Messages

McDonagh Cup should be the McDonagh Cup and that's it. Finish it later, don't condense it and don't be putting them in to play in the McCarthy Cup. Don't be taking the good out of the Competition.

Hard to please everyone isnt it. Not long since I heard that all teams in the country should be entitled to a chance to win Liam Mac in a given year. Id wager that no sooner would this option be removed there would be cries to bring it back the following year.

What do we want hurling to be? Realistically this year there are only 6 serious teams

sorry Dublin, Waterford, Wexford, Antrim and Westmeath
https://twitter.com/TheSundayGame/status/1670197080495882240

You didnt include Cork in the 6 or those you apologized to

beaten by a point by Limerick and if the result had been reversed they would have been one of the 3 coming out of Munster

Dublin drew with Galway

Waterford should have beaten Limerick in round 1 and gave Tipp a lesson

Wexford bet Kilkenny

Westmeath bet Wexford

Antrim drew with Dublin

the challenge for the bottom 4 of the 11 in the Championship is to putting in consistently strong performance's across the Championship

[Brexit voters didn't know what they were voting for ,that's on them,there were no shortage of information explaining to them what was in the offing if they voted to leave.]

Would nationalists accept a 50%+1 against?

Yes, of course. With the demographics the 1 would have already died when the count took place, so just have another referedum after 7 years with plenty of clarification in the meantime.

50+1 would be too unstable . Brexit was won 52:48 when most voters had no idea what Brexit meant and it has been a clusterfuck that sucks political energy and goes nowhere.

50% + 1 in a democratic decision is a majority

What are you suggesting is done instead?

You'd hope that lessons would have been leaned from Brexit and that a UI referendum would be 5 years in the planning

As for this notion that Brexit voters didn't know what they were voting for ,that's on them,there were no shortage of information explaining to them what was in the offing if they voted to leave.

One of the things  that  was talked about pre-Brexit was the  possibility of Irish Sea border checks , and big Jeffrey  actually said  sure that wouldn't be a problem if they  had  those.  So ,  a lot of people look to their politicians for  guidance (madness, I know) on such  things before  voting

Do you honestly  think  all cards will be laid out  on the table pre-border poll?  Will all promises  and arrangements  be honoured  after the referendum? Of  course they won't.

If you take guidance from the likes of Jeffrey Paisley Bojo and Rees Mogg then the jokes on you

Even at the most basic level making it more difficult to trade with your nearest and biggest partners was never going to be biggest and brightest of ideas

With respect to a UI,there would have to be an agreement similar to the GFA which would have to agreed and signed by the British and Irish governments plus in all probability the US and the EU

Similar to the GFA if it is in the agreement,it would have to adhered to

Would nationalists accept a 50%+1 against?

Yes, of course. With the demographics the 1 would have already died when the count took place, so just have another referedum after 7 years with plenty of clarification in the meantime.

50+1 would be too unstable . Brexit was won 52:48 when most voters had no idea what Brexit meant and it has been a clusterfuck that sucks political energy and goes nowhere.

50% + 1 in a democratic decision is a majority

What are you suggesting is done instead?

You'd hope that lessons would have been leaned from Brexit and that a UI referendum would be 5 years in the planning

As for this notion that Brexit voters didn't know what they were voting for ,that's on them,there were no shortage of information explaining to them what was in the offing if they voted to leave.

Hurling can be reintroduced to places . Belfast is an underused asset for Antrim and Down where the hurling footprint is the problem.
Laois is different https://youtu.be/D8sTmXpgBS0&t=5220s

I don't want to speak ill of the dead

But Teddy was a disaster as Laois manager,I could give 4/5 shocking examples but I won't

Some of what he spoke about as regards player  buy isn't an issue with the likes of Willie Maher

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/2023/06/14/sean-moran-the-munster-hurling-championship-has-been-great-but-can-it-continue/

Would it be fairer for Munster teams if the round-robin groups mixed according to seeding? Of course, but then we would end up with two identical league competitions, one after the other.


There is another compelling reason why it won't happen. Munster have had a fantastic year at the box office. In his welcoming address for Sunday's programme, provincial chair Ger Ryan pinpointed the reason why Munster hurling is unlikely to be tampered with.

"We have had great crowds at our games this year and by throw-in time today, total attendances of this year's senior hurling championship will exceed 300,000," Ryan said.

That adds up to a staggering average attendance of 27,288 per match. When you consider the misgivings – justified in the football championship – about the round-robin format and its traditional impact on attendances, that's an astonishing figure, especially as it includes Waterford's doomed fixture list.

It means the average crowd in Munster was nearly 3,000 greater than the Leinster final, which was itself the best attended match in the province by a distance.

An average of over 27, 000 is some going.

It probably would have broken 30,000 if Waterford had gotten the win in round 1

[Ben Lowry: Unionists and London have consistently failed to challenge Ireland's repeated criticisms of the UK on legacy]

Newsletter editorial rant. Reader discretion advised:

Ben Lowry: Unionists and London have consistently failed to challenge Ireland's repeated criticisms of the UK on legacy

To see how weak unionists and the government have been on legacy, consider Leo Varadkar on Friday (this article was first published in the print newspaper on Saturday June 10).

The Irish prime minister had the nerve to say amendments to a Westminster bill aimed at tackling Northern Ireland's past "don't go far enough". He was referring to government attempts to placate nationalist criticisms of the legacy bill, which offers an amnesty for people accused of Troubles crimes if they assist truth recovery. The ever scolding Mr Varadkar said he had raised the issue several times with the prime minister, then said legacy "is one of the few things that all five major parties in Northern Ireland are united on".

Unionists are wholly to blame for the way in which a Taoiseach can imply that they and the IRA are at one on legacy. They have joined with nationalist opposition to the bill, instead of making clear their contempt for how even moderate nationalists now rarely challenge a republican narrative on the past.

Meanwhile, London has moved to shut down legacy rather than take the fight to their tormentors, including an Irish state that refused to extradite IRA murderers over three decades. While Dublin drones on about the amnesty, the UK is too feeble even to cite Ireland's own de facto amnesty for IRA (sic). For years I have said the only response to such Irish hypocrisy is unilateral UK probes into Irish terrorism.

Typo aside, what's Ben waffling about here? Wasn't Mountjoy full of IRA prisoners?

The South had no issues with executing IRA prisoners right up to the 1940's and had non jury trials in place long before Diplock in the north

He also might bone up on the Emergency Powers Act which is still on the books down here and see what could be used against the IRA

And speaking of probes into terrorism,one should definitely be opened into the Dublin and Monaghan bombings and specifically UK state involvement in them.

Larry McCarthy has intimated that the Munster and Leinster SHC finals will be played on separate days from next year onwards.

Both finals were played back-to-back last Sunday, with McCarthy conceding that the arrangement wasn't ideal.

"I think we will look at it," the GAA president said after the Tailteann Cup quarter-final draw on RTÉ Radio's Morning Ireland.

"Having the two of them on the one day is not optimal for us. it could be changed for next season. We'll get the CCCC to look at it."

That's already been agreed starting next year

One on the Saturday evening the other on the Sunday

Billy needs to let off steam. Always did. It's no big deal for me. He's the kinda fella that would fight with his own shadow.

Supporters that aren't turning up
Media
The clubs
County board delegates
Hurling club delegates
Underage club hurling coaches
And the Laois section on GAA board

All got it

As rants go it was impressive and it  gave the 2 lads a good 10 mins on their podcast

Nice to know Stephen and Alan from Laois Today are on here contributing

This weeks podcast well worth a listen to

They went in depth on Sheehans rant which they had audio of

I'm assuming he meant since waiting times are longer for everything in the Republic it also means you have to wait longer to die, hence the longer life expectancy.

Mudderajaysis

Where do you even start with that for a comment

Longer waiting times = longer to die =longer life expectancy


Waiting times HSE v NHS

Between 2017 and 2021, for day and in-patient services, the proportion on the waiting list for more than one year has increased from 12% to 20% in Ireland and from 20% to 60% in Northern Ireland.

And

Healthy Life Expectancy

healthy life expectancy is closer to 62 years, rather than 61, while in the Republic of Ireland healthy life expectancy is indeed around 69.4 years.

Unionists

"The NHS is so much better than the Health Service in the South"

Paul Givan DUP

"The UK government should be embarrassed that the Republic of Ireland is investing in Northern Ireland nursing training capacity, because that should be a United Kingdom priority."

That was when they had Sean Finn, Cian Lynch and Peter Casey all fit...

Is that factored into advanced stats?

Their dominance, like anyone's, will end at some point but they're a bloody good team and young so they will be there or thereabouts for a good while.

However how that was not given as a free to Clare just at the end of that game I will never know

Clare shouldn't have needed that free to draw level

They should have been 4/5/6 points ahead and it over

44 shots at goal 23 on target

Just over a 50% conversion rate

8 balls dropped short into Nickie Quaids hands

A rookie full back getting destroyed,on a yellow after 20 mins which hampered the full back even further

Morey and Paul Flanagan sitting on the bench

They also haven't developed a top end free taker unlike nearly every other county

They can focus on that free all they want and it should have been given but the roots of their demise run much deeper

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/2023/06/12/clare-can-find-solace-in-defeat-as-the-numbers-dont-add-up-for-limerick/

Their five championship matches so far this year have resulted in a two-point win, two one-point wins, a draw and a one-point defeat. Five games, washing out to an aggregate scoring difference in their favour of just three points.
The advanced metrics dudes would not find that kind of thing impressive. Particularly when you compare it to this point in 2022, when Limerick's aggregate scoring difference after their fourth Munster title in a row was +24

Kiely has managed them to 12 finals

And won every one of them

We're not all binmen up here you know 

Regardless of what ye are

"productivity per worker is about 40 per cent higher in the Republic relative to the North"

Would the productivity of lets say someone working in an Intel type company in the North be 40% less than same worker in Kildare?

How much harder do the binmen work in the south?

for the love of Jesus

Its not a question of how hard lads work

that isnt how productivity is measured

I spend all day braking rocks with a lump hammer in a quarry in Leitrim

You are a Data Analyst with Google in Silicon Docks

Which of us has the higher productivity ?

Regardless of that point I dunno why you are comparing a binman in carrickfergus to an intel worker in kildare as it makes absolutely no sense...

How is productivity measured?

I would say public sector balance up here skews it plus the "community workers" maybe don't help...

I just gave you an example of how productivity is measured and it "makes absolutely no sense "