Brian O'Neill

Take a moment on this Monday morning to send some good vibes to poor aul Elon Musk. Despite becoming even richer last week, with his estimated wealth nudging something like $800 billion, it seems he is not a happy bunny. Posting on X, he wrote: Whoever said “money can’t buy happiness” really knew what they were talking about 😔 — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 5, 2026 History is littered with people who reached the very top of the financial pyramid …

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The idea for Open Sunday is to let you discuss what you like. Just two rules. Keep it civil and no man/woman playing. Comments will close at 12 pm on Monday. Brian O'NeillManaging Editor of Slugger O’Toole. I help to manage Slugger by taking care of the site as well as running our live events. My background is in business, marketing and IT. My politics tend towards middle-of-the-road pragmatism; I am not a member of any political party. When not …

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In addition to our normal open Sunday, we have a politics-free post to give you all a break. So discuss what you like here, but no politics. Comments will close at 12 pm on Monday. Brian O'NeillManaging Editor of Slugger O’Toole. I help to manage Slugger by taking care of the site as well as running our live events. My background is in business, marketing and IT. My politics tend towards middle-of-the-road pragmatism; I am not a member of any …

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Heart rate variability (HRV) is one of the latest health trends doing the rounds. In simple terms, HRV is about how well your body handles stress and recovers, measured by the tiny variations in time between heartbeats. If you have an Apple Watch or similar smartwatch, it’s probably measuring your HRV already, though the setting is often buried and the numbers themselves aren’t exactly self‑explanatory. Out of curiosity, I installed an app called Stress Watch, which promises a more human-friendly …

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Across the political board, people are taking great pleasure in the downfall of Peter Mandelson, not least in his own Party. The word schadenfreude was invented for moments like this. With the partial release of the Epstein files, his reputation now lies in tatters. Ian Hislop: "Mandelson is going to be arrested… as the full criminal investigation will be very serious…. everyone was pretending they didn't know…"#LBC pic.twitter.com/6ZuMhS3XxR — Haggis_UK 🇬🇧 🇪🇺 (@Haggis_UK) February 3, 2026 He has resigned from …

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You might have noticed that January was spectacularly wet. Well, the Met Office has confirmed our suspicions and said we have actually broken a historic rainfall record. Provisional Met Office statistics show that Northern Ireland experienced its wettest January in 149 years and the second-wettest on record. From the MET office: Met Office science manager Dr Amy Doherty said: “January has been exceptionally wet because we’ve seen a very persistent Atlantic weather pattern. A strong jet stream has repeatedly steered …

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Since the partial release of the Jeffrey Epstein files last week, organisations have been busy erasing any links to George Mitchell over the past few days. From the BBC: Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) is to sever ties with a former United States senator who played a crucial role in Northern Ireland’s peace process, over his links with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The move comes a day after the US-Ireland Alliance said the George J Mitchell Scholarship Program would no …

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The idea for Open Sunday is to let you discuss what you like. Just two rules. Keep it civil and no man/woman playing. Comments will close at 12 pm on Monday. Brian O'NeillManaging Editor of Slugger O’Toole. I help to manage Slugger by taking care of the site as well as running our live events. My background is in business, marketing and IT. My politics tend towards middle-of-the-road pragmatism; I am not a member of any political party. When not …

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In addition to our normal open Sunday, we have a politics-free post to give you all a break. So discuss what you like here, but no politics. Comments will close at 12 pm on Monday. Brian O'NeillManaging Editor of Slugger O’Toole. I help to manage Slugger by taking care of the site as well as running our live events. My background is in business, marketing and IT. My politics tend towards middle-of-the-road pragmatism; I am not a member of any …

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From the BBC: Northern Ireland will become the first part of the UK to introduce new rules for new drivers in a bid to reduce fatal road crashes involving young people. The graduated driver licensing reforms, described as the most significant changes in 70 years, will see Northern Ireland adopt a version of laws in place in countries including Australia, the US and the Republic of Ireland. The rules, due to be introduced in October, are aimed at 17 to …

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If you have been brave enough to open the curtains, you may have noticed that it’s a bit wet and windy outside. The weather forecast says it’s 5 degrees, but the feels-like temperature is minus 7. Ouch! A day for staying in front of the fire, or for those of us without open fires, sticking one of those fireplace videos on YouTube on the TV. It has been a ridiculously wet past few weeks. When I go for my stroll …

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The idea for Open Sunday is to let you discuss what you like. Just two rules. Keep it civil and no man/woman playing. Comments will close at 12 pm on Monday. Brian O'NeillManaging Editor of Slugger O’Toole. I help to manage Slugger by taking care of the site as well as running our live events. My background is in business, marketing and IT. My politics tend towards middle-of-the-road pragmatism; I am not a member of any political party. When not …

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In addition to our normal open Sunday, we have a politics-free post to give you all a break. So discuss what you like here, but no politics. Comments will close at 12 pm on Monday. Brian O'NeillManaging Editor of Slugger O’Toole. I help to manage Slugger by taking care of the site as well as running our live events. My background is in business, marketing and IT. My politics tend towards middle-of-the-road pragmatism; I am not a member of any …

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I think many of us actively try to avoid giving too much attention to Stormont and its lack of activity. The old medical maxim “first do no harm” springs to mind, and that the best you can hope for is they don’t manage to make things worse. But then they take action and, in their own inimitable way, manage to make an already bad situation even more woeful. For decades now, our high street businesses have been suffering with the …

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You hear the phrase “everyone wants to live in a village, but no one wants to be a villager” a lot these days. The basic idea is that people want all the benefits of community without having to actually involve themselves in the messy business of what makes a community. People want to attend parties; they don’t want all the hassle of hosting them. People want to join sporting groups, but they don’t want to volunteer to help organise them. …

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As you know, life can grind to a halt here when we get an inch of snow, so spare a thought for the people of Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula. They have had the biggest snowfall in 60 years, creating vast ‌drifts several metres tall that have blocked building entrances and buried ‌cars. Some of the videos are extraordinary. Incredible scenes of heavy snow from Kamchatka, Russia Almost 6-8 meters of snow fall there… pic.twitter.com/ARZNihFCdn — Muhammad Gul Zaib (@muhammadgzaib) January 19, …

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The idea for Open Sunday is to let you discuss what you like. Just two rules. Keep it civil and no man/woman playing. Comments will close at 12 pm on Monday. Brian O'NeillManaging Editor of Slugger O’Toole. I help to manage Slugger by taking care of the site as well as running our live events. My background is in business, marketing and IT. My politics tend towards middle-of-the-road pragmatism; I am not a member of any political party. When not …

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In addition to our normal open Sunday, we have a politics-free post to give you all a break. So discuss what you like here, but no politics. Comments will close at 12 pm on Monday. Brian O'NeillManaging Editor of Slugger O’Toole. I help to manage Slugger by taking care of the site as well as running our live events. My background is in business, marketing and IT. My politics tend towards middle-of-the-road pragmatism; I am not a member of any …

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With Robbie Butler  withdrawing from the race, John Burrows is set to become the fifth UUP leader elected unopposed. It does not say much for the position that there is never any contest for the role. Burrows has never been elected. He was co-opted into his MLA role last summer so it’s quite the achievement for him. To be honest I don’t have a great opinion of the guy so far. There was all that nonsense with Bailey the prison …

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From the Beltel: An MLA is quitting the social media site X amid a row over an artificial intelligence tool linked to the platform which has been used to digitally undress people. Cara Hunter – who was previously the victim of a fake pornographic video – said she could not “in good conscience” continue to post on the app. She said it had shown “complete negligence in protecting women and children online”. X, formerly known as Twitter, was bought by …

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