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Have to say I got well caught up in the drama of it all back in the day, but yes a bad un behind it all you'd have to say

For anyone who hasn't watched it, The People v OJ was a great ten parter

Yep was on again recently again there, one of the black jurors basically said after he didn't care what the evidence was he was going to be finding him innocent.

In the hurling you had to make the cut from the first trial to make the second, I'm sure the football is the same.

I know the first hurling trial was just a few days after St Killians All Ireland win. Maybe they could look at weighting it between performances in games, adjudicated by Ulster Colleges staff, and trial games at the end of the year. Especially when there are UCAS points now involved for the students.

[Revealed: how GAA star in Garda probe received €30,000 from GPA]

Revealed: how GAA star in Garda probe received €30,000 from GPA

John Fogarty - Irish Examiner 9 April 2024


The Gaelic Players Association (GPA) gave €30,000 in 2022 to a former inter-county player who has since come under investigation by An Garda Síochána.

The individual received the monies from the official inter-county players body in two tranches amounting to the five-figure sum, the Irish Examiner understands. The GPA chose not to comment when contacted.

Donations between the association and players are kept confidential between the two parties.

In conjunction with the GAA, the organisation has a past player medical and surgical intervention fund. However, the donations did not come from that source, which is under the auspices of the GAA and was established "to assist former senior inter-county players who may require medical or surgical intervention arising from their involvement with their relevant county team".

The GPA have their own benevolent fund, the aim of which is described in their annual accounts ending December 2022 as offering "support to members of the company who experience setbacks, both personal and professional. The service exists to offer support in a way that helps people find their feet by providing more than financial assistance."

Benevolent fund donations in 2022, which are deducted as a portion of annual membership fees, amounted to €20,550. That year, the GPA spent €2.843 million on player development programmes, €71,493 on player engagement services and €23,832 on welfare support expenditure, while they had two "staff and pension costs" entries, one for €506,183 under player programmes and another for €284,719 under operating costs.

Other units either associated with the GAA or part of it may also have given money to the ex-player. Some provincial councils use gate receipts from pre-season competitions to provide hardship funds for GAA players, both club and county. Supporters groups are also known to ring-fence monies raised for welfare and hardship funds for current and former inter-county players.

Insurance will go through the roof after the 10th ACL in a team who train on a synthetic pitch.

I've my doubts about 3G/4G pitches and ACL's as well, but have you any evidence on this?

It's not really in any doubt when it comes to the NFL for example, obviously different game etc but the players absolutely hate artificial pitches. Much harder on the body

Authentic - everyone is trying to be authentic these days

As quite a few thought, Jota has proved to be a big miss, much more clinical than any of the other attackers

I imagine the mental side of that is tougher than the physical.

Wicklow got relegated 2 weeks ago but yeah God help Westmeath and their mental turmoil of winning the league a week ago.

Give teams a few days to get over knocks and fatigue without going straight into a championship game, especially with teams playing week after week on heavy pitches.

Not everyone has a squad like a Derry or Dublin. Leitrim in the same boat today. You just will not get the best version of a team with a weeks break. 

Westmeath shouldn't have to play championship fball a week after a Division 3 final, It doesn't make sense that there not a 2 week gap from the finish of the league

It's ridiculous

It would have been some injustice if Clare had lost the game coming down the strait. Especially as the ref looked to be giving the Cats plenty of assistance near the end.
Cody hitting the penalty down into the mud patch was a schoolboy error. TJ Reid would have put it high towards the top corner.

In fairness he let Fitzgerald take close to 10 steps for his goal, you don't usually see a player being allowed to pause, cut inside (while still not taking a tap) and then continue

[Co Down GAA club calls for prayers for player Charlie Brown who is in induced coma after an assault]

Clonduff club getting it tight

Co Down GAA club calls for prayers for player Charlie Brown who is in induced coma after an assault


Irish News

Co Down GAA club that has faced tragedy in recent weeks is urging the public to pray for one of its players after he was seriously assaulted last weekend.

Clonduff GAC player Charlie Brown is in an induced coma in intensive care at Belfast's Royal Victoria Hospital after being assaulted in Rostrevor last Sunday night.

According to the PSNI, man aged in his twenties was attacked outside a pub in the Bridge Street area of the town at around 9pm.

It was reported that a he fell to the ground following an altercation and was taken to Newry's Daisy Hill Hospital, before being transferred to Belfast.

The injured party and his brother Eamon, both nephews of Down All-Ireland winner Mickey Linden, were part of the Ulster University side that won the Sigerson Cup in February.

The assault happened just a week after Clonduff lost another player, Lorcán Branagan, in a tragic accident in Australia.


In a post on social media, the Hilltown club called for prayers for the injured player.

In a Facebook post, the club said: "Please pray for our senior footballer Charlie Brown, who is currently in intensive care.

"We are keeping Charlie, the Brown & Linden Families, his team mates & friends in our prayers at this very worrying time.

Wishing Charlie a full & speedy recovery - you've got this Charlie."


Ulster University GAA also urged people to pray for their teammate, whose parents Aidan and Attracta are understood to be at his bedside.

"Ulster University GAA is asking for your thoughts and prayers for Charlie Brown and for all his family at this very worrying time. Charlie remains in intensive care in an induced coma after an assault. We pray that Charlie makes a full and speedy recovery," a statement said

The Clonduff club was plunged into grief last month after Lorcán Branagan died in a tragic accident in Sydney, Australia.

His former school, St Mark's in Warrenpoint, launched a fundraiser for the Kevin Bell Repatriation Trust in his memory.

It was the second tragedy for his family after the death of his brother Peárce Branagan (23) from a suspected heart attack in June 2018.

[25%. The unemployment rate is however only 2% (a great example of joke statistics).]

Everyone wants a plan from Dublin for a UI but the biggest problem is the North has 225,000 public sector employees and 590,009 private sector while the South has 370,000 public sector and 2.3m private sector. This is not even addressing the high economic inactivity rate in North at 25%. The unemployment rate is however only 2% (a great example of joke statistics).

So well over 100,000 public sector employees in North will have to lose jobs and find a job in the private sector. Where? That will have to be in the first paragraph of Dublin's plan but no one wants to read that and there's no political will in North or GB to solve that problem.

On the plus side, the South will have a €100bn sovereign wealth fund by 2035 and the Yanks might throw in a few bob to help a smooth transition.

The economic inactive includes students and retired people. Neither of which should be included. That's the problem with statistics.

Excluding students, in Belfast for example, the rate is 25% economically inactive. We shouldn't kid ourselves - NI does not fare well in this measurement

There has been a very recent study on economic inactivity conducted by UU.

https://www.ulster.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/1594576/Economic-Inactivity-FINAL.pdf

 

Is there promotion from Div 2,3 & 4 this year I take it ?

Finished two series over the weekend.

Masters of the Air – thought it was very well done, especially the air mission stuff. Those guys were put through the ringer. Robert Rosenthal ended up doing 52 B-17 missions, shot down three times, survived, and was part of the Nuremburg prosecution team!

The Dynasty – the series about the NE Patriots, or more specifically, Belichick and Brady. Not quite as in depth as something like The Last Dance, but I'd definitely recommend it. Bellichick comes across as an iron-fisted, emotionless genius for much of it (e.g. the 2019 Superbowl where he completely shut down the Rams powerhouse offense), which makes the Eagles Superbowl loss even more strange when he cruelly benched Malcolm Butler for not apparent tactical reason. Brady is a bit more open in his revelations, and quite likeable. You watch it and wonder what would have happened to Aaron Hernandez if he'd been drafted by a west coast team or if, later on, Bellichick had allowed him to be traded out west when he told him he needed to get away from New England and his old associates.

Obviously Bellichick had to be included but he added absolutely zero, just the usual "did whats best for the team". A wasted opportunity though I believe he has a book in the pipeline so maybe saving it for that

The LRZ hype is mental. Other than showing terrific speed, he looked poor (relatively) in the other drills. Derrick Henry who has a few stone on him out-jumped him in the vertical by a foot odd! Shows you just how incredible some lads in the NFL are athletically.

The NFL and its owners are the most hard headed bastards about as we have seen with the Swift/Kelce romance. If they think they can monetise LRZ and the novelty of having a Welsh player they will do it (for a while).

Be interesting to see how he does but his speed in the 40 alone won't keep him in the NFL, loads of kids coming out of college with that sort of speed. 

if assembly goes down again could anyone be arsed with listening nolan and crawley talking every day abou twhen it will be back up again.

The rent a mob crowd of "commentators" like David McCann, Alex Kane and Suzanne Breen will be happy anyway