Topics

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/courts/10-years-on-nally-still-prays-for-raider-he-killed-30693251.html

The book, Unless by Invitation, by West of Ireland journalist Crona Esler, examines in depth the case of farmer Padraig Nally who was jailed for shooting dead John 'Frog' Ward after Ward had tried to raid Nally's isolated homestead in Cross, Co Mayo, 10 years ago this month.

In a forensic examination of the legislation, the Defence and Dwelling Act, eventually passed into law by Alan Shatter in 2012, Ms Esler, Deputy Editor of the Western People, states that what is deemed "reasonable" force under the Act is "subjective and depends on the individual circumstances".

"A person who uses force against an intruder which results in the death of this person, still risks criminal prosecution if the force used is not deemed reasonable by the court or jury," Ms Esler writes.

Esler found that Nally has begun to come to terms with his experience. He felt sorry for John Ward's family and says prayers for the repose of his soul. He received 3,000 letters during his trial and when he returned home he often sat up at night and found he "was crying reading them, there was so much compassion among the people".

[Ireland faces major consequences either way, for which it is ill-prepared. A federalising process would expose Northern Ireland's 40 per cent annual deficit between local taxation and public spending to unfavourable attention elsewhere in the UK – as would Scottish independence. Both options would change the North's constitutional power-sharing structure, involving the Irish Government in fresh negotiations. At some stage Northerners would have to ask whether they might get a better federal deal from a Dublin in the EU than from a London outside it.]

I think this subject will be very interesting to follow over the next few years.
The Tories are giving in to UKIP over Europe. Scotland recently voted 45% against staying in the Union.
The topic of Europe has the potential to tear the Conservative party apart. Any change to the highly centralised UK system will expose the fact that Northern Ireland can't fund itself. Lots of forces at work that threaten the status quo.

Paul Gillespie gives it a good go here

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/uk/the-united-kingdom-faces-a-dual-sovereignty-problem-over-the-next-decade-1.1976170

"The United Kingdom faces a dual sovereignty problem over the next decade

Opinion: Government and peoples must choose how to deliver on promise of deeper devolution to Scotland and whether to withdraw from the EU

Paul Gillespie

Oct 25, 2014, 00:01


The United Kingdom faces a dual sovereignty problem over the next decade as its government and peoples choose how to deliver on the promise to give deeper devolution to Scotland and whether to withdraw from the European Union. These internal and external decisions about the powers and levels of governing will have major consequences for Ireland North and South.

The British constitutional tradition takes sovereignty extremely seriously. It is conventionally defined there as the final and absolute political authority, with none existing elsewhere. This doctrine is built into the idea of the crown in parliament and has driven the development of the British state in its imperial and post-imperial phases. It is exceedingly difficult to escape from, even if in practice sovereignty has been shared internally through devolving powers and externally divided with other states.

Scotland and the EU sharply pose this question. The Scottish referendum campaign on independence hardened public support for all powers of taxation and spending to be held there, with only foreign affairs and defence exercised through Westminster. The vow made by the three pro-union parties acknowledged that and promised to deliver it by January next. But the parties disagree on whether and how to do this, allowing the Scottish nationalists to cry betrayal and open up the independence issue again.

The decisive 55-45 per cent No outcome is therefore conditional on more powers being transferred. And as the vow implies, such a transfer must be constitutionally entrenched if it to convince the Scots it will not be later withdrawn. But that involves departing from the absolute sovereignty doctrine by making a transition towards a federal one involving a combination of shared rule with self-rule.

It is far from clear that Britain's constitutional culture is capable of this transformation, whether doctrinally or in terms of its party system based on first-past-the-post voting for Westminster elections. This is despite the flexibility with which these norms were varied for others – former colonies and devolved administrations. The historical merits of muddling through have reached their limits here; more radical change is required. A British public opinion which wants the union to survive in a looser format is actually well ahead of its political class on the issue.

This internal sovereignty question is intimately linked to the external one concerning EU membership, on which the Conservatives under David Cameron are pledged to hold a referendum in 2017. Since they are more likely to win next year's general election than Labour the vote will be held then – and Labour may also agree to hold it too, even without the EU treaty change they now say is necessary first.

The United Kingdom would probably not survive withdrawal from the EU because this would be decided by an English majority over-ruling presumed preferences to stay in the EU by Scottish, Welsh and Northern Ireland voters. That would reopen the Scottish question, and probably result in a Yes to independence.

An important Ipsos-Mori opinion poll this week showed that British opinion has shifted in favour of staying in the EU by a margin of 56 to 26 per cent, the highest once since 1991. Analysts say this is directly in response to the surge of support for the United Kingdom Independence Party, involving a rejection of its narrow English nationalism and xenophobia.

But much depends on the political, diplomatic and economic contexts in which a referendum is held. The Conservatives are desperately competing with Ukip for marginal seats and on immigration. Cameron is bidding up the terms of EU renegotiation to undeliverable levels, which will affect the government's credibility. And although the EU is low on current lists of the most important issues facing the UK, immigration lies second after the National Health Service and is closely linked.

If muddling through does not promise to resolve the dual sovereignty problem, the UK faces a choice between federalising or breaking up. Its peoples may prefer the former but its leaders may not be able to deliver that.

Ireland faces major consequences either way, for which it is ill-prepared. A federalising process would expose Northern Ireland's 40 per cent annual deficit between local taxation and public spending to unfavourable attention elsewhere in the UK – as would Scottish independence.

Both options would change the North's constitutional power-sharing structure, involving the Irish Government in fresh negotiations. At some stage Northerners would have to ask whether they might get a better federal deal from a Dublin in the EU than from a London outside it.
   "

Throw up a video as well if you can

One of mine was Donaghy communicating with Joe Brolly via the PA system  in Croke Park and Brolly's response

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReOwtTzUAZQ

http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/does-brian-cody-have-to-behave-like-this-1.1947086

It's now well over four years since former GAA president Christy Cooney, in what he described as "the most important launch" of his term of office, unveiled the 'Respect' initiative.
Intended to promote "a new approach of fair play, mutual respect and goodwill to Gaelic football and hurling across all grades," its purpose was to encourage players from juvenile up to compete fairly and respect each other, their mentors and match officials.
Hardly revolutionary in its ambition, the initiative has however been up against one of the most oppressive aspects of Gaelic games: disinclination to accept rules and their enforcement and effective contempt for objectivity. In other words, behaviour that everyone can dispassionately agree is unacceptable becomes a matter of ambivalence if your own team indulges in it.

The disheartening American football precept of "show me a good loser and I'll show you a loser" appears within Gaelic games to have fostered a corollary: "show me a graceless winner and I'll show you a winner".

It's almost as if winning All-Irelands has become a licence to say what you want. A year ago Dublin football manager Jim Gavin after winning the All-Ireland was highly critical of what he felt was an inexplicable disparity between frees conceded by his team and those awarded to them.
He explained the timing of his grievances. "In defeat it's not the place to be saying it so we were never going to bring it up before this unless we were in a position where we could mention it."

A year before that Donegal manager Jim McGuinness used the occasion of his post-All-Ireland media conference to pick on a journalist who had done nothing dishonourable but had written a book which didn't have McGuinness's blessing.

Yet the guv'nor in such matters – as in most aspects of All-Ireland success – is Kilkenny hurling manager Brian Cody. It would be difficult to overstate the scale of Cody's achievements over a 16-year period. His 10 All-Ireland victories are a record for a GAA manager and equalled on the field only by the greatest player of this, or perhaps any, generation Henry Shefflin.

There was much admiration for the manner in which Cody won the battle of wits in the All-Ireland final replay and the manner in which he sent out a team, many of whom have gorged on success, at perfect mental pitch for the challenge.

For many that sentiment turned to dismay when it emerged that the Kilkenny manager had used a press conference, 24 hours later, to attempt to discredit referee Barry Kelly, who had officiated at last month's drawn final and whose award of a free to Tipperary in the dying seconds was much disputed by Kilkenny. Maybe Cody feels, like Gavin, that this is the best time to raise such matters but it causes widespread disappointment – All-Ireland champions are after all admired by a large proportion of the GAA public and especially when they are historically great teams like Kilkenny.

In an interview after the 2009 All-Ireland triumph against Tipperary, which made Kilkenny the first county in 65 years to record a four-in-a-row, Cody was asked – entirely reasonably – by RTÉ's Marty Morrissey for his views on the controversial late penalty that had turned the match.

The Kilkenny manager replied that you'd be busy if you decided to readjudicate all of the frees in a match. There followed: "Did you think yourself it was a penalty, Marty?"
"I wasn't too sure but it did seem a little bit dodgy in the replay."
"I have no idea, Marty. Did you check all the other frees as well to see were they dodgy? [Uneasy laughter] Maybe you should. Maybe you
should."
"What did you think of the referee overall; do you think he allowed a lot to go?
"Marty, please, give me a break. The referee – we're supposed to say nothing about referees and I make a habit of saying absolutely nothing about referees. Diarmuid Kirwan, I'm certain in my head was going out to be the very best he possibly could be. You seem to have had a problem with him. You tell me."

What we can deduce from this is some striking double standards. When a controversial decision has benefited Kilkenny, Cody rigorously opts to say "absolutely nothing" about the referee beyond that he went out "to be the very best he possibly could be".
When however the controversial call – and for the purposes of the argument I'm saying nothing about the merits of either refereeing decision – adversely affects Kilkenny, it's alright to launch a swingeing public attack on the match official.

Furthermore if a late decision that went your way might be incorrect, then what about all of the other decisions in the match; in other words, swings and roundabouts. If however a late decision that you deem incorrect goes against Kilkenny that's "criminal".
As a postscript, it's worth noting that Kilkenny clearly have issues with Barry Kelly in respect of controversies in the past three years: the late free that led to Galway's equaliser in the drawn 2012 All-Ireland final, the two yellow cards that led to Henry Shefflin's dismissal in last year's All-Ireland quarter-final and this year's drawn final.

Equally, though, it's worth remembering that in two of these cases the controversies have been amplified by Kilkenny themselves with Cody's comments this week and the decision a year ago to challenge the Shefflin sending-off even though it didn't carry a direct suspension.
The decision by the Central Hearings Committee to rescind the first yellow card was dubious in that it involved re-refereeing the incident rather than demonstrating that it hadn't happened.

Despite these controversies, Croke Park haven't yielded to the obvious push to get the Westmeath referee excluded from taking Kilkenny matches.
Ideally Brian Cody would simply apologise to Barry Kelly, let the matter go and spend the winter enjoying his unique achievement but what are the chances of that?
There's nothing unusual about ultra-successful people sometimes behaving unreasonably. Only one man has managed a county to 10 All-Irelands so we don't have a comparator to help adjudicate whether Cody's achievements are inseparable from his taste for settling scores.
But you'd hope not

What do you think ?

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/asia-pacific/calm-descends-as-hong-kong-protesters-await-response-1.1947908

Protesters are calling for Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying to step down. Mr Leung faces a challenge in trying to balance the situation. A serious crackdown could damage confidence in Hong Kong as a financial centre, but a weak response could encourage democracy activists in mainland China, and anger Beijing.

He said that Hong Kong police would be able to maintain security without help from People's Liberation Army (PLA) troops from the mainland.

Beijing has declared the protests illegal and made its opposition clear.

"In today's China, engaging in an election system of one-man-one-vote is bound to quickly lead to turmoil, unrest and even a situation of civil war," the deputy director of China's National People's Congress Internal and Judicial Affairs Committee, Li Shenming, wrote in the People's Daily, the Communist Party's mouthpiece. The Beijing leadership has been censoring news and social media comments about the Hong Kong demonstrations.

Throw up any other issues you think are worth a mention

Will they walk it next year ? 500 to 1 on at the moment but 365 days to go so prices might go out a bit. 

Is it

a) a publishing company
b) a wardrobe in the 4 Courts
c) something to do with basketball
d) PR for the artist formerly known as Puke football 

[63]

The idea is to discuss the effect of serious money on pro sport in Europe, specifically soccer and rugby. 
It could be a place to find reference documents as well.

eg UEFA benchmarking report

http://www.uefa.org/MultimediaFiles/Download/Tech/uefaorg/General/01/99/91/07/1999107_DOWNLOAD.pdf

Annual turnover of teams in Champions League, page 36

<1 m        63 clubs from 24 countries
1<10m      79 clubs from 36 countries
10<50      51 clubs from 25 countries
50<100     20 clubs from 14 countries
100<500   23 clubs from 8 countries
> 500        1 club

Anyone got any good ideas? This goes down very well in our house

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-dl9KTYAVk

Can LFC be compared to Mayo or is it something different ?

Hard to believe how different things were 30 years ago

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/the-case-of-the-kerry-babies-1.1759242

As Morgan Kelly said recently, catholic hegemony brought very little to the 26 counties other than a sense of duty

What age were you?
Who was playing, what year  ?
Who did you go with ?
Do you remember anything about it ?

Great hurler in his day but he seems to be more like Sancho Panza to Cody's Don Quixote these days

http://www.rte.ie/sport/gaa/hurling/2012/0914/337583-keher-disappointment-at-cannings-comments/

"Fellas from Kilkenny get belted and just get up, get on with the game and that's the kind of manly behaviour I like to see in hurling. Don't be lying down looking for the free or for fellas to be carded."

Don't be lying down there concussed like a woman - get the f**k up and hurl on. The VHI will sort it out after the match.

"Everyone is getting at Kilkenny for the last while, trying to turn everything against us."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-DeI3ohVbY

http://www.rte.ie/sport/gaa/hurling/2014/0217/504912-keher/

"I never agreed with the use of cards. They were introduced in 1970 in the soccer World Cup which was a wise decision because of the language barrier. "It enabled referees to communicate better with the players of various countries.

http://www.ffs.ch/home.html

I reckon there is comedy gold there this year if he can be flushed out of Nolan Park and back on to RTE. The bait would have to be some comment about Kilkenny dirt, or  series of comments. Who would be the best person to deliver it ? It could either be on a comedy thing that went viral or from some hurling legend.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TG2t6N9xN0

http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/neil-francis-apologises-over-remarks-on-gay-people-and-sports-1.1695229

He took up an offer from Matt Cooper to go on his Today FM show The Last Word along with Welsh referee Nigel Owens, who came out as gay in 2005, initially to family and friends and then to the wider rugby community in 2007, prior to the Rugby World Cup.

"When you have people of Neil's stature coming out and saying these comments I don't think people realise what an influence they have. A lot of young people out there who are finding it difficult to deal with the issues, dealing with who they are, it (remarks like those) have a huge influence.

"We don't want to go out and shout it from the rooftops that we are gay, we just want to be ourselves and get on with our lives.

"It is a very sad world when you think that an individual has to choose between, 'can I carry on with my sport,' or 'can I carry on with who I am'. . . it is a very sad state that someone has to make that choice.

Tipp off to a good start and the hurling season is on. Discuss

Take one GAA clip and a song that you think goes well with it and throw them up here

Punters can run the 2 in parallel (perhaps not at work)  and then we can all judge the best combo 


For example

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FRTilzJ084
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cX8szNPgrEs

2 big teams here, one without a pitch, the other without any money ,
living off fumes, very demanding supporters- it should be a classic

Is Mata the new Seanie ?
Are the Co Board as inept/greedy as the Glazers ?

call Newstalk now

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/jan/22/nicolas-anelka-quenelle-drop-charges-fa-facebook

Nicolas Anelka has posted a call on his Facebook site for the Football Association to drop its charges over the quenelle, insisting he is neither racist nor antisemitic.
The message, which he put up in French, roughly translates as: "The English football federation hired an expert to rule on the meaning of my quenelle ... The latter concluded that my gesture had an antisemitic connotation, which led to my indictment by the FA.
"It would have been legitimate had the expert been French, living in France, and that could have an exact knowledge of my gesture.
"What better expert than Mr Cukierman, president of CRIF (Conseil Représentatif France Jewish Institutions), which explains it very clearly that my quenelle could not be considered to be antisemitic!

"He also explained in detail when this gesture could have such a connotation.
"I therefore ask the English federation to kindly remove the charges of which I'm accused. And I repeat, I am neither antisemitic nor racist."
On Tuesday night Anelka had tweeted a link to a video on the website of Le Figaro in which Cukierman said the quenelle was only antisiemitic if performed in front of a Jewish institution such as a synagogue.That came in the wake of the FA charges, which meant the West Brom striker could be facing a substantial ban after being charged with making a gesture that was "abusive and/or indecent and/or insulting and/or improper".The FA took guidance an unnamed expert before concluding that Anelka's goal celebration at West Ham United on 28 December ought to be a matter for disciplinary action. Anelka has claimed his quenelle is an anti-establishment gesture in support of the French comedian Dieudonné M'bala M'bala, who is banned from public appearances in France.
If the case is proved, a minimum five-game ban would automatically follow because of the new FA guidelines surrounding Rule E3, when the alleged offence is aggravated by "a reference to ethnic origin and/or race and/or religion or belief".
Anelka has until 6pm on Thursday to respond to the charge, although there is a chance he might ask for an extension to that deadline.
Dieudonné has been prosecuted by the French government for insulting the memory of Holocaust victims, and Anelka's quenelle has already led to West Brom's shirt sponsors, Zoopla, co-owned by the Jewish businessman Alex Chesterman, announcing that it will not renew its £3m-a-year agreement this summer.
On Wednesday another two of West Brom's key sponsors said they were considering withdrawing their backing from the club.
Jack Wolfskin, an outdoor clothing, footwear and equipment specialist, and Holler watches, Albion's official timing partner, have confirmed they may follow the example taken by Zoopla.
A statement issued by Jack Wolfskin said the company was "following the developments closely, but has not taken a decision yet".
It continued: "The FA is waiting for a statement from Nicolas Anelka before coming to a final judgment.
"We consider the charges as serious and strongly disapprove of any gestures or statements which are meant to discriminate a single person, or a certain group of people.
We are now awaiting the judgment of the Football Association before taking further steps.

"Depending on what our partner West Brom says, which measures they take and considering our legal possibilities, we would consider ending our sponsorship as one option."

In its own statement, Holler said: "We currently have a contract until the end of the season with West Bromwich Albion.

"We will be reviewing the situation with regards to whether we extend that after this season."

The kit supplier Adidas, on the other hand, said it was firmly behind the club. A spokesperson said: "Adidas is wholly opposed to extremism of any kind and has made this clear to the club.
"However, this is a disciplinary matter for the club and we remain fully supportive of West Bromwich Albion in handling this matter in conjunction with the FA."We remain committed to West Bromwich Albion, and look forward to continuing our partnership."

Never mind the flegs. Feel the quality .