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[few rumours going around that Malachy O'Rourke has requested the county board to get the home games to be played in Dungannon this year to accommodate Paul Donaghy.]

Massive if true, few rumours going around that Malachy O'Rourke has requested the county board to get the home games to be played in Dungannon this year to accommodate Paul Donaghy. Wages issue has already been cleared up - this is the only thing holding the deal up, apparently.

  is like a sport's page April Fool story! Though would be great to see games in Dubgannon. Omagh is a soulless kip.

Dungannon is a factory town for foreign factory workers. There is nothing attractive about it, or playing big GAA games there. Omagh is not exactly cosmopolitan either, both shit holes would be fair.

Why do some people look down their noses at factory work? Particularly food factory work? This is why factories are desperate for people and have to hire staff from abroad.

It's easier to say somewhere is a dive - the list will be long!

Be interesting to see what people regard as the opposite i.e. a nice town/area.

Donaghmore- lovely flowers

Lol. 

[few rumours going around that Malachy O'Rourke has requested the county board to get the home games to be played in Dungannon this year to accommodate Paul Donaghy.]

Massive if true, few rumours going around that Malachy O'Rourke has requested the county board to get the home games to be played in Dungannon this year to accommodate Paul Donaghy. Wages issue has already been cleared up - this is the only thing holding the deal up, apparently.

  is like a sport's page April Fool story! Though would be great to see games in Dubgannon. Omagh is a soulless kip.

Dungannon is a factory town for foreign factory workers. There is nothing attractive about it, or playing big GAA games there. Omagh is not exactly cosmopolitan either, both shit holes would be fair.

Why do some people look down their noses at factory work? Particularly food factory work? This is why factories are desperate for people and have to hire staff from abroad.

It's easier to say somewhere is a dive - the list will be long!

Be interesting to see what people regard as the opposite i.e. a nice town/area.

Arva winning Junior All-Ireland last year.

Then strong favourites for Cavan Intermediate this year.

Quelle surprise! 

This has been a basketcase from he start. Such a farce.

Not sure if it involved Antrim GAA but they should have layed away on it until the digger was at the gate.

Less said about Mc Geehan and the Ulster GAA the better.

When was the last Antrim Final held in Casemnt Park?

Agree with this, can understand why Davy would want him on his ticket. But in the medium term it would be good to see Neil take an under 16 team or minor team the whole way to senior. It can't all be about the seniors, who is coming behind Davy when he squeezes the last drop from the barrel?

Would Shivers not be the natural successor? Un20 manager as last couple of years? McManus brother in law aswell and with Graffin gaining experience with St Galls, the jigsaw pieces together.

Graffan was involved with the Down Senior Camogs the last few years with PD and a host of others.

Where does he get the time?

For the love of the game I suppose.

Those GPA guys seem too have oodles of time 

Doesnt take a rocket scientist to read the future path with this one lads.

The lack of any real experience in the set up is a genuine concern, but then we know Davy runs the show so what say anyone gets I'd imagine would be limited anyway.

Comments from BS are closer to the mark, investment is at the wrong end of the pathway, but we can never seem to get that message across and will be in a perpetual cycle of this until we get someone involved who actually understands this.

Is Graffin not a 'Performance Coach'?

Should he not be more suitable for that role and Mc Manus in another role?

Not sure what experience Shivers has in fairness. Floats from role to role. Lost year year with U20's and didn't go into B competition.

Strange roles but Davy will listen to none of them. He's the boss.

[They have been training since January for a League that started in April]

Went to a couple of Tyrone Championship games over the weekend. I left jealous. Massive crowds, massive atmosphere, a big buzz with the feeling that the game means everything.

Then you head home and jump onto Twitter & Facebook and see interviews with all managers and some players from TeamTalkMag. Tyrone posting team sheets on Twitter and great updates. Top notch service

The current Derry format is brutal. Badly attended league games with no atmosphere that started being played on 2nd August & the first knock out games not being played until October.

funny, I made a post highlighting the issues a few months ago and was pretty much told I was wrong, that everything is great, there are no meaningless games, league games are well attended, championship format is grand. 

It all needs a revamp and focus.

All your points are correct, and Derry is way behind. It almost feels like Derry rely on individual clubs to carry the flag and forget about the rest.

I agree to a large extent but for many club players in Tyrone their season is over now. It started on 31 May. That means they've had football in June, July, August and one week in September, basically just over 3 months. They also had a break in July so it's really 3 months or just under. If I was still playing club football I wouldn't be happy with that, all that training for a 12 or 13 week season. For most teams out now their next competitive game is at the end of May 2025.

There was a pre season Tournament in Tyrone in May for clubs, each team will be training for 6-8 weeks out with friendlies etc too. April - September/October is a good enough length of season. 15 league games, a pre season tournament and a championship campaign.

I know for a fact talking to our club guys, they are bored to death with this dragged out season full of meaningless games. They have been training since January for a League that started in April. The league was absolutely dire (derry have done some f*cking about with leagues the past 5 years, team relegated, clubs appealing relegation, and clubs not turning up for relegation games) - with all due respect 2 teams competed for a league in the last game day that aren't in the top 10 clubs in Derry, Bellaghy won it last year also. Big clubs with panels of 50 conceding half their reserve games. Then into a 5 group game championship campaign. All for a knockout game in October, I don't really buy having a KO game in September a worse scenario for a player?

Reserve games being played on Owenbeg training pitch whilst there's a senior game on the main field at the same time. Feck all buy in from Derry to promote it, if your lucky a club will post scores, Mal McMullan might write down a starting 15 in his own handwriting and tweet it, Mark K, Odhran Bradley or Orlagh Mullabn will give you updates if they are at a game..but absolutely nothing from Derry, no videos, interviews, teamsheets etc.

Slaughtneil beat Glen, who cares? Magherafelt beat by Newbridge last week, Foreglen beat Glenullin, Castledawson beat Glenullin....who cares? The results all mean very little. County men on holiday whilst their club are playing, teams holding 3 and 4 men back from playing a game because they have a bigger game next week. That's not a good championship for me.

Sorry I usually try tweet optimistic enough posts on here, but it's a big gripe of mine at the moment.

Here's a question for you. Why are they training since January if the league doesn't start until April? To what end?

True.

Derry season too long.

Tyrone season too short.

I think tattoos look cool on the lassies. Most people will disagree.

I think there a lot more nose rings on girls nowadays also. Maybe just me noticing it more but seem to be more acceptble these days.

There was a programme on tv where people had a dodgy 'holiday tattoo' and these tattoo artists would change it to something else. The old tattoo was still there but it was incorporated into a new tattoo. Great creativity in some of them artists. 

The mckenna cup  had a good wee format it it wasnt straight knockout but you had to win group to make sure y got through so there was a jeopardy with the context of the tournament the format was different from the ulster championship some of the other province pre season competitions had same format as the provincial championship which was pointless.

Yeah, decent competition. Managers and counties got what they want from it so it worked grand.

Teams will just organise friendlies now anyway so not sure what the purpose of the motion is.

Do Tyrone senior club players only gave a few months football - league and championship? With a break in July?

Short enough season for senior players and it over for some in first week in September. One game of football in September for some teams isn't great.

Would Counties just arrange challenge games instead of mckenna cup type tournaments.

Are they chopping the pre-season competitions in order to start the league a week or two early so that there'll be a better break between championship games?

So for quite a number of tyrone clubs and players the season is now over. If I'm correct it started at the end of May. Therefore the complete club season for many clubs and players has lasted just 3 months and a week. If I was still playing I'd feel a bit short changed with that. The Derry system is getting plenty of stick too so it's not perfect either. Not a dig at Tyrone but I'm just wondering if anyone thinks that's just too short a season for players.

Is Tyrone's league over now?

From MayoNews.ie

A review into the 2024 season between the Mayo GAA county board and the senior management team is ongoing and due to be completed in the next couple of weeks.

A discussion around the ongoing review was initiated at Wednesday's county board meeting by Garrymore delegate John Farragher, who claimed that players and supporters are 'not happy' with the current state of the Mayo senior team.

"A lot of people are not happy, they want change,"

"And questionnaires sent out to players, I'm hearing players are not happy. This sends out alarm bells. What I'm saying, if you lose a dressing room...you can forget about it.

"I can tell you, I go to a lot of games and the supporters, the genuine people going through the turnstiles are not happy," he added.

Louisburgh delegate, John Gibbons, echoed his sentiments, saying: "People are not happy with our selectors, our coaches, people are not happy. And that's out there and it's out there big time."

Is it not down to the fact that Mayo do not have the same calibre of players atm? You can whoop and wail all you want, but if the players aren't there to compete at the very top level, you're wasting your time? Or show the county how much it means to you by throwing the present management team under the bus...

I agree. People and supporters think they have a right to be in the running for All-Irelands.

People need to be honest. Like Mayo, for example. The players are not there at the minute. They are clearly down the pecking order.

Changing a mnager will not change this fact.

Supporters etc. ned to be realistic.   

The war has been a disaster for Israel.  At last the gaaboard population is pro Palestinian. 

Seafoid, the GAA population is undoubtedly Pro Palestinian. We grew up in a partitioned society with the British wrecking the place.

That said, you've been making bold prophetic statements for over a decade now about Israel's demise - that's how you post - and you've yet to hit the mark. Maybe it's time you hung up the speculative boots. They aren't going anywhere.

I say that with no joy at all - its the reality of the political landscape of the western governements.

The colonised will never support a coloniser, but I think Israels demise by Seafoid is greatly exaggerated.

They won't be required to return to the 1947 borders or to integrate with their Palestinian neighbours and they'll want to keep subjugating the Palestinians long after this is over.

Their Western backers are morally corrupt.

Seafóid is basically talking Seafòid.

Constanly saying this is the end etc. No sign of that.

As a matter of fact, they're taking more land.

IT had a good article back in April of doctors moving to HSE for better pay and better work conditions. Behind a paid wall so posting below.


Health
'Northern Ireland is broken': how a 'toxic' culture and better pay is enticing North's doctors across the Border
Doctors in the North can earn two and a half times what they make with the NHS in the health service in the South

Dr Peter Maguire, from Newry, who works one or two days a week in St Luke's hospital in Rathgar, Dublin. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill
Seanín Graham's picture
Seanín Graham
Sun Apr 21 2024 - 06:00

When Peter Maguire works a shift at a hospital in Dublin, he earns as much in one day as he would in a week in Northern Ireland's NHS.

The anaesthetist quit his consultant's job in the North five years ago. A "toxic" NHS culture, Stormont's collapse and Brexit led to his decision. He began working part-time in the Republic.

"Best thing I ever did," he says of the move.

Maguire, who has 30 years' experience, is one of a growing number of senior doctors from the North who are working in locum and full-time posts in the South.

Oncologists, gynaecologists, radiologists and emergency department consultants are among those who have recently made the move, says a leading figure within the North's main doctors' union, the British Medical Association (BMA). Those taking up permanent positions can expect to more than double – and in some cases triple – their NHS salaries.

Some GPs, including those starting out in their careers, are also leaving. A workforce report published this week warned the profession was "struggling to the point of collapse" and demanded urgent action to prevent further departures.

"While the grass is not entirely greener in the Republic, if you speak to anyone there, it's probably not as frantic. They're not dealing with the fallout of the crumbling NHS," says Belfast GP Michael McKenna.

"Lots of junior GPs are making the move but we're also losing a lot of older consultants who are just fed up. The worrying thing is that half the GP trainees they're putting through in the North don't want to stay; they're training here and going back down South."

A GP starting out in the South would be earning "two-and-a-bit times" more than the same GP in the North, where the average salary is about £92,000 (€107,000), he says.

"We can't get anywhere near those salaries," says Alan Stout, co-chair of the BMA's GP committee.

"It's Enniskillen, it's Armagh ... it's those Border areas that doctors are leaving and [the money] makes it such an easy decision. It's no coincidence that those are the areas where we're struggling to recruit people".

Consultants in Northern Ireland have a starting salary of £88,000, which tops out at £118,00 for a 40-hour week. This compares with a baseline salary of €217,325-€261,051 in the South for a 37-hour week
Ireland is now third to Australia and New Zealand as the most popular destinations for UK doctors planning to practise elsewhere, according to the General Medical Council (GMC), the UK regulator for doctors.

For Northern doctors, who earn less than their British counterparts, the lure of enhanced pay packages in better staffed hospital departments is "super attractive", one senior medic said.

Consultants in Northern Ireland have a starting salary of £88,000 annually, which tops out at £118,00 for a 40-hour week. This compares with a baseline salary of €217,325 to €261,051 in the South for a 37-hour week under the Sláintecare contract introduced last year.

"Things are so much better and different in the South for consultants," says Maguire, who was based at Newry's Daisy Hill Hospital for 16 years.

"Only yesterday, I took the train down from Newry to Dublin and worked in St Luke's in Rathgar. I did my shift and came home and never found the work so satisfying in my life. It's what I trained to do, look after people.

"It's far better paid and there's far less bureaucracy."


Dr Peter Maguire at St Luke's hospital in Rathgar, Dublin. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill
After tax, he was earning around £4,500 a month from his NHS consultant job.


"I'm not comfortable talking about money but I was asked to go up to Letterkenny to cover for holidays last June and took home €9,600 for a week.

"Let's even park the money. When you can come home and say, 'Wasn't that a brilliant day's work?' I would never dream of returning to the NHS."

While no firm data exists on the number of medics from Northern Ireland working in the South, information provided to The Irish Times by the GMC is an indicator of what appears to be happening on the ground.

The regulator confirmed a spike in requests for a document that enables UK-based doctors to practise in the South; figures show the number of Certificate of Good Standing (CGS) applications rose from 507 in 2022 to 804 last year.

The GMC cautions that the requests "do not necessarily mean the doctor has definitely left the country – rather, it may show an intention". Of those who applied in 2023, 632 were still registered and licensed to practice in the UK.

Pay parity, staff shortages and the North's deteriorating health service – it has consistently recorded the highest NHS waiting lists over the past decade – are undoubtedly factors for those moving.


[ Striking junior doctors warn more medics will leave North's health service without pay riseOpens in new window ]

The impact of Brexit, Covid and a two-year political vacuum have also been felt, with junior doctors striking for the first time over pay last month.

Since Stormont's restoration in February, Northern Ireland's Health Minister Robin Swann has pledged to build the GP workforce and retain more experienced doctors.

But he has yet to stop the exodus.

Anne Carson is a consultant radiologist who left her NHS job after 25 years for locum work in Letterkenny and Portlaoise.

"I choose to go down South because as a senior radiologist walking into any NHS department in Northern Ireland, I would be flogged to death. That's the bottom line.

"There has been a complete reversal; it used to be the Southerners came up to work in the North and now it's very much the other way round because of terms and conditions and pay, and pressure of work."



Dr Anne Carson, consultant radiologist
However, Carson says it's "not all roses" for doctors in the South. "Southern consultants have their own issues and it can be very stressful for those in permanent jobs," she says.

"But Northern Ireland is broken. It's so broken I don't know what the answer is."

Asked if it was concerned about the movement south, the Department of Health confirmed that discussions were under way with consultants' representatives on pay issues.

The Northern Ireland health service continues to "actively recruit clinicians regionally, nationally and internationally", says a department spokesman.

"While a small number of medical staff may have chosen to take up work in the Republic of Ireland or other jurisdictions, it should also be acknowledged that our workforce across the health service continues to grow."

David Farren, chairman of the BMA consultants' committee in Northern Ireland, takes issue with the department's view, saying vacancy figures for consultants "tell a very different story" – there were 182 unfilled posts in September last year, an increase of 80 per cent since March 2017.

"Every consultant I chat to in a health trust in Northern Ireland is now telling me they know someone who is leaving to work in the South," says Farren, a consultant medical microbiologist at Antrim Area Hospital.

He has been inundated with calls from English colleagues asking "What it's like to live in Ireland?"


Dr David Farren: 'It wouldn't surprise me particularly if staff keep moving across the Border'
Some colleagues in Antrim have recently left for Dublin – and he says he was about to quit himself, but decided not to move for family reasons.

"We've lost a couple of radiologists, a couple of obstetrics and gynaecology consultants and there's a few people who have gone part-time, who are doing a few days a week in Antrim and a few in Dublin," he says.

Farren says he could earn double what he makes a week for a 37-hour week in the North "with no on-call". There are other benefits; he lives in Lisburn and has a 40-minute driving commute, but could be in Dublin in less than two hours on the train.

"I don't have to drive, I can work on the train or read a book or even do a crossword. Simple things like that," he says.

Northern doctors believe there could be more cross-Border health services, beyond cancer treatment and children's heart surgery that is already provided, if the trend continues.

"It wouldn't surprise me particularly if staff keep moving across the Border," says Farren.

Alan Stout believes "one of the biggest drivers towards an all-island health service" would be if "a large majority" of Northern Ireland's doctors end up working in the Republic.

"So if our doctors are in the South, we're going to end up having to share services anyway," he says.

IT had a good article back in April of doctors moving to HSE for better pay and better work conditions. Behind a paid wall so posting below.


Health
'Northern Ireland is broken': how a 'toxic' culture and better pay is enticing North's doctors across the Border
Doctors in the North can earn two and a half times what they make with the NHS in the health service in the South

Dr Peter Maguire, from Newry, who works one or two days a week in St Luke's hospital in Rathgar, Dublin. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill
Seanín Graham's picture
Seanín Graham
Sun Apr 21 2024 - 06:00

When Peter Maguire works a shift at a hospital in Dublin, he earns as much in one day as he would in a week in Northern Ireland's NHS.

The anaesthetist quit his consultant's job in the North five years ago. A "toxic" NHS culture, Stormont's collapse and Brexit led to his decision. He began working part-time in the Republic.

"Best thing I ever did," he says of the move.

Maguire, who has 30 years' experience, is one of a growing number of senior doctors from the North who are working in locum and full-time posts in the South.

Oncologists, gynaecologists, radiologists and emergency department consultants are among those who have recently made the move, says a leading figure within the North's main doctors' union, the British Medical Association (BMA). Those taking up permanent positions can expect to more than double – and in some cases triple – their NHS salaries.

Some GPs, including those starting out in their careers, are also leaving. A workforce report published this week warned the profession was "struggling to the point of collapse" and demanded urgent action to prevent further departures.

"While the grass is not entirely greener in the Republic, if you speak to anyone there, it's probably not as frantic. They're not dealing with the fallout of the crumbling NHS," says Belfast GP Michael McKenna.

"Lots of junior GPs are making the move but we're also losing a lot of older consultants who are just fed up. The worrying thing is that half the GP trainees they're putting through in the North don't want to stay; they're training here and going back down South."

A GP starting out in the South would be earning "two-and-a-bit times" more than the same GP in the North, where the average salary is about £92,000 (€107,000), he says.

"We can't get anywhere near those salaries," says Alan Stout, co-chair of the BMA's GP committee.

"It's Enniskillen, it's Armagh ... it's those Border areas that doctors are leaving and [the money] makes it such an easy decision. It's no coincidence that those are the areas where we're struggling to recruit people".

Consultants in Northern Ireland have a starting salary of £88,000, which tops out at £118,00 for a 40-hour week. This compares with a baseline salary of €217,325-€261,051 in the South for a 37-hour week
Ireland is now third to Australia and New Zealand as the most popular destinations for UK doctors planning to practise elsewhere, according to the General Medical Council (GMC), the UK regulator for doctors.

For Northern doctors, who earn less than their British counterparts, the lure of enhanced pay packages in better staffed hospital departments is "super attractive", one senior medic said.

Consultants in Northern Ireland have a starting salary of £88,000 annually, which tops out at £118,00 for a 40-hour week. This compares with a baseline salary of €217,325 to €261,051 in the South for a 37-hour week under the Sláintecare contract introduced last year.

"Things are so much better and different in the South for consultants," says Maguire, who was based at Newry's Daisy Hill Hospital for 16 years.

"Only yesterday, I took the train down from Newry to Dublin and worked in St Luke's in Rathgar. I did my shift and came home and never found the work so satisfying in my life. It's what I trained to do, look after people.

"It's far better paid and there's far less bureaucracy."


Dr Peter Maguire at St Luke's hospital in Rathgar, Dublin. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill
After tax, he was earning around £4,500 a month from his NHS consultant job.


"I'm not comfortable talking about money but I was asked to go up to Letterkenny to cover for holidays last June and took home €9,600 for a week.

"Let's even park the money. When you can come home and say, 'Wasn't that a brilliant day's work?' I would never dream of returning to the NHS."

While no firm data exists on the number of medics from Northern Ireland working in the South, information provided to The Irish Times by the GMC is an indicator of what appears to be happening on the ground.

The regulator confirmed a spike in requests for a document that enables UK-based doctors to practise in the South; figures show the number of Certificate of Good Standing (CGS) applications rose from 507 in 2022 to 804 last year.

The GMC cautions that the requests "do not necessarily mean the doctor has definitely left the country – rather, it may show an intention". Of those who applied in 2023, 632 were still registered and licensed to practice in the UK.

Pay parity, staff shortages and the North's deteriorating health service – it has consistently recorded the highest NHS waiting lists over the past decade – are undoubtedly factors for those moving.


[ Striking junior doctors warn more medics will leave North's health service without pay riseOpens in new window ]

The impact of Brexit, Covid and a two-year political vacuum have also been felt, with junior doctors striking for the first time over pay last month.

Since Stormont's restoration in February, Northern Ireland's Health Minister Robin Swann has pledged to build the GP workforce and retain more experienced doctors.

But he has yet to stop the exodus.

Anne Carson is a consultant radiologist who left her NHS job after 25 years for locum work in Letterkenny and Portlaoise.

"I choose to go down South because as a senior radiologist walking into any NHS department in Northern Ireland, I would be flogged to death. That's the bottom line.

"There has been a complete reversal; it used to be the Southerners came up to work in the North and now it's very much the other way round because of terms and conditions and pay, and pressure of work."



Dr Anne Carson, consultant radiologist
However, Carson says it's "not all roses" for doctors in the South. "Southern consultants have their own issues and it can be very stressful for those in permanent jobs," she says.

"But Northern Ireland is broken. It's so broken I don't know what the answer is."

Asked if it was concerned about the movement south, the Department of Health confirmed that discussions were under way with consultants' representatives on pay issues.

The Northern Ireland health service continues to "actively recruit clinicians regionally, nationally and internationally", says a department spokesman.

"While a small number of medical staff may have chosen to take up work in the Republic of Ireland or other jurisdictions, it should also be acknowledged that our workforce across the health service continues to grow."

David Farren, chairman of the BMA consultants' committee in Northern Ireland, takes issue with the department's view, saying vacancy figures for consultants "tell a very different story" – there were 182 unfilled posts in September last year, an increase of 80 per cent since March 2017.

"Every consultant I chat to in a health trust in Northern Ireland is now telling me they know someone who is leaving to work in the South," says Farren, a consultant medical microbiologist at Antrim Area Hospital.

He has been inundated with calls from English colleagues asking "What it's like to live in Ireland?"


Dr David Farren: 'It wouldn't surprise me particularly if staff keep moving across the Border'
Some colleagues in Antrim have recently left for Dublin – and he says he was about to quit himself, but decided not to move for family reasons.

"We've lost a couple of radiologists, a couple of obstetrics and gynaecology consultants and there's a few people who have gone part-time, who are doing a few days a week in Antrim and a few in Dublin," he says.

Farren says he could earn double what he makes a week for a 37-hour week in the North "with no on-call". There are other benefits; he lives in Lisburn and has a 40-minute driving commute, but could be in Dublin in less than two hours on the train.

"I don't have to drive, I can work on the train or read a book or even do a crossword. Simple things like that," he says.

Northern doctors believe there could be more cross-Border health services, beyond cancer treatment and children's heart surgery that is already provided, if the trend continues.

"It wouldn't surprise me particularly if staff keep moving across the Border," says Farren.

Alan Stout believes "one of the biggest drivers towards an all-island health service" would be if "a large majority" of Northern Ireland's doctors end up working in the Republic.

"So if our doctors are in the South, we're going to end up having to share services anyway," he says.

The difference in wages is crazy.

The lad can sit on the train to Dublin and do the crossword.

After all this waiting and waiting and stilk waiting, this appointing can only be nothing but underwhelming.

A good manager helps but surely the players must take some ownership of the whole process themselves?