Ailbhe Kenny

Why do surveys show strong public support for cycle paths, but Facebookers call it “fake news”? -- "Leadership means pushing past the noise — and over the Hill of Hysteria," says a leading mobility academic. The National Transport Authority has just published the latest findings of its Walking and Cycling Index for 2025 research which led The Irish Times to report that "the vast majority of residents across the State’s five main cities want increased investment in cycling infrastructure, even when that results in less road space for cars." That and other news reports have led many on social media to cry foul!

Why do surveys show strong public support for cycle paths, but Facebookers call it “fake news”?

-- "Leadership means pushing past the noise — and over the Hill of Hysteria," says a leading mobility academic. The National Transport Authority has just published the latest findings of its Walking and…

The HORROR

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Listen! @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social spoke to @kennyailbhe.bsky.social about the hugely important "Music Refuge: Living Asylum Through Music" newbooksnetwork.com/music-refuge

Darragh O’Brien drafts in state agencies to find solutions to traffic congestion in the capital Transport Minister ‘not writing anything off’ in bid to ease problem in urban areas

Has he considered not shelving rail projects? Not cutting funding for expansion of public transport could be worth looking at too.

Data centres will take a third of power by 2030, but grid will have capacity to supply homes Ireland’s power network will remain strained for nearly three more years – but, according to EirGrid, the construction of as many as 300,000 new homes by 2030 will not overwhelm the system.

'Data centres will take a third of power by 2030'
Ireland's government wants to make us a digital slop farm.

And in the process, almost certainly miss climate targets.

Very few jobs or tangible benefits, but easily wowed and awed by big tech.
www.independent.ie/business/iri...

The launch of every piece of AI-driven surveillance/security/criminal justice software basically goes like this:

AI COMPANY: this is an error free, bias free, state of the art, highly intelligent software system

Two Weeks Later: …aaaand it’s racist

‘It’s a slap in the face’ – Irish households are paying twice as much for electricity as data centres Households in Ireland are paying almost twice as much for their electricity as data centres.

Did you know that homes pay twice as much for electricity as data centers do? It's good that that government are helping out the poor scrappy start ups like Amazon and Google 🥹
m.independent.ie/business/per...

Galway councillor claims RSA messaging amounts to ‘victim blaming’ – ‘Children are not killed because of a lack of high-vis vests’ A Galway councillor has called for a “no confidence” vote and a major overhaul of the Road Safety Authority (RSA), claiming its education campaigns place responsibility on vulnerable road users rather...

7 deaths on our roads over the weekend including a 16 y/o girl walking her dog.

Why the obsession over hi-vis? Why the reduction in active travel funding?
Where are the 30km/h zones?
Where are the red light cameras?
Why no enforcement?
Why aren't intelligent speed systems default on new cars?

a cartoon of alice from alice in wonderland looking down at something ALT: a cartoon of alice from alice in wonderland looking down at something

Just got an invite to give a lecture at a conference on Mathematics, Computer Science and Engineering. I am so very tempted to say yes and see where it all leads…

Our 6-year-old leaving no stone unturned on the hunt for her lost hedgehog teddy.

Really liked Andrea Arnold’s WH - the rawness of it….could almost feel the biting wind on my face!

Exclusive: Dublin Airport passenger cap to be permanently removed under new laws

Weeks of severe storms and catastrophic flooding across the country — all made worse and more frequent by climate change.

Our politicians’ response?
Our Minister for Climate Action’s response?!

More emissions.

The world heard JD Vance being booed at the Olympics. Except for viewers in the US | Bryan Armen Graham The real risk for American broadcasters is not that dissent will be visible. It is that audiences will start assuming anything they do not show is being hidden

The world heard JD Vance being booed at the Olympics. Except for viewers in the US | Bryan Armen Graham

The depressing thing is all the FFFG politicians are on Twitter where no doubt all the assholes and bots are saying "Yeah fuck those woke communist plebs on bikes, kill them all, cars for everyone!" and so they think helmets and high viz is a great idea altogether lads we're on to a winner here!

The hi viz will work great when I'm hit by a motorist looking at their phone.

‘If I think about what this means, I want to cry’: what happens when a city loses its university? When Essex University’s Southend campus opened, it was a message of hope for a ‘left behind’ UK seaside town. Its closure will be felt far beyond its 800 students, some of whom will not get their degr...

“It was a sign that young people growing up here could have bigger aspirations – that Southend was a town on the up.” This article highlights the entangled connections between higher ed, place, space and identity really well.
www.theguardian.com/environment/...

I will go back to my monthly sharing of this. Big change in my own online life since last month is that my employer @dublincityuni.bsky.social , has left X and is posting here more often. Hopefully this can be the start of greater engagement Do get in touch if you want to join go.bsky.app/8FJAkMG

Helmets and hi-vis clothing to be made mandatory for e-bikes and e-scooter users Cabinet will sign off on plans to explicitly ban the use of scramblers on roads this morning.

Reducing - and enforcing - speed limits for ALL vehicles to 30km/hr in urban areas & cameras to detect cars breaking traffic lights would save scores of lives annually, but it might annoy some motorists so instead we get this performative BS from gov’t.

www.thejournal.ie/e-bikes-scoo...

Sarah Moss: The helmets and hi-vis for cyclists are symptoms of the Irish problem, not the solution You’ll see very few helmets on cyclists in the Netherlands, Denmark and Belgium, certainly no laws mandating their use

Thank you Sarah Moss - “Where the built environment separates human skin and bone from lorries, cars and buses, there is no need for our frantic striving to make fragile bodies hyper-visible” @irishcyclingcmpn.bsky.social @irishtimes.com @irishcycle.com

www.irishtimes.com/life-style/p...

As someone said the other day, one of the biggest problems with AI is not that you're expected to be more productive; it's that it triples the output of the biggest idiot you work with

Justine McCarthy: Going to Trump’s Doonbeg? You should be ashamed of yourself Trump’s erogenous zone is in his pocket. Let’s hit him where it hurts

Going to Trump’s Doonbeg? You should be ashamed of yourself

www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2026...

Parents embrace cargo bikes for school and work commute: ‘It costs nothing to run’ Santry-based Shane Farrell loves the convenience of the cargo bike

We have been using the cargo bike daily now for the whole family for almost 5 years. It is so quick to get around and reliable - a brilliant way to get around www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2026...

Patrick Freyne: AI’s weird billionaires want us all to be atomised units of labour and consumption The weird billionaires behind artificial intelligence are desperately trying to shoehorn AI chatbots into every bit of technology you own

“The nexus of middle management waffle & AI is a bullshit industrial complex.If there are currently too many bullshit documents in your workplace it’s nothing compared to what it will be like now that AI can be used to create them en masse” Freyne @irishtimes.com

www.irishtimes.com/life-style/p...

To think that providing homeless accommodation is fast becoming one of Irelands big indigenous service industries Yet we've over 160k empty homes & over 20k derelict homes How have we left successive governments normalise this violence While generations suffer 😡 #DerelictIreland

To think that providing homeless accommodation is fast becoming one of Irelands big indigenous service industries
Yet we've over 160k empty homes & over 20k derelict homes
How have we left successive governments normalise this violence
While generations suffer
Sickening😡
#DerelictIreland #speirgorm

"This promise of an AI future, is really just a collective anxiety that wealthy people have about how well they're gonna be able to control us in the future."

- @tressiemcphd.bsky.social with an absolute mic drop moment about AI bullshit.

Incredible words.
Listen to all of it!

Truly shameful that close to 6,000 children will spend another Christmas in emergency accommodation in Ireland
Truly shameful homelessness has become a massive industry in Ireland
F*ck the property hoarders & all those making money off this structural violence & vandalism
#DerelictIreland #SpeirGorm

Christmas with Ancór

Ancór, the choir I sing with, belting out the Chrimbo vibes with our new album. open.spotify.com/album/1slcJd... Choral Director: @ceciliamadden.bsky.social

Up to 41,000 apartments with planning permission lying idle in system New figures highlight high attrition rate for proposed apartments in Greater Dublin Area

“Up to 41,000 apartments with planning permission lying idle in system”

41,000 ready-to-go on site with full Planning Permission..a fact ignored by those looking to blame Planning system for the housing crisis. The deregulation agenda is strong, don’t be misled www.irishtimes.com/business/202...

Opinion: The real migration crisis is not the one you’ve been hearing about ‘Politics of affect’ stokes anxieties about immigration, allowing Government to then respond

“Rather than address the real root causes of political dissatisfaction in Ireland, it suits the Government to point to asylum seekers as the problem – something the far right is happy to capitalise on.” EXACTLY THIS.

www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2025...