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http://www.rte.ie/sport/gaa/2017/0118/845775-u25-hurling-championship/



Good for player development or just another competition that isn't needed ?.

The final a lot of people wanted to see.

I'd loved to have seen Mayo win the AI but they're going to have to wait another year.

Dublin will be hard to beat. Bring it on.

We moan, groan, complain etc and the players give up their lives for it and for little reward.


So why do we continue to want to wear the county jersey ?.

http://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/an-irishman-s-diary-on-the-gaa-s-strong-roots-1.2335291

This has to be a 100 pager ! No less. Make it up if you have to. 

Is this the slowest most costliest building project ongoing in Ireland currently ?.

Are the archaeology people involved ?.

So big Joe has got the job this time around.

I hope he doesn't decide to go all defensive on the Australians. 

It's understood former All-Ireland winners Darragh O Se (Kerry) and Padraic Joyce (Galway) will join former Kildare footballer Dermot Earley as Kernan's selectors.

One of the best of his generation. One of the greats of Kerry football. A joy to watch.

Thanks for the memories.

http://www.ok.co.uk/celebrity-news/Ed-Sheeran-fan-katie-papworth-dies

Lovely gesture by Ed Sheeran.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-28752425

DUP aren't happy. Sammy is up in arms. What was in it for the DUP ? Everybody else seem to be opposed.

Any USA based posters care to contribute on the US experience ?.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/gaelic-games/28323178

No real surprise here.

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/news/gaa-clubs-offered-375k-donation-by-wind-firm-hoping-to-build-turbines-30434819.html

Sounds like the energy company realise that the GAA as the biggest community and sporting group in the county might get this delivered easier than other initiatives.

Barry Owens has hung them up. He was some servant to Fermanagh. Came through the pain barrier on more than a good few occasions and gave all he had to the cause.

He doesn't owe Fermanagh a thing.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/club-official-vows-to-lsquolie-in-the-middle-of-the-pitchrsquo-to-halt-limerick-final-270755.html

Hammy will be getting club man of the year.

Drone takeaways set to be one the norm.

Flying pizzas may soon be available in India, after an outlet there said it had successfully delivered by drone.

Inspired by the news that online retail giant Amazon was planning to use unmanned drones to deliver goods, staff at Francesco's Pizzeria in south Mumbai decided to try one out as a means to beat the city's notorious traffic.

"We successfully carried out a test delivery by sending a pizza to a customer located 1.5 kilometres away from our outlet on May 11," Francesco's Pizzeria Chief Executive Mikhel Rajani told the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency.

"What we have done now will be common place in the next four to five years," he said, adding that the customised four-rotor drones each cost around €1,500.

The drone carried the pizza box over shops, cricketers and the coastline of the financial capital before landing on a high-rise rooftop.

Rajani believes the test will lead the way to a cheaper and quicker service than their usual two-wheelers can provide by road.

He said there were some glitches, however, such as batteries running out after 8km and drones being banned from flying over security establishments.

Mumbai police said they would be seeking an explanation from the pizza firm as to why they were not informed about the test run.

"As per norms, permission must be taken for flying any such object," said Additional Police Commissioner Madhukar Pandey.

"We are very sensitive towards anything that flies in the sky with the help of remote control," he explained.

It is thought to be the first time a drone has found such a use in India, although the UK arm of Domino's Pizza posted a YouTube video last year showing the "Domino's DomiCopter" apparently doing a test delivery.

What a warrior. 41 years of age.

One of the greatest and certainly most sustained careers in Irish sport has come to an end. Tony Browne, the relentless Waterford wing back, has finally stepped off the inter-county carousel in his 41st year.
The Mount Sion defender made his debut for the Déise against Galway in a national league encounter way, way back in 1991.
"I would like to take this opportunity to officially announce my retirement from inter-county hurling," said Browne.
"To do so is always a tough decision for any athlete but I know I have been blessed in so many ways to have experienced what I have with the Waterford hurling teams over the past three decades."
That included some rousing, never to be forgotten hurling epics, which yielded four Munster championship titles and three All Stars, the last coming in 2007, but despite a 23 year crusade, an All-Ireland medal remained elusive.
Browne was named hurler of the year in 1998.
That he out lasted younger heroes from Waterford's golden era, like John Mullane and Ken McGrath, is an achievement in itself.
"Throughout those years I had the honour of playing with and against some of the greatest players ever seen in the game," Browne added. "I would like to thank all of the past and present players for their wonderful support and friendship throughout my career."

Jimmy Carter, former president of the USA, was on RTE radio recently. Apparently he has written over 20 books and his latest, "A call to Action" is all about women and how women have been abused all over the world.

He's 90 years of age next birthday and I was impressed by his interview but admit that I don't know an awful lot about the man.

Could any of our USA based posters or those at home fill us in on how he is viewed in USA and what his legacy might be ?

This probably comes as a shock to many but according to Davy some Clare players were abusing alcohol and drugs before he arrived to manage the team.


"We brought in a code of discipline. From the mid-2000s, in Clare, my feeling was that Clare was a social team. I know some of them were even taking harder stuff than drink. I couldn't understand this. To me I play to win, and if you are doing stuff like that, you're wasting your time."

He said he and the team rooted out the problem during a three-hour meeting after he became manager.

"I questioned them and I said do we really need alcohol and do you need to take substances that will make you feel better. We teased it out, we spent three hours out in Bunratty teasing it out. We decided we were going to stand up and draw a line under it and say 'No'. We decided we were going to come to training and enjoy ourselves and were going to communicate with each other. We want to enjoy what we do."

[What I really mean is probably unprintable in a family newspaper, and the same applies to those who have the power to change what is happening.]

Colm isn't mealy mouthed.



Colm O'Rourke: Shameful hypocrisy of fixtures has gone too far

Burnout crisis must be top of new GAA president's agenda, says Colm O'Rourke

Colm O'Rourke– 23 February 2014

When I look at the current fixtures mess in the GAA there are many words which spring to mind: puzzled, baffled, perplexed, frustrated, confused. These are all the nice words. What I really mean is probably unprintable in a family newspaper, and the same applies to those who have the power to change what is happening.


At present, there are at least four competitions where a young player can be called upon to play in – third-level cups, under 21, National League and club leagues.

In addition to that, last Sunday, when club football leagues were starting in Meath and every club was in action, the authorities fixed a Railway Cup semi-final in Navan. A couple of hundred people paid in and plenty of discussion followed on how to save the competition. It just demonstrated to me the total hypocrisy involved in the GAA. The real discussion should have been on how to save the clubs.

Clubs are being squeezed from every side and rarely have county players available to them and yet, on the one day when all players should have been playing with their clubs, a Railway Cup match is fixed which meant half a dozen Meath players were not available to their clubs and probably won't be again until they play championship in April.

It was an absolute and utter disgrace and how anybody in their right mind would fix this game in a county where every club was playing beggars belief.

Maybe somebody has decided that death for the Railway Cup should be by a thousand cuts, or maybe it was an attempt to smother it with kindness.

Now I have no issue with players turning out for their province, it is a wonderful competition, but the timing and location is a bad joke. Almost all of the club league games in Meath had a bigger attendance than the inter-pro game in Navan, but that is not the point.

Then last week we had under 21 provincial football championship matches in Leinster while the Sigerson Cup finished in Belfast yesterday. Many of the same players are involved in everything. People then wonder why young players seem to have persistent groin, back and hamstring injuries, while hip problems seem to be the latest ailment. At least some of it is a problem of overuse. Too much training and too many games – you don't have to be Sherlock Holmes to figure that one out.

If this abuse – and there is no other word for it – continues, a player will some day take an action against some unit of the GAA, where he has developed a persistent long-term injury, on the basis that leading officials knowingly continued to make fixtures which were contrary to sound medical advice.


Some years ago, I was on a committee which introduced the word burnout to the GAA. It explained a feature of young players' lives where they were under increasing pressures, both mental and physical, due to over-involvement in Gaelic games.

Some of the contributory factors include a multiplicity of teams demanding lads to play, travelling, injuries, lack of rest and worries over exams. Many sneered at the time about the idea of burnout but there are too many issues of mental anxiety becoming apparent in young people now, so things have thankfully moved on in some ways.

Not in GAA fixtures though. As a group we proposed that under 21 and minor grades would be abolished in favour of an under 19 grade. Howls of protest followed, but even with the facts pointed out there was no consideration even of moving the competition away from the busiest time of the year.

The same applies to third-level competitions. Just because something has been done for a long time does not mean it should not be changed. The third-level competitions are now such big events, taking in many of the same players as the under 21 grade, that they should be moved to times when they don't compete against each other. The Sigerson Cup should really be a pre-Christmas championship.

It really is shameful – and I use the word carefully – that people in positions of influence are either unwilling or unable to tackle some of these problems. On Thursday in the Irish Independent, a series of questions were put to the three presidential candidates. Nobody was going to get offside before the ballot on any question, but each person should have been invited at Congress or in a manifesto to spell out exactly how they intend to sort out the fixtures chaos. Most candidates are afraid to tackle the big issues because they have to take on vested interests like provincial councils but leadership demands action to protect players.

Last year in the United States, former American football players reached a settlement with the NFL for $760m as a result of problems resulting from head injuries in the game. Now the GAA is a world away from that level of risk but if fixtures are made which are likely to lead to overuse injuries then somebody is liable. Sports litigation is a big growth industry. Of course some will say that a player is not under contract and can simply stop, but ambitious GAA players behave with the same rationale as professionals.

This year the Leinster second-level schools competition started in late January for some, early February for others. At the same time counties agreed to an inter-county minor league to run during February. This despite the official guide setting February 1 as the start-up date for minor county teams to come together. So what you had was an unofficial tacit agreement between counties and the provincial council to openly break their own rules as every team had to start training in January or before it to play in early February. No investigation from Croke Park either.

What about conflicts of interest here and preparation for the Leaving Cert? Based on anecdotal evidence, it seems that some counties in Connacht have been training since well before Christmas and the only county I have ever heard of to take action was the Wexford County Board who removed their minor manager. A simple solution to this problem is to finish schools competitions earlier, and start county minor competitions later.

So it's easy to be cynical about the actions of those who are supposed to be running the GAA. And I don't have to make any of this up. I am presently manager of teams in my school and club and see the problems caused by official incompetence and unwillingness to tackle big issues, and some not-so-big issues, every single day.

Yet at the same time, as a club manager I am happy that the number of club games which the Meath County Board provides is entirely satisfactory, a guarantee of more or less 20 games. As in every county, the lack of access to county players because of the way county and other fixtures are shoehorned into this time of year means that a club without county men is often better off. Then I listen to the same old guff from Congress about protecting the club and it usually comes from people who don't know what they are talking about. It just sounds good.

Debate on moving the All-Ireland club finals into the calendar year and some other things like the redistribution of finances are insignificant compared to the games themselves. Aogán O Fearghail, if he is serious about reform, will immediately tackle the officially sanctioned mess of fixtures in spring. There needs to be a radical overhaul as it is causing a raft of problems including stress-related issues among young players, while undermining clubs at the same time.

It will take a few men at the top with vision and, most of all, courage to do the right thing. Hopefully by this time next year, instead of being annoyed and all the other words used in the beginning, I will be surprised and delighted. As Shakespeare wrote, some men are born great, some achieve greatness while others have greatness thrust upon them. Hopefully our new president-elect is all three.

[He was released on bail]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-25681626

This man took the law into his own hands after the cops just couldn't get off their asses. I'm sure you have plenty of stories of the cops being called to burglaries etc etc and being clean and fair useless.

Angry farmers in County Armagh are calling for more police resources after a farmer turned detective to recover two stolen tractors.

Three tractors were taken from farms in the Loughgall area over a four-day period earlier this week.

One was crashed and abandoned, but the farmer recovered the other two.

Frustrated by an apparent lack of success for the police, he examined CCTV, called at houses, asked questions and pieced together clues.

Within days he was at a disused farm near the village of Belleeks in South Armagh. It was there that he recovered his tractor and that of a neighbour.

While we are pleased that two tractors have been recovered and that arrests have been made, we do not want anyone to put themselves at risk of harm"

Police statement

After a brief struggle at the scene, he also delivered a suspect to the police station. The 24-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of theft, possession of a weapon and assault.

He was released on bail along with a second man who was arrested later

Northern lights can be seen in very southerly regions over the course of the next few nights if you're lucky.


Let us know if you see them and where.