Messages

Subs bench isn't looking too hectic.   Fiachra looks to be the only option we have to bring on, Lord help us. Just heard on the radio Cormac Bane is suspended, didn't hear anything about that, and Mullahy has work commitments, I'm guessing Nicky's back is still bothering him.

Janey, it doesn't look too unhectic or whatever you'd call it to me.
Most of them are regulars on the team and the overall squad looks very settled as well. It is as strong as Sammon can field at this time of year, I'd say. If Johnno can pull one this off, I'll give up slagging him. Okay, I'll shut up for a week at least.

Ballagh situation is completely different to Bellaghy, just for the record. We won that ruling in the 60s about the parish as I said before, but Mayo brought in the school rule to cover it. If the School rule didnt exist Mayo would have no right within GAA rules to Bellaghy. Connacht council have backed us on this.

It's not that I'd doubt your word or anything like that; it's just that I know you are spouting sh*te.
Could you humour me and tell me where you got this "information?"

BTW, I'm beginning to wonder if we have a WUM on our hands here. Anyone know Armagh4SamAgain on the main board?
I'm a bit suspicious that he or someone like him is wearing a black and white jersey, if you all know what I mean.

I've kinda given up on the seniors as there is no fun in predicting the worst and then waiting for it to happen. There's no fun whatever in criticising our beloved manager.. I'm sure he too is hoping the downward spiral will bottom out soon.
I thought Johnno would possibly start to motor this year; things surely can't sink much further thought Lar.
Lar is no mean analyst either- he's much worse than that!
However, right now any latchiko can see that there may be trouble ahead and assloads of it.

Johnno is waiting on the one hand for the veterans like Jimmy Nallen and David Heaney to return. At the same time, he can't field a full side without a contingent of the u21 lads. Worse still, a few gossoons who have still to sit their leaving certs  are being thrown in and they are also playing u21 as well.
Now don't tell me I am Johnno-bashing but I figure things have gone beyond the joke stage. We have the likes of young Hennelly and O'Shea on the one hand and James Nallen at the other end who is double their age.
Is there nothing in between?
The manager has spent two years working to assemble a squad and cannot cobble something together out of a couple of very good u21 sides and a core of players who were good enough to reach a couple of All Ireland finals?
You wouldn't find the likes of it in the Dandy!

Fair play to ya, Sligonian; keep her lit and plough straight on!
Don't ever let facts or logic get in the way of a good row!
I really don't have to tell you all this as you seem to be doing it already.

The fact that you'd expect any parents to shove their young kids onto a rickety oul' bus and then send them 6 or seven miles down the road on a dark winter's morning, when they had another school within a couple of hundred yards of their own front door is what you are suggesting, isn't it?
You are a long way away from having toddlers of your own if really think that way.

Can you imagine a cold, wet winter's morning when the bus would be late and parents and children could be forced to stand at the roadside and then having to send the kids into school for the day in a frozen and damp state?
Imagine the problems that would arise if a child took sick and a parent had to be sent for?
All the while, the youngsters could be in a school within walking distance of their homes. You mightn't agree but I'd say all the rest of the human race would.
Go grow a few babbies of yer own and then come back and tell us what you think!

What would your reason be for sending Tom Parsons to Curry in the first place?
Would it be on the off-chance that a little kid might possibly grow up to be a good footballer in 10 to 12 years time?
I can tell you that people were committed for less than that!
Maybe, just maybe, you should go and do a bit of research before you rant on much more.
You might find out where the church in Bellaghy is to begin with!
Better still; see if you can find one that was there in 1884, the year the GAA was founded. (I might have the year wrong as it's the year the parishes affiliated with the county boards for the first time that matters.)
When you have done all of that, you might take the trouble of finding where the boundaries of the old administrative (C of I) parish of Kilbeagh were when the Charlestown club affiliated with the new Mayo County Board.
You could also bear in mind that the club was the most important unit of the GAA. For many years counties were represented by their leading clubs; but I'm sure you know this already, don't you?
You just might look up the townland the Parsons home is situated and see if it falls within the boundaries of Kilbeagh, which is not quite the same as the more modern RC parish of Charlestown.
On the other hand, there is something else you might consider doing.....
How about going out a bit more and getting a real life???
Don't you think the Sligo board would have acted long ago, long before Tom Parsons was born, if Bellaghy players were being 'imprisoned' in Mayo? Back in the early 60s, the Roscommon's county board brought a case to the Connacht Council seeking the transfer of Ballaghadereen from Mayo to Roscommon.
Roscommon lost the case. Ballagh was first affiliated to the Mayo board and parish takes precedence over the modern concept of county.
There is at least one other place in Ireland where the an old administrative parish crosses the more modern county boundary line and people for local government reasons are in Armagh  while the clubs GAA players are eligible to play for is affiliated to the Down County Board.
Maybe you should just get a bucket and spade and go play with all that lovely sand you have out there!
Forget about Tom Parsons and old parish/county boundaries. They will all be staying the way they are for many a year to come.

no not mind games Mayo fans in general have become a true mirror image of the nations declining morale .
where as i with my more sunny nature and diposition have seen the team improve steadily  over the league . after an awful start in ballina losing to derry a nadir was reached in the first 40 minute against Donegal , MAyoo seemed to have found a bit of character giving West meath a welll deserved hammering a good show against an unbeaten kerry and a Draw against dublin after giving them a  5 point start .
It wasnt pretty but im much encouraged that they stucjk to the task and got something out of a tight games un like the last number of year when almost every game seemed to slip by for the want of a bit of guts at the end. my main Criticism Of JOM
Also with have a very healthy crop of u21's coming through the Future is bright .
hope galway haven't peaked too soon in the year. we need another good run out on sunday

Togha fir, ros!.
Tell the begrudgers to burglar off for themselves.
I can say with hand on heart that I have seldom come across anything about Mayo football that makes the same amount of sense as what you wrote last night. (BTW, it was about Mayo football, wasn't it?)
Mind you, Moysider did come close one time. It was last year when he had put in a serious session of pinting and then started belting the keyboard. I can tell ya that I still haven't gotten over the shock.
Hey, I just  checked the timing of your post and maybe it explains things a lot; did yer local shut early, by any chance?

Beaumont Hospital is the best possible place to be if one has a neurological problem of any sort. Believe me, Johnny cannot be in safer hands. I know what I am talking (writing?) about.
Just three years ago I suffered a massive brain haemorrhage without any sort of warning.
I was blessed that some friends found me lying on the road and called an ambulance and I was lucky also that I was taken to Beaumont.I was so badly affected that my relations were told to get to see me at once as my time on Earth was definitely limited.
But luck was on my side as Beaumont's neurological department is a world leader in all manner of neurogical trauma.
A team there, led by Chris Pigeon, had just pioneered the technique of coiling, a procedure used to repair torn arteries without the need to use invasive surgery.
Within three weeks I was released from hospital and was able,  more or less, to resume a normal life style.
The point I am making is that I would not have pulled through if I didn't live close to Beaumont Hospital and if the place didn't have the technology and expertise to deal with my aneurysm promptly.
Believe me, Bud, I know what happened to Johnny is a tragedy but if anyone can help him, it will be one of the neurosurgeons at Beaumont.
Please God they can work their magic for him.

[upper house]

There was a good debate on the purpose of its existence on the Late Late Show.

We have all made cutbacks in our own workplaces and lives, should the Government follow suit?

Should we abolish the lower house?

No; but I think we should let all the members away with tarring and feathering the whole lot.
Cowan, Kenny and happy Gilmore, plus their cohorts and cronies down there, are warts on the backside of humanity.
Maybe you should turn your attention to the upper house, where the senators waffle away endlessly and usually don't do too much harm! 

How 'bout:
"Olive, the other reindeer,
Used to laugh and call him names.
Wouldn't let poor Rudolph
Join in any reindeer games?"

Like I say, I've no problem giving him credit but that doesn't alter the fact that many Catholics in the North have regarded the term "Roman Catholic" coming from him or his supporters as both demeaning and offensive.

Of course. But ive heard the likes of that practically spit out the term catholic - without the Roman prefix -  as if it was a derogatory term as well.
Context is key.

You're dead right, nifan.
Context is everything and btw I do accept that there may well be terms that many Unionists would also regard as offensive, given their context.

Blinkered people who dwell in a world where their own community is always right, justified to do anything, and who's paranoia knows no bounds believe that if Paisley ever said it, it is automatically offensive.  Afterall them Unionists and Prods are all out to attack and offend people like that. 

FFS, in their wee world the Catholic Church must be Paisleyites too!!! 

You couldn't make it up.

Roger, on the chance that you found my last post offensive in any way or that you include me amongst those who inaccurately accuse you of being offensive or who uses insular outlook, paranoia and plain ignorance to establish a point, I'd like to clarify matters somewhat.

To begin with, I do read all threads of a quasi-political nature but really don't bother getting involved in giving opinions or in any sort of coat trailing. There are enough already here who are ready, willing and able to re-fight the Battle of the Boyne over and over again.
However, I did contribute to this topic because it is, I feel, a matter of record that many Nationalists were both frightened and offended  at the tenor of Paisley's remarks back in the early 70s and possibly the late 60s. There were many dark and fearful days, for members of both communities, back then and while they are best left behind they cannot be airbrushed out of history.
If I had to state an opinion on the matter, I'd say that Paisley deserves great credit for the part he has played in moving his followers to the middle ground where an accommodation could be reached with their traditional arch-enemies.
By the same token, Gerry and Marty had to swallow a lot of dearly held principles to go down the road of peace as well.
Leaders on all sides had to change their mindsets and those of their followers along the way from then till now. I say that very few of us can honestly say that they never make mistakes or have seen the need ever to alter tack. It takes arrogance and incompetence in equal measure for an individual to maintain that he or she won't entertain the possibility of accepting change.
I would never feel, for instance, that my paranoia is such that I'd feel whatever Paisley said is automatically offensive. But my memory and my access to resources do tell me that a lot of what he did say at one time was both offensive and intimidating to large numbers of people in the Six Counties.
To maintain otherwise, would certainly indicate a degree of paranoia in its own right!
Like I say, I've no problem giving him credit but that doesn't alter the fact that many Catholics in the North have regarded the term "Roman Catholic" coming from him or his supporters as both demeaning and offensive.
End of sermon...

I think the main reason that Nationalists find the "Roman" tag offensive is that it was widely used by Papa Doc and his Free Presbies back in the days when the big fella began to make headlines. It was definitely used in the pejorative sense.
I guess that most on here are too young to have lived through the early days of the Troubles, the late 60s and the early 70s. Believe me, the times were scary back then. Whole communities, from both sides, I might add, lived in fear of being burnt out of their homes. 
Paisley was very prominent back then and he certainly was a far different character to the chubby, avuncular old man who appeared on the Late Later Show in recent months. He bawled and roared throughout the province and in London, using terms from a bygone age in the John Knox tradition.

I am deliberately simplifying matters here as I think those days are best left in the past and we should concentrate on the present and future but Paisley was hated and feared in equal measure by nationalists everywhere.
He did have a particular hatred of Rome and all things Roman and terms like 'whore' and 'harlot' were two a penny with him. He also made the bizarre claim at one stage that the Pope had communist leanings because he wore red socks.
Later, I recall him being interviewed on a British TV program, where he laughed off this remark but at the time it was uttered it did serve to stir up the feelings of his volatile followers.
People from both sides of the divide in the North, with whom I have discussed the matter, agree on this point: to the Free Presbies, the term "Roman" was one of contempt. Probably still is.

Thanks for the thought, Leenie. All the best to you also.

I'd imagine there is more to that story than meets the eye.
We are not being given the full facts here.

and will be rewarded with the Triple Crown for doing so while Ireland will win the 6 Nations.  I wonder which they'd prefer?

They obviously don't care that much as they passed up on the chance to accumulate a points advantage by playing their second string against Italy. I'd say the Ireland players' demeanour if they lose next Saturday will tell the tale. Hopefully it won't come to that.

If they didn't care that much against Italy, then logic would surely dictate that they won't be bothered at all against Ireland either.

Actually, I'd say that the opposite holds true.
They cared enough about the Ireland game to risk putting a substandard side out against the Italians and nearly paid the price. Remember there is only one week between the Italian and Irish games and Wales figured the Italians would be beaten without any bother and as many as possible of the first team members would be rested for the big one against Ireland.
It nearly backfired and if it did Warren Gatland would be in hiding since.
Make no mistake about it; the Grand Slam is what it's all about.
If you look at the hype in the papers and on TV that is building up, you will see that nobody gives a second thought to topping the Championship table.
Wales can't win the Grand Slam but they don't want us to do so either, so it will be one heck of a contest.

Pints

All coins where counted and sorted into correct amounts in each bag there was no need for them to do anything other than weigh the bags if they wanted to-I just got rid of £50 in silver-just 30 pounds in 1p and 2p bags and 2 bags with a fiver each in 10p's!!

I'd be telling them I'm closing my account and taking my business elsewhere. 
I use to collect coins and I've gone to BOI with up to £500 in stg, in the right bags, never a problem.
I then use to go to BOI in Dundalk with a couple of hundred euro in bags, never a problem. 

A bank not letting you deposit your money, that's a good one!

I used to collect money from schoolkids for various little purchases and in time, over a term, the loose coins would add up to a considerable amount.
I had an arrangement with my local publican, who gladly took the lot.
Naturally, I had them counted beforehand and was able to give him an indication in advance of the number and value of what I was going to come up with.