On the shores of Lake Eola in Orlando … 26.5 million tourists visit Miami each year (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)Patrick Comerford
This blog continues to surpass all previous records, with yet another record landmark today with 26.5 million views or hits by late evening Kuching yesterday (3 March) or around noon in Irish times. It has been like this for days, reaching 26 million on Sunday (1 March 2026) when the hits that day were also the highest daily figure I have ever recorded (318,307).
Last month (February), indeed this year so far, has seen a phenomenal amount of traffic on this blog, reaching a volume of readers that I never have expected when I first started blogging 16 years ago. Half the total hits (over 13 million) have been within the past nine months, and the February total of hits was the highest monthly total ever (3,386,504).
The new figure of 26.5 million hits for this blog followed the mileposts of 26 million three days ago (1 March), and 25.5 million the day before (28 February). Indeed, it passed the half-million mark seven times in all last month: 25 million four days ago (26 February), 24.5 million hits earlier last week (22/23 February Sarawak or Irish time), 24 million the previous week (20 February 2026), 23.5 million (17 February 2026), 23 million (12 February 2026), and 22.5 million (4 February).
At the end of 2025, this blog had 21 million hits by New Year’s Eve (31 December 2025). So far this year, there have been more than 5,5 million hits or visitors for 2026, and February 2026 has been the busiest month ever, with over 3.3 million hits.
I first began blogging in 2010, and it took almost two years until July 2012 to reach half a million readers – a number reached seven times last month alone. Half of the 26 million hits – 13 million – have been within less than nine months, since 17 June 2025.
Throughout last year and this year, the daily figures have been overwhelming on many occasions. Eight of the 12 days of busiest traffic on this blog have been in February alone, two were this month (March) and two were in January last year:
• 318,307 (1 March 2026)
• 314,018 (28 February 2026)
• 301,449 (2 March 2026)
• 289,076 (11 January 2025)
• 285,366 (12 January 2025)
• 280,802 (26 February 2026)
• 273,022 (27 February 2026)
• 261,422 (13 January 2026)
• 195,391 (20 February 2026)
• 190,630 (23 February 2026)
• 190,467 (21 February 2026)
• 188,376 (19 February 2026)
The rise in the number of readers is overwhelming – indeed, overpowering – this year and last, with the daily averages currently running at over 200,000 hits a day over the past week. Ten years ago, the daily average was around 1,000.
Joseph Heller wrote in Catch-22, ‘Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t after you.’ It may only be a hunch, but I have not failed to notice that some of the record traffic on this blog has been around the days Trump declared war on Iran, his state of the union address, his attack on Venezuela, and in the week before and after his inauguration and his damp-squib military parade in Washington DC. Indeed, the overwhelming number of hits are not from Ireland, the UK and Greece, as I might expect, but from the US.
It is not paranoid to imagine how the bots at work in some ugly, dim basement in Washington, trawling far and wide for anyone critical of the Trump regime. The costs may be minimal, but it’s still money that could be better spent on healthcare, education, rehiring air traffic controllers or reinstating DEI programmes. But I doubt my criticisms of Trump, Rubio, Vance, Hegseth and Musk are going to make it easy to get a visa to visit the US over the coming years, should I ever want to visit the place under the present dystopian regime.
I’d prefer to boost my ego and convince myself that my popularity is growing and that I have become a ‘must-read’ writer for so many people every day. But, sadly, I don’t think that is so. And if a minor critic of the Trump regime outside the US such as me is being intimidated at this level, try to imagine how many critics inside the US feel they really are being monitored, intimidated and bullied into silence.
To put this figure of 26.5 million in context:
The populations of Syria and North Korea are about 26 million each. Despite its population of about 26.5 million, Australia’s size means it is one of the most sparsely populated nations.
Toronto, Hanoi and Miami attract over 26.5 million visitors annually.
26.5 million metres is 26,500 km and 26.5 million sq metres is 26,500 sq km: Saudi Arabia is developing a 26,500 sq km, futuristic mega-city named Neom, spread along 468 km of coast.
£26.5 million was stolen in the Northern Bank robbery in Belfast on 20 December 2004.
And 26.5 million minutes is 50 years, 4 months, and 18 days, or more than 18,402 days, or almost 441,667 hours. In other words, if this blog was getting only one hit a minute, it would take over 50 years to reach today’s 26 million mark.
It is almost four years since I retired from active parish ministry. These days, though, about 100 people on average are reading my daily prayer blog posted on this blog each morning. I imagine many of my priest-colleagues would be prayerfully thankful if the congregations in their churches totalled 700 or more people each week.
Today, I am very grateful to the real readers among those 26 million hits on this blog to date, and in particular I remain grateful to the faithful core group of about 100 people who join me in prayer, reading and reflections each day.
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