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I'm sure this Roma wouldve been advised he was fucked (had no prospect of being acquitted) and should plead (as he would have got a lesser tariff).

In a murder, there is no lesser tariff for pleading guilty. So basically, you might as well take a shot to nothing with the state's money backing you.
That's why Puska decided to play silly buggers and invent the story about him fighting the real killer.
If he had managed to get just one gullible juror to swallow it, then the murder charge doesn't stick.

At least prison will be no picnic for an ex-FBI guy.

Begs the question, why?

I had heard 2nd hand that she was a Teacher to one of his kids and she reported marks on that kid.

(Not comfortable putting that up here, so if Mods think not appropriate then remove)

Yes, I heard that as well - from a couple of very good sources (ie. teachers, and ones related to the poor girl). Seemingly they didn't want it getting out for fear other teachers would be too afraid to report suspected abuse cases in future.

I don't see any substance to the rumour. She taught in a school that was outside of Tullamore where his children didn't attend.
It was accepted by all parties in the trial that they didn't know each other.
He was following and stalking random women on the day and Aisling just happened to be the unfortunate one.

She killed him because he was going to go back to Limerick with the kids . She didn't get the kids. She is the loser. Her reputation is destroyed.

While the jail punishment is very meagre, you would hope she is tortured by the consequences of her actions and how the kids she tried so hard to prise from their dad, now hate her.

Reading the accounts of the lies she spun the people all through her life, fake sisters, fake children, clearly she needed some sort of intervention. I wonder how much her WASP dad was misled by her lies?

You'd have to wonder what else he'd done before that?
He hardly became a bad **** that day....

One report I read lately thinks he could have killed another 4 or 5 girls, it's rare such murders was a once off.

I would be sceptical. If he can't drive, then his ability to murder becomes much more limited.
Also, look at how poorly he plotted and covered his tracks. Stalking women in plain daylight, getting picked up by CCTV all over the town, Leaving his very distinctive bike at the scene.
All very bungled and amateur.

Dalot still hanging around after all these years is evidence of how poorly run the organisation is.
For a long time he has looked short of the standard, but has survived all these years of hectic signings and botched offloading.
The errors he made losing his man were basic.

A sad outcome for the Corbett family. Molly was clearly a fruitcake and very dangerous as it turned out, but unfortunately Jason couldn't give his version of events of what happened that night.

The dad is equally as conniving as her. No doubt he used his old FBI experience to locate professionals who could best conjure up bizarre theories to tarnish Jason.

Thankfully Puska didn't sway any of jury with his yarn.
Therein lies the weakness of the legal system. There is no incentive to plead guilty for murder, you might as well try and play silly buggers in court with a state sponsored legal team backing you. Same sentence regardless.

Seems like Ireland won handy enough in the end. I wonder is it ever worth the Irish players reverting to the older style of longer hurls with a thinner bas like hurlers had before the '00s?

There was probably a build up to this. For years he has been taking swings, especially at prominent Irish figures and building a reputation of being a loose cannon.
The Indo mentioned how last year his Summit lost a lot of speakers over his suspected pro-Russian sympathies.
He is big pals and a promoter of Chay Bowes who is in the Putin camp, so it's easy to conclude that.

Sponsors and backers getting uncomfortable would have stayed on board while the Summit was still the biggest show in town. When that wasn't guaranteed, they've dropped him like a hot potato.

Big corporations are sheep and follow the herd. Once a couple drop out on some sort of moral stance, they all follow.

It's a very strange downfall though. He would have been the ultimate Fine Gael stereotype. Big farming family, boarded in Glenstal Abbey €20k per year, at the Dublin summits he was cheek and jowl with the Fine Gael government of the day.
It turned very nasty when they didn't relent to his demands for keeping the thing in Dublin and he developed a serious vendetta against them. 

He would have spent a fortune on promoting social media posts against Leo etc. He has pumped €1 million into the Ditch to go dig dirt on the government parties.
He might not be able to afford this for much longer at the current trend.

England have a knack of overachieving in World Cups. In 2007 they nearly won the final, only months after Ireland beat them 43–13 in Croke Park.

SA should have enough for them. England's best weapon is bosh and the South Africans are not going to be beaten at their own game.

Bobby seemed to have almost the opposite personality to Big Jack. Very polite, mild and quite reserved. I wonder how much did the Munich disaster affect him?

Barnes has relaxed in recent years and has improved as a ref.
In his early days he was quite officious. He loved giving unexpected penalties for obscure reasons to show he was the smartest man in the stadium when it came to the laws.

Ireland often suffered against him more than others, but not so much nowadays.
Also, he still gets a ton of abuse from NZ people over missing a forward pass that caused them to get knocked out by France in the 2007 WC.

[England]

If Ireland lose, the usual tropes will be about them being perennial bottlers, chokers, posh boys, overhyped, blah blah.

While Ireland have never made it to the last 4, for most of the WC history Ireland haven't been one of the world's top 4 sides anyway. The big 3 SH teams, England & France would always have been better.

2007 was the first time they could have had some expectations of going deep in the tournament, but they peaked 6 months too early.

2011 vs. Wales was a chance missed when Gatland brilliantly nullified Ireland's vaunted backrow threat.
Added to that, Declan Kidney lost his nerve and brought ROG back ahead of Sexton with predictable results.

2015 being nearer full strength they would have taken Argentina, but Schmidt-ball, pick and crash rugby was too attritional.
2019 was something similar. They way the Japanese ran Ireland ragged and Ireland were unable to cope with higher tempo rugby.

In recent times, when Ireland have had the better quality, they've been outfoxed by nations who do tournament rugby better.
NZ had similar travails for years. Invariably the best rugby team around, but kept getting dunked in WCs.

I wouldn't agree that England have been expected to do much better than Ireland in world cups the last 10 years? They have turned up and produced time and time again where Ireland have faltered. Getting smacked in 2019 only for England to go and beat NZ comfortably enough was particularly jarring

Only in recent years though. From 1987 up to 2007 England went into the tournament more fancied than Ireland.
It's only from 2007 and onwards that Ireland could be thought to be not making their mark at the WC.

If Ireland lose, the usual tropes will be about them being perennial bottlers, chokers, posh boys, overhyped, blah blah.

While Ireland have never made it to the last 4, for most of the WC history Ireland haven't been one of the world's top 4 sides anyway. The big 3 SH teams, England & France would always have been better.

2007 was the first time they could have had some expectations of going deep in the tournament, but they peaked 6 months too early.

2011 vs. Wales was a chance missed when Gatland brilliantly nullified Ireland's vaunted backrow threat.
Added to that, Declan Kidney lost his nerve and brought ROG back ahead of Sexton with predictable results.

2015 being nearer full strength they would have taken Argentina, but Schmidt-ball, pick and crash rugby was too attritional.
2019 was something similar. They way the Japanese ran Ireland ragged and Ireland were unable to cope with higher tempo rugby.

In recent times, when Ireland have had the better quality, they've been outfoxed by nations who do tournament rugby better.
NZ had similar travails for years. Invariably the best rugby team around, but kept getting dunked in WCs.