Emmet Kirwan
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emmetkirwan.bsky.social
Emmet Kirwan
@emmetkirwan.bsky.social
2.2K followers 910 following 81 posts
Playwright & Actor
Reps. Writing: Curtis Brown. Acting: United UK & Lisa Richards IRL
https://linktr.ee/Emmetkirwan?fbclid=PAAaat-_vsdAnFapXO9hCuc6FR70ksrDJw7l-m7w4
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Emmet Kirwan
orla-hegarty.bsky.social
“Apartment Vat cut makes no sense and won’t boost housing supply”

“A Vat cut meant to boost apartment construction has instead exposed a circular, ineffective policy that neither lowers costs nor increases supply” @mickcliff.bsky.social

www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/comm...
Mick Clifford: Apartment Vat cut makes no sense and won’t boost housing supply
A Vat cut meant to boost apartment construction has instead exposed a circular, ineffective policy that neither lowers costs nor increases supply
www.irishexaminer.com
November 29, 2025 at 10:29 AM
Reposted by Emmet Kirwan
frankoconnor.bsky.social
16,766 without a home
This is f*cking scandalous
A result of shameful government policy with empty homes everywhere
Me & @judesherry.bsky.social updated the numbers on our dereliction billboard yesterday with music by Meryl Streek

Lower John St, Cork City
#DerelictIreland #HousingCrisis #SpeirGorm
November 29, 2025 at 8:14 AM
Reposted by Emmet Kirwan
joenoonan.bsky.social
“I do fear that if attempts are made to cut back on rights of participation and to cut back on the right of access to the courts, people will still find a way and it might well be a way that’s going to be a lot more difficult to control.”

- Prof Áine Ryall #Law

www.irishtimes.com/environment/...
Plan to raise cost of judicial reviews could lead to people representing themselves in court
Law professor warns move could leave courts even more congested
www.irishtimes.com
November 28, 2025 at 10:53 PM
Reposted by Emmet Kirwan
johnhyphen.bsky.social
buying a farm that straddles the cavan-fermanagh county border to run contreband intermezzos into the occupied 6
November 28, 2025 at 1:56 PM
Reposted by Emmet Kirwan
tinydonkey.bsky.social
So this is a thing you'll see a lot about immigration. The process is incredibly slow, the systems are overworked. If you have applied you will overstay before your decision is made. The system is designed such that you will be breaking the law, by their own design. This is arguably on purpose.
jonathan-z74.bsky.social jonathan-z74.bsky.social @jonathan-z74.bsky.social · 3d
They overstayed their visas. That's not remotely a legal way.
November 28, 2025 at 1:29 PM
Reposted by Emmet Kirwan
jameskelleher.pilcrow.ie
Sweating at Heathrow border control because I’ve swallowed 15 copies of uncut Intermezzo
Sally Rooney's books may be pulled off UK shelves due to her support for Palestine Action group
The author said it was “unclear” whether any UK company can make payments to her.
www.thejournal.ie
November 28, 2025 at 1:50 PM
Reposted by Emmet Kirwan
aplante.com
i know WHY this is but that just makes it even more of a kick in the pants lmao
screenshot of a tumblr post from user “wildmansters” The thing that really boils my potatoes about Al in general is that I have been a creative professional for over a decade now and the devil has ALWAYS been in the details. Big and small, I've had single-person businesses rip me to shreds over how their colors turned out on newsprint, and have worked with huge companies with THICK brand guidelines with every detail of their brand identity laid out and enforced with an iron fist. But I guess all of that stuff doesn't matter anymore? Who gives a fuck if this Al generated baby has six fingers, that mom-and-pop shop is still going to use it. That rug from Temu says Happy Thanksgivirg? Oh well haha it's just a silly funny thing now (nevermind that you never would have given a B-grade item from a craft show the same consideration). I don't actually care that the Al Coca-cola ad has a truck that changes size every scene, but I can't help but think about how, if it had been some poor underpaid artist, they would have been laughed out of the building. I don't really know how to put it in a succint way but it just feels all the more obvious how much more grace and flexibility has always been possible but never offered.
November 28, 2025 at 3:28 AM
Reposted by Emmet Kirwan
irishrainforest.bsky.social
Despite a 16% jump in nitrates levels in Irish rivers in the last year alone, it's looking like the derogation (special dispensation to pollute more) will *still* be extended by another 3 years.

Help farmers financially if needs be, but killing our rivers is just WRONG.
share.google/EpaRcLKnsnPZ...
Nitrates derogation could be extended by three years after proposal backed by European Commission
Too much nitrogen in a river can lead to an over-growth of algae, which causes damage to, and can even kill, wildlife and plants.
share.google
November 27, 2025 at 8:54 PM
Reposted by Emmet Kirwan
orla-hegarty.bsky.social
🏗️ Ireland’s fire safety standards for apartments

we need to talk about de-regulation & safety of future apartment residents

(🧵 below was originally posted on 29 Feb 2020 )
image of an apartment fire breaking through to balcony & a person on a window cill
November 27, 2025 at 7:19 PM
Reposted by Emmet Kirwan
attractaub.bsky.social
Wake up call and reality check for all concerned with delivery of decent #housing, and positive societal outcomes from #planning
Lorcan Sirr talkimg sense, stats and evidence, incl on scapegoating #JR #JudicialReview
www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2025...
Lorcan Sirr: Judicial reviews are not the problem – and deregulation is no answer
We have seen before how cutting ‘red tape’ leads to disaster, especially in planning and housing
www.irishtimes.com
November 26, 2025 at 10:45 PM
Reposted by Emmet Kirwan
greenpartyie.bsky.social
Today's transport plan delivers a stark message to commuters.

Expect more years stuck in traffic with no viable public transport alternatives.

Read our response here 👇

greenparty.ie/news/act-nat...

@feljin.ie @rodericogorman.bsky.social
November 26, 2025 at 5:27 PM
Reposted by Emmet Kirwan
feljin.ie
Four months after it was promised, we finally have the government's transport investment plan between now and 2030. It's bad. Roads are in, public transport is out. A lot of public transport projects being put on the long-finger to make funding available for new roads.
November 26, 2025 at 2:29 PM
Reposted by Emmet Kirwan
moreperfectunion.bsky.social
BREAKING: RealPage is suing New York, challenging a new state law that bans landlords from using algorithms to set rents.

RealPage claims that its software, which landlords have used to collude on rents, is protected by the First Amendment.
November 26, 2025 at 4:56 PM
Reposted by Emmet Kirwan
davelevitan.bsky.social
Google at its peak was basically the best information retrieval system in human history and they and every competitor decided going from there to “you didn’t want answers you wanted half-assed auto-complete 80%-wrong hallucinations” in a few years was the right idea
November 25, 2025 at 1:57 AM
Reposted by Emmet Kirwan
zeddary.bsky.social
First Secretary of Defense you could defeat by painting a tunnel on the side of a boulder.
November 25, 2025 at 1:55 PM
emmetkirwan.bsky.social
So they lobbied the government intensely, got what they wanted and now they’re happy. Imagine the reverse of this headline ‘renters happy with new rent reforms’ that would and will never happen as long as we have these agents of capital reping for the lads. www.irishtimes.com/business/202...
www.irishtimes.com
November 25, 2025 at 8:47 AM
Reposted by Emmet Kirwan
tinydbass.bsky.social
Excellent piece by Sadhbh o'Neill about the car-centric approach to transport. I have absolutely no doubt that virtually none of our elected reps rely on public transport to go about their daily lives.

www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2025...
Climate: Imagine how different things would be if politicians had to use public transport
Long lead-in times, a lack of sustained policy commitment, and start-stop approaches to big projects all contributed to where we are now
www.irishtimes.com
November 25, 2025 at 7:46 AM
emmetkirwan.bsky.social
This article offers zero evidence that landlords are going to “stampede” out of the rental market, other than an estate agent saying, “trust me, bro.”

www.limerickleader.ie/news/nationa...
Landlords 'stampede' out of rental market ahead of new changes coming next year
The new rules and regulations will not affect tenants that have been in place before March 1 and after that date, they will see a six-year tenancy agreement put in place
www.limerickleader.ie
November 25, 2025 at 8:36 AM
Reposted by Emmet Kirwan
fancyvegaspro.bsky.social
In Ireland, every season is Landlord Migration season
zenbuffy.bsky.social Jen Keane @zenbuffy.bsky.social · 6d
I quite literally will never understand this take. I know that we always need *some* rental property available but the vast majority of people in Ireland want to own and we can't because of *drumroll please* landlords buying multiple properties to rent. Them leaving the market is what we want.
limericklive.bsky.social LimerickLive @limericklive.bsky.social · 6d
Landlords 'stampede' out of rental market ahead of new changes coming next year
November 24, 2025 at 12:43 PM
Reposted by Emmet Kirwan
uilliammac.bsky.social
When Dunnes staff refused to handle S African goods they were denounced by politicians from FF/FG, as well as "business leaders". The same groups blocking the OTB today. They were spat on, beaten by Gardaí and followed by Special Branch. It took 3 years to shame the govt. into acting. Reluctantly.
November 23, 2025 at 5:06 PM
Reposted by Emmet Kirwan
darylfeehely.com
"philosophical financial framework" is a very kind way of describing neoliberalism there from Mícheál.

#IrishPol
rtetwip.bsky.social The Week in Politics @rtetwip.bsky.social · 7d
📺Today on #RTÉTwip, RTÉ's Political Correspondent @fertha.bsky.social speaks with @aine-lawlor.bsky.social
regarding the departure of Paschal Donohue from the Dáil.

"Has to the only adult in the room left the Fine Gael side?"

You can watch the rewatch #RTÉTwip on @rteone.rte.ie at 11pm tonight.
November 23, 2025 at 4:52 PM
emmetkirwan.bsky.social
Kaspar Aiden Cantwell Strattra (23) – replied after charge and caution at Ennis Garda station: “The use of Shannon Airport by the US military breaks Irish neutrality. The US is a belligerent power complicit in the genocide of Palestinians.”
www.irishtimes.com/crime-law/co...
Army personnel draw weapons as pro-Palestinian activists spray-paint US plane at Shannon
Three people in court in Ennis charged with criminal damage of US military aircraft at Shannon on Saturday
www.irishtimes.com
November 24, 2025 at 8:58 AM
Reposted by Emmet Kirwan
donnchalaw.bsky.social
Excellent piece by my colleague, Professor Ciara Smyth:

The real migration crisis is not the one you’ve been hearing about – The Irish Times

www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2025...
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
www.irishtimes.com
November 24, 2025 at 7:22 AM
Reposted by Emmet Kirwan
suekirk.bsky.social
Another 'Landlords leaving the market' story. First, has this not consistently been proven to be completely false? Second, if true, why would this be bad? Third, if Landlords are 'leaving the market' in droves because new rules mean their tenants have a more secure lease, well, ok then. Off you pop.
Chyron that says 'landlords leaving market due to new tenancy rules'
November 23, 2025 at 9:45 AM
Reposted by Emmet Kirwan
elaineburke.bsky.social
The Irish Times published and lauded John Collison's op-ed, but did they fact-check it?

Andrew Jackson did. Thoroughly.

If you spent time reading the original, you'd want to give time to this counterpoint as well.
November 22, 2025 at 9:28 AM