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Nevertheless, Jackson's personal conduct did not meet even the common standard of decency. Much of his personal life centered around (prescribed) drugs  and an obsession with children and childhood. By his own admission, Jackson repeatedly "slept" with unrelated children at his mansion in "Neverland". Perhaps as a form of compensation, those children and their families enjoyed luxurious benefits.

Are courts with juries the only way in which someone may be recognized as a pedophile? Is there no common definition that might apply based
on undisputed facts? if this was a priest would such leeway be given by the public? Nowadays pedophilia is high profile. Everyone is sensitive about it.

So if you sleep in the same bed as (an unrelated) child, you are a paedophile?

Perhaps not - but you'd be hard pushed to find anyone who'd find that sort of behaviour acceptable.

But behaviour not being acceptable is a long way from behavious being criminal.

As somebody said on the previous Wacko thread, society seems to look for the badness in people rather than goodness/innocence.

Kids generally love sleepovers, whether it be with their parents or their friends.
My belief is that is all this was. Innocent. Unacceptable, naive and idiotic, but no harm meant.

From what I read there was no accusation of sexual intercourse, no physical evidence of abuse.

The accusations were of inappropriate touching, something that could not be proved, one person's word against another, so impossible for any of us to know the truth. But when I saw him interviewed on the subject he convinced me that he did no wrong to any child.

As for Gandhi. That's a new one for me!

Nevertheless, Jackson's personal conduct did not meet even the common standard of decency. Much of his personal life centered around (prescribed) drugs  and an obsession with children and childhood. By his own admission, Jackson repeatedly "slept" with unrelated children at his mansion in "Neverland". Perhaps as a form of compensation, those children and their families enjoyed luxurious benefits.

Are courts with juries the only way in which someone may be recognized as a pedophile? Is there no common definition that might apply based
on undisputed facts? if this was a priest would such leeway be given by the public? Nowadays pedophilia is high profile. Everyone is sensitive about it.

So if you sleep in the same bed as (an unrelated) child, you are a paedophile?

An awful pity the GAA haven't the cop to look at supply and demand and then substantially reduce ticket prices. Would increase both attendance and gate receipts. Also doesnt help that the footballers are playing both the week before and the week after (from both a financial and a getting a pass from herself point of view).

Inter-county player tax credit would not work as it would be of no value to students/unemployed/Nordies.

The GAA announced that the proposed second period of extra time of 2x5min has been abolished. I presume that holds for qualifiers as well as provincial games, so a game level after extra time goes to a replay.

Surprised its so cheap to be honest, given the limited capacity. Others were too given how quickly it sold out. I would have priced it at €90 as my estimate of the highest ticket price that would have resulted in a sell out. But fair play to Rovers for keeping it affordable.

Scobes that go to beatiful parks to get full & then leave all their empties lying there 

f**kers who overtake on the inside lane

f**kers who sit in the over taking lane at 60mph and cause you to undertake!!

Still doesn't make it right but I can sympathise with that if you've waitied long enough behind them in the hope they'll use their mirror and pull in. If not then I would do the same thing.

BUT

What about sitting at 70 in a line of traffic on the outside lane when there is a car ahead doing 55/60 on the inside up ahead? Most people keep a safe distance, so those w4nkers overtake the long line flying up the inside an then nip out at the end causing everyone else who were cruising at 70 to brake (domino effect all along the line).  

Does that grind your gears?

Would love to know the stats on how many accidents on motorways/dual carriageways are caused by this action?

But pretty much everyone is in the wrong then.

I believe the rule is that you should be in the inside lane unless you are overtaking. You don't go into the outside line because you'll be overtaking someone in a couple of minutes. Of course because everyone else is doing it wrong, you have to get into the outside line too early otherwise you could be stuck behind the 55er on the inside for ages.

The GAA need to come out strong on this and clearly and publicly state why they can't agree to the GPA's current requests.

This is key.

The "ignore them and they'll go away" approach and the "who do they think they are" approach will inevitably lead to some sort of chaos. Albeit it is clear that there are many GAA administrators and people who post here who would love to see that, in order to put those goddamn intercounty players back in their box.

Of course the irony is that it is these very people who caused the creation of the GPA. Give yourselves a kick up the behind.

But the GPA, including Dessie, has done a super job. Player welfare has improved across the board since their inception, most importantly regarding insurance and expenses.

So now it seems the GPA have asked for 1% of gate receipts to fund player welfare issues. And the GAA seem to have said No and Fook off. And much applause from the "let them strike" brigade.

Its time for the GAA to make a proper, dignified and concillitary stance on the issue. I would recommend a statement something like this (I'm sure the wording could be improved substantially!):

- The GAA is an amateur organisation, the GAA do not pay players and it is something that we do not forsee changing in the future.

- The GAA recognises the importance of the intercounty player. And therefore player welfare is a very important part of the GAA.

- When any player joins an inter-county panel, he is made aware of the player welfare entitlements/obligations, in particular, regarding insurance, expenses, meals, training gear. We believe that these are very fair and reasonable and would hope/expect that most aspiring intercounty players would agree. However, joining an intercounty panel is a choice and players do not have to join if they believe they should get paid.

- We are happy to discuss/address player welfare issues with the GPA or any player. For instance if a county board is falling short on the agreed player welfare conditions without good reason, or if there are potential new initiatives or ideas. However the over-riding factor will be the continuance of the amateur ethos. There will be no payments for playing. The GAA will fund player welfare directly. The GAA will not pass on the funding to other organisations for them to fund as they see fit.

This is not a battle to be won, as many here seem to think. Because we don't want any losers, because that will be hugely detrimental to the GAA. This is about the GAA taking the moral high ground, while at the same stage showing they are very much pro-player. Then nobody will win or lose, but everybody will benefit.

Louth were winning by 4 or 5 points, but Longford came back well to get the draw. Number 25, not listed on the program, came on and made a big difference. Both teams had chances to win it at the death. Replay on Wednesday.

I hate to take a leaf out of the RTE panelists books but this years championship must be the worst by far in living memory.

one thing appears clear - the gap between the top teams and the middle ranking teams is getting ever-wider.

Few chances of shocks, never mind suprise results and many thrashings.

I think we sometimes have short memories. For practically the whole of the 70s and 80s, there was little or no hope of a Connact or Ulster champion beating a Leinster or Munster champion.

Its not even July and at the start of the championship most thought that nobody would get near Tyrone or Kerry. And maybe that's the way it'll finish, but Cork are definitely genuine contenders and Mayo, Galway, Kildare and Dublin have big games in them. And there's no doubt at least one of Armagh, Monaghan, Derry will get a new lease of life in the qualifiers.

When Kearney made the breakthrough with Leinster, I was an instant fan, but I was also sick that the Dubs had lost what undoubtedly would have been a top drawer GAA player if he gave primary focus to gaelic football. Relieved when I was told he wasn't a Dub!

Cracking game, sickening end. The last test would have been just sensational if it wasn't a dead rubber. Although injuries may mean there's a shadow team out.

The Lions were absolutely superb in the first half, and Kearney was magnificent, but in the second they just couldnt get on the front foot.

People talking, especially in the media, about Shaw being great. Before the game I thought his selection was an error, because his weaknesses (mainly his stupidity) outweigh his strenghts. So I kept a close eye on him and I'm going to go completely against the grain and say he cost Lions the game as much as O'Gara. Yes, he was superb in the loose and better than expected in the lineout but Shaw gave away 5 penalties in the match, everyone of them needless, 4 of which came in the first half, without which its likely the Lions would have been out of sight at half time.

I believe Fourie was in touch for the try, but the cameras didnt show it either way. The last picture you can see is he is clearly in field but Philips clatters him from the side and you see Fourie's feet sliding towards the sideline and then the picture of his feet is blocked from all angles just as he touches down. I think its lkely his feet touched the line before he got the ball down but it was a 50/50 call.

Regardless of the name, the Irish have been as much a part of the Lions as the English, Scots and Welsh since it all started back 100 years ago.

And if yu still havent read it, Im still looking for something as grippingas the Da Vinci Code.

Did you not think that "Angels and Demons" was more gripping?

I read a book called "The Shakespeare Secret" by some bird, which was pretty good. Though you do have to forget that its a bit of a rip off of the Da Vinci code.

[other than Ryanair]

Finally got through to them and baby needs own passport! Have to try and get passport in 1 day by going to passport office, need flight confirmation before they will rush it, cant get flight confirmation without passport. Red f**king tape!

For all carriers other than Ryanair, a passport is not required when travelling internal in Ireland or between Ireland and the UK.
Last year I brought my young lad to the UK on Aer Lingus without any ID for him.