Val O'D

@SavetheHellfire Looks stunning!

@_ValODonovan Thank you! Amazing start to the day! ☀️❤️

Wow..... Great shot.

You might be interested in this? @HellfireMassy @LoveSouthDublin @MontpelierHill @MassyFriends @KnocklyonNet

@SavetheHellfire Bring a flask, if ya really need it!

No extortionate €40M coffee shop needed to enjoy this view — just lace up your boots and step into nature! Happy Monday! #sunrise #trees #mindfulness #Dublin

Noooooooo!! Please don't take my sunshine away!! 🎶🌞

🟥 Britain. France. Canada. Italy. Spain. Belgium. The Netherlands. Poland. Australia. New Zealand. The European Union. The United Nations. 🔳 Suddenly they have found outrage because international activists aboard the flotilla were humiliated, abused and tortured by israeli war criminals under Ben Gvir’s prison system. Ambassadors are being summoned. Statements are being released. Diplomats are demanding “clarifications”. ▪️ But where have these governments been while Palestinians endured this for years? ▪️ Palestinian journalist Sami Al-Sa’i @SamiAssai described being raped by israeli prison guards while blindfolded and handcuffed, left bleeding on the floor as guards laughed and discussed filming the assault. Other former detainees described rape with objects, attacks involving dogs, electrocution, starvation and repeated torture inside israeli detention facilities. Human rights organisations, UN experts and former detainees have all warned that this abuse is systematic, organised and protected from accountability. ▪️ Where were these governments when Dr Adnan Al-Bursh was abducted, tortured, sexually abused and ultimately murdered in israeli custody, with his body still withheld from his family? Where are they while Dr Hussam Abu Safiya and Palestinian medical workers remain detained, abused and denied proper medical treatment? ▪️ And now the world acts shocked because foreign activists were finally subjected to a fraction of what Palestinians have endured for decades. In 2010, israeli forces attacked the Mavi Marmara flotilla trying to break the siege on Gaza, killing nine activists before a tenth later died from his injuries. The world condemned it, statements were made, outrage came and went, yet Palestinians remained trapped under siege while israeli war criminals continued receiving arms, protection and political cover from western governments. ▪️ To the people aboard the flotilla who were tortured, humiliated and abused while trying to break the siege on Gaza and deliver aid to starving civilians: may you recover safely and may your courage wake people up. The world saw what happened to you. Palestinians have been screaming about these crimes for years. Credit to @thiagoavila for continuing to expose what so many tried to ignore. ▪️ Summoning ambassadors is not enough. Condemnations are not enough. Expel them. Sanction them. Stop arming them. Stop protecting israeli war criminals while criminalising activists who try to stop weapons reaching them. ▪️ While western governments choose silence, the British state chooses to criminalise, arrest and persecute activists, journalists, doctors, teachers and humanitarians for standing with Palestine. @Majstar7, @swilkinsonbc, Junaid Mayet, @KarakDesi and thousands more whose only “crime” was refusing to stay silent while Palestinians were slaughtered, starved and abused in plain sight. ▪️ My activism is for people. I oppose dehumanisation, torture, rape, abuse and the killing of civilians, no matter who the victim is. But Palestinians have been subjected to all of this in plain sight while the world chose silence. @MENAUncensored

Content warning: distressing description of torture Israel didn’t just humiliate these activists - it showed the world a glimpse of its detention regime. Nobody should be fooled: Ben-Gvir is not a bad apple – he is a product of an apartheid system. The UN's Special Rapporteur on torture has just documented widespread, systematic abuse of Palestinian detainees. The Special Rapporteur counted numerous incidents of torture and sexual violence, including, in her own words, 'mauling by dogs of their genitals.' Palestinian detainees continue to face horrendous and systematic torture condoned not by one rogue minister, but from the top of Israeli politics. If the UK government is genuinely appalled, it must: - End all trade contributing to Israel's ongoing genocide, apartheid and unlawful occupation - Enforce an immediate ban on all weapons transfers, military assistance and the import of goods from illegal settlements. Israel's impunity can no longer be tolerated.

@UsualSuspect717 @RobLooseCannon JPT was our XFactor I would argue! It was all this country had to showcase our amazing talent on a national platform . It was how amateurs made it. On the Irish professional stage and the Westend.

@RobLooseCannon All these popular talent shows owe endorsements to RTE? Pop Idol The X Factor UK Britain's Got Talent American Idol The X Factor US America's Got Talent rte.ie/archives/2015/…

The John Players Tops of the Town (JPTOTT) started in Waterford in 1962. A local variety competition started built on the simple but irresistible idea to get ordinary workers on stage who mightnt ever have done singing or drama. Two years later, Niall O'Flynn, public relations manager for John Player tobacco and cigarettes in Ireland, saw the potential as sponsors, and the cancer stick peddlers transformed it into a nationwide phenomenon. Soon it was operating across eighteen regional competition hubs across Ireland. Companies, businesses, and community groups really threw themselves into. Its probably hard for younger generations to imagine that literally bosses let employees spend months in rehearsal to put together polished 55-minute variety shows on company time. Although I know a lot of performers used their personal time there was a lot of it during work hours. These shows covered everything from song and dance to comedy sketches and full-scale dramatic productions. At its peak, JPTOTT was essentially the GAA of amateur performance in Ireland. The national finals drew together the great names of Irish industry and commerce in the most unlikely of circumstances. Waterford Glass faced off against Limerick Insurance. Aer Lingus took on Carrigaline Pottery. Packard Electric squared up to Telecom Éireann. RTÉ televised the whole spectacle and Marty Whelan took over hosting duties in 1987, becoming as synonymous with the show as the brand of carcinogenic coffin nails in the title. Behind every group that made it to the national stage were armies of writers, costume-makers, set-builders, lighting rigs, and committee members running fundraisers. Oh and abvioulsly all of JPTOTT was unpaid and all of it fuelled by community pride. On a personal note as a queer who cant stand eurovision or musicals, younger me bizarrely found meself absolutely enthralled watching it. Something about the fact it was ordinary Irish people, dancing their arses off, singing their hearts out. Amateurs they might have been but they were always of a high standard and sincerely trying. The beginning of the end came quietly in the early 1990s, as larger corporations quietly reconsidered the resources they were committing, and began stepping back. The gap they left was filled by smaller community groups, which in many ways returned the competition to its roots, but the commercial engine that had driven it for thirty years was winding down. The final blow came from the law itself. A ban on cigarette advertising in 1997 severed John Player's sponsorship. The last televised final was won by Moate. Ironically I missed it as the DTM was stuck in a moat at the Siege of Carrigafoyle Castle due to a leak of asymmetric tachyons. Across its thirty-five years, hundreds of thousands of people performed, built sets, sewed semi revealing costumes, and also sat in darkened theatres watching their neighbours be stars for the night. Theres something so bleedin Irish about JPTOTT, such a shame its been almost forgotten. Buy the Dublin Time Machine a pint and support the DTM Book ko-fi.com/buchanandublin…

@RobLooseCannon Oh, thank you SO much for this! JPT was a big part of my life. I danced in 3 national finals (pssst...ya didn't have to work for the company ! A small % outsiders allowed🤭) Amazing times & friendships made to this day . It should never be forgotten!♥️

Our President's sister and a current @uniofgalway student are among 15 Irish humanitarian aid volunteers who were kidnapped by armed Israeli terrorists in international waters yesterday. There's a protest at the main #Galway hospital entrance this evening (7pm). @ipsc48

ALERT! Yet another act of piracy by the Israeli army in international waters: intercepting the flotilla carrying basic necessities to a desperate population in Gaza. Shame on European govts who are not acting to stop Israel! When will Israel's impunity end?

Among the reasons most EU states and EU institutions are quiet about Israel's daily slaughter of civilians in the region, is that they do not care: Lebanese, Palestinian, Iranian lives are disposable, their loss negligible. And this is so wrong. Immoral. Illegal. Irresponsible.

JUST IN🇮🇱🇪🇺🔥Spain, Ireland, the Netherlands, Slovenia, and Iceland will tomorrow submit a formal request to the European Union to terminate the partnership agreement with Israel.

@RobLooseCannon I remember it well! The year I started working. We had no phone so my job was delayed as no post, which suited me as that meant I could sit my Leaving Cert! And then when I started the job I couldn't get there as no busses !! Of course, I did get there by walking or army lift.

1979 was a shite year for strikes in Ireland, so in Dublin we had to call the army in! The postal workers walked out for 18 weeks. The National Busmen's Union had been planning their own stoppage since just after Christmas 1978, and when last-minute negotiations at Davitt House went bellyup in January, CIE ground to a halt. The strike that followed brought the country's public transport to a standstill for the better part of 3 months, and it produced one of the more unusual sights in the history of a city not short of unusual sights. The government ordered the Defence Forces' Transport Corps to plug the gap. 50 army lorries were deployed across Dublin and Cork. Five of them worked the Ballymun corridor alone, and in Finglas at rush hour the queues stretched fifty yards and more. Obviously this novel service was provided entirely free of charge. The Transport Corps fleet wasnt designed for commuters. So Bedford and Leyland trucks, standard tactical cargo vehicles of the day, had their tailboards dropped and wooden benches fitted along the sides. Were benches weren't available, you sat on the floor of the truck bed. A canvas canopy offered a wee bit of protection from the January and February weather. Getting up into the back of a Bedford was manageable enough for a fit young office worker. Though obvioulsy for the sick, elderly or anyone with mobility problems it was a genuine challenge, even with no shortage of assistance from the Defence Forces lads and fellow passengers. The Army couldn't hope to replicate the full CIE network, which on a normal day moved around 700,000 passengers back then. Instead the lorries concentrated on commuter corridors, picking up crowds at suburban hubs and dropping them at central points. And the bleedin trains were stopped too, which pushed a surge of private cars onto roads already not properly updated for them. But the contemporary accounts keep talking about the great atmosphere and craic. Well beyond what I`d expect from standard nostalgia in the shared discomfort and the character of those soldiers. The lads were doing 14 hour shifts and they werent strike-breakers by the normal description. There was never any universe where that system was a replacement. For school kids especially, a ride in a military convoy was a novelty. Though I must state, we should never forget how the people of this country have suffered enough centuries of militaries on our streets and in our lives. In my opinion soldiers (or guns) should not be a part of any childhood. Anyway the strike was eventually settled, the busmen returning to work with a well deserved significant pay package after lengthy negotiations involving the Labour Court. That CIE dispute was one of a wave of industrial actions that marked 1979 as arguably the most turbulent year for Irish labour relations in decades. Pay was chronically low across the public sector, inflation was biting everyones arse, and the mechanisms for resolving disputes were repeatedly tested beyond their limits by Fianna Fáil (July 1977 to June 1981) Buy the Dublin Time Machine a pint and support the DTM Book ko-fi.com/buchanandublin…

@CarrollJennifer Did you get my email on Saturday? You need to read it. My son is currently being failed by @HSELive @oconnellbrian @MiriamOCal @RTERadio1 @KatieGHannon @SarahAMcInerney @CHI_Ireland @stjamesdublin @HSEDubMidlands @TomClonan @mulvanypeopleb1 @CareChampions2

anyway the real eurovision 2026 results just dropped

Can't wait, its so cold now !

Samara Gill says Ireland is "antisemitic for dropping out of Eurovision." That is a serious charge without evidence. Ireland pulled out over Israel's actions in Gaza – not over Jewish people. Conflating criticism of a state with hatred of a faith is dangerous. And wrong.

Gardaí are appealing to the public for assistance in tracing the whereabouts of 53-year-old Fatou Watters, who is reported missing from her home in Artane, Dublin 5 since Wednesday 13th May 2026. Fatou was last seen at home on Tuesday, 12th April 2026 at approximately 5pm. Fatou is described as being approximately 5 foot 3 inches in height, of slim build with short hair and brown eyes. When last seen, Fatou was wearing navy-blue pants and a hoodie with a long black coat and a grey beanie hat. Fatou is known to frequent the Howth Cliff Walk, and St Anne’s Park, Clontarf East. Gardaí and Fatou's family are concerned for her well-being. Anyone with any information on Fatou's whereabouts is asked to contact Coolock Garda Station on 01 666 4200, the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666 111, or any Garda Station.

@HickeyRoisin72 Sorry you had such difficulties but great that you're back!

Thanks to all who have followed me. X is curtailing how many people I follow back at the moment but I will get there and follow you all back. I really appreciate your kindness ❤️