Were Wendy Houvenaghal's North of Ireland origins a factor....

[Aerlik]

Sheamy is she from Culnady or Upperlands?  I drove through the latter a couple of times last week and it is properly festooned in pomp and pleasantry as usual 

Listening to Radio Uladh last week too, there was some craic from your man standing for fat Nolan winding up the callers complaining about the exclusion of not only WH but of NI from Team GB...

I think they are trying to say something...

[sheamy]

Sheamy is she from Culnady or Upperlands?  I drove through the latter a couple of times last week and it is properly festooned in pomp and pleasantry as usual 

You could say both, Aerlik. Culnady (Cuil Cnadaidhe or "nook of the sluggard") is the townland whilst Upperlands (Upperlands or 'place of pomp and pleasantry') is the planted bawn town. She's from a couple of miles from the town I think.

[nrico2006]

Can't believe the woman is embarassing herself by crying about this.  If she was good enough she would have been on the team, obviously the other 3 were faster as the coach/selector would have been more concerned about winning than where each rider was from.  As mentioned, people from this island would do well if there was an Olympics for whinging.  Between Grainne Murphy and Nocher coming up with excuses for their performances to Houvenaghal's yapping about not getting on, what a bunch of whingers.

[saffron sam2]

Disappointing for big Wendy, but such knock backs are part and parcel of all levels of competitive sport.

I think missing out on the obligatory gold medal winning MBE is probably more of a sore point though.

[Champion The Wonder Horse]

Sheamy is she from Culnady or Upperlands?  I drove through the latter a couple of times last week and it is properly festooned in pomp and pleasantry as usual 

You could say both, Aerlik. Culnady (Cuil Cnadaidhe or "nook of the sluggard") is the townland whilst Upperlands (Upperlands or 'place of pomp and pleasantry') is the planted bawn town. She's from a couple of miles from the town I think.

Not quite right. Upperlands is in the townland of Ampertaine,  Áth an Phoirt Leathain, meaning "ford of the broad (river) bank". The Primary school in the village is called Ampertaine PS. Culnady is a separate village a few miles south west of Upperlands.

[sheamy]

Sheamy is she from Culnady or Upperlands?  I drove through the latter a couple of times last week and it is properly festooned in pomp and pleasantry as usual 

You could say both, Aerlik. Culnady (Cuil Cnadaidhe or "nook of the sluggard") is the townland whilst Upperlands (Upperlands or 'place of pomp and pleasantry') is the planted bawn town. She's from a couple of miles from the town I think.

Not quite right. Upperlands is in the townland of Ampertaine,  Áth an Phoirt Leathain, meaning "ford of the broad (river) bank". The Primary school in the village is called Ampertaine PS. Culnady is a separate village a few miles south west of Upperlands.

I didn't say Upperlands was in Culnady. I thought, or was led to believe, that WH was from the townland of Culnady, 2-3 miles from Upperlands (or Ampertaine or whatever people who couldn't pronounce Áth an Phoirt Leathain called it).

[Champion The Wonder Horse]

Sheamy is she from Culnady or Upperlands?  I drove through the latter a couple of times last week and it is properly festooned in pomp and pleasantry as usual 

You could say both, Aerlik. Culnady (Cuil Cnadaidhe or "nook of the sluggard") is the townland whilst Upperlands (Upperlands or 'place of pomp and pleasantry') is the planted bawn town. She's from a couple of miles from the town I think.

Not quite right. Upperlands is in the townland of Ampertaine,  Áth an Phoirt Leathain, meaning "ford of the broad (river) bank". The Primary school in the village is called Ampertaine PS. Culnady is a separate village a few miles south west of Upperlands.

I didn't say Upperlands was in Culnady. I thought, or was led to believe, that WH was from the townland of Culnady, 2-3 miles from Upperlands (or Ampertaine or whatever people who couldn't pronounce Áth an Phoirt Leathain called it).

I misread your post, I thought that is what you were saying. I've never thought of Culnady as the townland and always associated the name with the village - a bit like Swatragh I suppose. WH's links seem to be more Cuil Cnadaidhe than  Áth an Phoirt Leathain.

[Aerlik]

Culnady and Upperlands are not in anyway like Swatragh 

[Evil Genius]

Can't believe the woman is embarassing herself by crying about this.  If she was good enough she would have been on the team, obviously the other 3 were faster as the coach/selector would have been more concerned about winning than where each rider was from.  As mentioned, people from this island would do well if there was an Olympics for whinging.  Between Grainne Murphy and Nocher coming up with excuses for their performances to Houvenaghal's yapping about not getting on, what a bunch of whingers.

I suspect her gripe (justified or otherwise) is that she was persuaded to carry on in competitive training etc at the age of 37 on the basis that she would have been an integral part of the team i.e. in contention for a place should her times justify it.

Whereas when she got there, with (according to her) the fastest times in training, she still didn't get a look-in, even when one of the others was under the weather for one run, and a single participation would have entitled WH to a medal.

In other words, she seems to feel she was brought along under false pretences (a "spare" rather than a member).

If so, I feel very sympathetic towards her, since her distinguished record for GB down the years surely entitled her to be invited along on the basis that she would be 4th choice back-up for a 3 person team.