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A lot of quiet confidence around Armagh both among supporters and neutrals. I think Kerry are ready for an ambush, they'll be absolutely gunning for Armagh. Everything is set up for a Kerry victory. Armagh need to dominate the middle and make it count. Kerry have nothing to lose

Quiet confidence? Armagh are literally the current champions and bookies favourites to win the game.

Kerry have nothing to lose? Not even their dignity? Kerry got to the quarter finals without having to play a division 1 team. Derry and Cavan have been knocked out of the championship after having to play a division 1 team in every championship game they had.

If Kerry are satisfied having beaten cork, Clare and Roscommon and have nothing to lose and are hoping for an ambush against the Ulster runners up then they have truly fallen from grace.

What do you mean lose their dignity? No shame in losing to the "bookies favourites and current champions".

They've a corner back named at half forward, they've Paul Geaney and Paudie Clifford on the bench. Inexperienced midfield. This is as weak as they've been for a good while. Everyone seems to be tipping Armagh. Armagh don't do well as favourites. Kerry will have plenty of motivation going into this game. Like you say they haven't played anyone yet. It's a free one for them.

A lot of quiet confidence around Armagh both among supporters and neutrals. I think Kerry are ready for an ambush, they'll be absolutely gunning for Armagh. Everything is set up for a Kerry victory. Armagh need to dominate the middle and make it count. Kerry have nothing to lose

Hopefully Pobal Parnells get running again properly and provide a playing outlet etc. for the people of Coolock.

They look to be keeping it together on the playing field.
Men's team in Division 2 and ladies in Division 1

One of the landowners Perspective:

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1JcEPK152r/?mibextid=UalRPS

This same fool seemed to think farmers had nothing to do with Lough Neagh being a slurry pit.

If there's a shortage why are Tyrone refs reffing in Armagh?

This keep ball stuff is such a cancer. Incredibly dull way to end out matches.

Have you played much under the new rules yourself? Jesus Christ after an energy-sapping match like that players are fucked on their feet and changing the rules to create more and as much "chaos" as possible isn't feasible.

Some effort from Down. Will no doubt rue those easy misses early in second half. They're a work in progress though and I fully expect them to bounce straight back to Division 2 next season, just a shame they're not guaranteed AI football. Havern was well marshalled throughout but excellent performances from Magill, McGeough, Guinness, Murdock and Mooney when he came on. I feel Galway just have that extra experience and guile coming off the bench.

Big half needed from Down. Completely collapsed for the last ten mins there. Galway like a flick of a switch are 10 points up. Not insurmountable but Down need to use that breeze in the second half

Belfast has multiple outdoor concerts per year, I work a lot of them, the likes of Belsonic has 10 or more alone, Féile an Phobail is Ireland biggest community arts festival.. The SSE has multiple gigs

So while I don't think it will be tearing the place up with a lot more concerts, it will have an opportunity to be in with a shout to bid for them or attract more people.

The capacity is too big, thought it at the time, I'd have settled for a 30,000 seater closed in type but sure lets see what happens eh? Hopefully I'll be still alive when it/if done

The really big miss was not having a fully roofed multi-purpose stadium in Belfast for soccer, rugby, concerts and GAA. It would have gotten so much use, been eligible for major tournaments in rugby and soccer and had a cracking atmosphere. The ~400 million we will have pissed away on Casement, Windsor and Ravenhill would have built it I think.

Nail on the head. Sirocco site would have been ideal. It's bewildering sometimes how tribal politics has such an overwhelming influence on major development here.

Lots of nonsense to unpack there.

'infinitely worse' - you're a perfect example of one of those I mentioned who downplay Ukrainian suffering. A lot of this goes on with Palestinian supporters.

I'm not downplaying anything, the Ukraine war is between two corrupt  countries led by utter nutjobs. Russia is of course wrong to have invaded. What Russia is doing is not on the same level as Israel though.

Iran will take its time in replying. Israel has bitten off more than it can chew.

The sanctions against Israel can't come soon enough. Israel is out of control.

Would it be fair to say what Israel has done is by far worse than Russia.

I'm not condoning Russia by the way.

But the double standards around sanctions is mad.

No it wouldn't be fair to say it. Would you say that if YOUR entire family had been recently burnt to death in their beds or been crushed by rubble from a Russian drone strike?

Perhaps you'd like to pop out for pint of milk in Kherson but can't because some f**king orc will drop a munition from a drone on top of you. Trying to kill everything and anything that moves for over 3 years now.

Tell the uncounted dead buried in mass graves outside Mariupol or still buried, rotting in ruined buildings that what Russia is doing isn't as bad as Gaza.

Russia and Israel are the same. Scum.

I also won't be mourning the Iran military officials wiped out by Israel either. The Iranian military has been helping Russia murder Ukrainian children these past 3 years. Scum.

Your point about sanctions and double standards is valid. Though the Orange Turd can't wait to even things up in that regard.

Yes I agree with all that but is what israels done not multiple times that.

Both are disgraceful countries but what I'm pointing out is the double standards when it comes to sanctions.

No, I wouldn't say that what Israel is doing is 'multiple times' what Russia is doing.

It's difficult to know what the true death toll is in Ukraine, unsurprisingly the Russians aren't providing numbers from occupied Ukraine. Tens of thousands of civilians are thought to have died in the siege of Mariupol alone.

I also regard the death of every single Ukrainian soldier as murder. Every single one of them is an unnecessary death caused by Russia. Probably in the region of 75-100k.

Believe it or not, it is possible to point out western hypocrisy and the horror of that is happening in Gaza without downplaying Ukrainian suffering (whether you meant to or not).

What Israel is and has been doing (throughout it's entire existence) is infinitely worse than what Russia is doing to Ukraine - according to the deputy mayor half of those killed in Mariupol are ethnically Russian 

Ukraine has the means to resist and fight back with western backing, Palestine has Hamas and even then some Palestinians have had enough of their tactics.

People keep pointing to PuC and lack of concerts while forgetting Cork is much smaller than Belfast, less accessible and less attractive for major concerts.

Belfast is far more similar to Cork than compared to Dublin in terms of attracting concerts.

This is what the CEO of Cork GAA said a few month's back at a speech in PuC

"Concerts in this building are challenging because we're a mid size venue. We're too big for Live at the Marquee, we're too small for Coldplay. We talk to the promoters every day we are seeing now if we can move the dial a little bit and go into smaller events and use car parks and use 4G and put marquees up on the pitch and so on.

"So lest anyone think we are idle, you are at the discretion of the major acts' touring diaries; it's not your diary it's theirs, and we play games for a significant period of the year. Concerts are the only thing that will move the dial on debt here. Everything else really is to keep the lights on."

PuC has no concerts this year, one Bruce Springsteen concert last year and none the year before that.

There is the possibility that Casement is much more successful at attracting concerts compared to PuC but the possibility isn't that great. I haven't heard any sort of decent argument why the Ulster Council would be much more successful at convincing promoters to hold concerts in Casememt compared to the Cork County Board convincing promoters to pay to use PuC.

Belfast is much more attractive for concerts. The greater Belfast area is roughly triple that of Cork. It is closer to the "mainland" so plenty of Brits will and do come over for to see gigs as it is. Any new Casement stadium could face the exact same issue attracting the right acts though.

Casement could host:

Antrim MFC/MHC finals
Antrim club JFC/IFC/SFC semifinals and finals
Ulster club matches and finals
AI club quarter & semi finals
MacRory and other schools competition  finals
Antrim football & hurling league fixtures
Ulster SFC matches, semi-finals & final
Joe McDonagh/Leinster hurling/AI hurling fixtures

Those alone are not enough and you'd be trying to incorporate as many double headers as possible.

I'd be exploring every single avenue at this stage, major sponsorship, naming rights, partnership with BCC, Féile, etc.

I think NFL is a non runner but there's still potential with concerts. People keep pointing to PuC and lack of concerts while forgetting Cork is much smaller than Belfast, less accessible and less attractive for major concerts.

There's always scope for soccer, rugby, Aussie/international rules down the line.

A lot of talk about maintenance costs. Can someone tell me what the maintenance costs of the old Casement were?

[I haven't that much experience in delivering major infrastructure projects]

I haven't that much experience in delivering major infrastructure projects but surely they can start work and do it in phases like Croke Park?

You should be on the committee leading the Casement Park redevelopment.

I'm overqualified.

In fairness to the PSNI, such behaviour is designed to draw them into confrontation. How they react can escalate or de-escalate a situation. That said I'm sure they'd have been a bit more pumped up if this was in Derry...