Recent posts

#11

GAA Discussion / Re: GAA moneybags and Sean Cav...

Last post by Armagh18 - Today at 07:48:41 AM

The Athletic Grounds are a credit to Armagh compared to a lot of places imo. A decent stadium is well worth the money.

Agree to a point, athletic grounds is indeed a great venue. The problem is the plethora of oversized stadia, particularly munster. Every county should have one decent stadium in keeping with their needs.
What we don't need is pissing competitions by county chairmen based on who's stadium is biggest! Similarly, we don't need clubs trying to outdo one another and pouring funds into unnecessary capital projects, even if the funds have been shamed out of some poor tight hoor from ballyholland!

What's unnecessary though? Any club thats serious and is fielding men and womens teams needs at least 2 pitches, floodlights and a decent gym. Plenty of teams in the country wouldn't have that.

[Ahead of the fiftieth anniversary of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings, the programme asks why no-one was ever brought to justice]

#12

General discussion / Re: British State Collusion

Last post by Snapchap - Today at 07:42:35 AM

Thurs night.  21:35  RTE  Prime Time
Ahead of the fiftieth anniversary of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings, the programme asks why no-one was ever brought to justice

Dublin-Monaghan bomb gang investigator says 'there was collusion'

The officer leading the inquiry into the activities of the loyalist gang suspected of being responsible for the Dublin and Monaghan bombings has said he has no doubt there was collusion between the gang and the British security services.

Sir Iain Livingstone heads up Operation Denton, which is examining allegations relating to the activities of the so-called Glenanne Gang, which was based in County Armagh and Mid-Ulster during the Troubles, including its role in the Dublin and Monaghan bombings.

There's been a lot on the radio over the past few days, but given the scale of the bombings in terms of civilian lives lost, its amazing how little has been said about it over the years.
I was in school in the 80s and 90s and it was a footnote in history class at best - there was certainly no in depth coverage or analysis. 
It seems many people have been unhappy with the Irish state response to it - presumably in terms of pressuring the British government to investigate probable collusion.  Why would the Irish state be reluctant to press the Brits about that though?

Well consider the reaction of the FG/Labour government in the aftermath. Their interest in the bombing evaporated once it became clear that they couldn't get away with blaming the IRA. It was better for them to deny the families truth/justice than allow, in the words of the Barron Report, "publicity which might have led to an increase in popular support for the IRA" by confirming loyalist and British state collusion.

The very day after the bombing, ministers in the Dáil made statements attempting to pin responsibility on the IRA.

Despite it being the single biggest mass murder of the troubles north or south and the largest mass murder in the history of the state, the FG/Lab government was found by the Barron Report to have had "little or no interest" in it. It refused to hold a national day of mourning and initially attempted to refuse to fly the national flag at half mast. It was not until 1993 that any government minister attended the annual commemoration.

The Gardai wound up its special investigation unit for the bombings within just 8 weeks of the attack and 'lost' vast amounts of evidence.

The Justice Department also refused to offer any documents to Barron and according to Barron, the Department's files on it subsequently went "missing in their entirety". These were the only Dept of Jusitce files from the era to go missing.

Even after the RUC said they had a number of suspects, the Gardai did not even ask for their names.

Then Taoiseach Liam Cosgrave even refused to assist the Dáil subcommittee on the Barron Report saying that he has "retired from public life". Up to his death he refused to give interviews or answer questions about the bombings.

#13

GAA Discussion / Re: Leinster Senior football c...

Last post by From the Bunker - Today at 06:19:49 AM

42 wins in a row
14 titles in a row.

"Thoroughly enjoyable win.
Time for the Meaths and Kildares to get up to Dublin's pitch" says John Casey

If a small county like Louth can run the Dubs as close then Meath and Kildare should be able to do the same.

Louth population 139,703
Mayo population 137,970

Louth is not a small county.....

#14

GAA Discussion / Re: Is the earlier Championshi...

Last post by statto - Today at 06:08:03 AM

Armagh club leagues round 13 is 26th July and round 14 (final round) is 2nd August. Championship will be towards end of August. What are club players doing from March until Tyrone are out apart from playing 5 league games?

I see they had some Jim Devlin cup competition running for seniors some slog for non county players to keep them interested without any meaningful games to do late in year.

#15

GAA Discussion / Re: GAA moneybags and Sean Cav...

Last post by onefineday - Today at 03:14:25 AM

The Athletic Grounds are a credit to Armagh compared to a lot of places imo. A decent stadium is well worth the money.

Agree to a point, athletic grounds is indeed a great venue. The problem is the plethora of oversized stadia, particularly munster. Every county should have one decent stadium in keeping with their needs.
What we don't need is pissing competitions by county chairmen based on who's stadium is biggest! Similarly, we don't need clubs trying to outdo one another and pouring funds into unnecessary capital projects, even if the funds have been shamed out of some poor tight hoor from ballyholland!

[They bate us out the gate 2 years ago in AI SF in CP when most of this team were playing.]

#16

GAA Discussion / Re: Sam Maguire 2024 Group 1 ...

Last post by onefineday - Today at 02:49:57 AM

No version of Derry has ever beaten Galway in championship, you can be sure that will be a factor on saturday.

Janey, even Armagh has beaten Galway.

Derry wans trying their hand at the cute hoorism here? Sure Derry were in the big three talk with Dublin and Kerry not just a few weeks ago.

I would be more confident going to Kerry or Dublin and getting a result than I am about saturday due to our previous with Galway.

Out of those 3 Galway would be the 1 to choose on the road.  This history v Galway will have no baring at all on Sat. I'd say at most 2 Derry players played in 2015 and will be involved on Sat. Pretty much all of them beat Galway in Salthill in March.

They bate us out the gate 2 years ago in AI SF in CP when most of this team were playing.

And a league result in March will have no bearing esp as Galway had so many out injured at that time.

PS I sincerely hope you are right.

This was much more defensive orientated Derry team in their 2nd year of development. The better team in the first half, beat by 5 after gifting Galway 6 points. Mayo v Donegal in 2013,now that was a team beat out the gate.

Again, playing Galway in Salthill, with this version of Derry will have much less a baring on this game than a potential injury crisis

Derry got a last minute goal to make the scoreboard respectable

Galway got a point tagged on at a half time in ridiculous fashion, granted, the rules didn't cover the scenario, but I'll never forget the look of confusion and disbelief on Glass's face as the point was added.
That a referee in a field sport would retrospectively make a change without resetting the clock to the point in time when the incident occurred is beyond belief imo. In hindsight, we were probably better off missing out on that all Ireland final, it might have done more harm than good!

#17

GAA Discussion / Re: Sam Maguire 2024 Group 4 -...

Last post by Armagh18 - Today at 12:37:59 AM

Monaghan never easy bate, not too long ago they destroyed the Dubs in Croker. Seen how strong that Cavan team were against Tyrone.

Whats the story with Beggan seen he was turned down by an nfl club.

#18

GAA Discussion / Re: GAA moneybags and Sean Cav...

Last post by Armagh18 - Today at 12:36:28 AM

The Athletic Grounds are a credit to Armagh compared to a lot of places imo. A decent stadium is well worth the money.

#19

GAA Discussion / Re: Is the earlier Championshi...

Last post by Armagh18 - Today at 12:35:20 AM

Armagh club leagues round 13 is 26th July and round 14 (final round) is 2nd August. Championship will be towards end of August. What are club players doing from March until Tyrone are out apart from playing 5 league games?

#20

GAA Discussion / Re: Sam Maguire 2024 Group 1 ...

Last post by Wildweasel74 - Today at 12:32:47 AM

McDermott some player but only 18, Some men dropped earlier in the year and should been kept. Some other lads left. Bench weak enough compared to, if they had the pick of all players in the county who could commit.That weakness probably cost us down the line. Forbes played a game in the McKenna Cup.