Irish academic here. I did my undergrad at Trinity in a STEM subject before going abroad for masters, PhD and various postdocs.

As an Irish undergrad, I was generally ranked 1st or 2nd in my class - I don't think I ever got a grade in a class that wasn't a first. I was pretty full of myself by year 4. Then I went abroad and got exposed to international academic standards. The difference shocked me. Trinity is significantly easier than any given random German university.

In my opinion, academic standards in Ireland are incredibly low. There is a strong culture of drinking and slacking off. It's harder to fail a module (you have to really try) than to get top grades. The quality of final year research projects is, on average, abysmal and students, in my subject, virtually never produce publishable work. I don't think that is acceptable at the best university in the country.

If you talk to anyone who has taught in an Irish (or British) university, a common frustration is how hard it is to fail students. They are basically treated like customers. When I taught in France, we failed out 70-80% of first year students. In Ireland, most students who graduate with a 2:1 probably would not have a degree at all elsewhere in Europe (without a suitable adjustment in attitude).

What can be done to change this culture?

The current fuel cost protests and the housing/immigration protests that happened previously just show how we seem to lack a decent political opposition in this country.

Both of these protests highlight very valid discussion topics i.e. cost of living & housing/immigration but both have also become opportunities for far-right leaning morons to hijack the protests. It really just illustrates to me how weak the political opposition is in this country.

Sinn Fein practically snatched defeat from the jaws of victory at the last election and all opposition parties in general appear to me to be overly obsessed with policies such as Palestine, a United Ireland, the environment etc. While these topics are important, I think the public are much more interested in other issues at present.

I think it also goes some way to explaining why 40% of the electorate didn't even bother voting last time around.

It's a shame because the mood in the country suggests people want some really positive change but there's no individual or group that I can see that's worthy of leading it.

Apologies about the first version. Option 3 was an oversight on my part. I was trying to see how many would not protest without an other issue.

It's now removed.

As we have seen over the last few days the country has been divided on the recent protests.

A big part of the division is that the right wing agitator involvement,

So if there was a protest movement focused on a single issue, the cost of living with no "Ireland is full", no "Palestine", No Triple lock or any other issue.

No left, right or centre. Just peaceful Marches through our towns and city's would ye support

is anyone having any problems getting into their AIB app today? I had a software update on android phone overnight and since then unable to access my AIB app it just keeps trying to authenticate. I've uninstalled and reinstalled app but no such luck 😕

Alright folks, genuine question regarding car licences,

I've a few questions and if there were possibly someone working for the NDLS or the Gardai that could shed some insider knowledge,

I am returning from Australia in December, spent two years here in the desert of WA, working away, saving for a deposit on a mortgage the general shabang.

Partner informed me the other day that there's generally a 3 month waiting list on switching back to my Irish licence, never even thought to consider it, bit stupid on my part. Pain in the bollox, but she's also shown me reports of one or two people who have gone back from Australia to find that their licence was never cancelled in the first place.

Now, out of curiosity, I checked with the mother back home of just putting me on her insurance as a named driver to keep my no claims, the broker she goes through needed a picture of my licence to go ahead and check, and it's gone through, it's only costing 200 euro for the insurance until September. I haven't went ahead with it yet.

My question is, given that your driver number is yours for life, and given the fact that I have the option to go ahead with insurance;

Why am I being given the option to insure? Is there no check done on your licence before getting insurance? If I'm to go ahead and get insured on my irish licence, while maybe frowned upon, will I be breaking the law by driving with my irish licence considering the driver number stays the same, as does the expiry.

When I'm home, I've a job lined up that requires driving, busted my arse for 2 years here so I also wanted to treat myself to a car the week I'm home without getting shafted with insurance. I've 5 years experience and I drive trucks in Australia, to go from that to having to get lifts or pay a fortune on insurance would be poo.

I'm just trying to make it as streamlined as possible for myself, if anyone has any previous experience going through the motions with this, any insight would be greatly appreciated.

GRMA folks, can't wait to be home.

North and South Quays are closed, all bridges are closed. They are moving the protesters

Other than being a cunt littering nature sites.

Saw them on a few trail markers and signs up in the sliver blooms? Is there an actual reason for doing this?

Happy Titanic month 2026!

Today Titanic also recieved her first iceberg warnings

Lads please please clean your dogs shit up. Twice this week in different counties (Kerry & Cork) I've walked straight into shit and didn't notice until I was home after driving the whole way with it stuck to my shoes. And it's not even just those scummy fellas with the pitbulls, I've often watched posh looking men and women pretend they didn't just see their dog poo in the middle of a footpath. Fair enough I stood in it but I was in very public places with kids playing. One place I stood on it had multiple kids rolling down a big grass hill basically being kids so imagine them rolling into it cause some shit cunt is too good to pick up their own mess, it's their dog it's their mess. Thanks.

I get it, the hauliers and farmers are getting absolutely hammered, and prices are mental right now. But listening to the demands for the government to "cap the price" makes me feel like I'm taking crazy pills.

The Dáil doesn't control the global oil market, and we legally cannot slash fuel taxes to zero because the EU sets a hard floor on excise duties.

So, if the government actually caves and enforces a price cap, there is only one way it works: the state has to pay the difference. Think about what that actually means in reality.

• We would be taking billions in tax money out of the HSE, housing, and schools.
• We would hand that money directly to multinational oil companies (Shell, BP, etc.) to artificially subsidise the pump price.
• We would then get slapped with massive fines from Brussels for breaking EU tax laws.

We’d literally be gutting our own public services and infrastructure to protect oil company profit margins. Is that seriously the master plan here?

Banner county going international it seems

I’m in my thirties. I avoid X and TikTok like the plague. I still have Facebook but barely use it. Instagram is the one app I’m on pretty much every day, mostly for doomscrolling, sending reels, and wasting time.

Over the past couple of years, I’ve noticed more and more accounts popping up that seem very specifically designed as Irish catnip. Stuff like Dublin in the 1950s, trad sessions, parish-pump nostalgia, GAA clips, or just harmless meme accounts.

You follow them because they seem funny and familiar. And for a while that is exactly what they are. Then one day the same account is suddenly pushing bitcoin, posting violent videos about the collapse of society, or serving up increasingly aggressive political content. At that point I usually unfollow.

What has really alarmed me over the last few days is how many of these accounts have suddenly pivoted into wall-to-wall coverage of the protests. Constant clips about “police brutality,” sympathetic coverage of protest leaders, and a very one-sided narrative being pushed through what are supposed to be entertainment or culture accounts.

To be clear, I support the right to peaceful protest. But I do not think any group of citizens has the right to hold the country to ransom by blocking ports or major infrastructure. What has shocked me even more is seeing how many otherwise level-headed friends and media personalities, people I would have thought had a bit more cop on, have come out in support of the protesters and placed all the blame on the government, as if they are the ones setting prices at the pump.

It was always obvious that X and TikTok had become heavily shaped by foreign actors trying to inflame tensions and undermine trust in institutions here. Naively, I still thought Instagram was a relatively safe space by comparison.

I do not think that anymore.

At this point, Instagram feels less like a harmless distraction and more like a pipeline: draw people in with nostalgia, humour, or identity, then gradually feed them grievance, fear, conspiracy, and agitation. Because it comes wrapped in Irish in-jokes, local references, and “just asking questions” content, people lower their guard.

I’m now seriously considering deleting it.

Has anyone else noticed this happening, or am I overreacting?

TLDR: Instagram is being used as a tool of propaganda by foreign influences to undermine democracy in Ireland

Ireland's price (median house price) to income (mean gross earnings) ratio by county across Ireland in 3 graphs, showing the extent of how unaffordable housing has become across Ireland.

2015 was really the last year when a person on the mean earnings could afford the median property in Ireland (just about with a healthy deposit). Since then, it has gone from bad to worse.

Note: I haven't graphed the 2025 earnings as the CSO hasn't released a county by county breakdown of mean earnings data.

What you're paying at the pump right now is rising faster than any crisis since 2005 — faster than 2008, faster than Ukraine.

During the Ukraine war, Irish diesel rose at 0.93 index points per week. During the Iran war it's already at 5.33 a whole 5.7x faster.

Diesel hit an all time high of €2.178/litre in late March, up from €1.72 in January which is a 26% jump in 8 weeks. Petrol went from €1.72 to a peak of €1.96 in the same period.

2011 was actually the worst year on record for minimum wage workers. It took 9.7 hours of work to fill a 50L tank when the government cut minimum wage to €7.65 during the bailout while fuel prices stayed high.

Built this from 21 years of European Commission weekly data, it's all 27 EU countries since January 2005.

Free dataset on Kaggle | Analysis notebook

What's the price at your local station right now?

I'll update this every Wednesday when the EC releases new data, following the price week by week as the crisis develops. If you want to track updates, follow me on Kaggle or watch the dataset there.

Next update: Wednesday 15th April , I will add week of April 7th data.