Wednesday, August 12th, 2026

By the side of the train tracks the stinging nettles are suffering from the drought. They look sad — like they never knew what they are but have just been told.

— Denise Wilton

Blink and you’ll miss it, but apparently I was in a BBC news report from Belfast last week:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hyg3Gu1f-p4

Saturday, August 8th, 2026

Reading When The Boys Came Out To Play by John Mackel.

Friday, August 7th, 2026

A table outdoors with two fiddlers, a banjo player and a tin whistle, playing while a gathered crowd looks on. — Friday evening street session in Belfast

Four fidddlers, two men and two women, playing in an alcove in front of windows. — Fiddletastic Friday afternoon session in Belfast

A guitarist, piper and fiddler playing dressed as mummers with masks and robes. — Witchy Friday morning session in Belfast

Thursday, August 6th, 2026

A woman with her head wrapped in gauze singing on a red-lit stage. — Róis agus Huartán beo i mBèal Féirste!

Witchy looking figures bathed in orange light on stage. — Róis agus Huartán beo i mBèal Féirste!

The Taoiseach just gatecrashed our session.

Many fiddlers of all ages and an accordion player playing at a table in a cosy cafe. — Thursday morning session in Belfast

Wednesday, August 5th, 2026

Loads of musicians playing in a pub; lots of fiddles and flutes but pipes and accordions too. — Wednesday afternoon session in Belfast

Two fiddlers and a harpist playing together in an alcove in front of windows. — Wednesday morning session in Belfast

Tuesday, August 4th, 2026

Lots of fiddlers playing at a table in front of an an alcove window. — Tuesday morning session in Belfast

Monday, August 3rd, 2026

One of my classmates from the Irish course I did in Donegal two weeks was on University Challenge tonight—worlds colliding!

Two young women playing fiddles with a man on guitar. — Monday afternoon session in Belfast

A young girl playing flute with two young women playing fiddles on a bench on the street. — Monday morning street session in Belfast

There are many food trucks here at the Fleadh in Belfast, many of them selling burgers, and yet not one of them is called Fleadh Feóil na hÉirinn.

Sunday, August 2nd, 2026

To paraphrase Oscar Wilde: to fuck up HTML once is unfortunate; to fuck it up twice is downright careless.

https://adactio.com/journal/22360

It’s baaaa-aaaack!

With the latest update to iOS26, Safari has reintroduced this shocking bug that they had previously fixed:

https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=305719

Apple, you’ve broken HTML. Again.

Slow clap.

Musicians gathered playing in a cosy snug: accordion, pipes, flute, and guitar. — Sunday afternoon session in Belfast

Saturday, August 1st, 2026

Reading Girls In Their Married Bliss by Edna O’Brien.

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