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puts to bed any doubt that they underachieved on a massive scale !

http://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/gaa/mcnulty-armagh-should-have-been-kings-302960.html


By Kieran Shannon
Enda McNulty has claimed the Kerry and Tyrone teams of the noughties were "weaker teams" than the Armagh side he played for and that it is a "disgrace" that the Orchard county won only one All-Ireland when they were "in a position to win nine".

The former Armagh stalwart and now performance coach to the stars won seven Ulster medals from 1999 to 2008 but only the one All-Ireland (in 2002), whereas Kerry and Tyrone would win a combined eight All-Irelands in that decade.

Armagh were a widely admired and influential side during that era, but it is McNulty's contention that contrary to general consensus, they were also the most — rather than the least — talented of the so-called Big Three, and thus the most underachieving.

"That team, without a doubt, was a failure," McNulty said in an interview in the latest edition of the men's magazine Irish Tatler Man.

"We'll go to our grave with that regret. Armagh were in a position to win nine All-Irelands and we won one. You might say to me, 'Enda, that's not very positive.' No, but it's realistic. That team had the leaders, had the skill, the adversity-quotient, the power, the physicality, the defence, the scorers.

"It is a disgrace that team only won one All-Ireland."

Armagh at the time were regularly coming up against the best Tyrone side ever with talents like Peter Canavan, Brian McGuigan and Brian Dooher, as well as an exceptional Kerry side featuring Seamus Moynihan, the Ó Sé brothers and a devastating attack.

But for McNulty, who is now part of Joe Schmidt's Ireland rugby backroom team that delivered the 2014 Six Nations Championship, any side that was as defensively mean as Armagh's, had Paul McGrane in midfield, and an attack with the likes of Oisín McConville, Steven McDonnell, Ronan Clarke, Diarmuid Marsden and the McEntees was even better.

"It's not about the other actors on the stage being better; we didn't do it. As good as Kerry and Tyrone were, we lost to weaker teams. We were good enough on those big days that we lost. We were six points up at one stage against Kerry in the quarter-final in 2006. Against Meath in 1999 (All-Ireland semi-final), we were good enough to win that, so therefore we were good enough. There were days, weeks and months where I found it difficult to get out of bed. After Tyrone in '05 (All-Ireland semi-final), Kerry '06 and Derry '07 (first-round qualifier), I literally struggled to get out of bed."

However, McNulty believes at least some good has come from such disappointments.

"Working now with athletes or teams who experience (similar) lows I can empathise. Those failures become part of your success. If I had won six All-Irelands, maybe I wouldn't have the hunger to learn."

© Irish Examiner Ltd. All rights reserved

Just after the story from greece,

22/10/2013 - 12:28:36Back to Ireland Home
A blonde-haired, blue-eyed seven year-old girl has been put into care after being taken from a Roma family in Ireland.

A member of the public raised concerns about the child living with the gypsy family in a house in a south Dublin suburb.

No arrests have been made and there is no allegation of abduction against the family.

The youngster was put into the care of the Health Service Executive (HSE) yesterday afternoon when the family were unable to prove her identity conclusively.

The couple have told gardaí that the girl, who they said was born in a Dublin hospital in April 2006, is their daughter.

They have several other children who have not been taken into care.

The youngster is said to be physically well and is due to be interviewed by specialist officers.

Unlike the case where a girl, known as Maria, was found in a gypsy settlement near Farsala in central Greece, DNA tests have yet to confirm that the couple she was found with are not her parents.

The only similarity is that the girl taken into care is a blonde-haired, blue-eyed child and had a different appearance from that of the couple she was living with.

In the Greek case, a DNA test on Maria proved she was not related to Christos Salis, 39, and Eleftheria Dimopoulou, 40, and the couple have been held on charges of abduction and document fraud.

Gardaí are trying to establish the identity of the girl taken into care in Dublin and have contacted Europol and Interpol about missing children while investigations continue in Ireland.

It is understood that gardaí may seek to take DNA samples from the parents and the child to fully determine whether they are her biological parents.

It is understood that officers spent several hours at the property yesterday as they waited for documents to be produced.

A birth certificate was deemed to be inconclusive and a passport bore a picture of a baby and could not be matched to the seven-year-old.

The parents claimed that the girl was born in the Coombe Hospital in Dublin, but when gardaí contacted medical staff they had no record of a child with the family name being born on the date the parents claimed.


http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/girl-taken-from-roma-family-in-dublin-610901.html

Could be good news for some family if true !

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/12/2009_in_photos_part_1_of_3.html

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/12/2009_in_photos_part_2_of_3.html

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/12/2009_in_photos_part_3_of_3.html


Seen this on another forum. Some unbelievable pictures !

Feel free to add your own



Now working links

Just wondering does anyone have any experience of replacing a laptop screen.

Mrs Bensars dropped the laptop and although the outer screen is intact the liquid display inside is shattered ( similar to a dropped mobile phone ). Although the home insurance has covered replacement cost screens are availale at about £70.

Are these difficult to install ?   Any help appreciated.

I know its a difficult time for some with job losses and insecurity but this is a great bit of news.

------------------------------------------


The Bank of England has slashed interest rates to 1.5 per cent, the lowest level in the Bank's 315-year history. The BoE's Monetary Policy Committee, which has been meeting for two days, cut borrowing costs by 0.5 per cent from 2 per cent to the lowest since the Bank was founded in 1694.

The MPC has now cut rates by a mammoth 3.5 percentage points since the beginning of October as concerns over a lengthy recession overshadow previous inflation fears.

How much homeowners and borrowers will gain from any rate cut remains to be seen after building society Nationwide said it would invoke a "collar" clause enabling it to stop reducing rates on most of its tracker mortgages. Other lenders could follow suit.

Around 40 per cent of borrowers - more than 4 million homeowners - have a tracker mortgage.

Lloyds TSB and Nationwide had pledged to pass on the reduction to their standard variable rate (SVR) customers before the announcement while HSBC will also be cutting its SVR by the full amount.

But savers are also in the spotlight following the huge rate cuts seen so far - with those such as pensioners relying on savings to top up their income punished by the lower return on the nest-eggs.

On the rate cut, Stuart Porteous, head of group economics at Royal Bank of Scotland, said: "As rates head towards zero, policymakers will be forced to embark on ever more unorthodox measures to get the economy moving again. Listen carefully and you can almost hear the printing presses being cranked up."

And Howard Archer from Global Insight said: "We expect the Bank of England to cut interest rates again in February and to bring them down to a low of 0.25-0.50 per cent in the second quarter.

"Indeed, it is very possible that they could come all the way down to zero. In addition, it seems ever more likely that the Bank of England will engage in some form of quantitative easing over the coming months, in tandem with the Treasury."

The MPC's latest credit conditions survey warns that lending to households and businesses is set to fall further during the first three months of this year, despite a taxpayer-funded bail-out of the UK banking system.

It also weighed up a raft of gloomy economic data on falling house prices, as well as manufacturing and services activity close to record lows - despite hopes of an export boost from a pound hammered by the recent rate cuts.

Meanwhile, retailing casualties such as Woolworths and Zavvi have mounted on the high street as shoppers cut back.

And speculation is mounting that the Bank and the Treasury could agree a policy of so-called "quantitative easing" - effectively printing more money - to spur on the economy with rates approaching zero and banks still reluctant to lend.

The cuts have come because the MPC's mandate is to keep official inflation at 2 per cent. It is currently well above target at 4.1 per cent, but will fall dramatically as prices tumble on lower demand in a recession, while moves such as the Government's VAT cut add to the downward pressure.

Just ordered this on amazon for myself. Thought it was a great deal.

Heres the link

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sopranos-Complete-HBO-Seasons-1-6/dp /B000UOOVDS/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1212756633 &sr=1-12

Looking forward to Dunphy tonight,

who will he be the first to insult ?

Talking about Dunphy, i recieved this e mail ( may have been posted before ).  I find him entertaining. Hes obviously trying to get as much controversy going as he can. I dont think anyone talkes him too seriously.

Anyway heres a few of his quotes,

---------------------------------------------------

On Luis Garcia:
"They ( Liverpool ) should put Garcia where he belongs - in the dustbin."


On Djibril Cisse:
"here we have Cisse, right wing, attempts to put in a cross, BANG...hits the full back, again BANG hits the full back, BANG...off the full back again, and once more, BANG...smacks the full back again.... Millions of euro and he can't clear the first man, I mean...what's he trying to do to the full back here, Kill him??"


On Harry Kewell:
"Kewell should have been yanked off the pitch at half
time and put in a hot bath, a boiling hot bath."
"Fat and a clown. A fat clown for all to see."


On Rio Ferdinand:
"Ferdinand is a clown. He was a liability for the
first goal and he is always a liability. It was Jan Vennegoor of
Hesselink against Rio Ferdinand of Barclays Bank."
"a tr**p"


On Fabio Cannavarro:
"If Rio Ferdinand is worth £100,000 a week, then
this guy is worth €100 million . . . . . a day"


On Liam Brady (After Ireland lost a two goal lead against Holland in 1983):
"He is often looked on as a great player. He is nothing of the kind. His performance on Wednesday was a disgrace, a monument to conceit adorned with vanity and self-indulgence, rendered all the more objectional by the swagger of his gait. He was deemed by many observers to have had a splendid game."


On Niall Quinn:
"I'm not gonna address the Niall Quinn agenda, Niall
Quinn is a creep"
"The man's an idiot, a Mother Theresa"


On Barcelona :
"After watching Watford against Manchester City last night
that was like a bubblebath. It was beautiful."


On Garth Crooks and Sven Goran Eriksson:
"ha, ha, ha, that's the first time you'll see sex between 2 men live on the BBC"


During the coverage of Euro 2004:
"You need dictatorships and poverty to produce great footballers."


On Christiano Ronaldo:
the way Ronaldo "clicks his heels", is the "most wicked thing in the game." "a simple cheat" "Poof ball"


On Mick McCarthy:
"He's one of the biggest whingers in world football... he's a bloody eejit."


On Kevin Kilbane:
"Kilbane's head is better than his feet. If only he had three heads, one on the end of each leg."


On John Giles:
"Usually it takes a bottle of Bacardi and a gallon of Coke to get John out of his seat."


On Michael Carrick:
"Carrick was signed for Spurs a few years back for £3m. That's the level he is at. He is a nothing player. He is one-paced. He doesn't have the personality to always get on the ball like a United player should. "


Before the Liverpool .v. Real Betis game at Anfield when Roy Keane announced his retirement from football Bill O'Herlihy stated that in the column about Roy a journalist called him a thug. Dunphy continued roaring at Bill asking him who's column it was. Bill replied it was on the back page of the Sunday Times. "Look at it" he told Eamon. Eamon still pestered him asking who wrote it. Bill replied "I can't remember his name". Eamon continued saying:
"I'll tell you who wrote it, Rod Liddle, he's the guy who ran away and left his wife for a young one".


On about the Fergie V Strachen feud:
Eamon: "Scots they're either nice or they're horrid and these two are horrid.
Bill: "The Scots wont like that Eamon, thats bordering on racism".
Eamon: "Its not racism its ethnic criticism Bill".


On the stubborn climate which exists in the board room at Real Madrid:


"Bill, Bill... those directors over there are on another planet. They're on mushrooms or something...THEY'RE ON ACID BILL!!!"


On John Hartson:


'Bill, Hartson is not a 7million pound player....its a disgrace, a shambles! This is the state of football today Bill. I have a clip here of why Hartson is NOT a £7million player....Roll it there Bill! (literally 1 second in to the clip) OKAY, HOLD IT THERE BILL!!! (draws a circle around Hartson's arse) Bill, that is NOT the arse of a £7million player!''.

Hi lads can anyone give any recommendations to B&Bs close to Croke Park ?

Hi lads can anyone give any recommendations to B&Bs close to Croke Park ?

Girl killed in school bus crash 

The injured children are aged between seven and 17
A teenage girl has died following a collision between a school bus and a lorry in County Tyrone.
A nine-year-old girl is critically ill. Six other pupils and their driver were injured in the crash on the Ballygawley Road, Cabragh at 0825 GMT.

The accident happened as the bus was turning into a primary school. The bus ended up in a field.

The road has been closed between the Ballygawley roundabout and Dungannon. One man has been arrested.

The bus was carrying about eight pupils from St Ciaran's High School in Ballygawley and seven from St Mary's Primary School in Cabragh.

It was turning into St Mary's when the accident happened.

It is understood five ambulances went to the scene. The injured were taken to Craigavon Area Hospital and one child has since been transferred to hospital in Belfast.

The injured children are aged between seven and 17.

Accident blackspot

It is understood the bus involved is a new vehicle, fully fitted with seatbelts and has CCTV cameras.

The schools said there was a good culture of wearing seatbelts among the pupils.

Education Minister Caitríona Ruane said: "I have been deeply upset by news of this morning's incident and my thoughts go out to those affected by the accident.


A lorry was involved in the accident

"The Southern Education and Library Board are providing support to the schools involved through their critical incident response team at what will be a very difficult time for the families, schools and communities involved."

The chief executive of the Southern Education and Library Board, Helen McClenaghan, said it was tragic that a young life had been lost.

She is hoping to speak to some of the injured at the hospital but said relatives were "absolutely at a loss and deeply, deeply grieving and distressed".

Local SDLP councillor Anthony McGonnell said it was "an horrific scene".

He praised the emergency services who, he said, "responded magnificently and were here literally within minutes".

The councillor said it was the latest in a long line of serious accidents on the road.

Police are urging motorists to avoid the area as there have been major traffic delays.

Diversions are in place through Aughnacloy at Ballygawley roundabout and Quinn's Corner.

My she rest in Peace.

Just watched the news headlines, happened almost oppiste cabragh filling station. Another wee girl aged 9 is still in a critical condition

This has to be one of the most dangerous dangerous stretches of road in Europe.

Once again Ballygawley and surrounding area have to mourn another child death to this particular stretch of road

Quick question.

Got a DAB radio and only picking up BBC and others. Problem being cant pick up  RTE, today FM and the like. 

Is there a way around this, that  both can be combined ?

Any help greatly appreciated

Just seen the preview and heard on the radio this morning about the panorama programme to be broadcast tonight on the Dog fighting.

"The farmer Boys" from Northern Ireland are being compared to the Man Utd of the dog fighting world. It also says that they will reveal that an unnamed intercounty footballer  previously charged in a "loose" connection with dogfighting, had much more involvement than previously thought.  (BBC's allegation not mine).

Totally barbaric bad bastards IMO, and if proven to be true all should be prosecuted to the max ( or reprosecuted).

Well lads, headin to lanzarote for a fortnight and will miss some of the games.

Does anyone know of any Irish/sports bars that might show the game. Stayin in costa Teguise which is very close to porto del carmen apparently.

any advice greatly appreciated

Fly a helicopter http://www.hurtwood.demon.co.uk/Fun/copter.swf

Armagh supporters please cancel your reservations for Jury's..............its only fair for the rest of us