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Messages - LondonCamanachd

#1
Quote from: lynchbhoy on November 13, 2014, 11:56:44 AM
isn't it currently part of their constitution?
politically there are votes there that could assist in forming a government in a tight election (as was the case at times in in 70's/80's/90's - and the unionist vote was garnered - before sf were winning seats)

its very hard to offload an area unless there is willingness and ability in another (host) country to offload it too!

Yes and no.  Unlike, for example, the Republic of Ireland, the UK has no single codified document entitled 'the constitution', therefore, the constitution is all the disperate laws which concern the governance of the UK.  As those laws have to refer to electoral procedure (amongst other things) in NI, then the UK's governance of NI is in the constitution.  But that means it's easy to take out of the constitution, as only those laws which affect NI are removed, and the UK of GB (*some of us are hoping for a second chance to end that anomaly*) carries on as before.

The local parties in NI probably have less Westminster relevance following the recent coalition between 2 mainstream parties.

#2
Quote from: Orior on November 09, 2014, 10:04:07 PMAll you have to do is go through the ...Better Together arguments

- You're fat alcoholics who need us to look after you
- The oil will run out
- We pay your benefits
- The Queen
- The war
- You'll lose your pension.

The problem is, there were no good arguments for Better Together, they won on fear, lies and scaremongering.
#3
Local GAA Discussion / Re: GAA in Britain
November 04, 2014, 08:38:06 PM
https://www.facebook.com/events/221906141343261/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular

There's a shinty-hurling composite rules match taking place on 22nd November in London.

London Camanachd take on a mixed select from Sean Treacy's Hurling/Croydon Camogie at Mitcham RUFC.  Anybody that's interested is more than welcome to head along and say hello.  Should be a decent session after, too!
#4
Hurling Discussion / Re: The hurling/shinty crossover
November 04, 2014, 08:34:38 PM
https://www.facebook.com/events/221906141343261/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular

We'll be playing a composite rules match ourselves against a local hurling and camogie club (we play as a mixed team, not enough shinty players in London otherwise) in 3 weeks here in London.
#5
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Shinty-for-Yes/

Not the biggest movement, but still representing those who wish to be identified as such.
#6
Quote from: Eamonnca1 on September 21, 2014, 06:30:22 PM
I'd hate to see the nationalist movement fizzling out like it seems to have done in Quebec. The Parti Quebecois seems to have a hard time connecting with younger voters and is facing dwindling support, something that cannot be said of the SNP.

The Yes Scotland movement was broader brush than just the SNP.  There's also the Greens, Radical Independence, SSP, Solidarity, National Collective, Independence for Women, Shinty for Yes, etc.

Even if the SNP fail to appeal to the youth voter, the more grass roots, informal, livelier elements won't.  e.g. National Collective are a non-party-political collection of pro-Indy artists.

The movement's lost a figurehead in Salmond, but in the face of the media disdain, Yes Scotland was always a street and social media based movement anyway - which is where the young voters are.
#7
Quote from: Rossfan on September 21, 2014, 12:15:18 PM
Quote from: Lamh Dhearg Alba on September 20, 2014, 08:49:09 PM
A lot of very depressed people in Scotland after the result.  However,  given we were up against the Westminster establishment,  the media (only 1 paper supported independence) and the financial world then 45% was a good achievement. I felt 2 weeks ago that we were going to do it but the yes majority poll scared Westminster and we had 10 days of blanket fear coverage with banks and major companies threatening to leave.  That swung people who were moving to yes back to no.

3/4 of over 65's voted no. Give it a few years and we'll be back.
45% was a massive achievement considering all the handicaps of biased media, EU and others ganging up and the rabbit from the hat of greater powers.
The one certainty is that the 45% were committed to the cause while the 555 is split between committed pro Unionists and fearful or dont knows who were swayed by the rabbit from the hat.
I suspect that whole rabbit will unravel as English MPs of all Parties kick up a fuss and hopefully  the new SNP leader plaus all the Yes folks who became politicised will come to the fore and keep up the pressure so that when the next Refernedum is held you will be the 55%.

Here's hoping.

Over 9,000 people have joined the SNP since the referendum, and the membership of the Scottish Greens has doubled. 

The 55% were persuaded by the mainstream media, the 'normal' portion of society.  The 45% aren't going to go away, they were persuaded by social media, work on the street, town hall meetings etc, they're motivated, and they're now a lot better at organising a campaign from the bottom up.

Expect things to get interesting if Westminster don't deliver a new constitutional settlement soon, as the right wing media down here are pushing for a louder English voice to be heard too.

Cameron's 'vow' hasn't saved the Union, it's merely saved his job, and delayed the break-up into someone else's Premiership.
#8
Quote from: Jeepers Creepers on September 20, 2014, 09:20:01 PM
There'll be some banter at the next Calcutta cup game.

I very much doubt it.

There's

a) no banter at a Scottish Rugby ever - it's like being in a library
b) Scottish Rugby fans are drawn from Private School Edinburgh and Borders Farmtouns.  The two sections of the populace that were overwhelmingly pro-Union.


Now, the Scotland-England football match in celtic Park in November might be a little emotionally charged.
#9
The good guys have lost - we just weren't ready for the media onslaught in the last 2 weeks.  :-\
#10
F*ck's sake, democracy is horrible - this is like trying to follow a Cup Final penalty shootout on a radio with a dodgy signal.

I have no idea what will happen, I'm swinging from hope and elation to despair and fear, as I see the various posts on Twitter and Facebook from folk who have voted.

It comes down to this, which side of the Scots psyche is stronger: "ach, f*ck it, let's dae this" or "we'll pay for this" ?
#11
Hurling Discussion / Re: The hurling/shinty crossover
October 27, 2013, 09:03:45 AM
Although Ireland were clearly the better team, it was a decent contest, I thought the 1st half was more entertaining the second, the match just petered out a bit after the hour mark.

I still think it could go either way in Inverness, but Ireland will almost certainly win the series: even if Scotland win next Saturday, I can't see them getting a similar winning margin.
#12
Quote from: Zulu on October 25, 2013, 09:46:56 PM
I read the piece that deiseach linked about the rebirth of hurling and it seems hurling sprang from a hockey-like game called hurley (shinty for all the world), isn't (modern) hurling a mixture of other stick and ball sports? I'd doubt any modern game is reflective of the original sports that inspired them.

Was there ever a 'rebirth' of hurling?

Shinty history has it that modern shinty started when someone wrote down the rules of something that had always been there - I'd assumed that hurling was always played, and the GAA just ensured that everywhere in Ireland played to the same rules of hurling.
#13
Hurling Discussion / Re: The hurling/shinty crossover
October 25, 2013, 09:05:29 PM
I'm probably not the man to answer that in fairness.

The London shinty team is a mix of exiled Scots, intruiged hurlers, and converts from other sports.  We were in down in Cornwall recently, and I got the impression that they're trying too hard - Cornwall has a very strong culture of its own, but I don't think it helps them to frame it in a pan-celtic context, it comes across a bit as coat tail hanging.  We were shown "Cornish kilts" and "Cornish ceilidhs" and the like, which just felt like facsimiles of Scots and Irish culture.  But then after they'd all had a few pints and started belting out some old Cornish songs, it got the hairs on the back standing on end.

Shinty isn't Cornish, there's a few teams down there because an English bloke went to uni in Scotland (well, St. Andrews, rather than Scotland), fell in love with shinty and has taken it back down South with him. 
#14
I think Caman derives from 'bent' or 'hooked', and 'iomain' from d'driving' or 'urging', so originally every sport would have been 'iomain', but as the other sports became codified, they were named by non-gaelic speakers, so the names are either translated (ball-coise, for football), or transliterated (e.g. rugbaidh), leaving iomain as the gaelic sport, named by gaels.

Shinty is supposed to derive from 'sinteag' which has a similar athletic-y meaning to 'iomain', although more like 'leaping' or 'sprinting'.

In Cornwall, hurling is the name for their traditional proto-football.
#15
Hurling Discussion / Re: The hurling/shinty crossover
October 25, 2013, 08:04:38 PM
Quote from: Lamh Dhearg Alba on October 22, 2013, 08:40:46 PM
Sorry Eamonn, I don't get on here too often and hadn't seen this post. They do have a development plan and development officers. There is however a limit to how much work they can do, they are a pretty small organisation really. The association will do what they can but they will also rely on volunteers in the clubs and on supportive schools pushing the game. You aren't going to see any major inroads in the cities anytime soon IMO, the fact is that the new clubs that have appeared over the past few years (Aberdour, Ardnamurchan, Strathspey, Camanachd Leodhais) are from villages/rural areas.


Just to add to this, one of the more surprising turn ups has been a team in Cornwall.  It helps that unless you're into sailing or surfing, there's nothing else to do down there, but there's now a 4 team six a side league based around the local colleges.

Essentially, they're very lucky that they've got a very charismatic person there who's passionate about shinty, and persuaded enough people to start learning.  They've put a team into the development tournament in St. Andrews for the last 2 years running.

(in fact, you could argue that England's providing a mirror for Scotland, the rural team are going from strength to strength whilst London are only just starting to get themselves on their feet.)

Last year there was an England vs USA 'international' (although if you listen to the accents, Scots were in the majority on both sides...)