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Looking for a little inspiration in putting together some background music for a dinner party I am going to have next weekend, for around 18 people, so a mix of all sorts to keep everyone happy.

I've come up with these few so far but needs to be about 3 hours long:

> Broken Strings
> Next to Me - Emeli Sande
> Ho Hey
> Time After Time - Cindy
> Fireflies
> I'm Not Alone - Calvin
> Riptide
> All Night Long - Lionel
> Just the Way You Are
> No Scrubs
> Stay with Me
> The Man Who Can't be Moved
> What Makes you Beautiful
> The Man - Aloe Blacc
> Take me to Church - Hozier
> Sunchyme
> Another Chance
> Candy - Robbie
> Troublemaker
> For The First Time - The Script
> Step On
> Ruby - Kaisers
> Viva la Vida
> Ready for the Weekend
> Million dollar bill
> Rehab
> Disco 2000
> Acceptable in the 80s
> Hey Ya!
> Canned Heat
> The Flood - Take That
> Pick a Part that's New
> Hollaback Girl
> Grace Kelly - Mika
> I wanna dance with somebody - Whitney
> Disturbia
> Music - Madonna
> Roar
> Wake Me Up- Avicii
> Summertime Sadness - Lana Del Rey

throw in a few classics there as music wouldn't be my strong point *as you might see from some of those already selected 

http://www.rte.ie/news/2013/0212/367485-gaa-medal-leinster-hurling-final-ebay/

Its yer man's medal, is he not entitled to do whatever he wants with it?

On Journal.ie

THE STATE HAS paid out over €83,000 this year alone to four former taoisigh in expenses for secretarial assistants, airport VIP services and mobile phone usage despite the scheme being scrapped at the beginning of the year.

As part of last year's budget the government scrapped a scheme that had been in place since 2001 which provided for allowances to employ secretarial assistants, a VIP package at Dublin Airport as well as allowances for the use of mobile phones.

Though the payout of such entitlements ended on 1 January of this year, TheJournal.ie has learned that the some payments continued into March of this year, in what the Department of the Taoiseach called a "transitional measure".

Other claims, for expenses incurred up to December 2011, have also had to be paid – with a total of €83,425 paid to four former taoisigh, seven months after the scheme was to have ended.

It means that to date a total of €1,774,693 has been paid to a total of six former taoisigh since the scheme was first introduced in August 2001 as a "non statutory initiative" according to figures compiled by this website.

The largest claimant under the scheme was Bertie Ahern, who has received €457,746.77 in entitlements since leaving office in 2008 – including €41,861.06 this year alone.

The payments are intended to cover the employment of a secretarial assistant to support a former taoiseach in carrying out work associated with their former roles, such as their membership of the Council of State.

Payments also cover expenses incurred in using mobile phones and a VIP package at Dublin Airport, which includes assistance with customs and immigration and retrieval of baggage.

The government said last night that the scheme had now been ceased.

In a statement, the Department of Taoiseach said: "The scheme is now terminated.

"In winding up the scheme it was agreed that payments for mobile phone and airport VIP services would be covered until the end of December 2011, so some payments had to be paid in 2012 for services availed of in 2011.

"In addition, as a transitional measure payments for the use of secretarial services were covered under the scheme until the end of March 2012 and this also necessitated some payments being made in 2012."

2012 payments

In a speech to the Dáil on 7 December last, during debates on the Budget, Taoiseach Enda Kenny stated: "Former Taoisigh are having their staff and phone entitlements withdrawn with effect from 1 January 2012."

But these entitlements have continued to be paid in the first months of 2012, the government has now admitted.

So far this year, former taoisigh Albert Reynolds, John Bruton, Bertie Ahern and Brian Cowen have between them received over €83,000 for claims made towards the end of 2011 and for secretarial assistants until the end of March.

Almost half of this money was paid to Ahern, who this year alone has received €41,539.60 to employ a secretarial assistant and €321.46 for mobile phone expenses.

His former cabinet colleague Cowen has received €22,719.72 for his secretarial assistant and €35.33 for mobile phone expenses.

Reynolds has received €12,569 in respect of his secretarial assistant, while John Bruton has received €6,181.84 for his secretarial assistant and €58.15 for mobile phone expenses.

€1,774,693

In total, the scheme of entitlements for six former taoisigh has cost the state in excess of €1.77 million over the last decade.

This included Ahern himself – the biggest claimant, despite having only left office four years ago – who has been paid over €457,700, in addition to his pension of €152,331.66 per year and an initial pension lump sum of over €250,000.

Reynolds has claimed a total €409,800, Bruton has claimed a total of €292,900 and Cowen has claimed a total of €72,600 since leaving office less than 18 months ago.

Former taoiseach Charles Haughey claimed €202,100 before he died in 2006, while his Fine Gael rival in the 1980s, Garret FitzGerald, claimed a total of €339,600 before his death in May of last year.

This means that to date a total of €1,774,693 has been paid out to former taoisigh in expenses in addition to their pensions.

Liam Cosgrave, who was taoiseach between 1973 and 1977, has not made any claims under the scheme.

Further entitlements

In addition to the €1.77 million it was disclosed in a parliamentary question last October that the State had also borne the cost of buying two computers for former taoisigh: a €1,440 machine for Brian Cowen and equipment worth €1,913 for Garret FitzGerald.

Further to this, the annual cost of payments for mobile phones in 2003 and 2004 in respect of all former taoisigh totalled €2,567.70 and €9,507.29 respectively but could not be broken down into what each former taoiseach claimed.

TheJournal.ie has also learned that Brian Cowen no longer employs a personal secretary, following the abolition of the allowance scheme, while the Irish Independent reported in June that Ahern continued to employ his long-term secretary at his own expense.

John Bruton declined to say whether or not he still employed a secretarial assistant, telling TheJournal.ie in an email: "This is a private matter."

Attempts to find out the circumstances of Albert Reynolds' employment of a secretarial assistant were unsuccessful. In 2008, the former Fianna Fáil leader was excused from giving evidence to the Mahon Tribunal on medical grounds.

In full: Details of expenses paid to former taoisigh from 2001 to 2012 (PDF)

January 2012: Former taoisigh lose mobile phone and secretarial expenses

October 2011: Ahern claimed €377k in expenses since leaving office

Jaysus it was nice to see that quare oul stretch on the evening earlier on

Next thing the daffodils will be starting to spring up, best time of the year this

Anyone else notice it? 

Jaysus did you see that Georgia Salpa on there?? Channel 5 now

And she is not the only hotty in there!

[NATIONAL LEAGUES]

Just posting this up here for people's thoughts...

Maybe we need to get a campaign going on here; we can draw up our own schedule of GAA fixtures, competitions and events online; ALL SUGGESTIONS WELCOME. I am basing this mainly on football, so hurling folk any comments welcome.

Its still an amateur sport as far as I was aware

DEC/JAN - NO GAA playing competitions FEB - Training for club players commences.

Inter-County (I dont think it needs to be re-jigged an awful lot actually)
mid FEB-APRIL - NATIONAL LEAGUES (Dr McKenna, O'Byrne Cup, etc being run in Jan is ridiculous, these comps should be used to blood new players in the county jersey, only lads who have not played a full senior championship match should be eligible so it could also begin in March). This gives most players a break until April when Leagues and National Leagues begin.
MAY-SEPT - CHAMPIONSHIP (I see no major reason why this needs to be tweaked as gaelic games is a summer sport, this should remain the same and the breaks between games should give players a chance to focus on their club games as long as the county boards are told to run their own comps rigidly and not be dicated by the activities of the 30 or so lads playing county games)

Club (This is something which needs to be sorted out as it affects ALL playing members of the GAA)
MAR - All-Ireland finals should be seen as the beginning of the new CLUB season on St Paddy's Day.
APRIL- JUNE (All leagues should be half completed at this stage)
JULY-AUG (Championships should begin 1st week of July in EVERY county, running in conjunction with leagues, which should mean that league should be fully complete by end AUG including league final)
SEPT - latter stages of Championships can be dedicated to Sept, with all club finals over the weekend or two after the All-Ireland
OCT-NOV - running of the provincial club games at all levels, completed mid Nov at latest.

This means we are getting most of the football played by 80% of gaelic players during April-Aug/Sept, so 4-5 months of football, with only the smaller echelons of the successful elite playing during the Autumn and then back in the spring time, kicking off the new season.

Are these drastic? I dont think so and the demands of the modern gaelic players are ten fold, with clubs, counties, schools, colleges etc, I think there needs to be some action taken to reduce the number of games.

Dont get me wrong, there are gonna be some flaws in this, its just something that I thought about since this thread popped up and seeing the pictures on TV of committed GAA players battling through the mud, wind and rain in pursuit of titles, glory and history... something is badly wrong

I was pleased to see that O'Neills are opting to go back to basics with their Limerick jersey - that's the way it should be, away with all these stripes/patterns etc



Anyone got any favourites or on the other hand, hideous mishaps they may have bought and worn?

Has anyone else been experiencing difficulties in the last week or so when returning to the site, then having to log back in on each occasion?? Its a tad annoying as it was fine logging in from any PC, laptop or iPhone before but now I am having to log in almost every time I come back 

Any ideas what might have changed? Or is alot of people experiencing the same thing?

Fair play to Bridget Walsh 



The Harp in London's Covent Garden has become the first in the capital to ever win CAMRA's National Pub of the Year competition.

The freehouse, located near Trafalgar Square, was handed the accolade last week after being praised by judges for having "all the criteria that make a great pub".

Licensee Bridget Walsh, who has run the pub since 1995, said: "This news came as a complete shock but of course we are delighted to be named CAMRA's National Pub of the Year.


"We pride ourselves on the range and quality of our real ale and to be London's first ever National Pub of the Year is a real honour.'

The Harp is described in CAMRA's Good Beer Guide 2011 as 'a small, friendly, independent free house which has become a haven for beer choice'. It serves eight real ales as well as a wide selection of ciders and perries.

Julian Hough, CAMRA pubs director, added: "The most impressive aspect of the Harp is that it retains its appeal as a true local, even though situated in the tourist heart of the capital.

"What makes a great pub is the ability for it to welcome both regulars and first time customers alike and this is something it does to perfection."

Reports that Martin O'Neill is being lined up to take over from Avram Grant at Upton Park

If O'Neill hung on a bit longer surely the top brass at Andield would be on the blower??

Who'll make up the quarters lads?

Roma v Shakhtar
Milan v Spurs
Valencia v Schalke
Inter v Bayern
Lyon v Real
Arsenal v Barcelona
Man United v Marseille
Copenhagen v Chelsea

O'Leary and Co keeping up their classy advertising stance, where they don't pay for something that they can do themselves



we all know who are the W**KERS!

http://www.rte.ie/sport/gaa/championship/2010/1007/sheedyl_tipperary.html

Liam Sheedy has stepped down as manager of the Tipperary senior hurling team.

Sheedy brought Tipperary to All Ireland glory in September beating Kilkenny in the final.

He is citing work commitments as the reason for his departure.

Group Stage

Group A: Inter Milan, Werder Bremen, TOTTENHAM, FC Twente

Group B: Lyon, Benfica, Schalke, Hapoel Tel Aviv

Group C: MANCHESTER UNITED, Valencia, RANGERS, Bursaspor.

Group D: FC Barcelona, Panathinaikos, FC Copenhagen, Rubin Kazan

Group E: Bayern Munich, AS Roma, FC Basel, CFR Cluj

Group F: CHELSEA, Marseille, Spartak Moscow, MSK Zilina

Group G: AC Milan, Real Madrid, Ajax, Auxerre

Group H: ARSENAL, Shakhtar Donetsk, SC Braga, FK Partisan

THIS YEAR'S WINNNERS: REAL MADRID

What do you make of Wayne out at 5am smoking and having a piss on the street in Manchester city centre lads?

Not what you would expect from a £130k per week footballer...

I took the 13/2 on McIlroy, I saw him at the Lough Erne Challenge and he was playing awesome stuff and looks a terrific bet at this price

always very riskly betting on the nose in golf but this was one I thought I had to have a go on

The GAA Board.com Code to join this league: 411741-103002

and the head to head Code to join this league: 411741-105719

Get involved!!!

http://i43.tinypic.com/2e2jt5l.jpg

my wife drives an X3 2.0d. It packed in last week, 4 years old, 55k miles. Bavarian in Belfast told us its a turbo fault as parts of the engine have been filled with carbon it now needs to be decoked  My argument is that a premium car of this age, mileage, full BMW service history with no prior warning to us should not have this issue and it appears to be more common than it should be on X3's and this has been admitted by them.

well this costs in the region of £3-3.5k and as we have no extended warranty on a 4 year old BMW, they are only prepared to pay for half the parts as an act of good will, we pay for the rest.

As we have the car on HP, I am finding it hard to stomach a bill of this amount for repairs on a car with a fault such as this with a FSH and feel that they take more responsibility over paying for the repairs, as we are paying for a car which is now not fit for the purpose for which we have bought it through no fault of our own. We have another year to pay on the vehicle, which if we cancel will mean we are defaulting on a financial agreement and turning our back on a car whiich would have some equity on it if it was running ok at the moment. They seem unwilling to help us out any further in repairing the vehicle and I see it as them profiteering on a customer's misfortune. 

Any advice on this appreciated.

any ideas how its done?
http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=6NPF0A_vGC4