In Belfast, like in the Republic, a housing crisis has met increased immigration and created a tinderbox. In England, the Boriswave, asylum hotels, the X accounts chronicling every instance of urban decay, have tumbled into one throbbing ball of energy. When Nigel Farage said last year that no one realised how close the country was to civil disobedience “on a vast scale”, perhaps he was right, though, it is important to say, we are not there yet. Rioting is now regular, but it is not – yet – widespread. More than anywhere, Northern Ireland should have a readymade rhetorical framework to describe ethnic conflict, though its establishment was quick to try to deflect the crisis elsewhere. “The horrific scenes in North Belfast should not be used by the English, right-wing politicians to further their own end” said one centrist Northern Irish MP; “This has nothing to do with community” said Michelle O’Neill, the First Minister. Meanwhile, the burning cars of the previous night’s pogrom continued to smoulder. Ireland – North and South – is unique in its absence of a coherent political force on the right to channel all this energy at the ballot box. Sinn Fein has long departed from its republican, working-class roots – embracing the liberalism of its political rivals in the Republic, at least. Without anyone to ventriloquise the rage, protesters on the island will keep searching for political expression they can’t find in the mainstream – for now, in stochastic, sporadic episodes of pitchfork wielding on the streets. But one thing is clear – moments of extreme violence, like the attempted beheading in North Belfast on Monday night or the Southport stabbings – are having a flattening effect. England is not just transforming into a flag-wielding, rioting nation; but Northern Ireland looks like England in its own ways too; a burnt-out bus in Dublin looks remarkably like a burnt-out bus in Belfast. For the first time in its existence, Northern Ireland may be parsable to an England that has long found it alien, weird and foreign. By @finn_mcredmond newstatesman.com/politics/uk…

Who needs Chinese electrification capacity and knowhow? We all do. For years western mainstream commentators have complained about so-called over-capacity. In reality, the world is likely to need all of this capacity … and more. Full essay: news.cgtn.com/news/2026-03-2…

I don’t recognise Britain any more.

Following this week's UK supreme court ruling, Sinn Fein Chief Whip Pádraig Mac Lochlainn says the conversation now needs to be had in Ireland.

Hi all, I've decided to share this video. Just b4 Christmas my autistic sister Katie (who doesn't speak and has the mindset of a toddler) went 2 buy a £2 dvd but the till had closed early and started crying in the shop. Police were called& forcibly removed her. #AutismAwareness

Why were the Independents so keen on the Ceann Comhairle job and how did Verona Murphy get it? irishtimes.com/politics/oire…

In 1949 it became illegal to erect Irish language on street signage. In 1995 that ban was replaced with an obligation for councils to take forward their own rules & policies to facilitate requests from residents. In 2024 ABC Council passed their first Irish/English sign.

🔹“It’s like being in England” 🔹”It feels like being in an airport.” 🔹 “Belfast now looks like a proper city.” Some reax from passengers at Grand Central. 📍

Zombie is one of the worst songs of all time I’m afraid

More than 100 activists from across Ireland joined the @saveloughneagh_ campaign today in a dramatic action at a Moy Park chicken factory in Craigavon, Co Armagh, highlighting the major role of factory farming in “killing Lough Neagh” and accelerating climate breakdown.