Shane Fitzpatrick

Father and writer of short stories. Runner, sports fan and singer - but only in the car! Working on first novel.

[Amazing Nature @AmazingNature00]

The universe just pulled off something almost impossible… over Iceland. 🌌🌑

This is the kind of moment that doesn’t just feel rare… it feels unreal.

Seeing the Aurora Borealis is already a bucket-list experience.
Witnessing a Solar Eclipse is rare on its own.

But both… perfectly aligned in the same sky?

That’s the “double crown” — and it might be a once-in-a-lifetime sight.

What looks like pure magic is actually a perfect storm of timing:

✨ A powerful geomagnetic storm ignited vivid auroras across the polar sky
🌑 At the exact same time, the Moon slipped into the Sun’s path of totality
👁️ From the perfect angle, the Sun’s glowing corona formed one crown… while shimmering green auroras painted another behind it

Two crowns. One sky. One fleeting moment.

This is what happens when cosmic precision meets Earth’s atmosphere — a reminder that the universe doesn’t just work in equations… it performs.

And sometimes, if everything aligns just right… we get to witness it.

[Thomas Hal Robson-Kanu @RobsonKanu]

This is the stuff people remember 🐝🫶

I thought it was really special to see Brentford manager Keith Andrews thank every single member of the catering team by name at their Christmas lunch.

He also spoke about how special their work is day in, day out - the unseen effort that fuels everyone else 👏

Real togetherness is built in moments like this, where everyone feels valued.

Respect travels fast. And it always comes back around ❤️

(🎥: brentfordfc)

[Neil Prendeville @NeilRedFM]

Charlie's Bar in Enniskillen have released their 2025 Christmas Ad.
The bar shot to fame in 2023 for their low budget film following an elderly man’s lonely walk through town before finding company in the pub. 6 mill people saw the 2023 clip.This year's ad is focusing on carers.

[Travis Akers 🇺🇸 @travisakers]

A message from a Kindergarten teacher:

After forty years in the classroom, my career ended with one small sentence from a six-year-old:

“My dad says people like you don’t matter anymore.”

No sneer. No malice. Just quiet honesty — the kind that cuts deeper because it’s innocent. He blinked, then added, “You don’t even have a TikTok.”

My name is Mrs. Clara Holt, and for four decades, I taught kindergarten in a small Denver suburb. Today, I stacked the last box on my desk and locked the door behind me.

When I started teaching in the early 1980s, it felt like a promise — a shared belief that what we did mattered. We weren’t rich, but we were valued. Parents brought warm cookies to parent nights. Kids gave you handmade cards with hearts that didn’t quite line up. Watching a child sound out their first sentence felt like magic.

But that world slowly slipped away. The job I once knew has been replaced by exhaustion, red tape, and a kind of loneliness I can’t quite describe.

My evenings used to be filled with construction paper, glitter, and glue sticks. Now they’re spent filling out digital reports to protect myself from angry emails or lawsuits. I’ve been yelled at by parents in front of twenty-five children — one filming me with his phone while I tried to calm another child mid-meltdown.

And the kids… they’ve changed too. Not by choice.

They arrive tired, anxious, overstimulated. Their tiny fingers know how to swipe a screen before they can hold a crayon. Some can’t make eye contact or wait in line. We’re expected to fix all of it — to patch the gaps, heal the trauma, teach the curriculum, and document every move — in six hours a day, with resources that barely fill a drawer.

The little reading corner I once built, full of soft beanbags and paper stars, was replaced by data charts and “learning metrics.” A young principal once told me, “Clara, maybe you’re too nurturing. The district wants measurable results.”

As if kindness were a weakness.

Still, I stayed. Because of the small, holy moments that no spreadsheet could measure —
a whisper of, “You remind me of my grandma.”
a shaky note that read, “I feel safe here.”
a quiet boy finally meeting my eyes and saying, “I read the whole page.”

Those tiny sparks were my reason to keep showing up.

But this last year broke something in me.

The aggression grew sharper. The laughter in the staff room turned to silence. The light went out of so many eyes. I watched brilliant teachers — my friends — vanish under the weight of burnout, their joy replaced by survival.

I felt myself fading too, like chalk on a board that’s been wiped one too many times.

So today, I began my goodbye. I pulled faded art off the walls and tucked thirty years of handmade cards into a single box. In the back of a drawer, I found a letter from a student from 1998:

“Thank you for loving me when I was hard to love.”

I sat on the floor and cried.

No party. No applause. Just a handshake from a young principal who called me “Ma’am” while checking his notifications.

I left my rocking chair behind, and my sticker box too. What I carried with me were the memories — the faces of hundreds of children who once trusted me enough to reach out their hands and learn. That can’t be uploaded. It can’t be measured. It can’t be replaced.

I miss when teachers were partners, not targets. When parents and educators worked side by side, not in opposition. When schools cared more about wonder than numbers.

So if you know a teacher — any teacher — thank them. Not with a mug or a gift card, but with your words. With your respect. With your understanding that behind every test score is a heart that cared enough to try.

Because in a world that often overlooks them, teachers are the ones who never forget our children.

[Aine Nolan @MsAinekelly]

Arrived at Dublin Airport at 7am with my 84-year-old mum, struggling at the car drop #StormAmy and along came John Carney. He stopped what he was doing to help us reach check-in. Goodwill, manners & quiet support speak a thousand words. Unsung heroes like John forever grateful ❤️

[Sophie Grenham @sophiegrenham]

I've been feeling sad for much of the day thinking about death and all the lovely people we've lost in the last few months.
In Manchán Magan's memory, I have bought a copy of the updated Thirty-Two Words for Field, and I'm sending another to my nephews in England. Wouldn't it be great if we could get Manchán's books to the top of the charts? #ManchánMagan 📚 🍃

[Liverpool FC @LFC]

Liverpool FC. Premier League champions.

[IrishPropaganda🇮🇪⚽️ @IrishPropaganda]

Caoimhin Kelleher, the first Irishman to win the Premier League title since 2011

🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪

[Julia Proofreader @ProofreadJulia]

On St. George's Day, and Shakespeare's birthday, I give you just a few of the many quotes from Shakespeare that are now part of everyday English. #StGeorgesDay #Shakespeare

[Eamon Melia @EamonMelia]

The total funding for the best athletes in Ireland for 2025 comes to €654,000.
The total funding for Greyhound racing for 2025 comes to €19,800,000.
What could €19,800,000 do for athletics in schools ???

[Sixteen Films @KenLoachSixteen]

No Other Land airs on Channel 4 at 11.15pm, Tuesday 4 March. Please share widely so as many people as possible can witness how Israel steals Palestinian land and destroys homes and lives, shown through the eyes of Basel, a Palestinian filmmaker, and Yuval, an Israeli journalist.
Bafta and Oscar winning : BEST DOCUMENTARY.

[Brian Krassenstein @krassenstein]

A Message to Elon Musk @elonmusk and DOGE from a Mother of a boy named Max.

Please at least give it a read and reconsider haphazardly freezing funding on important government programs:

"Elon, this perfect little boy is my son Max. He's not a parasite. He's pure joy. Love radiates from him, and he has a smile for everyone he meets. He was born with a rare genetic form of leukodystrophy called TBCD that is usually fatal by five years of age.

We were filled with hope when the researcher our patient advocacy group has been working with at Nationwide Children's Hospital was awarded with an R01 grant from the NIH after our community pooled our resources to fund the first phase of her research to apply for it. Last year, she showed us some of her work in the lab that PROVED there was a pathway to a treatment.

It was just a few cells in a dish. My son's neural cells -- cured.

Right now, her funds are frozen. The grant that was providing hope for a future for these children with a condition so rare that private pharma would never have any interest in creating a treatment is what you're fighting to slash funding for. You might as well be slashing my kid's throat.

Any delay in bringing this from the bench to the bedside WILL kill children in our community - and you're laughing on X and calling them parasites?

Shame on you."

[Kristi Yamaguccimane @TheWapplehouse]

This man is the David Attenborough of our time

[RTÉ News @rtenews]

A homemade idea for removing fake tan has spawned a sustainable soap business for two sisters from Dublin 🫧

Sadhbh and Aisling Wood turn waste coffee grinds into exfoliating bars of soap. Now they are hoping their product shines in one of the big supermarkets #Budget2025

[Daniel Hussey @DanielHussey2]

The last few months for Irish football:

- Sacked Stephen Kenny last November
- FAI takes 7 months to find replacement
- 4 friendlies in that time for John O’Shea to audition for the job
- End up hiring their “first-choice” manager who happens to be a dentist
- Heimir decides he doesn’t know enough about the players so doesn’t pick squad/team or do all the press conferences
- 0 goals in 180 minutes
- 4 goals conceded
- No clear structure on pitch
- Facing Nations League relegation
- Can only buy tickets in three-match bundles

Meanwhile, the League of Ireland champions get just over €100k for winning it. They also rely on European revenue where games don’t even get shown on Irish TV. Only country in Europe that happens in.

It’s no exaggeration to say that the FAI have well and truly failed Irish football.

What a mess.

[RTÉ Sport @RTEsport]

Ireland's first female five-time Olympian Fionnuala McCormack reflected on how Irish women now have "a spread over all sports, all events" after finishing 28th in the marathon in a season's best time of 2:30:12
📱 Report: https://t.co/RrvwMrPyiR
#Paris2024 #Olympics

[Unrepentant Fenian bastard. @Budgie12438982]

The PSNI should let this young lady have a word with the Loyalists that are wrecking the place because they are upset about immigration.

[Connolly Books @ConnollyBooks]

We got a bad review