David Gunning

books and history. explorer and archivist. pictures and buildings.

[The Old World Show @theoldworldshow]

Because billionaires are an elite, not an upper class

These great houses were built to communicate power and rule, and also order, tradition, and rootedness

Their magnificence showed that the ruling class, which led well and governed well at every level from the vestry councils to the highest reaches of the empire, was willing to invest for the long term and cared about cultivating itself and that which surrounded it

We instead gave an economic elite that largely just cares about money, and has handed off the levers of rule to a cold and uncaring, and generally incompetent, bureaucracy

[createstreets @createstreets]

Create Curves. The best Gentle Density is bendy.

[Alan Shatter @Alan__Shatter]

Now lets see Irelands ambassador in Iran attend Pride Tehran & our representative to Palestine attend Pride Ramallah & Pride Hebron.

[StudiocanalUK @StudiocanalUK]

Remembering the brilliant Marjane Satrapi, the extraordinary artist and filmmaker behind Persepolis.

Through this deeply personal and powerful film, she gave audiences a story of identity, freedom, exile and resistance that continues to resonate across the world.

[Cllr John Carson @PostmanCarson]

That old line 'anti-zionism isn’t anti-semitism’ sure does end up looking a lot like just anti-semitism to me…

[𝑻𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒂 @etc_tess]

A good letter in today’s @IrishTimes on the double think of Irish soccer supporters and media who are campaigning to boycott a match against Israel but happy to attend a match against Qatar.

[Henrik Dahl @SociologenHD]

If a country sitting on a rock in the North Atlantic comes to regard a conflict nearly 4,000 kilometres away as more important than almost anything else, it is worth asking why.

I like Ireland. It is a small country living next to a much larger neighbour. A country that has never been afraid to speak its mind or stand on its own feet. In that respect, it reminds me of something.

But Ireland's apparent obsession with condemning Israel at every opportunity is not healthy. Especially when many of the arguments involved turn out to be the same exaggerations, distortions and manipulations that have long been commonplace in Middle Eastern politics.

Why is it not the starting point of public debate in Ireland that Israel, as a state, has every right to exist?

Why is it not the starting point that Israel has repeatedly been attacked by opponents who have never reconciled themselves to the establishment of a Jewish state nearly eighty years ago?

Why is it not the starting point that the current war began when Hamas committed the worst massacre of Jews since the Second World War on 7 October 2023?

Why are so many people in Ireland willing to accept even the most extravagant accusations coming from the Palestinian side, while showing remarkably little interest in hearing the counterarguments?

And then there is the critical question.

If Israel were to lose this war against Hamas - an outcome that some voices in Ireland seem surprisingly relaxed about - what exactly would follow?

Hamas is not a liberal democratic movement. It is an Islamist movement whose ideology has far more in common with groups such as ISIS than with any Western political tradition. An Israeli defeat would be celebrated as a major victory by Hamas and by the Iranian regime, a regime that has spent decades repressing its own citizens and destabilising the wider region.

I do not believe that many Irish people genuinely wish to see Hamas achieve its political objectives. Nor do I believe that many Irish people would welcome a major strategic victory for Iran.

Or rather, I hope not.

Because if there really is a large majority in Ireland that believes a victory for Hamas and Iran over Israel would be a positive development, then the discussion should no longer be about Israel alone.

It should also be about Ireland itself - and about what role Ireland wishes to play in Europe.

[Cllr. Jim O'Leary @jimdundrum]

I’m way down the FG foodchain but to my mind this is foolish & poorly timed. During a ceasefire while there is the possibility of progress how is this “the right thing to do”? Appears to be politically pointless domestic virtue signalling with intl economic & political downside.

[Dan 🇮🇪 ✡️ @danielthemate]

Obsessed is an understatement. It's become a religion. And RTE is complicit.

[𝐍𝐢𝐨𝐡 𝐁𝐞𝐫𝐠 🇮🇷 ✡︎ @NiohBerg]

MMA trainer Gholamreza Khani Shekarab was executed this morning, less than 24 hours after his sentence was read.

He was given zero fair trial. The islamic regime simply tortured him into giving a false confession, and then hanged him.

Stop negotiating with these barbarians.

[Mambo Italiano @mamboitaliano__]

🚨 The real masterminds and backstage geniuses behind the rose petals falling from the Pantheon’s oculus on Pentecost Sunday?

The Rome firefighters!

Italy at its finest 🇮🇹🔥

[The Culturist @the_culturist_]

The annual Pentecost tradition (today!) at Rome's Pantheon is a moment of extraordinary beauty.

It occurs every year on the seventh Sunday after Easter. At noon, after the Holy Mass, thousands of rose petals are dropped through the oculus of the mighty dome.

As the petals fall, a choir sings "Veni Sancte Spiritus," known as the Golden Sequence, a masterpiece of sacred Latin poetry.

This is to celebrate the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Virgin Mary and the Apostles.

The rose petal ritual likely dates back to 607 AD when the pagan temple became a Christian church.

[Helen Day @LBFlyawayhome]

Questions Ladybird never answered, part 8.
Why would you tackle a forest of thorns in white tights?

Artist: Eric Winter
(Sleeping Beauty, 1965)

[Tommy @tjmcgibnxy]

Great letter in today’s IT from David Woods of the Dept. of Classics in UCC, skewering the flotilla hysterics 👇

Sir, – Micheál Martin’s hysterical over-reaction to the Israeli detention of Irish citizens participating in the Sumud flotilla embarrasses Ireland on the international stage yet again. These people were not innocent holidaymakers suddenly snatched at sea, but political provocateurs who desperately sought arrest and detention by Israeli forces. This event should be treated as the publicity stunt that it was.
The real injured parties here are the ordinary Israeli and Irish taxpayers who have to pay for the arrest and repatriation of these middle-class narcissists. The best way for this Government to stop the genuinely shocking humiliation and mistreatment of Irish citizens would be to focus on the homelessness crisis in Ireland, or the ever-growing hospital waiting list, and ignore the self-indulgent gimmicks of the anti-Israeli lobby. – Yours, etc,
DR DAVID WOODS,
Dept of Classics,
University College Cork.

[Daragh Cassidy @DaraghCassidy]

I find it quite chilling that these young men were happy to casually kill a man, and film it, at 4 in the afternoon in a relatively built-up area. They really didn't appear to care...

[Alan Shatter @Alan__Shatter]

A valuable video. The authentic face & voice of today’s Ireland. One of the Irish media feted heroes of the Flotilla calls for Israel “ to be disbanded” & slams all western governments as a “white menace spreading pestilence & violence wherever they go”. This is a medical doctor who is the sister of Ireland’s President.

[Ian O'Doherty @OdohertyI64991]

Sooner or later, everyone fails the Purity Test.

[DaVinci @BiancoDavinci]

At the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, they have separate versions of paintings for blind and visually impaired visitors so they can still enjoy the art.

[Conor McWade 🇺🇦 🇮🇱 🇬🇪 @Conor1960]

@AmnestyIreland What courage? She knows she protected by her nationality. That’s why she sailed in a flotilla to gain propaganda coverage.

If she was taken by Hamas she’d be dead.

[Seán Mc @SeanDubIreland]

When the establishment classes think showering in a tent is an acceptable level of respect for homeless people, the battle has been lost.

Homelessness in Ireland could effectively be solved overnight with the right political will.

Instead, we’re giving them a tent to wash in.

But hey, at least we have a great GDP