Messages

This poll doesn't seem quite as one sided
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4436044/Tory-lead-slashed-half-tax-U-turn.html

You can be sure someone will be required to down play the extent of the Conservative lead to prevent complacency and nobody better to do it than the Daily Mail.

Saracens were at the top of their form.  Their physicality made it very difficult for Munster to play their own game in the second half.  When Munster did not convert their possession and territory into scores on the board in the first half there was no way they would win the game, this is the only way to put pressure on Saracens.

The loss of Murray was a factor and his replacement constantly kicked away possession as a tactic for a high ball that stopped working. The younger lad who played against Ulster would probably have been better.

Bleyendaal cracked and missed a kickable score at a vital time, sliced some other kicks and was inaccurate.

The loss of O'Mahoney was critical, they became rudderless when they needed a breakthrough.

Man for man, Munster weren't a match for Saracens and Mark McCall was well ahead of Erasmus.  Munster do not have the resources of Saracens who have been investigated on breaking the finance rules of the premiership.

money doesn't buy basic skills like retaining possession and offloading
Munster kept kicking the ball away

It does buy your own coach not one imposed by the IRFU, as many physically strong overseas players as allowed and the best conditioning coaches available. With those in place you can play with 14 men and make it look like the opposition had lost a man.

Well,that being the case,how much control does the Church have on modern education,or on healthcare?

In NI, the Church has the following controls:

1. It has formed the N.Ireland Council for Catholic Education which has a number of bishops working with some representatives of religious orders.  They control the direction of the Catholic schools in terms of their ethos and religious teaching.  They will appoint representatives to the Boards of Governors of all schools who are the managers of the schools.  Some schools do not follow their edicts, e.g. they have demanded an end to academic selection but his has not been followed by every grammar school where the Boards of Governors still have their own opinions and are in law the school managers.  The NICCE also appoints the membership of the Council for Catholic Maintained Schools (CCMS) and it is the nominal owner of the school estate that it handed over to the state.

2. CCMS is controlled by the representatives of the Church.  It is the employing authority for Catholic Maintained schools but not grammar schools.  It provides HR facilities for the schools and pays the teachers on their behalf.  It looks after development of the schools estate and the curriculum standards.

3. Each school has a Board of Governors since the Church accepted the deal for full funding all Boards have a 4:3:1:1 ratio of governors.  4 Church reps, 3 State reps, 1 teacher rep and 1 parent rep.  So, the Church doesn't have a majority control of school Boards.

[living with a vow of poverty]

Well,that being the case,how much control does the Church have on modern education,or on healthcare?

My memories of school and the clergy therein are thankfully fond ones.I or no one else I heard of had any experience of any malpractice from any one of these fine men,all doing their best for students while living with a vow of poverty (though ironically there was one lay teacher,married with kids,who had a notorious reputation and was eventually convicted for abuse,and that was back in the 80s).I also went on priest led school trips abroad,with no problems whatsoever.

No they didn't.  Priests in schools received their salary like any other teacher.  Only nuns and brothers had their pay taken by their orders and were given a meagre allowance to live on.

Saracens were at the top of their form.  Their physicality made it very difficult for Munster to play their own game in the second half.  When Munster did not convert their possession and territory into scores on the board in the first half there was no way they would win the game, this is the only way to put pressure on Saracens.

The loss of Murray was a factor and his replacement constantly kicked away possession as a tactic for a high ball that stopped working. The younger lad who played against Ulster would probably have been better.

Bleyendaal cracked and missed a kickable score at a vital time, sliced some other kicks and was inaccurate.

The loss of O'Mahoney was critical, they became rudderless when they needed a breakthrough.

Man for man, Munster weren't a match for Saracens and Mark McCall was well ahead of Erasmus.  Munster do not have the resources of Saracens who have been investigated on breaking the finance rules of the premiership.

It is only comparatively recently that the Mater Hospital in Belfast became state funded.By the way are there many so called Catholic Schools who have clergy on the teaching staff these days? Unlike my day,when all Catholic Schools invariably had five or six clergy on teaching staff and the School Principal was invariably a priest or nun.

While the Mater came into NHS control in 1972, it was funded by the state since the beginning of the welfare state after the war.

There are no clergy teaching or principals in any schools in N.Ireland.  One school in NI has a nun as its principal, otherwise there are no members of religious orders working as principals or teachers in NI.

Enjoy retirement. Probably could have squeezed another year out but it's not to be. One of Armagh's best players in the last 20 years. As for being a limited footballer, I think someone is just disagreeing for the sake of a bit of trolling

I'm just giving my honest opinion. Please don't accuse me of trolling just because you disagree with me, it's quite reductive and unfortunately seems to be the default response from those unable to accept an opinion which differs from their own.

I'd like to know why you're of that opinion considering you really are the only one who has it

I believe that he has not watched Andy Mallon playing any where near as often as those whose opinions contradict his own.

You missed the factor whereby contributors don't read the rules and give an alphabetical list, instead of a top to bottom list, skewing the results in favour of the likes of Blaney, Brogan, Canavan etc to the detriment of those later in the alphabet.

It would be interesting if those submissions (at least seven) were excluded form this survey; would the outcomes change?

Thanks for pointing that out.  It does skew the results when the weighting is applied. However, if the weighting is removed and the individual votes are counted the results are:

1   Peter Canavan   (1)
2   Colm Cooper   (3)
2   Maurice Fitzgerald   (2)
4   Mickey Linden   (6)
5   Matt Connor   (4)
6   Bernard Brogan   (5)
7   Frank McGuigan   (8 )
7   Stephen O'Neill   (18)
7   Mike Sheehy   (9)
10   Pat Spillane   (10)
11   Ciaran McDonald   (12)
12   John Egan   (11)
12   Steven McDonnell   (17)
12   Larry Tompkins   (16)
15   Greg Blaney   (7)
15   Michael Donnellan   (13)
15   Oisin McConville   (14)
18   Diarmuid Connolly   (19)
18   Michael Murphy   (24)
20   Sean Cavanagh   (15)
20   Trevor Giles   (21)
22   Padraig Joyce   (20)

()Results in brackets are those with the weighting

If the Church presented the government with a bill for all its health,educational and social services provision for decades,the state would be bankrupt

Not in the North where the state has been funding education and health for the benefit of the non-state providers.

[i'm 45]

It's funny how we hear the name for the South, free staters was common enough (i'm 45) when I was young in Belfast,  we heard it a lot, deserters could be used depending on how you viewed history.

45?  Your missus is a quare bit older than you if she only has 15 years left to work as a teacher given the retirement age is 67!

How many 67 year old teachers do you know??

Not too many now but given the new pension age there will be plenty in the future or a lot of poor old ex-teachers who didn't make it to pension age and had to take badly reduced pensions long before their retirement was due at 67.  Not too many have come to that realisation yet.

If you're doing it right you'll not see your pension, if my wife gets to 60, she'll stop... teaching over 20 odd years and each year the work load has got worse... don't know any teacher that's 65 that didn't coast the last few years... badly reduced pension still better than what's on offer in the private sector

As usual you're not listening.  The average salary pension is poor compared to worst aspects of the final salary deal, no lump sum and a very small annual payment based on a pension pot you build up over the years.

Then you lose 5% of your pension for each year you take your small average salary pension before the age of 67.  If your wife goes at 60 that's another 35% reduction!

Pity your wife is over 40 and not able to build a LISA, not too late to consider AVC to supplement the pension, i.e. get a private sector provided pension.

[i'm 45]

It's funny how we hear the name for the South, free staters was common enough (i'm 45) when I was young in Belfast,  we heard it a lot, deserters could be used depending on how you viewed history.

45?  Your missus is a quare bit older than you if she only has 15 years left to work as a teacher given the retirement age is 67!

How many 67 year old teachers do you know??

Not too many now but given the new pension age there will be plenty in the future or a lot of poor old ex-teachers who didn't make it to pension age and had to take badly reduced pensions long before their retirement was due at 67.  Not too many have come to that realisation yet.

Connolly rarely even stands out on the Dublin team. Players like Kilkenny, Fenton, MacAuley, McManamon, Flynn, Rock and even Brogan stand out and are more inspirational figures on the field than Connolly is. In most games he is anonymous, except when he's up to his dirty tricks.

His removal on a black card was a major factor in Dublin's decline in the league final against Kerry.  Even when marked by Keegan he has the ability to provide the killer scores.

Why then are so many in the North and South clamouring to get into "Catholic" schools?

Wanting to get into a catholic school has nothing to do with who actually owns the estate and who funds the school.  You stated that the Church and orders should 'withdraw their services,reallocate them to grateful populations in the Third World' and I am pointing out the fact that they would have nothing to take away. The schools would be no different if they all left in the morning.  In fact, in many instances, the schools would be better off.

[i'm 45]

It's funny how we hear the name for the South, free staters was common enough (i'm 45) when I was young in Belfast,  we heard it a lot, deserters could be used depending on how you viewed history.

45?  Your missus is a quare bit older than you if she only has 15 years left to work as a teacher given the retirement age is 67!

Happy Valley (Seasons 1& 2)