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Great to still be in The Championship in August

Using the logic that appears to have been used earlier, sHould the Michaela McCollum thread not have been removed as well?  I fail to see the difference

Ipad has gone on the blink just 21 days after the guarantee expired. A hardware problem. They want £169 to repair it. Has anyone ever had a similar experience?

Methinks I have heard this guy's right wing rantings before so who is he?

That absolute 'Game for a Laugh' tosspot Henry, I'm about 70 but I miraculously still have brown hair, Kelly was on BBC NI Let's Talk last night. He made an absolute tit of himself, although why BBC had him on in the first place defeats me. As regards nepotism in NI politics he referred back to the good old days when Daddy the printer got son into the newspaper, in other words the Harland and Wolff recruiting methods. He then went on to suggest that type of corruption we're seeing in politics in NI at the moment is no real problem and at least its an improvement on what went before. A total asshole

Teachers seem to have an uncanny knack of doing things the hard way. My missus is a teacher and each Summer and Christmas she sets exams for her pupils.

However when it cones to marking them it always takes her ages because instead of ensuring that the  total marks available for the exam are 100 or a figure which easily multiplies up to 100 she always leaves it that total number of marks available is some obscure number so that she has to use a calculator to work out the percentages for each pupil.

There's no doubt about it if there's a hard way and an easy way to do something teachers will always pick the hard way.

Gerry Ryan, he's like Marmite, you either love him or you hate him. Some say he's the housewives choice and there's no doubt there are many frustrated women out there who like nothing better than to have Gerry fill their slot between 9 and 12 each day.

However there are others who suggest that after 30 years doing exactly the same job he's boring and stale and caught in a timewarp where he still thinks its cool to say words like shoite, feck and bollix and to boast about drinking his own piss over the airwaves.

So what do you think, do you think he's still a talented 'tell it as it is' broadcaster who's prepared to fearlessly take on the establishment on our behalf or is he an overpaid geriatric tosspot who still thinks he's a teenage rebel.

We want to hear your views as we ask the burning question: 'Is Gerry Ryan's played out?'

Civil Servants, the country's full of them, North and South. These are the people who, since time began, have been keeping the wheels of Government turning and apart from the odd faux pas when a couple of computer discs containing the personal details of 25 million people might accidentally get lost or a planning official is discovered to be taking backhanders from developers in turn for granting planning permissions in the Dublin green belt, these people are doing a brilliant job.

Gone are the old stereotypical images of Civil Servants spending all day drinking tea, reading newspapers and doing crossword puzzles,  today's Civil Servant is fully IT literate and their offices reverberate to the sound of clicking computer mice as they go about their daily routine of work, work and more work.

But is everything as it seems? There are those who suggest that Civil Servants have simply swapped the tea break for the smoking break, the newspaper for the internet bookies and the crossword puzzle for the odd hand or two of Solitaire.  So what do you think? Is this a fair assessment or is this way off the mark? We want to hear your views.

Perhaps you're a highly successful property developer who owes your fortune to the flexibility of Civil Servants to amend development plans to accommodate your needs or maybe you're unemployed and once had to miss an opening time in your local because the old Giro didn't arrive in time? We want to hear your views as we ask the question...Is the Civil Service shite??

Women, love them or hate them you just can't ignore them and despite a rather inauspicious start to their time on this planet when, at a very early stage,  they fell for the banter and sales patter of a talking serpent  they've recovered quite well and it's now clear that women are here to stay.

This is becoming increasingly more evident in all walks of life including this message board where questions such as 'What should I get my girlfriend for Christmas, and even 'How do we refer to females' are cropping up at an alarming rate.

Women are an asset and it's important therefore that we men get full use out of them but the question is how? Unlike a top of the range Mercedes which is beautiful, slim line, obedient and reliable and therefore easy to operate to its full capability women are much more complicated.

With their wide range of sizes, appearances and temperament there is no obvious one size fits all solution. What might work, for instance with the quiet Irish rose type such as Michaela Harte or Dana would have little success over a foul mouthed, vixen, fish wife such as Cheryll McCullough or an articulate super bitch and alleged crook like Beverley Cooper Flynn.

So what should we do?  Perhaps the flattery gets you everywhere approach used to such great success by the serpent in the Garden of Eden is the way to go or should we simply adopt the alleged Oisin McConville tactic and give the bitch a good decking. Vote now and have your say in this great debate as we ask the question how should we treat our women?

It's a well known fact that we all have, to a greater or lesser degree, a morbid fascination with violence and bloodletting.    From the old Granny prepared to throw her false teeth at Mick McManus the wrestler, to the vast number of neutrals who queue up at turnstiles to get a glimpse off GAA matches such as Kilcoo v Castlewellan or  Cullyhanna v  everyone, to the kinky gent glued to the female mud fighting on the Men and Motors channel all get a kick of watching two or more warriors slugging it out. 

And this GAA Board is no different.     Over the past number of months we've witnessed various spats most of which fall into the handbags at 40 paces category, however more recently we've seen a war develop, and fought through various threads, involving Pints of Guinness and Snowed Under fought at an intensity that would have Ger Cavlan and the Farmers Boys running for ringside seats. 

Both are angry men, and some of us who have dared to step in between them have been hit with a stray blow or two, but who is the angriest?     Might it be Pints of Guinness who hails from Silverbridge and is a self confessed hater of almost everything, or perhaps Snowed Under who hails from ...... Chez Snowed Under...... an overworked protector of  the young mother wishing only to display a Baby on Board sticker on the rear window of her Volvo estate and struggling to manoeuvre her kids through crowded shopping centre car parks.

Get out there and vote in this latest poll as we try to establish who is the angrier Pints or Snowed

With their 5 All Ireland titles and their proud Croke Park tradition Down are the envy of many counties in this fine Nation. However it has been suggested by some that this high level of success is wasted on a county whose supporters are allegedly too mean to spend money and enjoy themselves.

It's a well known fact that unlike most other All Ireland winning counties, whose supporters can be still seen at closing time on All Ireland Final day propping up the bars in hostelries such as Quinn's, The Big Tree and McGrath's, Down fans like nothing better than a quick cup of tea and a couple of salad sandwiches - finished off perhaps (for the more extravagant of them) with a McCann's of Newry pastry - by the boot of the car before hot tailing it down the road in time for the Sunday Game. Not for them the boast about how many pints they had before falling into a coma, they prefer to brag about how quickly they made it home and whether or not they were sitting down to their tea as the Angelus Bell rang on RTE 1.

So what is your experience of Down supporters?  Perhaps you're a barman in Dublin who was sent home early because of lack of business on the third Sunday of September in 1991 and again in 1994.  Maybe you're a baker in Newry who, in the days before the matches, made a packet from overtime working to cater for the increased demand for sliced loaves in the Frontier Town or a green grocer in Downpatrick who ran out of Iceberg Lettuce by lunchtime on the preceeding Saturday?  We urgently seek your views as we ask the burring question......Are Down supporters tight arses?

Some say he's a brilliant rock star, frontman of our finest musical export and a modern day prophet. Others say he's a pontificating self publicist whose personal actions don't always suggest that he practices what he preaches. So what do you think? Now's your chance to vote in this exclusive poll as we try to answer, once and for all, the long running question - Is Bono a bollix

I note that U2 have moved part of their business from the Ireland to the Netherlands for tax reasons. This after they have benefited for years from paying a much reduced tax bill thanks to Charlie Haughey's 1969 policy which exempted all 'creative' work from tax. I'm definitely not paying that speeding fine now and some of those who voted that I should might want to review their decision

My youngest, aged just under 13 has asked for one of these clubs for Christmas. I've just discovered it costs over £200. Anyone know a good place to buy golf clubs?

As many of you know I was done for speeding just close to the outskirts of Castlefin in Co Donegal. The fixed penalty notice arrived today on my birthday. I was going to pay it without question but thanks to the helpful comments of Tankie and GNevin I'm now not so sure as to whether I should pay or not. The results of this poll will determine the outcome

Whilst driving home from Donegal got done for speeding just coming out of Castlefin. No excuse really other that I'd been behind two old biddys since Ballybofey and it was the first chance I got to overtake them. Doing 91 in a 50 just yards from the end of the 50 limit. No penalty points as I'm from the North but I will get a fixed penalty fine. Are those things enforceable in the North?

Sainsbury's doing 3 x18 tin cases of Tennants for £20

This from the BBC Northern Ireland web site.  I'll not sleep tonight

The future of Windsor Park as the national stadium is under threat with an expert report set to propose that the South Stand be closed from January.
The report could lead to the stadium capacity being cut by 4,000 to just 9,000 on health and safety grounds.

The move would heighten fears that future international games may have to be played outside Northern Ireland.

Millions of pounds are needed to upgrade Windsor as any new national stadium would take years to construct.

The report was commissioned by Linfield and the Irish Football Association and IFA chief executive Howard Wells told the Sunday Life that "it sounds as though our worst fears are about to be confirmed".

"We are still awaiting a costing on the work required to keep Windsor up to the basic standard required to host international football with no idea where the money is coming from," he told the newspaper.

"Somewhere along the line the Government and our local politicians are going to have to come to a decision on the National Stadium issue."

Debate continues to rage over the site of any new national stadium with the Maze the Government's preferred option.

From the BBC web site:

Ireland is the best place to live in the world, according to a "quality of life" assessment by Economist magazine.
The country's combination of increasing wealth and traditional values gives it the conditions most likely to make its people happy, the survey found.

Ireland was followed by Switzerland, Norway and Luxembourg. All but one of the top 10 were European countries.

The USA languished in 13th, while Britain was 29th - the lowest of the pre-expansion EU nations.

'TOP TEN COUNTRIES'
1 Ireland
2 Switzerland
3 Norway
4 Luxembourg
5 Sweden
6 Australia
7 Iceland
8 Italy
9 Denmark
10 Spain

The survey was prepared for the Economist's World in 2005 publication, with the remit: "Where will be the best place to live in 2005?"

Researchers took into account not just income, but other factors considered important to people's satisfaction and well-being.

They included health, freedom, unemployment, family life, climate, political stability and security, gender equality and family and community life.

The Economist said: "Ireland wins because it successfully combines the most desirable elements of the new, such as low unemployment and political liberties, with the preservation of certain cosy elements of the old, such as stable family and community life."

The magazine admits that measuring quality of life is not a straightforward thing to do, and that its findings will have their critics - "except, of course, in Ireland".

Breakdown in Britain

The Republic has made significant gains from its membership of the EU, earning the soubriquet Celtic Tiger for its economic progress.

Commentators say it is widely admired by the EU's newest members, and has become a model for what they hope to achieve.

Although European nations generally do well in the survey, the continent's major industrial powers of France, Germany and Britain finish 25th, 26th and 29th respectively.

The researchers said although the UK achieved high income per head, it had high levels of social and family breakdown.

The worst of the 111 countries to live in was considered to be Zimbabwe, "where things have gone from bad to worse under [President] Robert Mugabe".