simon

banished by sheep and ox

[simon @________simon]

What is behind attacks on Irish NGOs?

Women’s Aid last week received hundreds of abusive online comments. Let’s not be immune to how, in just a few short years, occurrences like this go unremarked.

https://t.co/yFoRWGRHM8

[cav empty @cavempty_]

my boss added a custom ai generated gif of me being mauled by a lion to our teams app and HR says they don’t have the ability to remove it

[simon @________simon]

@GCraughwell @SpectreOfCastro Stripe is just middlemen taking a cut of other people's money, you could hardly have more Irish business model, any wonder the intellectual veneer struggles with originality

[simon @________simon]

Why does this look like one of the Fair City previews

[ً @GCraughwell]

they're also affiliated with an incredible umbrella group of presumably equally progressive think tanks

[Manus Carlisle @manus_carlisle]

Here is the map of data centres in Ireland - over 130 of them.

Data centres now consume 22% of Ireland’s electricity

[simon @________simon]

@DavQuinn @workmansflopera O'Malley's name is on the cover of the main politics textbook given to thousands of students every year but he small minded enough to remain an iconoclast in Quinn's world of self-pity

[simon @________simon]

@ConorJCallaghan https://t.co/zZshy9cje2

[The Phoenix Magazine @ThePhoenixMag]

There's been lots of interest in Goldhawk's 2007 Young Blood profile of anti abortion spokesperson John McGuirk, which marked him out as one to watch. Here's that piece in full.

[simon @________simon]

The owners of Gript are kicking around since the Eighties while McGuirk had already been thrown out of both FG and FG by the age of 23 in 2007. Are you that badly stuck for "upstarts"?

[Luke O' Connor @LOCthedreamer2]

It is astounding how many times genuine upstarts in politics or media in Ireland will shoot themselves in the foot with splits like this.

As long as the genuine opposition remains divided, we will continue to be led by a failed uniparty in the Dáil.

[simon @________simon]

@pyjamas_black Ever the expert on last week's bandwagon. You have to omit the very high profile Irish success on the women's team to carry off this drek about small plates.

[oliver duffy @theoliverduffy]

O’Connell’s in manchester with maybe the worst thing I’ve ever seen?

[simon @________simon]

Sean Canney very unconvincing on telly this evening. Road safety has gone rapidly backwards since generating a lot of momentum when i was growing up. The minister is hardly further along than Dermot Ahern & Noel Dempsey 20 years ago.

[simon @________simon]

Hasbara is mental cause it used to just be people pretending they were not members of Fianna Fáil but now it's some guy who has clearly never set foot in the country that's texting Irish radio shows at half ten on a Tuesday night.

[simon @________simon]

@Seadhnalogan @Ogie_Halfhand Urban Sinn Féin voters aren't organising to have youngfellas prevented from driving tractors. The problem for the party is there is zero leadership on any issue at all, voters already have FG,FF and more to tell them what they want to hear so SF are going down the toilet.

[Nick Burns @NickBurns]

Wine is just wine to most Americans, and Grana Padano is as good as parmesan is as good as pecorino. But just see what happens when you say that Coke Zero is the same as Diet Coke. Like Robert Conquest said, everyone is an Italian about what they know best.

[Dok @Dok845]

The shift from “Beyoncé and a White Claw? To this 28 year old publishing industry scion, it’s Giving Tea” to “Hamas Kindergarten Drops White Phosphorus on Self in New Blood Libel” was the actual Cultural Vibe Shift.

[simon @________simon]

leitmotif in the new mandalorian that can only be described as Fruity Loops Trap Demo Number 36, terrible, awful, but other than that the film is fine

[simon @________simon]

The headbangers are once again this morning grappling with the concept of PR-STV

[simon @________simon]

Perfect case of Irish landlords and the commercial property sector doing well for themselves while bozos like this lad are too busy copying English panics to notice the difference

[BUCHANAN: Dublin Time Machine @RobLooseCannon]

Ireland’s streets are blighted by an explosion of barbers, vape shops and phone kiosks. These eerily identical "businesses" are often empty. How can you justify five barbers or vape shops on a street or in a small town with no footfall?

The Gardaí, county councils, and local chambers of commerce know many are fronts for money laundering, drug trafficking, sex work and organised crime. Gangs are turning struggling streets into conduits for their dirty cash.

A Stoneybatter takeaway was among several locations raided by more than 100 Gardaí across Dublin, Kildare, and Meath in May 2025, as part of a crackdown on an organised crime group suspected of involvement in prostitution and money laundering.

The operation was led by detectives from the Bridewell Garda station and supported by the Dublin Crime Response Team, the Garda National Protective Services Bureau, the National Economic Crime Bureau, the Emergency Response Unit, and the Armed Support Unit.

When real businesses folded during lockdown, their presmises were snapped up by vulture funds or crime gangs laundering their illicit profits into bargain real estate.

These shops are cheap to run, lightly regulated, and cash-heavy, so perfect for laundering. Talbot Street alone hosts over six phone shops and four barbers opened in the past two years. Council officials call them "ghost businesses."

Vape shops add another layer, selling counterfeit or untaxed liquids. An Irish Independent report revealed several under surveillance for laundering drug profits. Phone repair outlets are ideal too, handling frequent high-value cash transactions. An RTÉ probe found many CBD shops in Cork and Dublin selling illegal THC products.

Obviously many shops are genuinely owned by hardworking people, filling real gaps where other work is scarce. But the sheer number, the crazy speed of opening, and murky ownership raise valid questions. The Criminal Assets Bureau warns these fronts also enable "ghost employment", unpaid or off-the-books staff, sometimes trafficked or undocumented.

A disproportionately large amount of these criminal operations are run by foreign criminals. In some barbers, Eastern European or African trafficked workers have been found living in squalid backrooms and exploited under gang control. These spots double as stash houses for drugs, weapons, or burner phones.

And its getting worse, the problem being compounded in some areas of the country by a reluctance of county councils and law enforcement to pursue certain criminals incase they are accused of discrimination.

But CAB and the Revenue have highlighted the telltale patterns blighting our communities. Low tax returns, inflated rents, and mystery investors. In 2017, just 53 money-laundering offences were recorded in the Republic's official crime data. That increased to 996 offences in 2024, before surging to 2,768 in 2025.

Operation Skein has continued to grow. Gardaí have identified 1,600 people linked to the Black Axe international fraud and money laundering gang, including 100 members responsible for directing its operations. Though the confirmed amount stolen and laundered in Ireland has now reached almost €100 million, Gardaí believe the true figure is considerably higher.

Garda believe the scale of Black Axe activity in Ireland means its profits rival, or even surpass, those generated by the domestic drugs trade. The most recent round of Operation Skein raids, carried out in February 2026, hit locations across Dublin, Sligo, Galway, Limerick, Kilkenny, Kildare, and Meath.

The uncomfortable truth? Both local and foreign crime networks exploit Ireland's weak oversight, cash economy, and political indifference. They're tightening their grip on our dying towns. Previous generations wouldn't have tolerated this takeover without a fight. Get on to your local TDs and ask them what they going to do about it?

Sources for all the above in comments!

Support the Dublin Time Machine
https://t.co/U7jtCrOTtb

[simon @________simon]

You'd imagine a deep insight into the transnational underworld would grant the shrewdest men certain perspectives on wwlorkings of the world and yet Irish organised crime leaders have constantly been shown to believe any old bullshit at all, it reflects very poorly on the guards

[simon @________simon]

@pyjamas_black all rivers are fast becoming hostile to natural life but bozo here cant work out a bottle cap