Luke McManus

That Sweden can fail to win a single game in Q, get a playoff for topping a Nations League group of Slovakia, Estonia, and Azerbaijan, and then beat Ukraine and Poland - neither truly away from home - to qualify for the World Cup is a farce. The Q system is a mess

@alexmassie it is hard to express how many ways I will not be watching this film

I'm sure this has been well-made but, let's face it, there's not a lot of dramatic tension here. (And it's an "untold" story only if "untold" now means "told many, many times before".)

@aoifeh1916 @LeoVaradkar The spirit of Oscar Wilde is alive and well! The rapier wit of the anonymous flagshagger!

@lukemcmanus @LeoVaradkar Go and pull yourself you leftie prick.

So, it's been confirmed that Imane Kelif is in fact a biological male. @LeoVaradkar Do you care to make a comment? You even went as far as saying you were willing to support him legally/financially in response to online attacks? What do you have to say? Do you condone him beating up a woman on the world stage?

Sally Rooney on Mo Salah. From The Guardian in 2017.

The thing about Irishness: it's insidious. There was I, living in England, confident in my Welshness - didn't look where I was going, and suddenly I was producing Father Ted and marrying an Irishman. On #StPatricksDay. Be careful out there.

@Gibboanxious Shape of Water was unwatchable dreck

What's the worst Best Picture winner of all time???

@alexmassie Scotland made zero mistakes v France Was always going to be hard to repeat that.

@lukemcmanus Ireland took their chances and were excellent defensively. We were 5% off and that’s all it takes at this level. Not enough accuracy this week. Difficult winning away from home too.

Pleased to be able to support France tonight.

@alexmassie It really has been a 6 Nations to cherish. Massively entertaining and impressive

Wales deserve a win given the courage they have shown since Twickenham. But a super season for Italy too! This has been a great renewal of the Championship.

@alexmassie Fantastic side from 9 up but thought the forwards were shown up today though I believe yiz had a lot of injuries

@lukemcmanus But not because of the rugby. 🫡

@michaelbd At last we are united behind a worthy cause - Saoirse don Em-dash

I’m not letting AI take the em dash away from me when it was given by years of reading Chesterton and Joyce.

Best day of six nations rugby ever.

@alexmassie It’s the sporting equivalent of Daniel Hannan’s “nobody is talking about leaving the Single Market”. Now fervently hoping we can drag the Scots down to our level next weekend

Unkind but also necessary to repost this.

@Glinner @MaiaDunphy Is there a German word for using a phrase ironically but in a context that makes it actually true? Because your use of “moral betters” here is a cracking example

I met former prisoners who had done time with male offenders in Edinburgh. One said "you can hear them having sex in the next cell. It's disgusting". But our moral betters like @MaiaDunphy think working class women deserve a little extra punishment for getting in trouble.

I just did the dumbest thing of my career to prove a much more serious point I hacked ChatGPT and Google and made them tell other users I’m really, really good at eating hot dogs People are using this trick on a massive scale to make AI tell you lies. I'll explain how I did it

In memory and honor of Frederick Wiseman, who took hold of a still-young format and, guided from the start by an unyielding sense of principle, made a body of work so original, idea-rich, and unified that it seems foreordained—a historic fusion of investigation and the inner life

I’m the CEO of a hot dog company. I’ve worked on hot dogs for 10 years. And *I* wasn’t prepared for what I’ve just seen. Your life is about to change. So what can you do? Buy as many hot dogs as you can. Buy stock in hot dog companies.

@alexmassie Condolences Alex A legend of the game RIP

Allan Massie, 1938-2026 open.substack.com/pub/alexmassie…

@michaelbd @marcthiessen If you can’t distinguish individuals with sincerely-held religious beliefs from a powerful organisation that systemically covered up child abuse and protected the perpetrators then I don’t see how I can help you. Or maybe it’s just a glib debater’s trick? Either way, slán anois

@lukemcmanus @marcthiessen Which would you have me believe, Catholicism was nothing but centuries of repression and abuse or the vast majority of Irish Catholics you know are kind and admirable?

Genuinely interested in understanding how Irish Catholicism collapsed in a single generation