Val O'D

My wife is due any day. When it kicks off I've to get her into Holles St from where I am in Wicklow. Over an hour drive (if lucky) This has added another layer of anxiety as getting into Dublin is extremely hard at min Fully support peaceful protests generally but this is crazy

This is where the legitimacy of the protests break down

Have to say I'm inclined to agree with this. Fire Brigades were impeded in Dublin as @DubFireBrigade req more assistance on FB. I agree with protest but not like this. The amount of fuel being wasted by drivers stuck in this at such a time just makes no sense.

A massive monastery stood on the site of Trinity College. Before Thomas Cromwells head was chopped off, he assisted King Henry VIII in dissolving Irish monasteries. One of the greatest of was the Augustinian Priory of All Hallows, now the site of TCD, founded by the King of Leinster in 1166 CE. Then outside our venerable city walls, neaby Blind Gate at Dublin's eastern portal. The Priory was self-sufficient, land and staff for farming. Trinity's walls now follow the original monastic boundaries. Cattle and sheep grazed the fields surrounding the perimeter wall. There's evidence that the Augustinian monks were active in the local community, especially with health care. The surrounding neighbourhood then was utterly unrecognisable. Where Grafton Street is now located was a stretch of bogland, sustained by a stream flowing downhill from where Stephen's Green is. Monks would traverse the bog using a stone causeway. The marshland was like a miniature Irish everglades. The archaic River Steyne flowed past the Priory, and the medieval banks of the Liffey extended to Townsend Street. In 1156, the nunnery of the Blessed Virgin Mary del Hogges was established where College Green is now. The convent managed the area around Dame Street and Andrew Street. The area became known as the "Hoggen Green" Old Norse for burial mound. College Green was an ancient Viking graveyard consisting of several tombs or "barrows". It's even quite possibly the resting place of Dublin's Viking Kings! This makes sense when you consider the nearby Thingmote (Viking community centre). That was located between what is now Church Lane and Suffolk Street, and remnants of it were still in use in the early 17th century. Financial and political power in those days clustered around the Castle and the Tholsel near Christchurch Cathedral. It's ironic that famous foreign dignitaries often speak on stage at College Green. Because in 1171 CE a massive stage and stands was constructed there to facilitate the Irish and English aristocracy. King Henry II was visiting Dublin. He was the first English monarch to visit Ireland. But back to Henry VIII. Despite the King's actions often being portrayed as selfish revenge on the church, Henry was sincerely trying to promote education and closer ties with his rebellious Irish subjects. He wanted large monasteries converted to colleges and providing for the poor. He wanted local labour, under English supervision, to rebuild them. He even began to include the Irish harp in his royal insignia to symbolically curry favour. During Henry's reformation, Thomas Cromwell basically had jurisdiction over Ireland. But semi-Gaelic Dublin then was not particularly excited about losing their Celtic-Christian variety of Catholicism. It's important to remember Cromwell's prestigious job was a poison chalice. Part of Cromwell's job was to be a scapegoat. The FitzGeralds Earls of Kildare continued to sponsor the Priory, adding to Cromwells' reformation headache. Yet even before King Henry decided to dissolve the Priory, its glory days were well behind it. Parts of the site were dilapidated and it was shabby and understaffed. All Hallows finally surrendered in 1538. In a final coup de grace to the old order, the Priory’s monument to the Earls of Kildare was ripped out. It's preserved now in old St Werburgh’s Church. In 1539 the Priory was gifted to Dublin Corporation. When Henry married Anne of Cleves, she was not as attractive as Cromwell had promised. Henry did his thing and moved on to Katherine Howard. On the day they married, Henry beheaded his old friend Cromwell. Finally, in 1576, the Priory became a quarantine colony for plague victims. Its steeple was used as a ‘pest house’. In 1592 the priory went to the Provost and Fellows of Trinity College. And to quote Samuel Beckett, it's been home to the "cream" of Irish academia ever since. Rich and thick! Buy the Dublin Time Machine a pint and support the DTM Book ko-fi.com/buchanandublin…

Wow. The absolute arrogance of the Trump Administration

On the 21st anniversary of her death, gardaí have made a fresh appeal for information that might help them close their file on the murder of art student Emer O'Loughlin rte.ie/news/2026/0408…

Lebanon’s terrible suffering in the Israeli invasion isn’t getting anywhere near the attention it deserves in U.S. media. I tried to at least raise the issue on-air this morning:

I spent all day today wondering if the sitting President of the United States would use nuclear weapons on a country of 90 million people—the vast majority of whom he claims to be liberating—just because he’s angry over that totalitarian regime thoroughly embarrassing him over his unnecessary, illegal, and disastrous war of choice. Just as our country was waking up to go to our jobs and take our kids to school and run errands and do all the typical things that need to be done on a Tuesday morning, Trump dangled this threat: “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will.” He threatened nuclear strikes because he isn’t getting his way in a war that never should have been escalated in the first place. I spent all day talking to colleagues and friends about what this could mean and wondering what needs to be done to put a stop to this because—surprise—we take it seriously when a deeply unstable person with the power to launch nuclear weapons claims he will do so. I wondered why so many people in politics and media are apparently unaware that POTUS has sole authority over the launch of nuclear weapons and does not need clearance from Congress or the courts—even for a preemptive strike—and the only thing standing between Trump and that decision are his military commanders maybe, hopefully—who the hell is certain anymore—refusing that order. I watched as too many journalists—so fearful are they of offending their Access Daddy and his acolytes—pretended that this threat reflective of a brain-addled, narcissistic sociopath was another political parlor game to be navigated with musings on what Democrats should be doing while Republicans are running the whole goddamn show. I watched as yet more journalists chirped about their bullshit phone calls with Trump, which were, per usual, entirely neutered of meaningful substance. I watched as so much of the left side of the American political spectrum bickered and bitched with each other and were at each other’s throats over what should be done while we’re out of power, just as Trump was betting and hoping we would. I wondered if tonight would be the beginning of a broader war with nuclear weapons that would throw the world into violent chaos from which we’d never recover. You ask me if I’m relieved over this supposed “two-week ceasefire” as Trump yet again postpones his ultimatums, manipulates markets to enrich himself and his cronies, and needlessly scares the shit out of the American people and the world? No, I am not relieved. I am angry. I am enraged. The thoughts going through my head at this very moment cannot be uttered. This is not sustainable. We should not have to live in perpetual fear like this. ---- Link to full essay available here for easier sharing: charlotteclymer.substack.com/p/we-cant-keep…

And now I can go to bed.... RTE news : Trump agrees to suspend attacks on Iran for two weeks rte.ie/news/2026/0407…

Long before street performers and viral fame, Dublin had its own homegrown legend. Bang Bang, a beloved eccentric who brought cowboy shootouts to the city's buses, trams, and streets. You'd hear him before you'd see him, a shout of "Bang! Bang!" echoing down O'Connell Street, a massive jailer's key raised like a six-shooter, and grown men dramatically falling down dead on the number 16 bus. Born Thomas Dudley on 13 February 1906 in the Rotunda Hospital, he lost his father young, a chimney sweep named John who died in 1913, and was raised in an orphanage in Cabra. He lived a modest life around the Coombe area, spending 41 years on Mill Lane before moving to the flats on Bridgefoot Street. He worked briefly as a kitchen porter in Rialto hospital, but the streets were always his real occupation. The key, which he claimed came from Hitler personally, was his Colt .45. He would leap aboard Dublin buses and trams to stage playful shootouts with amused passengers and passersby. Dubliners of all ages played along, commuters raising umbrellas as rifles, conductors taking aim with their ticket machines, guards on the beat steadying their shots through the imaginary crosshairs of their batons. In his later years, as his sight failed, he preferred to be addressed as Lord Dudley. The antics continued regardless. The Irish Independent recorded his death in January 1981 with the words: "One of Dublin's best known and most beloved characters Tommy 'Bang Bang' Dudley has died in a home for the blind. He was an institution in Dublin during his lifetime." A small gathering attended his funeral. "I couldn't believe how few people there were. I expected a huge crowd," a local man named Brian Gleeson later recalled. Bang Bang was buried in an unmarked grave at St Joseph's Cemetery in Drumcondra, alongside a few dozen other former residents of Clonturk House, the Rosminian Fathers' home for the blind where he spent his final years. He lay there, forgotten by officialdom if not by the city, for over three decades. The Dubliners immortalised him two years before his death with the line "Bang Bang shoots the buses with his golden key" in their song The Mero. The Boomtown Rats namechecked him in Elephant's Graveyard (Guilty) in 1980. In 2017, Dermot Bolger wrote a one-man stage play about his life, which premiered at Bewley's Café Theatre with Pat McGrath in the title role. His famous brass key is preserved in the Dublin City Library and Archive on Pearse Street. His likeness has been immortalised in countless murals and pieces of street art.That same year, Bang Bang Café in Phibsborough ran a fundraising campaign to erect a headstone over his unmarked grave. It took thirty-six years for the city that loved him to give him one. Buy the Dublin Time Machine a pint and support the DTM Book ko-fi.com/buchanandublin…

Somebody seriously needs to act to stop this mad man. History will remember that ye did. nothing.

BREAKING: Pope Leo XIV declares the Iran War is “unjust” and “is not solving anything.” After suggesting Trump is committing war crimes by targeting civilian infrastructure, he called on Americans to contact Congress to help end the war.

Oh I sure did!!

“Listen to the wind blow Watch the sun rise” All will be destroyed to make way for 300 car spaces for a €35M overscaled coffee shop & centre. Over 32,520 have said no. change.org/p/save-the-hel… #review 🐿️🦇🌳🌲

Hello, Moon. It’s great to be back. Here’s a taste of what the Artemis II astronauts photographed during their flight around the Moon. Check out more photos from the mission: nasa.gov/artemis-ii-mul…

A happy ending! I'm delighted that Lola has been reunited with her owner. She has definitely been so well looked after. Well done @DublinAirport 👏

KLM Flight 633 crashed into a River Shannon estuary on September 5th, 1954. 28 people survived due to the courage of a young stewardess, who gave her life evacuating the flooding plane. Helga Inge Loëwenstein (24). 🇳🇱 Forgotten hero of this island. 💚 🇮🇪 R.I.P. Helga 🙏

Update on Troy 🦜 Our lovely lady Troy has been confirmed as a female Alexandrine parakeet after a vet check this morning. She is safe, happy and being very well looked after by the Airport Police unit, but she would really like to go home. If you recognise her or have any information, please email socialmedia@dublinairport.com or send us a DM on any of our social channels.

Looking to speak to people who’ve cut energy use to lower bills from driving less to changing heating, appliances or gadgets. Get in touch if you’d like to contribute. RTs appreciated Email: geraldine.herbert@independent.ie #JournoRequest

@DeeNeeson1 @jaymates Yup, needs must 🤷‍♀️

@_ValODonovan @jaymates Someone has to do it….🙄

Good morning 🐥 Hopefully all the chocolate is gone and you had a lovely weekend 🐤 Nice relaxing day today...I plan on doing nothing 🐣 My phone is playing silly buggers, so if I vanish...I'm not dead....just my phone is 🐥 Have a smashing day 🤗💖💕