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Katie is still a great player. She and Denise are a cut above the rest. She's passionate. The way she fucked the lineswoman out of it as she was trying to take the corner that led to the goal typifies her. It's a flaw too because Wales targeted her, constantly tried to get a rise out of her, and she lost the cool early on. Sounds like the Irish bench and management came in for some taunting too. The Welsh were cynical and knew how to kill the game with timewasting. But overall the Irish women had very little structure in their play. They do need to bring in some foreign coaches from top tier nations, and has been said before maybe get one or two Irish-Americans to declare.

Hard not to recall Vera Pauw's quote from earlier in the year, when she was reflecting back on her time in charge; "I had to keep the instructions simple, they couldn't understand anything else."

I must be mad, because I was encouraged by so much of what I saw up to the penalty. Ireland had one stonewall penalty turned down and one debatable. But they were well organised up to that point and England barely had a shot.

Even on our worst days before, I can never recall us not at least creating one scoring chance or forcing the opposing keeper to make a save. We were set-up for nothing better than containment, to score nil. All well and good if it's the second leg of a tie where we're 2-0 up from the first match and defending a lead. Last night, as Sadlier said beforehand, we were not going to finish better or worse than third. It was a free shot at having a go, to try things in an attacking context without any consequence if it went wrong. We had nothing to lose but we didn't even get that. Hallgrimmson is probably a more grounded manager than Kenny, more pragmatic in what can be achieved with the players at his disposal, but a Kenny team last night would probably have had more of a creative cut off England. The home side didn't even have to be much good last night, they knew once they exerted a modicum of pressure on the Irish midfield / attack they would win possession back again imminently. Bar a couple of incisive raids forwards from Festy I could see literally nothing positive to glean from last night.

Ireland should have had a penalty in the first half. It could have changed the game if we scored it. VAR obviously thought they couldn't award a penalty against this great England team. A bit like city getting away with things in the premier league.

Having a moan about the penalty claim is glossing over the fact that this was a wretched Irish performance, as dire as we've ever produced, in a long line of bad ones. The penalty incident is literally the one positive from a night when we didn't test the English keeper or have practically one shot on goal. Ball retention and passing ability going forward was zilch and our creativity would make the fall-out area around Chernobyl look like a verdant oasis. I seriously doubt Halgrimmson realised we were this bad when he took the reins. On last night's evidence we're light years away from the top-tier nations, and even middle-ranking ones who can all at least play football, and sliding further away every year.

Is that shot by Manning our actual first on target in the match?

[Battered a surprising shite Corofin team with no forwards.]

Great win by  PP but they let it become too exciting in the closing stages.
Still job done.
The Laythrum bucks will give them plenty of it next weekend but they should prevail.

Disagree here, was a top job by Pearses. Battered a surprising shite Corofin team with no forwards. Mind boggling how they won Galway.
With pearses playing style they were never going to lose that. And I never doubted them. Only doubt was it was to easy for them they didn't expect such ease. Will take beaten

h

You can celebrate a win without being completely disrespectful to the other team.

Not a good look for Galway club football though, particularly as Corofin were practically at home. Corofin have seldom had standout forwards, relying on the collective teamwork to amass the scores. It's time other clubs in Galway had a good look at themselves and ask what are the doing that they can't make a realistic attempt at a county title challenge. (Looking at you Salthill in particular).

Have Moycullen not won Galway recently enough?

Yes, and in fairness they and Mountbellew/Moylough have been to the fore the past number of seasons. Mountbellew were a good bit off it this season though and Moycullen were rather untypically poor in the county final. The likes of Tuam Stars, Salthill, Annaghdown, Claregalway (lot of underage success) need to be doing better, given their resources.

[Battered a surprising shite Corofin team with no forwards.]

Great win by  PP but they let it become too exciting in the closing stages.
Still job done.
The Laythrum bucks will give them plenty of it next weekend but they should prevail.

Disagree here, was a top job by Pearses. Battered a surprising shite Corofin team with no forwards. Mind boggling how they won Galway.
With pearses playing style they were never going to lose that. And I never doubted them. Only doubt was it was to easy for them they didn't expect such ease. Will take beaten

h

You can celebrate a win without being completely disrespectful to the other team.

Not a good look for Galway club football though, particularly as Corofin were practically at home. Corofin have seldom had standout forwards, relying on the collective teamwork to amass the scores. It's time other clubs in Galway had a good look at themselves and ask what are the doing that they can't make a realistic attempt at a county title challenge. (Looking at you Salthill in particular).

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/boris-johnson-dominic-cummings-partygate-video-85h8x3lqm

Good article here on BJ's downfall.

For £1 a month, an online sub to The Times is very good value.

Unlikely, but a populist FF/SF minority coalition is not out of the question. Micheál seems vexed with Harris and FG these days. Sf supporters will say FF won't work with us, but there's such a thing as side deals and the art of negotiation. If John Bruton's FG could go into a coalition with former IRA man DeRossa's Democratic Left, there's no reason FF/SF can't form a coalition. Mary Lou herself is FF gene pool.

Couldn't see that happening as long as Martin heads FF.  Over the years I've voted from FF to FG to SF or certain independents depending on how sick I was of the encumbents.  Christ, it's a shocking poor selection this time round.  Harris is sickeningly insincere, Martin is so prissy and sanctimonious.
The wave of scandals and question marks over SF of late is making me question where I had intended voting from a long time back.  Then I end up fully cynical and question what's the point- the civil service,  powerful lobbies and outside forces will call the shots anyway regardless of who is in government,  so effectively any minister is just a puppet on strings.
That said, I always vote, and anyone I talk to about elections,  I always make the point of the importance of voting,  even to the kids in school that aren't voting age yet.  Yes, politics might look like a shitshow, and yes it might seem futile or pointless voting anyway,  but the only hope of seeing any kind of choice or consequence is by a high turnout.  A low turnout means a low bar for mediocrity,  and makes it easier for poor/ useless candidates to get elected again and again. With a real risk of jeopardy and potentially losing a seat, it raises accountability.
I have a deeply engrained culchie antipathy towards the Greens, but I always view their results as an indicator of how the economy is doing.  When a sector of people have money to spare and aren't in a financial squeeze, the Greens do well in urban/ more populated areas.  When things are tanking,  they get kicked to touch.
It always feels a pyrrhic victory when they get their arses handed to them.

So, go and stand for election yourself. Be the change you want to see.

No government ever can please all the people all of the time - what one person or sector might like may be anathema to another group. Just take the rough with the smooth and hope the rulers don't f*ck things up completely. (E.g FF during the Celtic Tiger years).

Whats the point of elections in South?

To enforce democracy, keep a check on extremes from emerging and give every citizen eligible to vote an equal say in the direction of the nation.

The complete overreaction by people here over the elected leader of a foreign country is downright embarrassing.
I don't recall anyone giving a damn as Putin closes in on 30 years in power, or Kim Jong Un, or Xi Jinping or any of the other perennial leaders of smaller countries.
You will be fine. Life will go on. I'm sure you survived 2017-21 just great. Just think about the more important things in life and put down the phone.

The difference is, at least until Putin starts moving ever westwards, that Trump's election has the possibility, maybe remote for the moment, of effecting material change on this country if he decides to make it attractive for American companies to shutdown here and return home.

Mrs. Gay Byrne, Kathleen Watkins, has passed. A writer and broadcaster in her own right.

Trump did not hide who he is, he made it quite plain and much as I don't like it he reflects the USA as it is.
Non whites voting for him remind me of turkey's and Christmas. Democrats ignored the fact that Biden was deeply unpopular with many demographics and Harris by extension. Many Arab/Muslim Americans seem to have voted Trump as the least worst option. That said the Trump dynasty are odious self serving narcissistic clowns.
Michelle Obama should have stood.

It would have been the same result

Maybe not. Biden gave the Democrats a hospital pass when he stood down and endorsed Harris immediately. Had he not, and allowed the Convention to choose the candidate, it might have chosen Obama instead. There would be clear separation between her and the previous administration and the Obamas would be well-got as they say.

Capt. Con Power, legendary showjumper back in the heyday of the Aga Khan trophy at the RDS when everyone watched it. That quartet of he, James Kernan, Eddie Macken and Paul Darragh was one of the all-time great Irish teams.

Didn't arch-physicist Prof. Brian Cox I think state that ghosts, if they were a form of energy, couldn't exist, that it was impossible.

Do atheists believe in ghosts?

Greece definitely better team in the first half but Ireland much improved in second and with bit more composure we could have got an equaliser. A defeat but a performance to build on.

That sounds like Stephen Kenny-speak TBH. We had a lot of 'performances to build on' during his reign.