Mike McGrath-Bryan
banner
mikemcgb.bsky.social
Mike McGrath-Bryan
@mikemcgb.bsky.social
A scribbling, squabbling, strácáiling eejit, that got blown along the N20 and out to Cork City, Ireland. Bestselling co-author. Foghlaimeoir, bleeding-heart, AuDHDer. Opinions my own. Check https://www.linktr.ee/mike_mcgb for latest scut-acting.
Pinned
So distracted was I by the return of our kittens from cat hospital (always neuter and spay!) that I hadn't realised my latest for @bandcamp.com Daily was up: thoughts on improv guitarist Tashi Dorji's newest.

#music #media #reviews

daily.bandcamp.com/album-of-the...
Tashi Dorji, “low clouds hang, this land is on fire”
The Bhutan-born artist's latest record is openly presented as a meditation on openness and humanity in trying times.
daily.bandcamp.com
Turning Point Northern Ireland.

In case you didn't already suspect our democracy is under fire.

#spéirghorm #ireland
American conservative Erika Kirk is expected to visit Northern Ireland as part of a tour to recruit young people to Turning Point, the organisation founded by her murdered husband.
Widow of murdered US activist Charlie Kirk to recruit students on NI visit
Ex-DUP MP Ian Paisley backing plan to launch branch of Christian-right group Turning Point here
www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk
February 10, 2026 at 9:09 AM
Reposted by Mike McGrath-Bryan
In Vitro runs at Bewley’s Café Theatre until February 21. Read 👉 buff.ly/Plbg4of #GCNnews
February 10, 2026 at 9:00 AM
Reposted by Mike McGrath-Bryan
The Times (owned by Murdoch, always a friend of Mandelson & Blairs New Labour ) helping kick-start Peter's rehabilitation.
The Scottish National -rightly angry & not pals with Petey...
February 7, 2026 at 1:52 PM
Reposted by Mike McGrath-Bryan
Doing a bit of tidying and came across this map of the CIE network. How things have changed with lines closed and fine hotels sold off.

If I recall correctly this would have been in a MK2 "Supertrain" carriage. #Speirgorm

ifiarchiveplayer.ie/cie-supertra...
February 7, 2026 at 12:45 PM
Reposted by Mike McGrath-Bryan
10th February 1988: The first issue of GCN is published. The issue celebrated the LGBTQ+ community while featuring hard-hitting topics, including Clause 28, the UK legislation prohibiting “promotion of homosexuality”. #OnThisDay #Queerstory 👉 buff.ly/9vxcobB
February 10, 2026 at 7:00 AM
Reposted by Mike McGrath-Bryan
Social media would be healthier if it fully shut down every evening after playing this, the Touch Grass video (Irish Edition)
February 10, 2026 at 7:13 AM
We'll see if he is, and if his replacements will be. Not sold on conservative/'centrist' UK and accountability, for many reasons.
Starmer not even mentioned in Epstein files but could lose his job for appointing someone who is.
Trump is mentioned thousands of times and the US media barely mention it.

The rest of the western world has accountability while the US is a basket case country.
February 9, 2026 at 3:52 PM
That the goodwill & hope of millions was wasted on joining Labour to turn it around with Corbyn/Momentum, only to be sabotaged, PASOKified, made into an elites' plaything, will need to be studied.

Like IE Greens' co-option of broad-left vote to bring FF/FG together, on 'roids.

#spéirghorm #ireland
I do think there's a case for him as one of the worst, though much of the ultimate appraisal will depend on what happens in the next 5 years, but god he's also just so forgettable. Terrible in such a quiet way. Such a non-event
February 9, 2026 at 3:51 PM
Reposted by Mike McGrath-Bryan
You can't make art out of wanting other people to have less. The caged bird sings of freedom, not of wanting poorer birds to be put in worse cages.
The media desperately wanted to give the right a cultural moment and the problem is that they have no culture.
This was a little over a year ago
February 9, 2026 at 1:52 PM
Y'know, I showed the cats Neon Genesis Evangelion last night, and they weren't into it? I have the Blu-ray, it must have been the change in end-credits music.

Which is actually quite nice, dunno what the moaning was about.
February 9, 2026 at 2:04 PM
The Aqua Teen Hunger Force was lined out against A Few Good Men, in a tremendous display of sports, sporting, and indeed, sportation.

The former, of course, won the day, owing to being number one in the hood, g.
I don't even know who was playing
February 9, 2026 at 10:42 AM
Guillotine.
VC, founder, dumbass
February 9, 2026 at 8:31 AM
Reposted by Mike McGrath-Bryan
Damn right. In the estate I grew up in we all played rounders, everyone of all abilities. Soccer games were serious but rounders were always for fun. It is one of our national games and is still played, but it is a kids game.
February 9, 2026 at 12:28 AM
Virgin NFL: insists on coming to Ireland with friendlies, wrecking Dublin city-centre and trying to buy its way into local pop-culture

Chad Baseball: has its roots in Ireland, among other countries, isn't annoying, Rounders still sadly neglected by GAA, though

#superbowl #spéirghorm #ireland
NFL is awful. The thing I like about baseball and makes it superior, every player has to go up there and hit the ball (NL). Most players on a NFL will never see the ball, lads just running around. Not a serious sport.
February 9, 2026 at 12:16 AM
Reposted by Mike McGrath-Bryan
Dear journalists who left the nazi bar.

Please leave the other nazi bar.

www.theguardian.com/media/2026/f...
Revealed: How Substack makes money from hosting Nazi newsletters
Exclusive: Site takes a cut of subscriptions to content that promotes far-right ideology, white supremacy and antisemitism
www.theguardian.com
February 7, 2026 at 10:37 PM
Reposted by Mike McGrath-Bryan
Only 3 days left to apply for our mentorship program - write for us, be mentored, get printed in ON3. Send a brief write-up of your experience to info@on.games to apply. Ends Sunday. on.games

#GamesJournalism #GamesWriting
February 5, 2026 at 4:01 PM
Reposted by Mike McGrath-Bryan
Today’s NYT investigation into what really went on after the killing of Renee Good is shocking.

It’s centered on the apparent suppression, for political reasons, of a proper investigation. But there’s so much more.

(Link below.)
February 7, 2026 at 8:37 PM
Rhodes left AEW, after co-founding and headlining it, because it wasn't enough for him. He had to go MAGA, go Saudi, go with the machine
It was my opinion before that line tonight but I now feel it's a safe time to say it, if he left WWE and was on the market, I don't really want Cody Rhodes back in AEW.

He had some incredible matches & moments but his style always stuck out in AEW & I prefer what it is without him. 🤼
February 7, 2026 at 3:03 AM
Every government should fund at least one children's television icon in each country, to give them a life at the heart of the lives they helped make better.

The cast of The Den should be in a box at every major national event, puppeteered/voiced, heckling the people involved.

#spéirghorm #ireland
production of The Muppet Show should not be dependent on petty vulgarities like “ratings” or “revenue.” it should be preserved as a vital function of american culture. it should have a taxpayer-funded budget rivaling the CIA
February 7, 2026 at 2:58 AM
Leader's Speech, Live from The British Conservative Party Conference
There isn't a TV show on earth that wouldn't benefit from a Mr Blobby cameo.
February 6, 2026 at 4:29 PM
DIXIE CARTER ADDRESSES TNA ROSTER IN 2010.MOV
February 6, 2026 at 4:18 PM
Remember when UK Labour purged the Militant Tendency over Liverpool City Council going into debt - read, making capital investment in their city - and made a song and dance about it?

When are the modern Blairites getting the boot, and why won't ordinary Labour folk administer it?
Keir Starmer tells Wes Streeting to help lead Send reforms as rebellion looms

Health secretary is drafted in to sell special needs overhaul after warnings that eight in ten councils face bankruptcy over projected £14 billion Send deficits

www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...
Keir Starmer tells Wes Streeting to help lead Send reforms as rebellion looms
Health secretary is drafted in to sell special needs overhaul after warnings that eight in ten councils face bankruptcy over projected £14 billion Send deficits
www.thetimes.com
February 6, 2026 at 4:17 PM
KITTENS UPDATE: Vaxed, neutered/spayed, de-coned; threatening holy war on each other over the smell of the vets' ❤️

#spéirghorm #ireland #catsofbluesky
February 6, 2026 at 2:37 PM
Reposted by Mike McGrath-Bryan
I no longer talk about Tuam or go to Tuam because of the involvement there of a TERF who objects to my presence & might make a scene, but the excavations are finding exactly what I predicted back in 2014. See my long letter to the then Minister in 2016. izzykamikaze.tumblr.com/post/1519475...
We need to talk about nuns, Katherine
A letter to the Minister with responsibility for the Tuam Babies A few weeks ago, I was happy to hear an excavation was starting at the site of the Mother & Baby Home in Tuam. Then I saw where the...
izzykamikaze.tumblr.com
February 6, 2026 at 1:08 PM