(1) It’s Beautiful. I’m thrilled. It’s been almost a quarter century since the film adaptations were made and it shows in the quality of the production. The Dursley scenes that were cartoonish in the Warner Brothers version of Stone here are haunting, hurtful, borderline horror. I think credit for this greater sensitivity to the text’s weight is due as least as much to the participation of the author and her film company, Bronte Studios, in this adaptation. If the shows are of the same brilliance as this teaser trailer, we are in for a delightful renaissance in Harry Potter fascination and study. Three Cheers!
(2) Note the Day of Release. As a maven on the Moderator Backchannels noted this morning, the trailer has been released on the western Feast Day of the Annunciation and the show will begin its run on Christmas Day. I struggle to think how the producers, marketers, and copyright holder could have signaled any more clearly the Christian content and the intentional transformational artistry of these stories.
(3) The Acting. I confess to being excited about having the faces of Daniel, Emma, and Rupert unfortunately imprinted on my imagination supplanted by the new child actors — and the new Dursleys being properly blonde! It’s only a two minute trailer but the little shown suggests that these child actors and the production’s decision makers might make the film adaptations of yesteryear an embarrassing memory soon.
Please share your first impressions in the comment boxes below!
(1) It’s Beautiful. I’m thrilled. It’s been almost a quarter century since the film adaptations were made and it shows in the quality of the production. The Dursley scenes that were cartoonish in the Warner Brothers version of Stone here are haunting, hurtful, borderline horror. I think credit for this greater sensitivity to the text’s weight is due as least as much to the participation of the author and her film company, Bronte Studios, in this adaptation. If the shows are of the same brilliance as this teaser trailer, we are in for a delightful renaissance in Harry Potter fascination and study. Three Cheers!
(2) Note the Day of Release. As a maven on the Moderator Backchannels noted this morning, the trailer has been released on the western Feast Day of the Annunciation and the show will begin its run on Christmas Day. I struggle to think how the producers, marketers, and copyright holder could have signaled any more clearly the Christian content and the intentional transformational artistry of these stories.
(3) The Acting. I confess to being excited about having the faces of Daniel, Emma, and Rupert unfortunately imprinted on my imagination supplanted by the new child actors — and the new Dursleys being properly blonde! It’s only a two minute trailer but the little shown suggests that these child actors and the production’s decision makers might make the film adaptations of yesteryear an embarrassing memory soon.
Please share your first impressions in the comment boxes below!
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has been adamant that Republicans in the Sunshine State should follow President Donald Trump's command to draw a new gerrymandered congressional map that could net the GOP as many as five more seats in the November midterms.
But after Democrats' shocking special election victories on Tuesday in two state legislative seats Trump carried in 2024, Florida Republicans are having second thoughts about such a redraw, with multiple GOP lawmakers saying publicly that a new map could actually blow back in their faces.
“I think the Legislature needs to be very cognizant of the fact that if they get too aggressive … you could put incumbent members at risk,” Rep. Greg Steube (R-FL) told Politico, noting that drawing more seats that Trump carried in 2024 risks spreading GOP voters too thin and unintentionally making the new districts more vulnerable in a wave election. That’s known in political terms as a dummymander.
“You could potentially do two,” Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL) told Punchbowl News of how many GOP seats he thinks Republicans could squeeze out of a new map. “I think after that, you are really, really, really, really risking a very large overreach, which I think is in the Democrats’ best interest.”
Another unnamed House Republican also expressed fears to Politico.
“REDistricting” by Tim Campbell
“To talk as aggressively as some of what we’ve heard, there’s no way to get there without significantly weakening some districts," the Republican lawmaker said.
Republicans hadn’t expected Democrats would fight back and counteract their corrupt effort to rig the midterms with new maps, and thus are scrambling to ensure that they don’t come out worse than they would have had they simply left the congressional lines in place.
Already, California Democrats successfully redrew their maps to push as many as five Republican lawmakers out of office. And Democrats in Virginia are working to pass a referendum that would allow them to net as many as four seats out of the state. Early voting is currently underway in Virginia, with polling showing support for the referendum with a slight lead.
Worse still for Republicans is that there are now fears that the new map in Texas—which was the first state to bend the knee to Trump and redraw its congressional lines—won't come close to netting Republicans the five seats they had hoped.
In fact, multiple GOP lawmakers in Texas are now facing competitive races that could flip if the blue wave that appears to be materializing is as big as polling suggests it may be.
Democrats, meanwhile, are taunting nervous Republicans, who are coming to grips with the fact that the November midterms may be even worse than they feared.
"We will crush House Republicans in November if DeSantis tries to gerrymander the Florida congressional map," House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries wrote in a post on X on Tuesday, after Democrats flipped two state legislative seats in Florida—including the state House seat that includes Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort.
Now this is a blast from the past, but not in a good way.
Michael Flynn, who served as President Donald Trump’s national security adviser for a hot minute during Trump’s first term before he pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his Russian contacts, tried to reverse his plea, got Trump’s Department of Justice to drop the criminal charges, and then got a pardon, still doesn’t feel like he’s been adequately compensated. So the Trump administration set out to take care of that.
In a short court filing on Wednesday, Flynn and the Department of Justice filed a joint notice of settlement in Flynn’s civil case. That’s the one he filed in 2023, where he claimed that he had been maliciously prosecuted and that he expected compensatory damages of at least $50 million.
Flynn didn’t get $50 million, but he did just get $1.2 million in taxpayer dollars in this settlement with the government. This isn’t a real settlement, of course, because a settlement in a lawsuit is something hammered out by parties with adverse interests. This is just the DOJ openly siding with Flynn.
Like, really openly, as in having a DOJ spokesperson issue an official statement that the settlement helped redress the “historic injustice” of the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Also, this cash grab is apparently just the start.
“This Department of Justice will continue to pursue accountability at all levels for this wrongdoing,” the mouthpiece said. “Such weaponization of the federal government must never be allowed to happen again.”
Good lord, settle down. This is unduly dramatic, particularly when everyone can see that the DOJ is just dispensing cash right and left to reward the worst minions imaginable.
In a normal world, Flynn’s claim that he was maliciously prosecuted would have gone nowhere. Indeed, the case was dismissed in late 2024, with the judge finding that Flynn had in no way met the standard to show he was the victim of a malicious prosecution.
But then, when Trump got back into office, Flynn and the DOJ jointly agreed he could file an amended complaint, and didn’t oppose the lengthy time it took Flynn to get around to it. Then, Flynn graciously agreed to the government’s multiple requests for extensions in filing an answer to the complaint, all of which was a fiction since the government had already entered into settlement talks with Flynn, and the government never did file that answer.
You can imagine this is not a thing that normally happens when the government wins a case. The normal path for Flynn would have been to appeal his loss, and the normal path for the government would have been to oppose that at the appellate court. Instead, Flynn just restarted his case, basically, and the DOJ essentially stopped any participation in the case while it hammered out a deal to give Flynn some cash.
Flynn joins the family of Ashley Babbitt, the Jan. 6 rioter who was shot by police when she, as part of a violent mob, tried to climb through a glass panel of the barricaded doors to the Speaker’s Lobby. Babbitt’s family filed a wrongful death lawsuit and got a cool $5 million to fake-settle it.
Again, you can imagine that this is not a thing that normally happens when the government is faced with a wrongful death lawsuit after someone is killed by the police in a split-second decision during a chaotic, violent riot. The DOJ is not exactly known for throwing up its hands and just agreeing that yep, law enforcement was in the wrong.
Of course, Trump needs to get a taste here as well, and he’s going big, demanding $230 million for all the anguish caused by being investigated for his open and obvious crimes. This would normally be impossible for so many reasons, not the least of which is that the president cannot really sue his own government, a thing that Trump openly admitted didn’t look good.
“I don’t know, how do you settle the lawsuit, I’ll say give me X dollars, and I don’t know what to do with the lawsuit,” Trump mused. “It sort of looks bad, I’m suing myself, right? So I don’t know.”
Trump’s claim, brought under the Federal Tort Claims Act, can only be approved by one person—the deputy attorney general. So it’s convenient for Trump that the job is occupied by one of his seemingly infinite number of former criminal defense lawyers.
Yes, Todd Blanche, who represented Trump in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case and the election interference case, is the one who can decide if those cases caused Trump such trauma that he needs nearly a quarter of a billion dollars in compensation. Gee, wonder what he will do?
Meanwhile, now that Flynn has landed a cool seven figures, he can return to focusing on all his unhinged conspiracy theories. And we taxpayers are footing the bill for all of it.
The Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty was formally signed by President Jimmy Carter, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin on March 26, 1979.
The agreement was a culmination of the Camp David Accords, held in September 1978, and brokered by President Carter. While the treaty helped ease decades of hostility between Egypt and Israel, it was criticized for not directly confronting the ongoing issues between Israel and Palestine.
Carlos arrived at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in New Mexico in December, believing he was one step closer to reuniting with his children. By that point, his 14-year-old son and 16-year-old daughter had been in a federal shelter in Texas for nearly a year after crossing the border to be with him.
“I feel like I’m suffocating inside this shelter, trapped with no way out,” Carlos’ son said, according to one of the teens’ attorneys, when asked to describe how he felt after months at the Houston-area facility. “Every day, the same routine. Every day, feeling stuck. It makes me feel hopeless and terrified.”
During daily video calls, Carlos, who had temporary protected status, urged the siblings to be patient, to trust the process. Federal officials had vetted Carlos before he could be granted custody and told him his case was complete. He believed he would soon be back with his children, who, like him, had sought refuge from political violence in Venezuela.
An immigration officer called Carlos on a Friday and asked him to attend a meeting at an ICE office the following Monday to discuss reunification with his children. Once Carlos arrived, officers tried to force him to sign documents he said he didn’t understand. When he refused, they stripped off his clothes, seized his ID and belongings, and chained him by the neck, waist, and legs.
“They tricked me,” Carlos said in a phone call from an immigration detention center in El Paso, Texas, where he was held for several months. “They used my children to grab me,” he said.
In reporting on the family’s story, KFF Health News reviewed court documents, spoke with the family’s immigration attorneys, interviewed Carlos, and reviewed statements from his children, translated from Spanish. Carlos is a pseudonym, being used at the request of attorneys concerned that speaking out could jeopardize Carlos’ immigration case or further delay his reunion with his family.
Using Children to Arrest Parents
Since 2003, the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement has cared for immigrant children under 18 who arrive in the country without their parents, often fleeing violence, abuse, or trafficking. The office, which in February had more than 2,300 children in shelters or with foster families across the country, is supposed to promptly release them to vetted caregivers, typically parents or other family members already living in the country.
Congress placed this responsibility with the health agency over 20 years ago to prioritize the well-being of unaccompanied children and separate their care from immigration enforcement priorities.
Now the second Trump administration is using migrant children held by the resettlement office to lure their parents, such as Carlos, whether or not they have a criminal record. A KFF Health News investigation found the resettlement office,headed by a former ICE official, coordinates with the Department of Homeland Security to arrest people seeking custody of migrant children.
Arrest documents show Homeland Security Investigations, the arm of the agency that normally focuses on organized criminals and traffickers, will interview parents or other caregivers then arrest them if they are in the country illegally. Before Donald Trump returned to the White House, the resettlement office prohibited data sharing and collaboration with immigration enforcement, and it did not deny caregivers custody of children solely because of their immigration status. Thoserestrictions were rescindedlast year.
It’s unclear exactly how many caregivers have been baited into arrest. LAistobtained dataindicating more than 100 have been arrested while trying to get their kids out of detention, but KFF Health News could not independently verify that number with federal agencies.
Since February, the Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Homeland Security, and Justice Department have not responded to questions about caregiver arrests. Prior to leaving DHS last month, Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said the administration protects children from being released to people who shouldn’t care for them. Andrew Nixon, an HHS spokesperson, referred questions related to immigration enforcement to DHS.
At the same time, the resettlement office hasenacted new rulesthat make it harder for caregivers to gain custody of unaccompanied children. These include narrowing the range of accepted documents, requiring fingerprint-based background checks for every adult in the home and backup caregivers, and requiring in-person appointments to verify identification documents, sometimes with ICE agents present. The requirements keep “children safe from traffickers and other bad, dangerous people,” Nixon said.
As of January, the agency had detained at least 300 children already placed with vetted sponsors and asked their caregivers to reapply, according to the National Center for Youth Law and the Democracy Forward Foundation. The advocacy groups fileda Feb. 23 lawsuitcalling these actions “a quieter, new form of family separation.”
Reverse Separation
Dulce, a Guatemalan mother in Virginia, said her 8-year-old son was sent to a government shelter after he was detained during a traffic stop last summer while visiting family members in a different state.
At first, Dulce expected to get her son back within days — she had passed the government’s sponsorship requirements in 2024 and was reunited with him three weeks after he first crossed the border. But resettlement agency officials asked her to repeat the entire process and resubmit documents, Dulce said. It took eight months to get him back.
Dulce is a pseudonym being used at her request because she fears speaking out could get her deported.
At one point, Dulce was told to attend an interview at an ICE office to show her identification as part of the process of reuniting with her son. She refused out of fear that she too might be detained, because she doesn’t have legal status. She believes ICE agents visited her home at one point.
“I stopped going home,” Dulce said. “I lived with some of my friends for days.”
Even though she lived just 45 minutes away, Dulce was allowed to visit her son only twice a month.
Until recently, most unaccompanied children landed in government custody after being detained at the border. But border crossings started to fall in 2024, and the number of people coming to the U.S. has dropped precipitously in President Trump’s second term.
Now, hundreds of kids have been taken to government shelters after being swept up inside the country, often during immigration raids or traffic stops, according to the advocates’ lawsuit. Many were already living with relatives, including guardians already vetted by the resettlement agency.
Releases have grinded nearly to a halt. According to the resettlement office, children in its custody stayed in government shelters or foster care for an average of one month in 2024. As of February, that had jumped to more than half a year.
When children do get released, it’s often only after their attorneys file a lawsuit in federal court challenging their detention as unconstitutional.
Authorities released Dulce’s son to her in February after the boy’s attorneys filed such a petition. Dulce said she’s relieved to have him back but still anxious that ICE could show up at their house.
Immigrants at Risk
During Trump’s first term, his administration was criticized forlosing trackof children who had been released from custody. President Joe Biden was blamed for how his administration processed a surge of unaccompanied children that peaked in 2021 with about 22,000 in the resettlement office’s custody. Though most children were placed with legitimate sponsors, some were placed with people who hadn’t clearedsafety checks, putting them at risk ofexploitation.
The Trump administration says it is checking on thosechildren’s welfare, and the Justice Department has prosecutedchildtraffickingcases. On March 1, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who is set to leave her role at theend of the month, touted amulti-agency effort, including the resettlement office, that DHS said had tracked down 145,000 unaccompanied children who had been placed with caregivers during Biden’s term.
Yet internal HHS reports about that initiative obtained by KFF Health News show that nearly 11,800 of those migrant children and nearly 500 of their caregivers were arrested as of Jan. 29. Only 125 of those migrant children and 55 of those caregivers were arrested for alleged criminal activity, suggesting the majority were for immigration violations.
HHS referred questions about the figures in the reports to DHS, which did not respond to requests for comment about the data. However, Michelle Brané, who was a DHS official in the Biden administration, said the figures show that most of the arrests were to detain and deport migrants. Previously,CNN reportedthe administration targeted parents and caregivers who had paid for children to cross the border, trying to levy smuggling charges against them.
“They have really dropped that pretense in a lot of ways, and they are going for anyone openly,” Brané said. “These numbers clearly reflect that this is not about public safety or about safety of the children.”
Case on Hold
Carlos left Venezuela in 2022 because of death threats and, like thousands of others fleeing that country, was granted what’s called temporary protected status under the Biden administration. That protectionwas later rescindedfor most Venezuelans by the Trump administration.
In January 2025, days before Trump was sworn in for his second term, Carlos’ children crossed the border from Mexico to the U.S., turned themselves over to border authorities, and were immediately placed in the resettlement agency’s custody. Carlos spent months submitting paperwork to reunite with them. He said he’s their only parent, because their mother left when they were toddlers.
Officials visited his home twice and determined he was fit to care for them, according to court documents petitioning for his release from detention. He passed DNA testing, proving he’s the biological father, one of his attorneys said. His arrest documents show he has “no criminal history.” In July, Carlos was told his reunification case was complete and being sent for approval. But then, with little explanation, the case was put on hold.
Before his arrest by ICE, Carlos said, he drove 14 hours each way from his home to visit his children. Once there, he could see them for only one hour. When he was in detention, he said, he spoke to them about every two weeks in quick, monitored phone calls.
He’s trying to stay hopeful, but it’s hard.
According to documents completed by ICE officers during his arrest and submitted in his court case, Carlos was arrested under an initiative called Operation Guardian Trace, which requires immigration officers to detain potential caregivers if they are in the country without legal authorization and recommend that they be deported.
“This operation is designed to force parents to make an impossible choice between reuniting with their children and seeking safety,” said one of Carlos’ attorneys, Chiqui Sanchez Kennedy of the Galveston-Houston Immigrant Representation Project, a nonprofit that helps low-income immigrants.
‘I’m Going to Wait’
In March, a federal judge said officials had unlawfully detained Carlos and he was released on bond.
But his children still face an uncertain future for now. Government shelters often lack sufficient resources,research shows, and social workers say lengthy stays in these facilities can result in additional trauma.
“Not only is it bad, full stop, but the longer you’re there, the worse it gets,” said Jonathan Beier, associate director of research and evaluation for the Acacia Center for Justice's Unaccompanied Children Program, which coordinates legal services for unaccompanied minors.
Carlos’ children could also be sent back to the country they fled. Because of his detention, Carlos will have to redo much of the process to reunite with them, according to an attorney for the children, Alexa Sendukas, also with the Galveston-Houston Immigrant Representation Project.
In statements shared through Sendukas, Carlos’ daughter said she no longer wants to be around others and spends most of the time in her room. His son, now 15, described having panic attacks and feeling that he’s missing out on life, whether it’s the opportunities he longs for — to learn English, to study science — or watching basketball with his family.
“I remember when I first arrived at this shelter, I was so hopeful and had faith that I would be reunited with my dad soon,” he said.
Carlos’ daughter spent the day crying in bed when the siblings learned their father had been detained. For days, they didn’t know where he was. Now, they fear the only way out is through adoption or foster care.
“I am afraid,” she said. “I’m going to wait for my dad forever.”
It is Todd once again. In this issue we have a new episode of our own Irish & Celtic Music Podcast. The other podcasts featured are Traveling in Ireland & Celt in a Twist. We have included a list of new albums. The articles we highlight are about a cheese from named for Cork County being named the best in industry awards, a Scottish Wine bar, & the Spring Manx Festival. The festival we feature is the New Mexico Renaissance Festival taking place on March 28 – 29 & April 4 – 5 at the Wildlife West Nature Park in Edgewood, NM. We hope you enjoy this issue. Until next time, Sláinte mhaith!
IRISH & CELTIC MUSIC PODCAST #752: FAIR & TENDER LADIES
Eimear Arkins, Cherish The Ladies, Heather Dale, Wolf Loescher, John McGaha, The Sternwheelers, Sue Tillotson & Jim Cunningham, Julien LOko Irish Band, Bren Holmes, Release the Craicen, Chance the Arm, The Ogham Stones, Phoenyx, Kris Colt
A special thanks to our new and continued Patrons of the Podcast: Liam Sullivan
Every year, I publish the Celtic Top 20. This is your pick of the best, most-popular songs of the year. But to make the show great, I need you to vote for your favorite songs in each episode.
Just list each of the bands performing those favorite songs to quickly and easily cast your vote.
Attn Bands: Go to 4celts.com to submit your band to thepodcast.
TRAVELING IN IRELAND: IRELAND CRUISE EXCURSIONS: HOW TO MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR DAY IN PORT
Cruise stops in Ireland can feel like a whirlwind – but with the right plan, even a few hours can turn into an unforgettable experience. With more cruise ships arriving at Irish ports each year, travelers have more options than ever when it comes to shore excursions. But not all tours, or tour providers, are created equal.
Continue reading at Ireland Cruise Excursions: How to Make the Most of Your Day in Port | Ireland Family Vacations
A taste of great concerts to come! This week we spin Gnoss. The Orkney-based Celtic innovators perform at the St. James Hall on April 17th. Plus, more music from supergroup, The Ollam, sporting master piper John McSherry and Detroit's finest rhythm section, April 27th at The Pearl. With new Celtivity from French Grrrl band Toxic Frogs, and Swedes Woodlands Backfall. Patricia Fraser hosts Celt In A Twist every week!
‘DELIGHTFUL' SCOTTISH WINE BAR NAMED BEST IN SCOTLAND AT NATIONAL AWARDS
Less than a year after it opened, a Scots Spanish wine bar and small plates restaurant has added another award to the cabinet. Rosalind Erskine chatted to one of the owners and head chef about the win, plans for their first birthday and opening a new venue.
“We did 90 per cent of the restaurant fitting ourselves,” said Conor McGeady as he settled into a booth in Corner Shop, a restaurant he opened along with business partners Matthew Mustard and Gary Mckernan in April 2025.
SPRING MANX FESTIVAL IN RAMSEY TO SHOWCASE ISLAND TALENT AND BUSINESSES
A community-focused event celebrating island culture, food, and enterprise is set to take place on Saturday (March 28) at Babbages Bistro in Ramsey.
The Spring Manx Festival will bring together a range of artists, craftspeople, food producers, and small businesses from across the Isle of Man, with the event aiming to highlight the diversity and quality of locally made products while supporting the island’s small business community.
Scottish Clan Tents, trades, merchants, food vendors, Beer Taverns, Tea With The Queen, Knights Fighting, Jousting knights and their steeds, Tomato Toss, Archery, Festival Quest Adventure!
Tents, Castle walls, street markets, surely there will be something for everyone. Located at the Wildlife West Nature Park & Zoo, in Edgewood New Mexico.
5 different stages, Medieval Barn, Queens Court Gazebo, Time Traveler Amphitheater, Fantasy Kingdom & Shipwreck Cove Stage. Performances running all day.
Some of the entertainer’s you will see are The Harp Twins with the Wolfgang twins, Celtica Nova, Flint Hills Fairies, SAVII, & more!
Taking place in the weekends of March 28 – 29 & April 4 – 5, at Wildlife West Nature Park in Edgewood, NM
You can send a comment or a picture of what you're doing. You can also send a photo from one of your trips to a Celtic nation or anywhere around the globe.
Slainte!
Todd Wiley (he/him) & Marc Gunn (he/him), The Celtfather
March 26, 2026
TELL A FRIEND
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A safe trip home (Saturday afternoon through Sunday morning).
Finding out from my urologist yesterday that my bladder appears to be
fully operational. NO thanks for my pelvic floor needing more
exercise. I hate exercise.
x2x(1) and ssh(1), letting you share your
keyboard and mouse seamlessly between two linux boxes.
Enough space in the kitchen area for two recycling bins.
A plethora of chargers with known locations, that I can lay hands on if
I need one. (I also have a plethora of corresponding cables, but I
don't know where all of them are.)
-> It's the INNER HIVE DRIVE! Join Tom the Dancing Bug's Inner Hive today, and the cost of signing up will be donated to the Democracy Defenders Fund to sue Donald Trump over and over, and protect voters' rights! Get exclusive comics and content every week, support Tom the Dancing Bug… and save America!
-> Sign up for the free weekly newsletter, The Tom the Dancing Bug Review! Not nearly as good as joining the Inner Hive, but it's free!
Fair and tender — that's the heart of episode 752 of the Irish & Celtic Music Podcast. Heather Dale's live performance sets the tone, but Eimear Arkins, Kris Colt, and a dozen more artists carry it home. This one's worth savoring. It’s Irish & Celtic Music Podcast #752 – – Subscribe now at CelticMusicPodcast.com!
Eimear Arkins, Cherish The Ladies, Heather Dale, Wolf Loescher, John McGaha, The Sternwheelers, Sue Tillotson & Jim Cunningham, Julien LOko Irish Band, Bren Holmes, Release the Craicen, Chance the Arm, The Ogham Stones, Phoenyx, Kris Colt
GET CELTIC MUSIC NEWS IN YOUR INBOX
The Celtic Music Magazine is a quick and easy way to plug yourself into more great Celtic culture. Enjoy seven weekly news items with what’s happening with Celtic music and culture online.
This is our way of finding the best songs and artists each year. You can vote for as many songs and tunes that inspire you in each episode. Your vote helps me create this year's Best Celtic music episode. You have just three weeks to vote this year. Vote Now!
You can follow our playlist on YouTube to listen to those top voted tracks as they are added every 2 – 3 weeks.
42:43 – Chance the Arm “Heavy Heart” from All in Good Time
46:25 – The Ogham Stones “Minstrel Boy / Cadence to Arms” from One, Two, Feck You
48:14 – Phoenyx “Marley O’Reilly” from Keepers of the Flame
56:31 – CLOSING
57:03 – Kris Colt “The Parting Glass” from Arms of a Stranger
1:00:31 – CREDITS
Support for this program comes from Dr. Annie Lorkowski of Centennial Animal Hospital in Corona, California.
Support for this program comes from John Sharkey White, II.
Support for this program comes from International speaker, Joseph Dumond, teaching the ancient roots of the Gaelic people. Learn more about their origins at Sightedmoon.com
Support for this program comes from Cascadia Cross Border Law Group, Creating Transparent Borders for more than twenty five years, serving Alaska and the world. Find out more at www.CascadiaLawAlaska.com
Support for this program comes from Hank Woodward.
The Executive Producer for St Patrick’s Month is John Sharkey White, II. The Irish & Celtic Music Podcast was produced by Marc Gunn, The Celtfather and our Patrons on Patreon. The show was edited by Mitchell Petersen with Graphics by Miranda Nelson Designs. Visit our website to follow the show. You’ll find links to all of the artists played in this episode.
Todd Wiley is the editor of the Celtic Music Magazine. Subscribe to get 34 Celtic MP3s for Free. Plus, you’ll get 7 weekly news items about what’s happening with Celtic music and culture online. Best of all, you will connect with your Celtic heritage.
Please tell one friend about this podcast. Word of mouth is the absolute best way to support any creative endeavor.
Spring is a good time to think about energy. The energy we put into the world. The energy we draw from it.
Clean energy — solar and wind — is now the cheapest power available. Not someday. Now. Renewable energy means lower bills, more independence, and a planet that stays worth exploring.
The Celtic lands we love — Ireland, Scotland, the windswept coasts and green hills — they're worth protecting. So are the ones right outside your door.
Small choices add up. Switch to a renewable energy provider if you can. Put Ecosia in your browser and let your searches plant trees. Walk outside this April. Pick up one piece of trash.
None of it is hard. All of it matters.
The same spirit that carries Celtic music forward — community, resilience, love of the land — is the same spirit that keeps this planet alive.
* Helping you celebrate Celtic culture through music. I am Marc Gunn. I’m a Celtic musician and also host of Pub Songs & Stories. Every song has a story, every episode is a toast to Celtic and folk songwriters. Discover the stories behind the songs from the heart of the Celtic pub scene.
This podcast is for fans of all kinds of Celtic music. We are here to build a diverse Celtic community and help the incredible artists who so generously share their music with you. If you hear music you love, please email the artists to let them know you heard them on the Irish & Celtic Music Podcast.
These musicians are not part of some corporation. They are small indie groups that rely on people just like you to support their music so they can keep creating it. Please show your generosity. Buy a CD, Album Pin, Shirt, Digital Download, or join their community on Patreon.
You can find a link to all of the artists in the shownotes, along with show times, when you visit our website at celticmusicpodcast.com.
SPRING CELTIC CHALLENGE
Starting April 1st, I'm launching the Spring Celtic Challenge. Thirty days. Three simple things.
First — walk for 20 minutes every day. That's it. Just get outside.
Second — while you're walking, put on the Irish & Celtic Music Podcast. Let the music carry you.
And third — pick up one piece of trash along the way. Just one. Every day.
That's the whole challenge. Walk. Listen. Pick up one piece of trash. Small actions. But thirty days of small actions? That adds up to something real.
Now — before April kicks off, I want to introduce you to something that fits perfectly with this spirit. It's called Ecosia. It's a search engine — just like Google — except Ecosia uses its profits to plant trees around the world. You search the web. Trees get planted. Simple as that.
Head to ecosia.org and make it your default search engine this week. It costs you nothing and does a little good every time you use it.
Then come back April 1st ready to walk, listen, and clean up the world one piece of trash at a time.
Are you in? Let me know over. Email me at follow@bestcelticmusic. I'd love to hear from you.
THANK YOU PATRONS OF THE PODCAST!
Spring is here. The world is waking up. And so is the Celtic music community — thanks to you.
Because of generous patrons like you, the Irish & Celtic Music Podcast keeps growing. New episodes every week. New artists discovered. New listeners finding their way to this music they didn't even know they needed.
Your support pays for everything that makes this show what it is. Audio engineering. Graphics. Weekly issues of the Celtic Music Magazine. Show promotion. And buying music directly from the independent Celtic artists we feature. Every contribution plants a seed.
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Every year, I take a small group of Celtic music fans on the relaxing adventure of a lifetime. We don't see everything. Instead, we stay in one area. We get to know the region through its culture, history, and legends. You can join us with an auditory and visual adventure through podcasts and videos. Learn more about the invasion at http://celticinvasion.com/
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Karl Horak emailed a couple o'photos: “Hi Celtfather, I like Breton music quite a bit and enjoyed “An Dro – Trois Matelots du Port de Brest” today although it might be sung in French. While tracking the band down on Bandcamp, I thought I saw someone familiar on the cover of The View from Here. Here's their cover:
And my photo of a window in Oban, Scotland from 2013:
Looks like they are twin daughters of different mothers (calicos are almost always female).
In December, the Trump administration signed an executive order that neutered states’ ability to regulate AI by ordering his administration to both sue and withhold funds from states that try to do so. This action pointedly supported industry lobbyists keen to avoid any constraints and consequences on their deployment of AI, while undermining the efforts of consumers, advocates, and industry associations concerned about AI’s harms who have spent years pushing for state regulation.
Trump’s actions have clarified the ideological alignments around AI within America’s electoral factions. They set down lines on a new playing field for the midterm elections, prompting members of his party, the opposition, and all of us to consider where we stand in the debate over how and where to let AI transform our lives.
In a May 2025 survey of likely voters nationwide, more than 70% favored state and federal regulators having a hand in AI policy. A December 2025 poll by Navigator Research found similar results, with a massive net +48% favorability for more AI regulation. Yet despite the overwhelming preference of both voters and his party’s elected leaders—Congress was essentially unanimous in defeating a previous state AI regulation moratorium—Trump has delivered on a key priority of the industry. The order explicitly challenges the will of voters across blue and red states, from California to South Dakota, scrambling political positions around the technology and setting up a new ideological battleground in the upcoming race for Congress.
There are a number of ways that candidates and parties may try to capitalize on this emerging wedge issue before the midterms.
In 2025, much of the popular debate around AI was cast in terms of humans versus machines. Advances in AI and the companies it is associated with, it is said, come at the expense of humans. A new model release with greater capabilities for writing, teaching, or coding means more people in those disciplines losing their jobs.
This is a humanist debate. Making us talk to an AI customer-support agent is an affront to our dignity. Using AI to help generate media sacrifices authenticity. AI chatbots that persuade and manipulate assault our liberty. There is philosophical merit to these arguments, and yet they seem to have limited political salience.
Populism versus institutionalism is a better way to frame this debate in the context of US politics. The MAGA movement is widely understood to be a realignment of American party politics to ally the Republican party with populism, and the Democratic party with defenders of traditional institutions of American government and their democratic norms.
This frame is shattered by Trump’s AI order, which unabashedly serves economic elites at the expense of populist consumer protections. It is part of an ongoing courting process between MAGA and big tech, where the Trump political project sacrifices the interests of consumers and its populist credentials as it cozies up to tech moguls.
We are starting to see populist resistance to this government/big tech alignment emerge on the local scale. People in Maryland, Arizona, North Carolina, Michigan and many other states are vigorously opposing AI datacenters in their communities, based on environmental and energy-affordability impacts. These centers of opposition are politically diverse; both progressives and Trump-supporting voters are turning out in force, influencing their local elected officials to resist datacenter development.
This opposition to the physical infrastructure of corporate AI is so far staying local, but it may yet translate into a national and politically aligned movement that could divide the MAGA coalition.
Any policy discussions about AI should include the individual harms associated with job loss, as employers seek to replace laborers with machines. It should also include the systemic economic risks associated with concentrated and supercharged AI investment, the democratic risks associated with the increased power in monopolistic and politically influential tech companies, and the degradation of civic functions like journalism and education by AI. In order for our free market to function in the public interest, the companies amassing wealth and profiting from AI must be forced to take ownership of, and internalize, these costs.
The political salience of AI will grow to meet the staggering scale of financial investment and societal impact it is already commanding. There is an opportunity for enterprising candidates, of either political party, to take the mantle of opposing AI-linked harms in the midterm elections.
Political solutions start with organizing, and broadening the base of political engagement around these issues beyond the locally salient topic of datacenters. Movement leaders and elected officials in states that have taken action on AI regulation should mobilize around the blatant industry capture, wealth extraction, and corporate favoritism reflected in the Trump executive order. AI is no longer just a policy issue for governments to discuss: it is a political issue that voters must decide on and demand accountability on.
With the announcement of a second upcoming Lord of the Rings movie in the works written by Stephen Colbert, Philippa Boyens, and Peter McGee,and the release of its synopsis, speculation about what the movie will be about is only just beginning.
Stephen Colbert in his Lord of the RIngs fan film Darrylgorn
The synopsis in the Warner Brothers and New Line Cinema press release about The Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past is: “Fourteen years after the passing of Frodo - Sam, Merry, and Pippin set out to retrace the first steps of their adventure. Meanwhile, Sam’s daughter, Elanor, has discovered a long-buried secret and is determined to uncover why the War of the Ring was very nearly lost before it even began.”
For reference, let’s take a look at the timeline that is mentioned.
Fourteen years after Frodo’s departure means the movie takes place in S.R. 1435/Fourth Age Year 14.
Elanor the Fair is born March 13, S.R. 1421, the same year that Frodo sets sail for the Undying Lands in September. Her birth day is also the start of the Fourth Age of Gondor.
Elanor will be fourteen years old at the time Shadow of the Past will take place, giving the film a young female lead.
Sam hold young Elanor
The Appendices of The Lord of the Rings tells us where the remaining Fellowship Hobbits are and what they are doing around this time.
Three years before the movie is set to begin, in S.R. 1432, “Meriadoc, called the Magnificent, becomes Master of Buckland.”
One year before the movie, in S.R. 1434 “Peregrin becomes the Took and Thain. King Elessar makes the Thain, the Master, and the Mayor Counsellors of the North-Kingdom. Master Samwise is elected Mayor for the second time.”
A year after the movie is set to take place, in S.R. 1436 “King Elessar rides north, and dwells for a while by Lake Evendim. He comes to the Brandywine Bridge, and there greets his friends. He gives the Star of the Dúnedain to Master Samwise, and Eleanor is made a maid of honour to Queen Arwen.”
The half-submerged city of Annúminas on Lake Evendim from LOTRO (Lord of the Rings Online)
Seven years after the movie, in S.R. 1442 “Master Samwise and his wife and Elanor ride to Gondor and stay there for a year."
As to some speculation, might the events that will take place in The Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past be what brings Aragorn, and presumably, Arwen, north to visit the Hobbits? Is something that Elanor does in the movie the reason that she is given the position of “maid of honour” to Arwen? Does the secret she discovers have any connection to why she goes to Gondor later?
And does this mean that we will catch a glimpse of Annúminas, the once capital city of the Kingdom of Arnor founded by Elendil on Lake Evendim? Could Viggo Mortenson and Liv Tyler reprise their roles as Aragorn and Arwen since they will be fourteen years older in this film than at the end of the Return of the King?
Most importantly, what cameos will Peter Jackson and Stephen Colbert have in Shadow of the Past?
Stephen Colbert in The Hobbit: The Desolation of SmaugPeter Jackson in The Return of the King
This is indeed an exciting time to be a Lord of the Rings fan.
Melania Trump’s newest fake job started this week when she hosted the “Fostering the Future Together Global Coalition Summit.” The new initiative is supposed to be For The Children, but looks more like an international sales conference for President Donald Trump’s favorite technology companies.
But on Wednesday, things got, uh, a little weird when the first lady entered with “Figure 03,” an AI robot.
Sure, why not? It’s not like Melania has any real obligations at this summit, so yeah, whatever, bring a robot friend.
We would be remiss not to compliment Melania’s fashion choices here, however, as the power pantsuit rocks. Everything else, however, not so much.
Melania didn’t have a lot to say about her robot pal, though she did make sure to thank it. She also told the robot that it was “fair to state you’re my first American-made humanoid guest in the White House.”
Kudos to Melania for making sure to get a little rah-rah nationalism in there, which is no doubt a requirement for any speeches from this White House. However, her odd phrasing—”my first American-made humanoid guest”—accidentally made it sound as if Melania previously had some non-American robots roaming the White House halls with her.
The robot also made remarks, because what’s the point of hauling this thing in here if not to show off its capabilities? And those capabilities apparently include feigning gratitude.
“I am grateful to be part of this historic movement to empower children with technology and education,” Figure 03 droned.
First Lady Melania Trump led the “Fostering the Future Together Global Coalition Summit” alongside fellow first spouses (from left) Dr. Fatima Maada Bio, of Sierra Leone; Martha Nawrocka of Poland; Brigitte Macron of France; Her Royal Highness Lalla Hasnaa of Morocco; and Her Highness Sheikha Alyazia bint Saif Al Nahyan of the UAE.
Yeah, about that ...
This summit was supposed to be all about how the children are our future, and Melania and the random collection of countries and companies in attendance would help teach them well and let them lead the way. But it isn’t at all clear why that required a robot.
Is the robot going to teach the children of faraway lands? Will children feel empowered if they have a robot friend just like Melania does?
While there is no need at all for the robot to be here as Melania’s plus-one, the Trump administration actually does have a specific reason for letting the robot take a stroll. You will not be surprised to learn it has nothing to do with schoolchildren.
Donald Trump is currently preparing an executive order on robotics. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is already meeting with CEOs of robotics companies, and the Department of Transportation is spinning up a robotics working group. Those robotics companies are angling for tax breaks and sweet, sweet government contracts with your tax dollars—hence, the very special robot appearance.
Perhaps the robot’s presence on Wednesday energized Melania, because she did manage to stay for almost a whole hour for the opening session, a huge increase over the seven minutes she spent at the event on Tuesday.
Though she couldn’t really be bothered to put in much of an appearance on Tuesday, she did make sure to promote her role on X, with a pull quote from her no doubt very important speech.
“Beginning today, let’s accelerate our new global alliance—this bond to positively impact the progress of our children,” her post declared.
So many buzzwords, so little actual content.
Melania largely ghosting on the summit she is supposed to be in charge of really isn’t beating the allegations that this is an entirely invented thing for her, a way to raise her meager profile as first lady while also pimping some AI for her husband’s rich donors.
The robot may also have been there to make sure that Melania had a friend—a devoted companion who would never stray, never talk back, never laugh at her for her low-rent jewelry or her deeply odd Christmas decoration choices. That’s truly a job for a robot, not a human.
Apparently congressional approval is no longer needed for war—at least if you ask White House press secretary Karoline Levitt.
During a press conference Wednesday, Leavitt gave the most ridiculous excuse for President Donald Trump’s escalating war in Iran—for which he never sought congressional authorization.
“Well, as you know right now, that formal authorization from Congress is not necessary because we're currently in major combat operations in Iran,” she said.
So let me get this straight: The reason Trump doesn’t need Congress to authorize his war in Iran is because we are already at war in Iran … makes sense.
As the Trump administration’s justifications for the Iran war seemingly change hourly—and with no real plans for it to end—it’s no wonder the White House isn’t seeking approval from anyone, much less Congress.
Losing one lawsuit isn’t cool. You know what is also not cool? Losing two lawsuits.
Sorry, Mark Zuckerberg. State courts just aren’t that into you.
On Wednesday, a Los Angeles jury found that Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, and YouTube were liable for negligence, not for the content on their platforms but for how those platforms were designed.
The plaintiff, a now-20-year-old woman, alleged that when she was a minor, she became addicted to social media platforms, leading to anxiety and depression. That addiction, she argued, was due to the features of these social media platforms—the dopamine hit of constant notifications, the infinite scroll, and the autoplay of videos drawing children in.
Documents disclosed by Meta during the case also showed that Zuckerberg and other bigwigs knew full well that children under 13 were using their platforms, a violation of their own rule requiring users to be at least 13. One internal document literally said, “If we wanna win big with teens, we must bring them in as tweens,” which kinda gave away the game. And another one said 11-year-olds were four times as likely to come back to Instagram versus its competitors.
Two parents embrace after the verdict in a landmark trial over whether social media platforms deliberately addict and harm children, at Los Angeles Superior Court on March 25.
The jury awarded her $3 million for her pain and suffering and another $3 million in punitive damages. Meta will pay 70% of that.
This verdict was half of a one-two punch for Zuck since, on Tuesday, a New Mexico jury told Meta that it had to pony up $375 million because it doesn’t adequately protect children from sexual exploitation, and because it hid that it knew the platforms were dangerous to children.
The New Mexico suit was brought by the state’s attorney general after investigators from the New Mexico Department of Justice went undercover in a sting operation. Among other horrifying things, a decoy posing as an underage girl received private messages with sexually explicit texts and photographs from a 47-year-old man. Meta disclosed that the man, Christopher Reynolds, had been banned from Facebook because he was a registered sex offender, but he hopped back on and had at least 15 other accounts.
While these two cases are different in terms of focus—with the Los Angeles case taking aim at the platforms themselves, and the New Mexico one at content and users—they are, at root, about the same thing: These social media platforms care more about profit than the well-being of children.
These decisions open the floodgates for similar suits against social media companies. There are already thousands of personal injury cases in the pipeline, alleging that the platforms intentionally addict young users, along with a bunch of cases filed by school districts and state attorneys general.
Meanwhile, as these cases play out, the White House invited Meta to the “Fostering the Future Together Global Coalition Summit,” Melania Trump’s fake job that is supposed to “help children learn, grow, and thrive through the safe and innovative use of advanced technology.”
A recording of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg's deposition is played for jurors on March 4 in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
According to Melania, the companies at the summit have already developed tools that “assist children, educators, and parents, while also protecting them from online dangers,” and will make them available to the countries that joined this dumb summit.
It’s pretty rich for Meta to pretend it has a deep commitment to protecting children from online dangers, even as it faced two court cases showing it has no such commitment. Why are we allowing the company that designed an addictive platform, which also functions as a playground for child predators, to be part of this effort to keep children safe while they use AI or whatever? Come on.
The fact that Meta is subject to multiple lawsuits and verdicts highlighting its lack of care for children is no deterrent to President Donald Trump, who just named Zuckerberg to his President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.
The administration is also fighting to ensure that social media platforms don’t have to deal with pesky regulations from other countries. How dare they try to impose their own laws on our tech overlords?
There’s no question that the administration will continue to coddle people like Zuckerberg and companies like Meta. But Trump can’t stop the flood of lawsuits that are about to swamp Meta and other social media platforms, and those cases are sure to cost companies a ton.
A 5-year-old immigrant boy has been released from federal custody a week after children’s entertainer Ms. Rachel’s video call with the nonverbal boy spread across the U.S.
Now Gael and his parents are returning home to El Paso, Texas, according to NBC News. His parents, who are Colombian asylum-seekers with no criminal record in the U.S., say their child suffers from developmental delays and other medical issues. However, while being held in the remote Dilley Immigration Processing Center in South Texas, his health worsened.
The facility is infamous for abysmal conditions, including allegations of food that contained worms and meat that was uncooked. And Gael reportedly didn’t pass a bowel movement for nine days and struggled to keep food down. At one point, he began hitting himself, according to a statement his parents’ lawyer shared with NBC News.
“No child should be here, regardless of their condition,” Leonardo, Gael’s father, told NBC in Spanish. “Even for us as adults, it’s hard.”
But after Ms. Rachel’s call, they’re back home awaiting their next appointment.
Liam Conejo Ramos, 5, is detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement after arriving home from preschool on Jan. 20, in a Minneapolis suburb.
This isn’t the only call the children's entertainer, whose real name is Rachel Accurso, has made. Since discovering the horrid conditions at Dilley through the detainment of 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos, Ms. Rachel started reaching out to kids who were being detained.
“It was unbelievably surreal to see this sweet little face and feel like I was on a call with somebody who’s in jail,” Ms. Rachel told NBC News following a conversation with a boy who wanted to return home so he could compete in his school spelling bee. “It broke me, and it was something I never thought I’d encounter in life.”
In January, nearly 500 children were being held inside Dilley, according to The New York Times. That number has reportedly fallen to around 50 today.
And Dilley’s horrid conditions aren’t a secret anymore. Multiple 911 calls coming out of the facility revealed dire situations for the children, including a 17-month-old and 22-month-old both suffering from respiratory distress.
But Ms. Rachel, whose educational videos have made her one of the most famous and beloved content creators for children, has made it a point to show up for all children regardless of how much blowback she might be receiving.
In particular, the creator got plenty of flak for her outspoken views on Israel’s attacks on the Gaza Strip, speaking in defense for the lives of Palestinian children. "I see all children as precious and equal,” she has repeatedly said.
People across the country have been protesting against the nightmarish conditions inside ICE facilities, including Dilley, for months now. And Ms. Rachel has vowed to use her platform as a means to get Dilley closed once and for all.
“Treating a child this way is a crime,” Ms. Rachel told NBC News. “It’s neglect and child abuse.”
There’s a lot happening in my world right now, joy and sorrow, and I don’t have the spoons to write about it. But I’m having a Stand By Me moment that I wanted to share before it passes.
I had to take last week off, so we are replaying one of my favorite performances, End of Play. ︎
This weekend, we are in Anaheim Friday, Seattle on Saturday (see you at No Kings, Seattle), and Portland on Sunday. Tickets are still available for all three shows. ︎
In Los Angeles, that’s 7:30pm on CBS, check your local listing to be sure. ︎
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