/09/2026How are you supposed to drink between 5 and 8 pints at that bar, that wasn't made clear 020
Karl McDonald @karlusss.bsky.social · 23/09/2026So in summary: Donald Trump: not invited to the All Ireland final by Micheál Martin, did not ask to go. Andy Burnham: invited to the All Ireland final by Micheál Martin after asking to go. Zohran Mamdani: invited to the All Ireland final by Micheál Martin without asking to go. 2282
Karl McDonald @karlusss.bsky.social · 23/09/2026They are rolling back all sorts of stuff. The juice is dissipating. www.politico.com/news/2026/09...politico.comTrump officials weigh rolling back beef import plan as GOP midterm panic spreadsIt’s a sign that White House officials are trying to stem frustrations from battleground and farm-state Republicans ahead of the November election. 100
Karl McDonald @karlusss.bsky.social · 23/09/2026Is there not a chance Elizabeth Holmes is just on various psychedelics or other drugs like several other known Silicon Valley types 000
Karl McDonald @karlusss.bsky.social · 22/09/2026Bad Traitors for a number of reasons. Could the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform potentially find 100k in the Budget so they can do tasks that aren't just running around looking for bags next year? 101
Karl McDonald @karlusss.bsky.social · 22/09/2026A news story announcing the death of a successful horse is somehow the most Irish thing in the world.rte.ieDual Champion Hurdle winner Hurricane Fly dies aged 22Hurricane Fly, the Willie Mullins-trained dual Champion Hurdle winner, has died at the age of 22. 200
Reposted by Karl McDonaldDarach Ó Séaghdha @darach.bsky.social · 22/09/2026There’s a place in Clare which the English call Lisfarbegnagommaun. In Irish it is called Lios Fear Beag na gCamán, the ring fort of the tiny hurley-wielding men. Some say that mushrooms growing nearby made the little lads visible. 79127
Karl McDonald @karlusss.bsky.social · 22/09/2026Can confirm, having been there when millennial hipsters rehabilitated Fleetwood Mac, that they were definitely not too cool. They were very uncool! 010
Karl McDonald @karlusss.bsky.social · 22/09/2026Among the several undignified things about politics, the worst is acrostic law names. This is not a table quiz, have some dignity. EU KIDS Act: "Keeping Internet Digital Spaces Accountable and Trustworthy". 130
Reposted by Karl McDonaldmatt @therockisdead.bsky.social · 22/09/2026I wrote about the short stories of Liam O’Flaherty and what they have to say about Ireland and the early Irish state. Have a bloody read! therockisdead.substack.com/p/liam-oflah...therockisdead.substack.comLiam O’Flaherty, Irish DeviantHis short stories and the new Irish state 174
Karl McDonald @karlusss.bsky.social · 22/09/2026We would say very different but in fact our British neighbours are correct, we are fairly similar. 230
Karl McDonald @karlusss.bsky.social · 21/09/2026It is funny that when people used to say 20 years ago that they don't watch TV any more/don't have a TV etc, they were implying to you that they read books and do important thinking. Whereas now they mean "I go on my phone for hours". 050
Karl McDonald @karlusss.bsky.social · 21/09/2026NYT best in the world at this for structural reasons. If you're some kind of regional publication you can profile the incomers who are renovating the old church for yoga and get both pro and anti to read, but only people who know the church. NYT gets the whole world, both aspirational and hater. 130
Karl McDonald @karlusss.bsky.social · 18/09/2026Imagine telling Americans they can't have burgers. There'll be riots! 040
Karl McDonald @karlusss.bsky.social · 18/09/2026The Tubs sound like Counting Crows. Never listening to a band ever again, been burned too many times. 020
Karl McDonald @karlusss.bsky.social · 17/09/2026The Ploughing was once held in Clondalkin. Wouldn't get it these days. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...en.wikipedia.orgList of venues for National Ploughing Championships - Wikipedia 020
Karl McDonald @karlusss.bsky.social · 16/09/2026Missed the president noticing the big dials with beef turned to 11 and vegetables stuck at 1. Interesting! 030
Reposted by Karl McDonaldChristopher Hale @christopherjhale.bsky.social · 16/09/2026NEW: Pope Leo XIV’s brother, John, told Italian media that the pope helped him file his tax return and, over a video call, got him back into a computer he had locked himself out of. Prevost propped his iPad on the dead machine and asked his brother what to do. “Because I’m computer illiterate.”thelettersfromleo.comPope Leo XIV Does Tech Support and Tax Prep for His Brother in Suburban ChicagoJohn Prevost locked himself out of a new computer, propped his iPad on top of it, and called the Vatican. Then he told Italian TV what makes him proudest of his brother: “He hasn’t collapsed yet.” 531633385
Karl McDonald @karlusss.bsky.social · 16/09/2026If Canada is going to develop an associate membership of the EU, then let me be clear: Newfoundland and Nova Scotia can also have associate membership of the Celtic Union 020