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Can't believe this isn't on tv anywhere. 

One of the claims of GAAGo is that is covers more games that could ever be on TV, but they don't bother covering that many games. ArmaghTV have the capactity to do games at the Athletic grounds, but they wouldn't be allowed cover this and GAA wouldn't contract them to cover it. Now in today's case that is a pity, but Cork v Donegal next week is a disgrace.

I can understand provincial winners getting a home advantage first game but asking Ros to play Dublin and then a rested Mayo following Saturday is not a level playing field in the group stages. But then again sure that's nothing to be complainin' about - have you heard a Cork hurling game was not free to air and they had to watch on GAAGo? The tyranny.

The issue here is a that all Provincial finals are not on the same weekend and that is because they are all guaranteed to be on TV and in theory people want to see them. of course, people have an interest in the Ulster final most years, and the Connacht final some years, the other two are not very interesting.

Sounds like he's letting labour worry about it

he should just sign off in it on the last day, and send the DUP a note stating that Theresa May wanted to make sure that it was done.

Heaton Harris saying they will make a "significant contribution", wonderful legacy, great to have Euros in Belfast blah blah.
Of course he won't be there much longer... 

His most significant contribution will be leaving.

Not looking good now, probably will still happen but can't see it done it time for the Euros which i'm not one bit bothered about tbh. I know this is childish, but would really love Dublin to step up and fund the rest and let them see what we have and look on in envy. Pure shambles from day one...

Really doubt Dublin is going to add any more money. Someone I was talking to a while back was speculating Dublin only announced their €50 million as a way to put pressure on London to guarantee their contribution.

If it doesn't happen for the Euros (with the London money), I just can't see the 34k capacity stadium happening at all given the estimated cost. There would be savings from not having to cater to the Euro requirements and the deadline but I just can't see these savings being enough for the 34k version to be feasible.

If that happens it's a case of right back to the drawing board and a complete reappraisal of the project - what can be built with the actual money available and what that means with respect to Clones/Ulster Final Day. If there's only the money for a 20k capacity stadium in Belfast, what happens then?

The clusterfuck goes on.

Use the Stormont money to build Belfast and have Dublin provide something towards a Clones upgrade?

Can any of you Armachians post a link to Armagh's starting lineup against Westmeath? Thanks a lot.

Armagh gaa twitter
Kelly in midfield
Conor o Neill in half back line
Mc cabe on the bench 
No other changes

Or the glorious colour version, strong subs bench but no Rian.

Western standards laid bare for all to see:

I'm not sure the term "Western" is appropriate, every west European country and Canada, Australia and New Zealand support the ICC.

The USA don't.

Then the post should have referred to the USA and not to "Western".

While your post shouldn't have made the claim that "every western country" supports the ICC.

Where I did make that claim?

Don't look back in anger
She's Electric
Wonderwall

Some of the lads need to familiarise themselves with the term "the lesser of two evils". By their very nature no politician is going to tick every box but if you find yourself rooting for the Tory candidate *ever* then you need to take a look at yourself.

I haven't seen anyone here rooting for the Tory candidate. And there's no question that Labour is the lesser of two evils, but the point is that as far as Kier Starmer himself goes, you could barely more than slide a cigarette paper between himself and your average Tory.

The average Tory, as represented by people now driven out of the party, was fairly middle of the road, but the party left those behind in its recent governments. Someone close to middle ground is ideal.

Tickets on sale now!

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I expect that Derry v Armagh should draw a good crowd, TV or not, with thousands of seats already gone because of the 3 game package and season tickets. 

My prediction for this election in the North is that Nationalists will outpoll Unionists. This happened for first time ever at the local elections last year.  The trend cannot be reversed and Unionists will never outpoll Natiobalists ever again,  including in a Unity Referendum.

Maybe, but there is no great incentive to turn out in some constituencies. Say in Newry and Armagh, where people could not name their Westminster MP and where there is no real doubt about who will be elected. 

Sad thing is, we'll be swapping one shower of odious bastards for another shower of odious bastards. I wouldn't trust Starmer as far ad I could throw the cnut.

He's a politician but has less malign intent than the Tories.
A bit like Biden and Trump, you can have an unimpressive candidate or an outright dangerous one.

I'd say theres plenty in Gaza who'd say Bidens fair dangerous as well!

Biden hasn't stopped the Israelis in Gaza, but he did not cause it.

a politician that runs on one manifesto intending to do something else is no help.

Well let's examine some of the pledges that Starmer made during his Labour Party leadership contest.

Back then, he pledged to nationalise Water, energy, rail and mail. By 2022, it was announced that Labour, under his leadership, would not nationalise water, energy or rail.

He had a list of other pledges on his website at the time, which included pledges on eg tuition fee abolition. Once he won the leadership, he rowed back on each of the pledges and the info was removed from his website.

Another of his pledges was to "bring back" free movement of people and to defend migrant's rights. By November 2022, he announced his intention to end 'immigration dependency', a stance so right wing that he won the priase of Nigel Farage (he also complained that there are too many foreigners working in the NHS).

He pledged that he would "work shoulder to shoulder with trade unions to stand up for working people". Since taking the party leadership, he banned Labour frontbenchers from attending picket lines and even sacked one of his MPs for standing alongside striking RMT workers.

He pledged to tackle climate change with a £28bn spend. Then he got his bum in the seat and slashed that committment to £4.7bn.

He also pledged to end factionalism in the party and end attacks from within on Jeremy Corbyn, and I don't think I need to say more on how well he stuck to that one.

A leader alone does not determine the party policy. As I said, the party has to propose policies that will get it elected or it will change nothing and free movement of people is a policy that does not seem popular in England.

They're picking games based on the big counties as opposed to the better games. Monaghan/Louth and Cork/Donegal should be on ahead of the Dublin and Kerry games. Showing them hammering other teams does nothing to promote the championship.

They obviously have an objective in getting viewing numbers, but no objective in terms of providing coverage.

Sad thing is, we'll be swapping one shower of odious bastards for another shower of odious bastards. I wouldn't trust Starmer as far ad I could throw the cnut.

Agree with the sentiment.

My fervent hope is that Starmer has been coy in terms of his true intentions with issues such as Brexit, and that once in government, he will look to effectively ditch Brexit, address the desperate situation that the NHS (along with a range of social care services) finds itself in and renationalise things like water and transport.

My fear though is that he will simply be a Tory of a different colour, which will leave a very bleak outlook for us all, that only some sort of longer term seismic shift in politics will address. 

You or I might wish Starmer do you these things. But he believe that people in England do not want this, otherwise he would propose them, and a politician that runs on one manifesto intending to do something else is no help.
However, without having seen the Labour proposals I expect that they will say something about practical cooperation with the EU and this will reduce the damage from Brexit. History shows that the NHS does better under Labour, the problem now is that there is not a lot of money in the bank. Some of the improvement will have to come from better management rather than just more money; the best hospitals, trusts etc perform much better than the worst ones.

My understanding is that Swann, Long and any other minister running will have to step down once Westminster is dissolved (next Friday).  Not doing much for stability in NI.  SF had already announced that no Stormont Minister will run for Westminster, so that's Archibald and O'Dowd (and prob Gildernew) not running in constituencies where they have a high profile.

However, Gildernew is running for the European parliament in the Midlands North West constituency, so not quite committed to Stormont alone.