Topics

What aspects of the State in the North are annoying to nationalists?
What aspects of the South are attractive ?
What aspects of the south are not attractive ?

https://www.rte.ie/sport/football/2024/0513/1448909-cavanagh-clarifies-gaa-comments-after-burns-riposte/

I haven't pulled out the recent accounts but I remember seeing a couple of years ago 40, 50, 60million of cash reserves and a balance sheet of €100million. I'm an accountant, I know this stuff.

"For an amateur organisation owned by the members, owned by the people that are lining pitches, by people in every club up and down the country, for me that looks like a very healthy position.

"I previously worked with a lot of soccer organisations, a lot of them go bust all the time and haven't got 2p to rub together. For me, the GAA is in a very healthy financial position, they're acquiring lots of strategic assets all over the country.

What are these things ?

Far right parties are expected to gain significantly in this year's Euro elections. The Far right uses emotion to wind up voters and never fixes anything. European Far right politicians such as Le Pen, Wilders and Orban specialise in conspiracy theories and gaslighting  and target ignorant voters . They are all anti immigrant, anti climate action and pro Russia.  They are much better at politics than right wing politicians.   The North has had the far right for a very long time in the form of the DUP.

https://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/gaa/arid-41315656.html

Seven of the 16 slots in the Sam Maguire Cup come by way of league standings. The best four are seeded third and the remaining three fourth but their identities really don't emerge until the confirmation of the eight provincial winners and runners-up, who are first and second seeds

Meath are Tailteann winners and Clare, Tipperary or Waterford are going to reach a Munster final

So there are 14 spots available at best outside the other provincials.

https://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2024/0323/1439607-green-light-for-soccer-rugby-at-major-gaa-venues/

The GAA has granted permission for "rugby and soccer activity" to take place in Croke Park and Supervalu Páirc Uí Chaoimh in the coming months.
Meetings of the GAA's Management Committee and Central Council took place on Friday night and Saturday.

At the GAA's annual Congress in 2019, the green light had been given by 91% of delegates to allow games other than Gaelic football and hurling to be played at county grounds, once approved by Central
Council.

Last October, Cavan's Kingspan Breffni hosted an Ulster Rugby pre-season game against Glasgow Warriors - the first Ulster Rugby game hosted at a GAA ground.

This latest news signals further activity from both codes in two of the association's marquee venues in the near future.

The venue for the Republic of Ireland women's team's Euro 2025 qualifier against France on Tuesday 16 July has yet to be confirmed.

The Aviva Stadium - which will host their other two qualifiers against England and Sweden - is unavailable, while Shamrock Rovers could potentially be in Tallaght Stadium for a Champions League first-round qualifier the same night as the French come to town.

The FAI have yet to confirm where that game will take place but the prospect of the Girls in Green heading to Cork is not unfathomable.

Recently, Croke Park has been slated as a possible fan zone venue for the UEFA Europa League final in May if needed, and last winter it was used as a fan's event base for a Pittsburgh Steelers NFL game.

Páirc Uí Chaoimh hosted its first rugby match on 10 November 2022. That fixture broke the record for the biggest crowd to attend a rugby match in the province with 41,400 in attendance as Munster beat South Africa 'A' 28 to 14.

In February of this year, URC champions Munster hosted Super Rugby winners the Crusaders at SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh. That clash sold out the GAA venue in the staging of its first game since the
rebranding of the stadium.

In 2018, a testimonial match for the late Republic of Ireland soccer international, Liam Miller, was held at the Leeside venue.

Back in 2005, approval was first given for the gates of Croke Park to be temporarily opened for rugby and soccer internationals while Lansdowne Road was being redeveloped.

Even though the move was not permanent it necessitated a lengthy campaign by officials to gain approval from within the GAA.

Down through the years, however, Croke Park had provided a home to non-GAA events.

The Tailteann Games were held there in the 1920s, while in 1946, an exhibition of American football games was held at Jones' Road.

In 1972, Muhammad Ali beat Al 'Blue' Lewis at a boxing bout there, with Croke Park hosting a college American football game in 1996.

The first all Ireland was in 1887. There was no championship the following year.
In the 20 championships from 1887 to 1907,

Dublin won 10
Kerry won 2
The rest won 8

https://twitter.com/RTEgaa/status/1759618085349134424

Does anyone understand them ?

[flow]

https://www.rte.ie/sport/football/2024/0130/1429369-no-immediate-prospect-of-gaa-introducing-tmo/


"Further feedback is to be requested from referees as the prospect of the GAA introducing a Television Match Official (TMO) looks to be a distant one for now.

A workgroup set up by GAA president Larry McCarthy at Congress 2023 presented a preliminary findings on the use of a TMO in Gaelic games to Central Council at the weekend, but further feedback will be sought before a final report is published.

Following the 'silent' trial use of video technology in last year's championship, RTÉ Sport understands that there is no immediate prospect of the GAA exploring the TMO option further anytime soon.

Conclusions found that the flow of a GAA game could be severely interrupted – with the TMO possibly having to judge incidents on the number of steps players took without releasing the ball within seconds of each other.

This increased the prospect of having to judge on issues repeatedly during games and there were concerns on how disruptive replaying such incidents might prove with the flow of games likely to be affected."

GAA is pure Irish emotion. A TMO would only get in the way.

https://www.rte.ie/news/2023/1229/1423082-redrawing-of-border-considered-as-possible-solution/


unilateral British withdrawl from Northern Ireland

Secret government documents from 1975 considered what might happen in the event of a British withdrawal from Northern Ireland.

The cabinet ordered civil servants to draw up a series of discussion papers looking at possible scenarios in July 1974, shortly after the collapse of the Sunningdale power-sharing agreement, at a time when paramilitary violence was intensifying and when there were serious doubts about the British government's commitment to stay in the North.

One option studied was possible military intervention to prevent the emergence of an independent Northern Ireland. This would involve an attempt "to subdue loyalist resistance and to dominate the entire Protestant population of Northern Ireland". The group concluded that "this is beyond our military and administrative capabilities".

Another scenario discussed was redrawing the border, with up to two-thirds of Northern Ireland and almost half a million people being transferred to the Republic.

The report, "Negotiated Repartition of Northern Ireland", found that this could cost up to £873m, the equivalent of around €8.5bn today, with no guarantee that Britain would bear any of that cost.

A British soldier with a boy in the New Lodge area of Belfast

Officials thought it unlikely that if the border were redrawn the British government would keep the remaining part of Northern Ireland within the UK, because such an area, which would include Belfast, would contain "the seeds of further violence unless there was a very large population movement which would be unlikely to take place voluntarily if the area were to remain under Westminster jurisdiction".

With military action ruled out, the only possible solution, the group felt, would be to agree a redrawing of the border, to transfer majority nationalist areas to the Republic.

Officials looked at a range of options for the transfer of territory. Under their minimum scenario, Fermanagh, parts of Tyrone, Derry City, Newry, and other parts of south Armagh and south Down would transfer to the Republic, or around 40% of the land area of Northern Ireland, with a population of 323,000 (205,000 Catholics and 118,000 non-Catholics).

The maximum area for transfer would include other parts of Derry, Tryone and Armagh. The entire area would be around two-thirds of Northern Ireland, with a total of 486,000 people (285,000 Catholics and 201,000 non-Catholics).

The cost, including repairing the damage caused in previous violence, and the provision of housing for people who left the remaining area of Northern Ireland, could range from £353m to £873m, though there was a possibility Britain might help pay for it.

Most of the areas transferred would be poorer than the remaining portion of Northern Ireland, which would therefore be more economically viable than an independent state containing the entire six-county area.

Officials were unable to say what the integration of the transferred areas would mean for the Republic's economy, but noted that if repartition was agreed by all sides, without any prior escalation of violence, it would benefit the entire island because it should see the end of existing tensions.

However, if the border had to be redrawn following serious violence and involved substantial population movement, "it could impose a tremendous economic burden".

By David McCullagh

Casement is still pie in the sky.
Interest rates went up but house prices haven't fallen yet
No sign of the A5
Sterling is an emerging market currency.

What else? 

https://www.rte.ie/sport/hurling/2023/1110/1415789-a-farce-fermanagh-captain-slams-ahl-exclusion-plan/

A Fermanagh hurler has labelled proposals to potentially exclude a number of counties from the Allianz League from 2025 onwards as "a farce".

A recommendation from the GAA's Central Competitions Control Committee, if approved, would see any county with fewer than five adult hurling teams competing solely in the fifth-tier Lory Meagher Cup – meaning the Erne County, Cavan, Leitrim, Longford and Louth would be impacted.

With no league action, their county seasons would be reduced from six months to three with the saved spending, along with additional funding, instead aimed at improving hurling development in those counties.

Fermanagh captain Ryan Bogue, one of the longest serving inter-county hurlers having made his debut off the bench against Cavan in 2006, said he was gobsmacked when he was presented with the document explaining the possible changes.

"The whole thing seems to be made up and pulled out of the sky with no consideration put into it at all," he told RTÉ Sport.

"I wouldn't say I would be overly surprised. Over the last six, seven years, the treatment of hurling in counties like our own has definitely improved but previous to that you were always obviously second best in terms of privileges.

"I thought we had got past that but this is just back to that. Our county board is great, anything we want, we get, but this is coming from the top.

https://www.boylesports.com/sports/gaa/outrights

Kerry   2/1
Dublin  11/4
Galway 6/1
Derry  15/2
Mayo   15/2
Tyrone  16/1
Armagh  20/1
Donegal 25/1
Cork    33/1
KE/MN/RN 66/1

[[font="Times New Roman", serif]https://www.rte.ie/radio/2fm/jenny-greenes-electric-disco-programmes/2023/1021/1412214-the-electric-disco-with-jenny-greene-saturday-21-october-2023/[/font]]

2 songs from the electric disco on 21 Oct

She gives the names at 56:50 

[font="Times New Roman", serif]https://www.rte.ie/radio/2fm/jenny-greenes-electric-disco-programmes/2023/1021/1412214-the-electric-disco-with-jenny-greene-saturday-21-october-2023/[/font]

First one is called Aria by something like Artie and Anaya but cannot find it anywhere 
Starts at 47:30

[font="Times New Roman", serif]The other one is straight after on the same link. Starts at 52.10 . the name is at the end. Something like  by  Lazarus/Lozeros  and Bob Sinclair [/font]



[font="Times New Roman", serif]Could anywan decipher the details or else indicate where the music can be found ? There may be a playlist but I couldn't find one  anywhere. [/font]

https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/columnists/gail-walker/compelling-lost-boys-film-about-belfasts-missing-children-shows-why-we-always-need-truth-and-justice/a983066991.html

OTB interviewed several people at Esker Hills GC following the Ryder Cup  win.
Shane Lowry is steeped in GAA between the Lowrys and the Scanlons.

Hopper McGrath had 3 daughters on Galway all Ireland winning teams in 2013, 19 and 21

What other examples are there ?

I think it's hard enough  to find really good modern music. A lot of the styles are hard to warm to.

However I came across 3 separate Irish women that are making names for themselves in the music world and producing fantastic stuff  , some of it based on house music

There may be more. the 3 are :

Jazzy from Crumlin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tb5MYhF2nwE  14 m views on Youtube

Roisin Murphy from Arklow . The beat is amazing  235K views after a month
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQt8C4dM6ws


This is more pop style but it's very catchy

CMATCiara Mary-Alice Thompson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Msm7B15G0hY  released last week

Fair play to them

The NI legacy Bill has passed the final legislative  stage in Westminster thanks to the Tory majority. The Bill proposes an effective offer of immunity from prosecution for perpetrators of crimes during the Troubles who co-operate with a truth-recovery body. It would also halt future civil cases and inquests linked to killings during the conflict.

It is even opposed by the DUP.

The Government has imposed speed limit reductions on several types of road since the Tipperary tragedies.
100kph on national secondary goes to 80kph and 50kph goes to 30 kph in urban areas


https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2023/0906/1403640-speed-limits/

Someone interviewed on RTE said that this alone will not fix the problem. Most of the risk lies on these roads and there are many dangerous features such as unmarked junctions, very sharp corners and agricultural machinery use. This all has to be addressed.

The 2 Tipperary crashes happened on secondary roads.