Well worth a read even if you don't agree 100%
Constantin has professional and personal experience of state level dis/re integration.

As we sit here waiting for some sort of Iranian strike on Israel, I'm left to mourn that golden period between 1985 and 2001 during which - at least for us - things got better and safer. The world has become a very dangerous place.

From dawn to sunrise #dawn #sunrise #sea #Wicklow

Late evening light trails left by the cars travelling the winding road at Ballymackstocker beach in #donegal One of the nicest drives in Ireland #landscapephotography #sunset #lighttrails Nikon UK & Ireland NikonEurope

Sun goes down on the #Kerry Cliffs 👌

(a) this is fascinating

(b) I hate to think how messed up science is going to get as people use LLMs for things they really shouldn’t, which evidently includes any kind of random sampling.

'At the time, it was widely assumed... that the bombings were the work of the IRA and the liberal policies of the then Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, Terence O’Neill, who was forced from office in the wake of the attacks.' newsletter.co.uk/news/politics/…

How does this awful rainy weather affect our mood? Insights from Andrew Coogan Maynooth University via Drivetime RTE RTÉ Radio 1 rte.ie/brainstorm/202…

Incredible new frescoes unearthed in Pompeii! The first fateful meeting of the Spartan princess Helen and the Trojan shepherd-prince Paris – who is accompanied by his delightful herding dog (seemingly a Molossian hound) who looks quite unimpressed by the whole proceeding!

🚨NEW 🚨

I was on site at Pompeii shortly after they made the stunning discovery of exquisite frescoes of figures from the Trojan War in a newly uncovered winter dining room.

Story from the site is here:

thetimes.co.uk/article/7e8f36…

Apparently this has to be a secret in the UK...
But everyone this side of the water knows about it. Now Gibraltar chief minister just tweeted that he is having meeting with Cameron tomorrow in Brussels.

RIP The Sackville. Forever in our hearts.

Cherry blossoms in Herbert Park this morning with warm sunshine before the rain came.

Today’s office for a report on the #WildAtlanticWay — take a minute and enjoy the tranquility of Derrynane Beach, #Kerry .

The Russians are trying to do to Kharkiv what they did to Aleppo and Grozny. Pure, unadulterated evil.

So of course it’s entirely normal for the first Al fresco coffee of the season to be accompanied by random Llamas 🦙 strolling up Molesworth Street.

Big year for Irish film talent at Cannes rte.ie/entertainment/… via RTÉ

So, four Irish productions or co-productions. One film by an Irish director. Barry Keoghan (and I'm sure other actors I haven't yet twigged). Shamelessly calling 'most Irish Cannes ever'.

What slowed European focus on self-reliance in the late 2010s was hope that Trump would be a one-term phenomenon and a figure like Biden could restore old certainties.

Well Biden is here, 2022 was a last hurrah and now the US is paralysed anyway. It's not the 1990s anymore.

Alongside emergency measures, a core priority for the EU should be to help Ukraine transition to a more distributed and thus less vulnerable energy infrastructure anchored around renewables.

Lessons learned could also help the EU become more resilient against strategic threats.