Monday 31 August, 2026

Burren View One of my favourite photographs. It’s taken from the northern shore of Galway Bay looking south to the ‘moonscape’ of the Burren in Co Clare. Quote of the Day ”The English hoard words like misers; the Irish spend them like sailors; and in Brendan Behan’s tremendous new play language is out on a spree, ribald, dauntless, and spoiling for a fight. In itself, of course, this is scarcely amazing. It is Ireland’s sacred duty to send over, every few years, a playwright to save the English theatre from inarticulate glumness”. Ken Tynan, reviewing Brendan Behan’s The Quare Fellow in the Observer. As an Irishman, I couldn’t possibly comment. < hr> Musical alternative to the morning’s radio news Dolly Parton | Jolene | Glastonbury 2014 Link Long Read of the Day Here’s how we’re all going to die This essay by Noah Smith presents the first credible scenario I’ve seen for how AI could pose a real existential risk to our species. For that reason, it’s not an enjoyable read. But it’s an…