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piraat.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
Pirate Badshah
@piraat.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
37 followers 7 following 520 posts
Rum soaked pirate seen around Dublin and on the high seas.

Interests: #Marxism, #Linux (#Debian), #cricket (#GuerillaCricket), football (#Shels) & #rum, natuurlijk […]

🌉 bridged from ⁂ https://mastodon.social/@piraat, follow @ap.brid.gy to interact
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piraat.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
#texturetuesday
The rippled brown surface of a wet beach after the tide has gone out.
November 18, 2025 at 8:33 PM
piraat.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
Never happy is Julian. There is a simple solution to exemptions, make it optional; it takes the heat out of the debate and frees up resources for other children.

https://www.irishtimes.com/politics/2025/11/07/irish-language-education-policy-ignores-elephant-in-the-room-advocacy-groups-warn/

#iepol
“We welcome the provision of additional resources and supports for teachers, students and schools,” said Julian de Spáinn, general secretary of Conradh na Gaeilge. “However, we believe they haven’t taken the main issue into account. It doesn’t address the growing number of exemptions in schools or the curriculum students currently study. “One in every seven students now has an exemption and they are failing those students because they’re not dealing with the elephant in the room, which is the curriculum,” he said.
November 7, 2025 at 11:21 AM
piraat.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
Is there enough appetite for Treaty change? Certainly what's suggested in this paragraph would stand a good chance of requiring a referendum here in Ireland as it would likely be interpreted by the supreme court as a transfer of sovereignty.

EU could admit […]

[Original post on mastodon.social]
Some politicians have called for the EU to reform itself before admitting new members, amid concerns a union of 35+ countries would be a recipe for political paralysis. This could mean, for instance, abolishing the veto on foreign policy that has been blamed for the EU being “held hostage” by one member state.
November 4, 2025 at 8:50 PM
piraat.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
Unlikely is putting it mildly, I'd be surprised if any of the candidates other than Montenegro joined prior to 2030, in Ukraine's case I'd think 2035 is a more realistic, albeit still ambitious goal […]

[Original post on mastodon.social]
Zelenskiy later said he would like Ukraine to join the EU before 2030, but that is very unlikely given the scale of reforms that candidate countries must enact, as well as reluctance among existing member states about admitting a poor, war-ravaged nation of nearly 40 million people.
November 4, 2025 at 2:59 PM
piraat.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
A failure there to properly fact check that nugget of wisdom, it only took me two minutes of work to find that both the 1905 & 1952 general elections had tied leads; The PA need to do better.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1905_Dutch_general_election […]

[Original post on mastodon.social]
The nail-biting finish is expected to lead to delays in starting the process of forming a new coalition. No Dutch election has previously ended with two parties tied for the lead.
October 30, 2025 at 6:12 PM
piraat.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
If CC is far-left I wonder what sort of appellation those of us who are to her left should have?!

For the record, it's all silly, she's a fairly conventional social democrat by any reasonable interpretation of that term […]

[Original post on mastodon.social]
DUBLIN, Oct 25 (Reuters) - Catherine Connolly, a veteran lawmaker on the far-left of the Irish political spectrum, was set to be elected president by a landslide margin on Saturday as members of the governing parties conceded they were in for a heavy defeat.
October 25, 2025 at 12:41 PM
piraat.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
I different way of looking at this is that Shane would have remained a z-list American swimmer with no public profile if tens of thousands of Irish public monies (via Sports Ireland) hadn't been lavished on him. He makes the case for why such funding is […]

[Original post on mastodon.social]
The swimmer represented Ireland at three Olympics, in 2016, 2020 and 2024, but all those years of training and sacrifice were not paying the bills, so this week he announced he would compete at the controversial sporting event. “My whole 20s I gave to Ireland,” says Ryan, 31, from a training camp in Las Vegas, where the tournament will take place. “Olympic athletes train so hard all their life and they just don’t get paid.” Irish sporting authorities, commentators and even the taoiseach, Micheál Martin, condemned Ryan’s decision, but he is unrepentant. “At the end of the day, people’s opinions aren’t going to pay me. They’re not going to help me set up my future.”
October 16, 2025 at 2:42 PM
piraat.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
Dead on the money.

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/2025/10/11/malachy-clerkin-the-jim-gavin-fiasco-was-a-long-overdue-humbling-for-gaa-exceptionalism/

#iepol #aras25
There’s a fine line between being proud of the GAA and getting high on your own supply. Far too often, we fall the wrong side of it. It comes with a halo effect that rightly makes people in other sports roll their eyes. Gavin won six All-Irelands. So what? By the time you read this, Stephen Bradley will likely have won his fifth League of Ireland title in six seasons. Nobody was kicking his name around for president. And as for the FRC, somehow the ability to coax a room of special congress delegates into voting a particular way bought him a legitimacy that wouldn’t have been possible with any other sport. Imagine trying to explain that aspect of it to anyone who doesn’t watch Gaelic football. “Well you see, the Ulster teams were putting 15 men behind the ball and Jim changed it so that they could only put 12 behind the ball and now you get two points for a long-range score and so the Taoiseach thought he should be president ...” GAA exceptionalism is one of the dreariest reflexes in Irish life. The events of the past week took it down a peg or two. It was long overdue.
October 11, 2025 at 9:20 AM
piraat.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
Of course it's perfectly possible to oppose Maduro without sending video messages of support to fascist gatherings, nobody forces these people to have dodgy politics much in the same way nobody forces the Nobel committee to be blind to their shortcomings as […]

[Original post on mastodon.social]
Ten PfE leaders also discussed strategies for dismantling the Green Deal and the rainbow flag representing LGTBIQ rights, implementing their family and two-gender only policies, and expanding their influence across the EU. They also hosted Kevin Roberts, president of the American conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation, and aired video messages from Venezuelan politician María Corina Machado and Argentina’s President Javier Milei.
October 10, 2025 at 8:27 PM
piraat.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
If only this sort of realism was more widely acknowledged, not just for Ukraine but for Moldova, who are clinging to an unrealistic timeline, too.

Ukraine's path to EU will be tough, with or without Hungarian hurdle […]

[Original post on mastodon.social]
The EU "cannot accept a new member state which is really not 100 percent following the rule of law," EU Enlargement Commissioner Kos told Reuters in an interview in Ukraine. Kos said "one part of this, showing the love, is being really strict," adding that, when it comes to reforms in areas ranging from agriculture to the environment, "now the tough work will come".
October 6, 2025 at 11:18 AM
piraat.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
Our constitutional position on international relations is geared towards peaceful diplomacy to solve international disputes. Clearly only Connolly's views is in keeping with that.

https://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/cons/en/html#part7

#iepol #aras25
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS ARTICLE 29 1 Ireland affirms its devotion to the ideal of peace and friendly co-operation amongst nations founded on international justice and morality. 2 Ireland affirms its adherence to the principle of the pacific settlement of international disputes by international arbitration or judicial determination.
October 5, 2025 at 11:47 AM
piraat.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
Unintended gaff or not we do know who all the jarheads will be voting for.

Gavin campaign deletes photo with Defence Forces chief

https://www.rte.ie/news/presidential-election/2025/1001/1536228-presidential-election-jim-gavin/

#iepol #aras25
A photo of the Fianna Fáil presidential candidate Jim Gavin and the Chief of Staff of the Defence Forces Rossa Mulcahy was deleted this evening from Mr Gavin's social media campaign platforms. The photograph was taken today at the event organised by the ONE group which advocates for the needs of veteran former members of the Defence Forces. The Chief of Staff is precluded from endorsing any political candidates or making public commentary on political matters.
October 1, 2025 at 10:46 PM
piraat.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
I wonder on what metric one could denote FG as Ireland's most "pro-EU" party, I'd imagine a fair bit of dispute of that from, variously, FF, Labour, the Greens and the Social Democrats. This isn't the first time I've thought Shawn Pogatchnik's pieces on Irish […]

[Original post on mastodon.social]
Fine Gael, Ireland’s most pro-EU party, has never won a presidential election. But this time, all opinion polls have placed Humphreys in pole position, reflecting her reputation as a popular figure and canny campaigner in rural Ireland. That early consensus is backed by gambling markets, which rate the Fine Gaeler as the safest bet.
September 24, 2025 at 4:42 PM
piraat.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
2030 is entirely unrealistic, you can't just will the acquis communautaire away, it's unfair on Moldova's population for them to be given misinformation about the likely timescale for accession […]

[Original post on mastodon.social]
PAS sees membership of the 27-member European Union, which it is seeking by 2030, as critical to Chisinau's future and its resistance against Russian attempts to keep the former Soviet republic in its orbit.
September 21, 2025 at 12:05 PM
piraat.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
It's good to see MacNiece being confident of some test cricket next year, I'd be surprised if both go ahead though, especially that Afghanistan one.

https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/ire-vs-eng-2nd-t20i-cricket-ireland-in-talks-with-bcci-over-india-touring-in-2026-1503710

#cricket
Per the ICC's Future Tours Programme, Ireland are due to host New Zealand (one Test), Bangladesh (three ODIs and three T20Is) and Afghanistan (one Test, three ODIs and three T20Is) next summer. "There's still a couple of variables that have to be figured out before we lock in the final schedule, but we'll be hosting Test cricket here next year," MacNeice said.
September 19, 2025 at 5:46 PM
piraat.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
Result
Ireland vs England, 1st T20I
England tour of Ireland

IRE 196/3
ENG 197/6
England won by 4 wickets (with 14 balls remaining)

https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/england-in-ireland-2025-1448339/ireland-vs-england-1st-t20i-1448360/live-cricket-score

#cricket #IREvENG #malahide
Image of the close of play with the England batters cerebrating a win.
September 17, 2025 at 3:50 PM
piraat.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
Salt gone for 89 off 45 balls. England need 16 to win.
Image of Phil Salt walking off.
September 17, 2025 at 3:41 PM
piraat.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
England 130-2 after 10 overs. Salt now on 67 off 29 balls. Carnage.

#cricket #IREvENG #malahide
Image of Curtis Campher coming to bowl in the tenth over.
September 17, 2025 at 3:08 PM
piraat.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
England 84-1 after 6 overs. Salt into our wounds he's on 50 off 20 balls!!

#cricket #IREvENG #malahide
Image from the sixth over, with Barry McCarthy walking to his mark to begin bowling.
September 17, 2025 at 2:44 PM
piraat.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
Ireland 196-3 after the 20 overs. I'll more than take that!

#cricket #IREvENG #malahide
Wide angle shot of Malahide Cricket ground in the last over of Ireland's innings.
September 17, 2025 at 2:05 PM
piraat.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
Ireland 84-2 after 10 overs.
Image of Harry Tector and Lorcan Tucker batting.
September 17, 2025 at 1:14 PM
piraat.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
Ireland 49-0 after 6 overs.

#cricket #IREvENG #malahide
Image of Sam Curran coming to bowl.
September 17, 2025 at 12:57 PM
piraat.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
#cricket #IREvENG #malahide
Image of the two teams lining up, England to right ( politically apt) and Ireland to the left.
September 17, 2025 at 12:29 PM
piraat.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
Lovely view! #cricket #IREvENG
Image of players warming up on the pitch in Malahide.
September 17, 2025 at 11:44 AM
piraat.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
Lack of party discipline there from Labour and Sinn Fein.

https://www.rte.ie/news/2025/0915/1533559-kerry-presidential-candidate/

#iepol #aras25
Ultimately, 18 councillors voted to make a nomination while 14 voted against. One of the council's 33 councillors was absent. The votes came from 12 Independents, four Sinn Féin councillors and two Labour councillors.
September 15, 2025 at 11:55 AM