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Because of what I have been involved in, I have become very critical of US foreign policy.
I always have since living in during the 1st Gulf War, and following it closely ever since.
This shouldn't be taken in any way as a hatred of US citizens personally.
It's the system.

I know that I have pushed the boat out a few times on critism of the US, and from now on,
i'll agree to tone it down.

I think you're right about the system. Stew obviously has some personal issues that often render his posts abusive so you should just ignore him. A week living in the West Bank seeing the occupation up close would be the answer to his views on the Palestinians.     

Man City's problem was too many draws earlier on. They drew 12 matches and lost only 7 or so, same as Chelsea I think.
For Spurs the CL draw is everything. FC Zürich got a handy draw last year and made it to the group stage whereas Celtic didn't.   

Court case in Beersheba in Israel on Sunday 

Professor Kark had presented an expert opinion,  supporting the state's position that the Bedouins have no ownership rights over their lands in the Negev even if they have lived there for many generations.

Imagine that sort of decision going down in Tyrone with a prof from QUB opining that Catholics have no ownership rights over their land. Israel is a disgrace.   

I do agree, the mad showing of grief is a bit much. No harm in expressing sympathy, like myself and many others have, but FFS we aren't English and it isn't Diana Spencer.
How many of the people grieving, were amongst the people complaining about him whilst he was alive?

I think it must be linked to the recession and how people feel as a result of that
and there being something to bring people together which happens to be the G Ryan funeral.
I was in Blighty when Diana died. It was weird but there was clearly a need for what happened.

There was a great quote on youtube about that Late Late from someone who must know Ireland well and
said that the show was typical of how Irish people deal with loss- lots of talking and memories

anyone know if its possible to change a column of negitive numbers (about 800 numbers)  into positive numbers? while i'm at it, is it possible to insert a blank line between each number (ie every other row is blank), is there any way of doing this without doing it line by line? thx for any help...

do you work for AIB?

You are no mother Theresa here Johnny, you support Hamas, murdering scum no matter their Religion
[/quote]

What are the Palestinians supposed to do? Lie down and let the IDF continue to deny their basic human rights? Who else but Hamas provides social welfare for the people of Gaza ? Who else is going to do it? 
What does the IDF do for Gaza other than murder its people ?


I despise what you stand for, I see America's flaws and I acknowledge it has made horrendous mistakes, I have sympathy for the Palestinians however I have balance in that I want to see the Israeli's survive and work to bring piece to the region by working with the Palestinians toward nationhood for the Palestinians.

What are the Israelis doing for peace other than building settlements and dispossessing Palestinians , torturing husbands and imprisoning teenagers without trial?

Down's achievement still reverberates down the decades


SEÁN MORAN ON GAELIC GAMES
The county's emergence in the 1960s was a seismic event

IT USED to be a staple of big-match programmes: looking back through the years in convenient, quarter-century intervals. The idea appealed to hard-core nostalgia but its random nature struggled for topicality in football All-Irelands (apart from Kerry who could easily have been in attendance at Croke Park in late September on at least one (if not each) of the highlighted occasions 25, 50, 75 and 100 years previously).
There has been a bit more noise about such anniversaries this year with the golden jubilee of Down's first All-Ireland win being commemorated with gusto. And it's not hard to understand why they were one of those teams who stand out as time relentlessly pushes on, decade by decade.
At a reception held at lunchtime on the Friday of the GAA annual congress, hosted last month in Newcastle, county Down, the 1960 team were celebrated. Guest of honour was President Mary McAleese, for whom this was an evocative event.
For everyone involved in Gaelic games in the six cross-border counties of Ulster, the emergence of that Down team was a seismic occurrence.
Ulster and Connacht were late arrivals to All-Ireland success and for much of the first 50 years of the association's history these triumphs were the preserve of Munster and Leinster counties.
Even when the picture expanded it was left to Cavan to represent Ulster at the higher reaches of the game. Virtually monopolising the  province, Cavan won five All-Irelands in the space of their 20 years at the top, 1933-'52. That must have been encouraging for the nine counties but there was a qualitative difference between developing Gaelic games in the counties across the border and in the southern enclaves of the province.  Former Northern Ireland deputy first minister Séamus Mallon, has often recounted the story of how he accompanied his father to their own county's first All-Ireland, Armagh's agonisingly close encounter with Kerry in 1953. They missed a penalty – as weirdly they would do again in both the finals of 1977 and 2002 although on the latter occasion revenge was sweetly taken against the Kingdom – and lost. According to Mallon, his father hurled his cap to the ground and stamped on it, tears rolling down his face – it was the first time he had ever seen him cry.
Tyrone had a good team in the mid-1950s and Derry actually did beat Kerry in the 1958 semi-final only to fall to Dublin in the final. By the time the 1960s arrived, even Down had lost their first senior All-Ireland semi-final, against Galway. There's nothing new in the theory that the success of Ulster teams in the early 1990s raised the morale of northern nationalists and created the confidence that lent momentum to the peace process. Ironically, given the awful decades that were in store, there was something of that optimism in the air in the early 1960s. The thaw in relations between Stormont and Merrion Street, most vividly evident in the meetings of the respective heads of government Seán Lemass and Terence O'Neill, came just a couple of short years after Down had transformed football with the sheer novelty of their achievements. Mallon has also spoken of the excitement he felt, even as an Armagh man, at the sight of Down bringing record crowds to Croke Park, taking on and humbling the might of Kerry. Suddenly it was as if the whole association was properly integrated by equal access to optimism and ambition.
I remember talking to a hotelier in Down 20 years ago and he remembered motoring as a young man down to Dublin and not just for matches in Croke Park but to attend dances at weekends. The island belonged to everyone. President McAleese touched on this in Newcastle but also at greater length during an interview when she was still Pro-vice chancellor of Queens with Eamonn Rafferty for his book Talking Gaelic – Leading personalities on the GAA.
In this she talked about meeting Seán O'Neill, who 10 years ago was selected on the GAA's Team of the Millennium, at a wedding. "In the 1960s, Seán was one of our heroes, someone who gave shape to the importance of our culture, of winning and feeling good about ourselves. "Those early days of Gaelic football success were the perfect contrast to the culture of suspicion that seemed to envelop the game in the North."  Speaking of Down's 1991 success – in its way as epochal within the game as the 1960 breakthrough in that the Munster-Leinster duopoly had reasserted itself for the previous 23 years – she recalled the impact of that later All-Ireland when the team, complete with local heroes, arrived at the town where she then lived.  "We had won for Rostrevor, won for Down, won for Ireland and won for nationalism. We had gone to Dublin and come back with the Sam Maguire, which every county in Ireland aspires to having and here it was coming up the streets of Rostrevor with big  Liam Austin, smiling from ear to ear along with Pete McGrath." Fifty years ago this coming Friday, Down raised the curtain on their momentous year by defeating Cavan in the NFL final, having disposed of Kerry in the semi-final.
The crowd of 49,451 at Croke Park was a then record – which Down would incrementally raise in the following four years to the 70,126 figure that still stands – for a league final. In the previous two years both Kerry and Dublin had gone on to win the All-Ireland after first winning the league and so the form had to be taken seriously.
Down brought another record crowd, 87,768, to the 1960 All-Ireland and the following year, when retaining the title against Offaly, topped even that with 90,556 – an attendance that has never been equalled.  President McAleese said in Newcastle that she hadn't given up hope of receiving Down as All-Ireland winners at Áras an Uachtaráin at some stage in her tenure, which ends next year.
Fifty years ago her predecessor Eamon de Valera did just that and, according to contemporary reports, reminded the Down footballers he had once been an MP for South Down.
On their way home, the team stopped in the Ballymascanlon Hotel on the Carlingford Road where the Sam Maguire was filled with champagne, something that won't be happening if the last motion passed at the Newcastle congress – to turn cups into colanders so they can't be filled with alcohol – is eventually given effect.
It was cruelly observed at the time that the proponents of this strange proposal, Cavan, may have given up on having the opportunity again to pour anything into the Sam Maguire. But Down probably haven't.

I agree misleading title, i dont really care that much for what happened in America 40 years ago. Why this particular topic by the way? Worse things happen around the world every day and dont get a mention by yourself.

Because the muppet who started the thread hate the yanks and the jews and tries to show America in the worst light possible every time he posts.

What have you got against the Palestinians? Aren't they as good as Israelis? Don't they deserve the right to work ? 

BTW Obama didn't get a majority of white votes when he was elected.

I came across joe.ie today via a search for Joe Duffy. It looks very lightweight so it will probably do well.  The only concern would be the validity of their income projections in a recession that's going to run and run.

It probably opened the eyes of a lot of people and made them think differently about all the bullshit about freedom that they are fed in daily life by their loving media.
Cindy Sheehan was very good talking about this after her son Casey died in Iraq.   

[I lost my son 40 years ago at Kent State]

This is from the progressive magazine, by the mother of one of the people who was murdered.

I lost my son 40 years ago at Kent State

By Elaine Holstein, May 4, 2010

Today, May 4, marks 40 years since my son, Jeff, was shot and killed on the campus of his college. He and three of his classmates were murdered by the National Guard at an anti-war protest at Kent State. During a 13-second fusillade of rifle fire not only were Jeff, Allison Krause, Sandy Scheuer and Bill Schroeder killed but nine more of their Kent State fellow students were also wounded.

The students who had gathered there that day — all unarmed — held a large range of opinions about the seemingly endless war in Vietnam. Some of them, including Jeff, objected intensely to the increasing escalation of a war that had begun when they were barely in their teens. In fact, Jeff had written a poem about the war entitled, "Where Does It End?" in February of 1966, shortly before he turned 16.  Others in t he crowd had mixed feelings. Some were just onlookers, such as you would find at any gathering. Some, like Sandy, were on their way to their next class. And so, May 4, 1970, became one of the blackest days in the history of our country. It was the day I not only lost my child but also lost my innocence. I could no longer take on faith what I had been taught all my life about my "constitutional rights," the rights that supposedly made our country different from so many others. The decade that followed was filled for me with grief, anger, disillusionment and lawsuits. At the end of our legal battles, we were pressured by the judge and by our lawyers into accepting a settlement in which the parents of the dead students discovered that their sons and daughters' lives were worth a mere $15,000 each. It was never about the money for me. I wanted an admission of culpability, and more than that, I wanted an assurance that no mother would ever again have to bury a child for simply exercising the freedom of speech.

But all we got was a watered down statement that better ways must be found, etc., etc. I also discovered what I perhaps should have known already: that so many of my compatriots did not feel as I did. They believed that the students who were killed or wounded got what they deserved and, as I heard far too often, the National Guard "should have killed more of them." And now it's 2010 — 40 years later — and those wounded students are well into middle age, almost senior citizens. But Jeff remains in my memory forever as that bright, funny, passionate 20 year old. I have spent these 40 years watching my son, Russ, Jeff's big brother, grow older. I've valued (perhaps more than I would have if Jeff had not died) the close, satisfying relationship we share.

I've had the great joy of seeing my grandchildren, Jeff (yes, another Jeff Miller) and Jamie evolve from cute little children into a couple of the most admirable adults I know. I've danced at both their weddings and have been made happy by their happiness. But, once in a while, I wonder about my son Jeff's future that had so needlessly been cut short. What would he have been like now at age 60? What sort of career would he have had? Would he have married? And what about those other grandchildren that my husband and I might have enjoyed?  Now, as I watch the news on TV each night, I deplore the increasing ugliness of politics, and I'm afraid. I know too well what can happen when hatred takes over. Please, let us lower the volume and be civil toward each other. For Jeff's sake. And for all of ours.

Elaine Holstein, a retired school secretary and social worker, lives in New York City with her husband, Arthur, and has, on occasion, written articles and spoken to students on the subject of the Kent State shootings. She can be reached at pmproj@progressive.org.

Fair enough Sligonian as the saying goes.. "watch this space" i just hope 2007 wasn't a flash in the pan because Connacht  football long needs a new face

Are the Rossies not coming up on the outside ?   

Sligo never really built on 2007, did they ? what happened? I had great hopes for Sligo after that year early on in the decade when they built up a good head of steam in the qualifiers.

Tom humphries

TOM HUMPHRIES at Semple Stadium

ALLIANZ NATIONAL HURLING LEAGUE DIVISION ONE FINAL: SO, ANOTHER league campaign leaves us with its entrails to be studied and read at our leisure. Galway and Cork spent the spring shaping up to each other as leading contenders in hurling's "up and coming" section. Yesterday they got to settle a few things. Thurles sucked in 14,200 customers to watch this Allianz League final and they were rewarded with a bruising fast- paced encounter which lost a little of its helter-skelter quality in the second half but which entertained throughout.



Galway prevailed in the end by an eight-point margin which neither flattered them nor quite satisfied them.

They were demonstrably the better side for most of the evening and were still looking for scores at the death even after the result had ceased to be an issue.

The occasion will have told Cork more about themselves than it did Galway. John McIntyre's side reached decent altitude as recently as last summer and came away knowing that they needed to learn the art of finishing out a game.

It's been longer than that since Cork were anything but wallflowers at the big dance and the optimism which their league run sparked will have been doused somewhat by this outing, which suggested a certain creakiness in some working parts.

The game began explosively when Damien Hayes motored away from Seán Óg Ó hAilpín with some ease and drove the ball to the Cork net in the first minute.

It was a declaration of intent from Galway and the sight of Seán Óg being withdrawn early in the second half ( he has been suffering with a leg injury for some time) was as startling and worrying for Cork supporters as a lot of the play which preceded that moment.

Central to the workings of soothsayers and oddsmakers last week was the guesswork as to how the tyro full back Eoin Dillon would fare on Joe Canning. Dillon had good form on Canning back in the underage days and wasn't shamed at all yesterday .

Yet he will look at the stats in brackets after Canning's name this morning and reflect that it is the nature of his opponent's genius that he could be overshadowed for so long and yet amass such a respectable tally from play.

Dillon was a worthy gamble which almost paid off .

Elsewhere Denis Walsh had mixed results from the hand he played. The twin towers of Michael Cussen and Aisake Ó hAilpín worked tremendously hard and Cussen had two points in the first half, but neither could compensate for the lack of penetration Cork have suffered since Joe Deane hung up his yellow helmet.

In midfield the elegant young Kanturk player Lorcan McLoughlin got a surprise start but for all his potential he never quite played his way into the game. By the time Jerry O'Connor replaced him, Galway were already within sight of the finish post.

Cork have used 37 players through this league campaign without producing a stand-out contender for a first team breakthrough against Tipperary at the end of this month. Slightly more worrying yesterday was the failure of a couple of players who should be pushing on from their sophomore days.

Patrick Horgan's league campaign had been going fine until yesterday when he struggled and had the misfortune to see a penalty turned over the bar. Kieran Murphy, a slightly surprising choice for captain this year, was withdrawn in the second half.

Plenty of work to be done at the drawing board and a few prayers to be offered for the return of Niall McCarthy from injury to fill the number 11 shirt.

Galway, enjoying their first national title in six years, are in somewhat better shape.

Joe Canning requires a groin operation but on yesterday's evidence will be able to push on until the necessary gap opens in his busy schedule.

Around him the pieces are falling into place and the pleasure of yesterday for John McIntyre will have been to see his side put away quality opposition without excessive dependence on the Portumna man.

With players of the quality of John Lee and Joe Gantley sitting on the bench yesterday Galway underlined their standing in the game's top three.

So as the light declined Shane Kavanagh, captain and man of the match, pronounced the west awake again as he accepted a national title. He counted the reasons to be cheerful.

"Our second piece of silverware this year. So far so good. The year starts here now."

Indeed. And with the white heat of the Leinster championship still to be faced, optimism and momentum is perhaps just what Galway needed.

[Galway are still there but Cork have more convincing to do.]

ALLIANZ NATIONAL HURLING LEAGUE DIVISION ONE FINAL/Galway 2-22 Cork 1-17: GALWAY'S NINTH National Hurling League title was delivered in style yesterday evening in Thurles after a comprehensive victory over a comprehensively out-gunned Cork. John McIntyre's team unloaded an impressive barrage of score-taking while their defence stood firm against their opponents' hitherto productive attack.

After an Allianz NHL campaign during which they were the most consistent side, the final performance must have come as a disappointment to Cork manager Denis Walsh and the county supporters, all of whom must now train their thoughts and preparations on the end-of-the-month championship meeting with Tipperary.

Virtually all of the critical contests went Galway's way. Even the anticipated pressure point of their half forwards against Cork's most powerful line ended up tilting in the second half with Cyril Donnellan coming into the match at centre forward and both Aidan Harte and Andy Smith taking scores on the wings.

Cork's best player this season, John Gardiner, was his usual forceful self – and lucky in the first half not to get into trouble with the referee – but he couldn't repel Galway single handed.

Walsh's gamble of playing the inexperienced Eoin Dillon on Joe Canning looked to be paying off after 20 fairly anonymous minutes from Galway's principal shooter but in what seemed the blink of an eye, the full forward rattled off 1-2 in the space of little over six minutes leading up to the half-hour mark to change the match for good, as Cork never got back on terms afterwards.

The pace of the contest was breathtaking at times, especially in the first half with scores flying over at either end, but Galway looked to be carrying more attacking menace from an early stage.

The switching of Damien Hayes and Aidan Harte before the start quickly proved a shrewd move and paid dividends, with the Portumna forward punishing Seán Ó hAilpín with his pace from the start.

There weren't two minutes on the clock when Hayes fastened on to a ball and out-ran his marker down the right, cutting inside to make an angle and firing into the net for the first score of the evening.

A few minutes later he was again in possession and flashing over a point.

The menace abated afterwards and eventually the right side of the Galway attack was restored to its original line-up. Ó hAilpín continued to struggle with his game, fumbling and miss-directing a couple of balls, but gradually came into the match and dropped a few inviting balls in on his brother Aisake at the other end.

He also set up Ben O'Connor for a run at the Galway defence in the 23rd minute. O'Connor passed to his speeding Newtownshandrum club-mate Cathal Naughton who continued in at pace and although appearing to disappear into the converging Galway cover, managed to get away a shot which ended up in the net.

Almost immediately Canning went to work, taking a ball and rounding Dillon for a run on goal and decisive finish.

Galway captain Shane Kavanagh, towered over as most full backs would be by the younger Ó hAilpín, was nonetheless effective in disrupting the possession and when one delivery did stick, he was able to block out the subsequent shot.

In the second half, with Cork chasing the match frantically, the whole Galway defence held firm but Kavanagh radiated calm and focus from the centre and was named as the sponsors' man of the match.

Cork's decision to field both of their skyscraper forwards, Aisake Ó hAilpín and Michael Cussen, wasn't a notable success. Cussen started well with early points but David Collins got on top and although the big forwards were shuttled around the attack, at no stage did they hit on an even mildly threatening configuration.

The centrefield exchanges didn't go Cork's way either, as they failed to exert much pressure on the creative pairing of Ger Farragher and David Burke. Farragher was in the usual excellent form from the placed ball and hit five from six in his total of six points. Tom Kenny didn't hit his familiar stride until towards the end, by which stage the match was loose and frenetic but Galway were thriving in the anarchy, raiding for points to keep the lead intact.

Cork had done well to stop the match getting away from them altogether in the first half and trailed by four at the break 1-11 to 2-12, but as soon as the match resumed Canning and Harte swept over another couple of points and Cork were chasing the match from there.

They were offered a lifeline in the 40th minute but Patrick Horgan's penalty, awarded after Gardiner had been taken down, was hit high and deflected over the bar by Colm Callanan, who also made a couple of good saves from Cathal Naughton, Cork's most threatening forward.

The counties went into the final, attended by 14,200, as the most likely sides to join Tipperary as feasible challengers to Kilkenny. Galway are still there but Cork have more convincing to do.
GALWAY: C Callanan; D Joyce, S Kavanagh, O Canning; D Barry, T Regan, D Collins; G Farragher (0-6, four frees, one 65), D Burke (0-1); D Hayes (1-1), C Donnellan (0-1), A Smith (0-2); A Harte (0-3), J Canning (1-5), I Tannian (0-1). Subs: J Gantley (0-2) for Tannian (53 mins), K Hynes for Smith (62 mins), A Callanan for Burke (68 mins).