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If they kick it over their own end line, the 45 has to be taken.

Happened the poor Louth lad against Kildare. Belted it out over the endline to exasperated looks from his teammates. Fortunately, for him, Kildare were not able to capitalise.

Still think there'll be a number of easy groups due to the dearth of quality teams around at the minute. Derry could yet end up in a group where they are the best team. One of Louth/Meath are supposedly a top 4 team and one of Louth/Meath and Clare are supposedly a top 8 team.

There's some seriously poor teams around at the minute. Tyrone, Mayo, Dublin, Kerry, Monaghan and Derry are all shadows of the teams they've fielded over the last 10 years. Which would be no bad thing if their was a few 2nd tier teams coming up to challenge them but Roscommon, Cavan, Down, Fermanagh, Laois, Clare, Cork and Westmeath are all standing still if not in regression.

love to get a easy team like Derry as third seeds in our group.

If you get Derry, it will be as a 4th seed after you relegated Dublin to 3rd seeds yesterday (congrats). Your easy 3rd seed might be Dublin again.

[at most 6 songs]

Surely I'm not disrespecting Meatloaf's unique sound and showmanship by pointing out that he has at most 6 songs that anyone would short list here?

There's already been  8 shortlisted though 

Some  might argue they are all just different versions of Jim Steinman's one song including Bonnie Tyler's Total Eclipse of the Heart and Holding out for a Hero or Air Supply's Making Love out of nothing at all.

Anyway:

Dead Ringer for Love
Two out of three ain't bad (a great one when the slow set came on at the teenage disco or agonising if you found yourself holding up the wall)
Hot Patootie - Bless My Soul

Might have already been posted here but a great piece about Meat Loaf's 1989 tour of Ireland:
https://www.loudersound.com/features/meat-loaf-a-flying-wheelchair-and-the-greatest-story-ever-told

They helped Kildare too. But they also got us back on track in the longer term which costs less.

See the issue is that if the GAA didn't get involved and stood off, allowing vultures in, the same man would be SCATHING of the GAA.

But in this case the GAA are the vulture fund.

Guaranteeing the debt from county boards that have over extended themselves. There's no one getting a big bankers bonus where they go and buy a yacht and holiday home on a European riviera.

Galway and Ros got bailed out too.
Maybe if HQ had made expertise available at the start  to Co Boards undertaking big projects a lot of poor decisions could have been avoided.

In our case a local business man gave money. I don't think HQ bailed us out with any help on debt?

Highlighting the myth about a referee being kidnapped in the boot of a car and driven away.

Did it not happen. From the Irish Times:

There have been many high-profile instances of attacks on referees over the years, some of which have ended up in court. One of the most infamous incidents happened in Wicklow in 1985 when referee Johnny Price from Roundwood, Co Wicklow was bundled into the boot of a car and driven away by a group of supporters following a controversial under-21 football final.

Hard luck to Sligo, have continuously improved with the league format as I believe have we. Hope Connacht GAA don't abandon it. But Mayo look a class above everyone this year at U20. However Tuam is a happy hunting ground so we are not without hope. On the goals - we gifted Sligo a goal too. About 3 times leading up to it from the initial stray pass. I also thought Conor Grogan still had a lot to do on the stray Sligo kickout and it initially only looked like a point was on when he laid if off, but continued his run while Sligo defence hesitated. But we got the goals and will need to up our point accuracy to get near to Mayo.

There was a horror series from the same producers of Lost that I enjoyed called From, about people who get stuck in a remote town they can't get out of, and fairly gruesome monsters attack at night. I gave Yellowjackets another go, and thought the later half of latest season was very good, but there's only so much more mileage they can get from that show. Has a strong cast however.

https://www.irishnews.com/opinion/alex-kane-micheal-martin-has-canniest-approach-of-all-on-irish-unity-which-as-a-unionist-worries-me-Z7J6YKW5B5F55BUZAI644KJ7XU/


Maybe someone might upload the full thing?

Alex Kane: Micheál Martin has canniest approach of all on Irish unity – which as a unionist worries me
What is absolutely clear is that the unity debate is here to stay. And every section of the pro-union community needs to have their counter arguments marshalled

There has been a lot of chatter from southern voices about Irish unity in the past week or so.

To be honest, there usually is around the anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement: not least because both Sinn Féin and the SDLP built much of their support for it on the prospect it offered for a united Ireland.

Yet here we are, 27 years on, and unity seems no closer than it was in 1998.

Indeed, the paragraph in the agreement dealing with a border poll remains as woolly and constructively ambiguous as it was. All of which is irking nationalists on both sides of the border.

What irks them more, I suspect, is that the polling numbers on both sides have yet to provide demonstrable evidence of a comfortable majority in favour of uniting Ireland any time soon. Which may explain why some of them are reaching beyond Ireland to convince local nationalism.

Speaking at an event in Brussels a week ago, Sinn Féin's national chair, Declan Kearney, said: "Colonial rule, partition and separate states in Ireland have all failed. Unity, through self-determination, is the way forward. The EU can play a role in supporting the peaceful, democratic pathway to securing that objective. It should help us open up the next phase of the peace process, and the achievement of reconciliation, reunification and a new Ireland for all."

It sounded like a rather torturous attempt to underpin the party's demand for a twin referendum in 2030, and maybe Kearney hopes that the fact Northern Ireland is presently subject to EU regulations would be a handy enough route for EU involvement (or interference, as some would describe it) in its constitutional future.

Fair enough, I've been no fan of the EU's extra-territorial activities in other states – a view which Sinn Féin used to share not very long ago – but even I don't believe Brussels would want to get involved in what could be a very divisive and fractious poll.

Meanwhile, Leo Varadkar was Ireland's Future's keynote speaker in Philadelphia on April 10: "I firmly believe that building a new and united Ireland is the next step in our national journey and I believe that Irish-America can help us to make those next steps. While there is not yet a majority for it north of the border, support grows with every year and unification now is supported by a clear majority of younger voters. The tectonic plates are shifting and in one direction only."

Regular readers will know that none of this surprises me. I've written a couple of columns since Varadkar stepped down as taoiseach, suggesting that his priority was unification right now rather than the much vaguer 'sometime in my lifetime' approach of his former Fine Gael colleagues.

Leo Varadkar speaking at an event in Belfast
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar speaking at an Ireland's Future event (Brian Lawless/PA)

Maybe he harbours an ambition to be the first president of a newly united Ireland and reckons that actually playing a key part in its delivery is the best way to achieve that.

He did admit in the speech that unity was not inevitable: "The case has to be made and worked for. But it should be an objective and not just an aspiration".

The main caveat I would offer is that he, like Sinn Féin and many in Ireland's Future, set a great deal of electoral store in what might be described as the younger demographic.

But just look at what that demographic is doing in many parts of the world right now: it is shifting to the hardline, nativist, populist right. So, it may not be as biddable on the prospect of bundling hundreds of thousands of British-identifying unionists into what is usually described as a 'new' Ireland.

The canniest of all approaches – even though he annoys many in the unity lobby – is from Micheál Martin.

In an interview last week with Sam McBride, Martin argued that uniting Ireland constitutionally was less important than building relationships.

Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin and ex-Fine Gael leader Leo Varadkar agreed to a rotating Taoiseach arrangement in 2020

He insisted that his Shared Island initiative was not some sort of Trojan Horse for unity. "It very much is grounded on people-to-people connections and basically the simple question: Can we share this piece of ground together in a harmonious way that involves real sustainable peace and friendliness for generations to come."

Some critics have described this as his 'latest' – and still weak –position on the issue, but he said exactly the same thing to me in an interview in 2014.

And while I have a lot of time for the man, I actually think his softly-softly-catchy-monkey approach is likely, in the long term, to be more successful than the unity now lobby. Which, as a unionist, worries me.

So be it. What is absolutely clear, though, is that the unity debate is here to stay.

And every section of the pro-union community needs to have their own counter arguments marshalled.

[40% of the 6 Cos people are in favour of an All Ireland State.]

He's not a fan of the still mythical "Border poll" but the shared Ireland initiative is one of the few practical All Ireland things I see happening.

Anyway the "Border poll" is not in his gift, it's up to the Brit S of S to call it and that won't be happening if only 40% of the 6 Cos people are in favour of an All Ireland State.
You folks need to get working on the "don't knows" and "Others"

Where did that figure come  from?

I don't think  we'll truly know how many are in favour until  there's a referendum .

Last LucidTalk poll from Feb 2025 which I posted earlier in thread had it at 41% if an vote now and also buried in that study was that 53% of respondents aspire to Irish Unity in next 20 years. That is what is most troubling about the Irish government - there's likely already a majority waiting on a credible plan from Dublin. Everyone knows there won't be a vote next week, but you'd need to start planning now for a vote in next ten years to avoid a Brexit fiasco. Now some will say with justification that the planning is already quietly happening and keeping North in EU and aligned with 26 counties for trade makes transition easier when day comes. Dublin is also sending plenty of money for projects in North.

Micheal Martin is so weak on Irish Unity that even Mervyn Gibson and Ian Paisley Jr. showed up to hear him talk recently.

Is his caddie any relation to the late socialist/nationalist MP, Harry Diamond? Played a bit of GAA when he was younger by the looks of it.

Yes. Harry Snr had a house in Glenariffe and I remember him knocking about the place when I was a cub.

Thanks for confirming, Tony. It's a nice story that on his biggest success, his caddie was a childhood friend.

Is his caddie any relation to the late socialist/nationalist MP, Harry Diamond? Played a bit of GAA when he was younger by the looks of it.

8 2 pointers for Meath in second half.

Only a point in it now between Offaly Meath. Pity that game was not broadcast on GAA+.