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Indeed Lar.
Paddy wants Scandinavian public services and Cayman Island taxes and since 1977 has voted for Politicians who say we can have both.

In a nutshell.  Post of the month.

Loosecannon. It's true. Come the start of the dogfight of Div3 next week this will be just a footnote. Offaly came out all guns blazing but then it seemed to fall apart. The two sin bins didn't help.

Look forward to the repeat in 2 weeks time. Get over the visitors from Louth first. Good luck in the League and let's hope both of us are in the shake-up.

Ah well, another season comes to an end.  Very happy to say that 2020 has been a magnificent success for the Larries - will go down in county folklore.  #bihatimber

The C team are on the way to the home of the Slashers this weekend.

Eh no.  The match will be in Pearse Park, not Farneyhoogan. 

I'll be looking for these quotes in April, Rufus. 

Fifa statutes,  Art 15 - A member associations should be independent and avoid any form of political interference;

Another statute
19 . Each member association shall manage its affairs independently and without undue influence from third parties.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Age-Football-Global-Twenty-first-Century-ebook/dp/B07P55K5BZ/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=goldblatt&qid=1576843975&s=digital-text&sr=1-1

If you read Goldblatt's recent tome, you will see very, very clearly that FIFA rarely require implementation of these statutes anywhere in the world.  The flouting of football for political gain is widespread, and probably much, much worse than we've been seeing with the FAI.  We're probably only catching up in terms of corruption - which is probably another highlight of the FAI's ineptitude. 

Do FIFA not have a rule about Governmental interference/influence on the country's FA?

They certainly do, but I think it's more to 'hide' their own financial misdemeanors than to 'protect' any particular country's administration.  FIFA will go with the flow, as long as they are not going to suffer financially.  The potential prospect of Ireland hosting the 2030 WC with GB is more likely to sway how this pans out, I'd have thought. 

I'll probably regret posting here, as the team have been going great recently with little talk on this thread, and my post will likely put the scud on them.

Great winning run came to an abrupt end at home to Cardiff when we spurned a three goal lead, shipping 3 goals in thirty minutes when we had only conceded four at home, all season.


Christmas and New Year is going to be huge, starting with Fulham away this weekend. There are home games against Preston and Wednesday and an away trip to West Brom on New Year's Day. I'm probably being very optimistic, but if we could retain the gap of ten points between us and third by the time we go to Arsenal in the Cup, then we will have done brilliantly!

I regret it for you already, Rufus.  Happy Christmas.

Any truth to the rumours Celtic"s Mike's Johnston's Irish lineage is being investigated?i
Very talented player. Would be some addition to the squad.

Has been investigated for a long time. He has played youth for Scotland so cant see him switching. Although stranger things have happened...

If he's interested, all this messing about in the FAI will make up his mind and..... he'll play for Scotland.

The word is that the Scottish FA are next for shaving!

Apparently the games in Dublin are being played at the "Dublin Arena"

https://www.uefa.com/uefaeuro-2020/event-guide/dublin/

Sponsorship issues with the Aviva obviously

Yeah, it was the same when the Europa League final was held there a few years ago.

Finally got to watch season 4 of Gomorra, still probably the best show in recent years and what a finale. As an aside I see Ciro has his own film coming out next month.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9048786/

I'm a couple of seasons behind, but it's certainly great stuff. 

There's probably not much debate about who the best left back in the league is, but my jazes, Robbo was shockingly bad for Zaha's injury time chance on Saturday. Slices a clearance, which can happen, but then starts charging around full belt like a headless chicken, to leave Zaha free. A bizarre loss of composure that was nearly very costly. Hopefully he got a good kick up the wotzy from Klopp when they run through that video analysis!

He's a decent player alright, but I'd put Chilwell ahead of him this season. 

Slightly disappointed in the ending to Dublin Murders.  I have to assume with that ending that there will be another series?

This is a six-part book series written by Tana French - the first tv series was an adaptation of the first two books.  The next book features, mainly, Mackey (played by Nidge), while the rest of the books feature detectives that didn't feature at all in books 1 & 2.  Mackey's daughter features heavily in book 5, when she's a teenager.  The book series is highly recommended - I have enjoyed the adaptation also, but would have to say that it (nor the books) wouldn't be recommended for those who like things to finish neatly.

I'd have the complete opposite opinion Billy, I thought the book (audio) was shíte but possibly that was because of the reader.
I only got half way through, pure agony. It's a story involving random individuals none of whom are recognisable to me as being remotely Dublinish. It's as if the author has written a book set in Dublin, but has never set foot in Dublin.
The tv drama is a mess from start to finish.

Can't be having audio-books at all - I don't think they work, for me anyway.  I think the books are very slow burners alright, but I wouldn't agree about the characters - she does set out however, to make them as unlikable as the 'baddies', for some reason.  Apart from Mackey. none of them are Dubs; they're all culchie cops, which is as it is in Dublin (or was until recently, anyway).  I think Dublin is always portrayed as the person's 'own' Dublin, and quite unrecognisable from our own personal Dublins, but I catch your drift.  TV drama is TV drama - apart from some notable exceptions, it never really captures the written word.

In Dublin Murders the screenplay was poor as was  the direction , the characters empty of character, the acting was directed to be base level emotional - absent of nuance, the plot convoluted and not very captivating, one is left with a thread of a whodoneit and unresolved at that.

Compare that effort to say another Dublin based drama, Quirke,  which excels in all departments, photography, screeenplay, direction, atmosphere, each scene was magically created almost as good as Atonement, the casting was perfect the acting top notch,  topped off with a Gabriel Byrne performance at his best.  It didn't matter in the end who done what or why in Quirke.

Quirke is set in the 1950s, so it is essentially a period drama, depicting a time and place of which we really have no experience.  Dublin Murders is a modern drama, depicting the time and place in which we live.  Apples and Oranges - Quirke, great as it is, doesn't have to be great to win our admiration, in fairness. 

Slightly disappointed in the ending to Dublin Murders.  I have to assume with that ending that there will be another series?

This is a six-part book series written by Tana French - the first tv series was an adaptation of the first two books.  The next book features, mainly, Mackey (played by Nidge), while the rest of the books feature detectives that didn't feature at all in books 1 & 2.  Mackey's daughter features heavily in book 5, when she's a teenager.  The book series is highly recommended - I have enjoyed the adaptation also, but would have to say that it (nor the books) wouldn't be recommended for those who like things to finish neatly.

I'd have the complete opposite opinion Billy, I thought the book (audio) was shíte but possibly that was because of the reader.
I only got half way through, pure agony. It's a story involving random individuals none of whom are recognisable to me as being remotely Dublinish. It's as if the author has written a book set in Dublin, but has never set foot in Dublin.
The tv drama is a mess from start to finish.

Can't be having audio-books at all - I don't think they work, for me anyway.  I think the books are very slow burners alright, but I wouldn't agree about the characters - she does set out however, to make them as unlikable as the 'baddies', for some reason.  Apart from Mackey. none of them are Dubs; they're all culchie cops, which is as it is in Dublin (or was until recently, anyway).  I think Dublin is always portrayed as the person's 'own' Dublin, and quite unrecognisable from our own personal Dublins, but I catch your drift.  TV drama is TV drama - apart from some notable exceptions, it never really captures the written word. 

On the extremely tight calls, what is the published margin of error? I'm a bit suspicious when you are literally talking about 3 or 4 centimetres. I hold the same suspicion for hawkeye in the GAA. I just watched Brian Hogan's catch over the crossbar in the All Ireland final again, and it is no way over the crossbar. I suspect the margin of error is at least a couple of centimetres, and if you are in that +/- you have to give the benefit of the doubt to the attacker.

Jonathan Wilson (Guardian and etc.) has been banging on about this for a while, with justification.  If the frame rate is 50/s, then they are working in 'steps' of 0.02 s.  If an attacker is running at a speed of 20 km/hr (which is NOT full-on sprinting pace), then they are travelling 11cm in 0.02 s - that is not the limit of detection they are allowing themselves in VAR, which is a massive scientific no-no. 

Reward - Teardrop Explodes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyStfUvTwDo&fbclid=IwAR3DljHWFG7Lq0NCLLTBujiA7DH-x2TXRhCKR8xuS1lZpyEPJ-T2lHRg69g

Marvellous. Still have the version of Kilimanjaro with Reward on it, on vinyl. Great album.

Was listening to it myself the other day.  Great stuff.