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Fair play to Antrim for beating Offaly.
Limerick beat Galway. Not surprising . I dont think Galway are interested in 1A.
Last year they lost to wexford in the regular league but then put on the boosters and won the competition.

Galway losing games on purpose now? 8 points up at halftime at home, punters paid in and you're happy enough they lost? Strange

It was the same last year. I don't mind as they win the all Ireland again . They didn't have a full strength team out either.
I think they will win the league as well. Funny old world.

But it's silly to say being in 1B is a good thing, wile most games are competitive I'm sure the Galway hurlers would prefer to be playing at a higher grade each week, Championship form is different of course but I know where I'd much prefer to be as a player

Sure they're still in the league quarter finals away to Wexford and it wouldn't be a surprise if they won that one albeit it'll be a good test for them.
They were cruising in yesterdays game and whilst Limerick were ballsy the way they got back into the game they were far more near full strength and Galway hit some awful wides in the second half.
Limerick do need 1A, but even at that the new round robin championships allow teams to build up a head of steam.
With Galway in Leinster they've a bit more breathing space to get themselves into the AI semi-s.

What is the story with fixtures for the league?why is it taking so long? Alot have counties played a round of league this past weekend and we havent even gotten the fixtures yet?I was under the impression that the fixtures commitee starts work on this very soon after last year is over and the relegation/ promotion is finalised?

I'm guessing this Joe McDonagh Cup is throwing a spanner in the works. 5 group games. Top 2 teams play before the Leinster final first Sunday in July. I'm saying nothing 

They're probably Saturday fixtures like the Christy Ring, no?

Taking Italy out of the equation, has anyone won an away fixture other than Ireland?

So it was OK for Michael Collins to commit murder?

The murder of who exactly?

The Cairo gang.

Arguments that Adams and mc Guinness did the same.
Smelmouth
We can differ on opinion, I lived through all  the troubles as was born in the 60s I am an avid reader of history across the world, like Sykes /picot agreement , NI was a mess from the start
We can argue all night .
ANC atrocities 1983 airforce bombing in Pretoria 19 killed, 219 injured, 1980 sasbourg oil refinery attack , in the truth and reconciliation report they accepted responsibility for 500 bombings over 11 years as well as 95 associated bomb attacks not in their name, the acceptance that they planted land mines that killed farm workers.
Their report makes for grim reading

This was mostly under the guise of the ANC's military wing, the spear of the nation which Nelson was a founding member of.
No wonder Maggie called him a terrorist 

[The setup is nuts.]

Some cracking games this weekend.

Galway v Limerick - can Limerick finally get promoted.

Laois v Dublin - can Laois get a vital win to prevent a relegation play off.

KK v Wexford will be some battle in 1a considering the cats got some of their mojo back last time out and Davy will have Wexford going all out.

Galway have been taking it easy. Not sure they want to get promoted. They like 1B cos you can test out players at little cost. And still win the league. The setup is nuts.

Depends where you are in terms of team development.

Galway can live in 1B for a year or two as they've got a settled spine of the team by and large in their prime and are hardened championship campaigners whereas Limerick aren't.
They're a young and mostly untested team who haven't really had a good run in the championship for a few years now and need to be in 1A to get that on a regular basis.
The restructuring of the Munster and Leinster championships to round robin may help Limerick in this regard, but they really need out of 1B.

IMO the structure is good for the likes of Laois, Antrim and even Dublin and Offaly who really need to rebuild as they get competitive games and also get a crack at some bigger fish in the same division and maybe get a playoff place for another day out against a 1A team.

I wouldn't be rushing to change the hurling leagues just yet.

I would get rid of the Quarter finals. Maybe top 3 in 1A, Top in 1B in the Semi Finals. Or top 2 in each league.
But the counties voted to keep QF's even though they are trying to provide more weekends for Clubs. All about the coin for county boards.

Top two in each league would only work if the leagues were split over equal strength.

I'd suggest that the reason we've got the quarter finals is that it was a vote winner to get the likes of Offaly and Co onside, possibly coin related but I'd suggest it was motivated to be less cut off from the top teams.

If Limerick don't win on Sunday then I can hear more calls for a top 8 or 9 Div1 one and that would be a disaster for a lot of other teams.

Since you've broken the ice Minder, I heard something similar recently and that Mammy and Daddy Jackson have bailed young Patrick out in the recent past allegedly.....
Could all be bullshit as I'm obviously going on nth hand information.

Why would you bother your hole typing that sort of garbage out?

Because Minder had heard of similar incidents with our Patrick which gave a bit of credence to my source which i'd known about for a few weeks now and didn't post.

Patricks wholesome character that he was portraying in Court looks to be garbage.

You can chose to ignore it if you want, I'm sure you're a big enough boy.

[The setup is nuts.]

Some cracking games this weekend.

Galway v Limerick - can Limerick finally get promoted.

Laois v Dublin - can Laois get a vital win to prevent a relegation play off.

KK v Wexford will be some battle in 1a considering the cats got some of their mojo back last time out and Davy will have Wexford going all out.

Galway have been taking it easy. Not sure they want to get promoted. They like 1B cos you can test out players at little cost. And still win the league. The setup is nuts.

Depends where you are in terms of team development.

Galway can live in 1B for a year or two as they've got a settled spine of the team by and large in their prime and are hardened championship campaigners whereas Limerick aren't.
They're a young and mostly untested team who haven't really had a good run in the championship for a few years now and need to be in 1A to get that on a regular basis.
The restructuring of the Munster and Leinster championships to round robin may help Limerick in this regard, but they really need out of 1B.

IMO the structure is good for the likes of Laois, Antrim and even Dublin and Offaly who really need to rebuild as they get competitive games and also get a crack at some bigger fish in the same division and maybe get a playoff place for another day out against a 1A team.

I wouldn't be rushing to change the hurling leagues just yet.

[The flags I can kind of see where you are coming from. That issue did politicise and along traditional lines but I would disagree that brought debate of the troubles to the fore]

A figure of speech.
One that I thought you might have been familiar with.

Increasingly I find that young people are disinterested in the details of the troubles

I think that was true until the flag protests and the recent crocodile stuff. I was still in school around the time of the flag protests and I saw attitudes to politics change almost overnight among my peers.

Completely disagree re the crocodile stuff. Crass stupidity on Arlene 's part but dismissed as such by most people. Didn't hear anyone reference the troubles in that context

The flags I can kind of see where you are coming from. That issue did politicise and along traditional lines but I would disagree that brought debate of the troubles to the fore

It certainly brought the "them and us" home to a lot of young nationalists who hitherto weren't overly interested or understanding of the fault lines in NI, the millennials so to speak were awakened and the Shinners gained.

I heard this house described as a "gang banging house" by someone that knows of it so I doubt the "sharing" and taking turns is anything new for these fellas

Since you've broken the ice Minder, I heard something similar recently and that Mammy and Daddy Jackson have bailed young Patrick out in the recent past allegedly.....
Could all be bullshit as I'm obviously going on nth hand information.

there are huge swathes of nationalist kids in both Derry and Belfast not in the gaa fold, surely the aim should be get all our own first before licking the holes of any loyalist knackers to play GAA

Fair play to you for setting out how you feel. I get the impression there are others who agree with you but are too embarrassed to admit to it.

By setting out that Catholic kids outside the GAA fold our "own" but Protestants living alongside them are not you are already setting out the organisation as a catholic one. An unhelpful starting position.

To dress up some minor changes you are being asked to make as "licking the holes of some loyalist knackers" probably means you are not going to be at the vanguard of moving this place forward

The GAA can't and won't be forced to make the necessary changes. But if it takes that intransigent stance then it will come at a price

We know that the UK civil service is looking at housing, schooling and public expenditure in NI to try to reduce the long term deficit. In that regard there is a realisation that funding segregated housing, segregated schooling and capital projects that maintain cultural separation is a bad use of public funds (as more funds have to be found to manage the ongoing impacts of the lack of social cohesion).

If you don't reach out to unionism you won't be able to reach out for the cheque. The choice is yours

Google "Cantrell Close"

Know it only too well.

It's the problem writ large

So what are going to do about it

Sit back and do nothing and your cowardice betrays the generation coming behind you.
Retaliation that displays the same bigotry is even more cowardly and betrays society to an even greater extent.

This society needs to move forward together. There will be knuckle staggers on both sides. Recognise them for what they are, call them out, by all means engage with them to try to shift them along the evolutionary spectrum but we can only stall so much and for so long

I suppose in a normal society the police would do their job and remove the offending flags once a complaint is received, but the pass the buck when it comes to these types of flags. Harder still when the sitting MLA for the area sees no issue with them in what is meant to be a "shared" housing scheme.

Throw up a tricolour and they'll be round in double quick time.

Two great minds are set to meet;

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-43339901

Kim Jong-un and Donnie are due to meet in May, wonder who will insult who first?

[Shinners do compromise about as well as the DUP do it]

I know a chap who describes himself as "of planter stock", lives in a large  town where few Nationalists live.
He would be mildly pro Union but not wound up about it, probably votes Alliance.
His children are in a localish Comhaltas branch and love traditional Irish music.
As well as soccer oriented west Belfast and Derry City youngsters shouldn't the GAA  be reaching out to my acquaintances kids and what would be wrong with so doing?

This man does exist (unlike Enda Kenny's or Eugene McGee's people).
How many more like him?

In the longer  term it's people like him who will decide the "Border poll"

Shinners do compromise about as well as the DUP do it. It's a pity both sides ended up empowering the loopy extremist parties rather than the moderate ones. Every time a Shinner throws stones at the unionists without acknowledging their own massive failings they drift further from the point of the peace process and eventual unification. Bang, right in the foot.

That must be why Sinn Fein led councils share out the top jobs amongst the various parties, unionist and all and the DUP led councils don't...
That must be why Sinn Fein were prepared to accept a standalone Ulster Scots act but the DUP weren't prepared to accept an Irish Language act.
Lazy bullshit and I'm no shinnerbot as you would say.

Glad to hear that Fr Stevenston has been asked to step in.

That would be the same Father Stevenson that was a teacher at St Colman's for almost all the time the Finnegan was there.

The Irish News with some breaking news
http://www.irishnews.com/news/northernirelandnews/2018/03/07/news/priest-in-charge-of-dromore-diocese-is-former-head-of-school-where-malachy-finegan-abused-pupils-1271879/

Brendan Hughes 07 March, 2018 01:00
THE priest temporarily in charge of the Diocese of Dromore following the resignation of its bishop over the Malachy Finegan scandal is a former head of the school where the cleric sexually abused pupils. Canon Liam Stevenson and the Catholic Church last night did not address questions about his role, including when he first became aware of allegations against Finegan...

A bit of an own goal by the diocese or whoever appointed this lad Stevenson when they're still right in the teeth of this scandal.
Are Church authorities that detached from the real world?

We all know that dyed in the wool " loyalist unionists" won't go near the GAA or the Irish Language or anything that might mildly snack if being distinctly Irish.
However that's still no reason for GAA clubs allowing their premises to be used by 1 political party.
Again there's no need in 2018 for GAA Cubs to be flying the Tricolour compulsorily or for murdering the Anthem before every half baked game.
"Outreaching" to moderate or apolitical Protestants or other pro union people should be encouraged.

Not sure of the Davitts circumstances and how or what way they funded their club premises, but if they were in receipt of funding from the various bodies in the north they have to make their facilities available to all sections of the community and that would include the Shinners.

If the loyalist knee breakers also wanted to book their facilities then the Davitts couldn't prevent them.

GAA facilities the length and breadth of Ireland have been used by political parties, so no biggie IMO.