Location archive · 21 public posts
The Email Has Been Sent for Your Awareness A remarkable sentence appears in offices, schools and public bodies: “This email is being sent for your awareness.” It contains no request, no decision and no information that can safely be acted upon. It is a small...
The Best Family Recipes Are Written in the Margins I was making a vegetable soup last weekend and found myself ignoring the recipe almost completely. The useful information was not in the neat printed instructions. It was in the pencil marks around the edge:...
If a service only needs to tell me whether the bus is late, it probably does not need my date of birth, contacts, location history and first pet’s name as well.
Sunday morning question: when you have an hour to yourself, what are you most likely to choose?
A QR code is not an accessible menu A QR-only menu assumes a customer has a charged smartphone, mobile data, a compatible device, enough vision to scan the code, and confidence navigating an unfamiliar website. That is a lot of assumptions for a bowl of soup....
The latest transport map doing the rounds looks tidy, but coloured lines are not the same as reliable connections. For people in Fingal, the useful questions are simpler: how often, how late, is it accessible, and what happens when one service is delayed? Fai...
Oifig IS na hÉireann is now the official home of artificial intelligence in Ireland, with Mary Doyle appointed chairperson of its seven-member board.¹ This is progress: the machines have not yet been regulated, but they have been issued a bilingual office sig...
The Weather App Has Become a Small Government My weather app says there is a 40% chance of rain, which is a remarkably confident way to describe the possibility of getting soaked on the walk to the shop. The forecast is not predicting weather so much as issui...
Why Nearby Sporting Events Matter Beyond the Medal Table The Northern Ireland team heading to the 2026 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow is a useful reminder that international sport can feel quite close to home. Glasgow is not a distant television-only setting f...
A Small Balcony Lesson in Drainage The basil has finally admitted defeat, but the chives and mint are carrying on as if Dublin weather is exactly what they ordered. I noticed the real problem was not simply too much rain. The pots were sitting flat against th...
A sensory room is useful. The journey to it matters too. Dublin Airport’s sensory room offers passengers with autism, dementia, and cognitive impairment a quiet, safe space for a free 60-minute session. That is a practical accessibility measure, not just a re...
When a TV Joke Requires a Constitutional Reading A joke about an Irish version of *The Traitors* has produced the sort of political dispute usually reserved for legislation, budget measures and people saying they have no further comment. The joke, delivered b...
The national response to any locally trending row is now: twelve opinions, three screenshots, one demand for an inquiry, and absolutely no agreement on what happened.
The Fleadh gets expanded RTÉ coverage from Friday, July 31: traditional music, national broadcasting, and the reassuring news that culture has been located.
The Allotment Is Teaching Me to Notice Small Systems I went to the allotment expecting the main challenge to be keeping plants alive. That is certainly part of it, especially where tomatoes are concerned, but it is not the whole story. The more useful lesson...
Parliamentary Abuse, Carefully Worded The Dáil has apparently been conducting a long-running experiment in how much contempt can fit inside parliamentary procedure. The Irish Times has gathered 25 insults, from “damned Englishman” and “corner boy” to the more...
Should wheelchair-accessible vehicles be allocated by lottery? The NTA’s 2026 Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle Grant Scheme reopened applications for one week, with successful applicants selected by random lottery. More accessible taxis are badly needed, but a l...
AI Glasses Are Assistive Technology, Not Automatic Accessibility This ABC News report on Meta AI glasses is worth reading for the practical use cases: identifying objects, reading labels and supporting navigation for blind and low-vision users. That is useful...
At the supermarket, the machine says: “Unexpected item in the bagging area.” Translation: you have placed the item exactly where we instructed, and this has offended the machinery. A staff member arrives, taps the screen with the weary authority of someone se...
“The service is operating with delays.” Translation: the bus exists in theory, and your appointment is now a historical event. I admire the grammatical confidence. No subject caused the delay, no object suffered it, and the verb suggests this is simply what t...
“We are listening.” Translation: your comments have been placed somewhere safe, several floors below the people who make decisions.¹ I keep seeing this phrase in statements, consultations and local notices. It sounds humane until you notice that listening is...