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Paddy Matthews @paddymatthews.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Voted more strongly Remain in 2016 (52.9%) than anywhere in north-west England other than Manchester or Liverpool.

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Paddy Matthews @paddymatthews.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Onward and upward (except not on the kerb)!

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Paddy Matthews @paddymatthews.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Sweden was authoritarian in its own way, of course. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compuls...

en.wikipedia.org

Compulsory sterilisation in Sweden - Wikipedia

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Paddy Matthews @paddymatthews.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

He was on his way up the hill to the pub in the first picture so he may have been trip-trapping afterwards.

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Paddy Matthews @paddymatthews.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

I see your piglet and raise you a billy-goat.

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Paddy Matthews @paddymatthews.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

New generation of the Baby Barristers (though not actually barristers).

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Paddy Matthews @paddymatthews.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

I imagine he comes from a demographic which views the DUP as infra dig but are otherwise equally/more antediluvian in their attitudes towards "RCs"; core vote for Sideshow Bob McCartney and UKUP back in the day.

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Paddy Matthews @paddymatthews.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Educated Friends' School Lisburn, worked during summers as a housekeeper in Hillsborough Castle so I assume that it was imbibed in childhood in this case, but the tendency on the British Think-Tank Right to be performatively Weird About Ireland is a little unsettling from here.

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Paddy Matthews @paddymatthews.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Along with half a dozen other carpetbaggers from Illinois and New York, all of whom lost.

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Paddy Matthews @paddymatthews.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

FF, once it got organised, took most of what had been Labour's base although Labour had periodic but short-lived revivals afterwards (1943, 1969, 1992, 2011). Might be due for one in the 2030s based on that pattern but currently the party is moribund (and the SocDems are the New Bright Shiny Thing).

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Paddy Matthews @paddymatthews.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

I would say a better comparison is across the water in Finland with Centre vs National Coalition (but a Centre that could attract significant urban support).

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Reposted by Paddy Matthews

Marwood @marwoodlennox.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

History will judge today, I think, as the day that the Joe Biden revival started. He knew. www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8U5...

youtube.com

"MAYO FOR SAM" | U.S. President Joe Biden

YouTube video by incognito

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Paddy Matthews @paddymatthews.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

Radio 5 Live as a channel for radicalisation.

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Paddy Matthews @paddymatthews.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Very impressed with the attempt to channel the Spirit of 1990 - the shirt, Woltemade's Zonen-Gaby impersonation, and of course, the Chris Waddle tribute from Tah at the end.

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Paddy Matthews @paddymatthews.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

There were as a result two different catch-all unions - ITGWU (O'Brien, "groupers", not to be confused with the British TGWU which also operated in the 26 counties as the ATGWU) and the WUI (Larkin). That split lasted longer but both now make up SIPTU.

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Paddy Matthews @paddymatthews.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

I am long enough in the tooth to remember the "l'argent et le vote ethnique" comment and Jean-François Lisée pretending to disapprove. www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnF4...

youtube.com

Breaking Point - 2005 - CBC Documentary - Part 2 of 2

YouTube video by Hashi

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Paddy Matthews @paddymatthews.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

One thing that stands out there is the extent to which bourgeois voters in Glasnevin and Drumcondra sat on their hands for the bye-election.

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Paddy Matthews @paddymatthews.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

Finally - *sad trombone noise* - FF vote 2024, 2026, change:

FF vote change by polling district, Dublin Central, 2024-26

FF vote by polling district, Dublin Central, 2024

FF vote by polling district, Dublin Central, 2026

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Paddy Matthews @paddymatthews.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

Steenson vote 2024, 2026, change:

Steenson vote change by polling district, Dublin Central, 2024-26

Steenson vote by polling district, Dublin Central, 2024

Steenson vote by polling district, Dublin Central, 2026

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Paddy Matthews @paddymatthews.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

SocDem vote 2024, 2026, change (colour schemes between 2024 and 2026 don't match because of the scale of the increase):

SocDem vote change by polling district, Dublin Central, 2024-26

SocDem vote by polling district, Dublin Central, 2024

SocDem vote by polling district, Dublin Central, 2026

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Paddy Matthews @paddymatthews.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

Coming back to this: Turnout 2024, 2026, change:

Turnout map by polling district, Dublin Central, 2024.

Turnout map by polling district, Dublin Central, 2026 bye-election

Change in turnout by polling district, Dublin Central, 2024-26

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Paddy Matthews @paddymatthews.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

An Emmanuel Macron brilliant wheeze backfiring spectacularly, you say?

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Paddy Matthews @paddymatthews.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

It's also a bit too exculpatory in pretending that Loyalists are smol beans who don't have agency; the Brexit vote was about getting rid of the foreigners but also about putting the Fenians back in their box.

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Reposted by Paddy Matthews

Dara O'Reilly @daraor.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

On a purely technical level, the UDA and UVF are better at orchestrating mass violence against minority groups than their equivalents in the UK and ROI, because they're large-scale organised criminal networks already in place that wield extraordinary power in their communities.

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Paddy Matthews @paddymatthews.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

Yes, that makes sense. Maybe I'm being old-fashioned here but I do not think it a particularly good idea in general to bring your politics to work.

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Paddy Matthews @paddymatthews.bsky.social · 23/05/2026

Gavan, just a question about the spreadsheet. Shouldn't vote necessary to retrieve expenses be 0.25 of quota, i.e. 12.5% for a by-election? You have the figure as 0.25 of a "general election" quota where all seats are up and if it was, then Garrity and Nugent should have been eliminated separately.

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