Paddy Heaney of the irish news!

[crossfire]

Is Paddy a one trick pony? Gaelic football and nothing else? A bit like The Irish News.

They claim that the majority of the people who read it are Footballers so thats why they publicise it more. Which is a cop out in my opinion

To generate interest in a sport (like hurling) the Irish News and other Media should promote both sports equally.

Gaelic Life is worse again, two pages in total!!!

But i do like some of his work, he can be a bit smug at times. And claim things he never done (standing on his seat at the boxing match, cheering and clapping on McCloskey) but thats ok, some of us do that here

to be fair there are regular pieces and columnists about hurling. Sands for instance.

The simple fact of the matter is that hurling is not terribly popular in the North and the overwhelmingly vast majority of readers are either primarily interested in or solely interested in football. This is called a target audience.

Why should the Irish News promote hurling with equal coverage to football? They are trying to sell papers and their audience is a mainly football one. If they are going to promote equality should they have 1 page for football, 1 for hurling, 1 for road bowls, 1 for handball, 1 for soccer, 1 for swimming, 1 for rugby?

Irish News claims to be number one for Gaelic Games, i'd agree that they number one for Gaelic Football. Sands gets one page once a week!!!

i'd like to see the break down on how Gaa members in Ulster play hurling and football. and how many play just the one. In Belfast alone we have only 2/3 single code clubs at senior level (they may have juvenile hurling teams) from 22 clubs. how many club in all of Fermanagh in total? so the target audience is there. but we are being short changed.

I've been playing both sports since i was 10 (still do!!) so while my main passion is hurling i still enjoy playing football

sell papers for the target audience is fine but stop claiming they are NUMBER ONE FOR GAELIC GAMES then

Well if they are not, who is then ?.

[eireogatron]

Is Paddy a one trick pony? Gaelic football and nothing else? A bit like The Irish News.

They claim that the majority of the people who read it are Footballers so thats why they publicise it more. Which is a cop out in my opinion

To generate interest in a sport (like hurling) the Irish News and other Media should promote both sports equally.

Gaelic Life is worse again, two pages in total!!!

But i do like some of his work, he can be a bit smug at times. And claim things he never done (standing on his seat at the boxing match, cheering and clapping on McCloskey) but thats ok, some of us do that here

to be fair there are regular pieces and columnists about hurling. Sands for instance.

The simple fact of the matter is that hurling is not terribly popular in the North and the overwhelmingly vast majority of readers are either primarily interested in or solely interested in football. This is called a target audience.

Why should the Irish News promote hurling with equal coverage to football? They are trying to sell papers and their audience is a mainly football one. If they are going to promote equality should they have 1 page for football, 1 for hurling, 1 for road bowls, 1 for handball, 1 for soccer, 1 for swimming, 1 for rugby?

Irish News claims to be number one for Gaelic Games, i'd agree that they number one for Gaelic Football. Sands gets one page once a week!!!

i'd like to see the break down on how Gaa members in Ulster play hurling and football. and how many play just the one. In Belfast alone we have only 2/3 single code clubs at senior level (they may have juvenile hurling teams) from 22 clubs. how many club in all of Fermanagh in total? so the target audience is there. but we are being short changed.

I've been playing both sports since i was 10 (still do!!) so while my main passion is hurling i still enjoy playing football

sell papers for the target audience is fine but stop claiming they are number one for Gaelic Games then

who gives better coverage? IN may not give as much to hurling as you want but its still the market leader for Gaelic Games in the North of Ireland.

[Milltown Row2]

Is Paddy a one trick pony? Gaelic football and nothing else? A bit like The Irish News.

They claim that the majority of the people who read it are Footballers so thats why they publicise it more. Which is a cop out in my opinion

To generate interest in a sport (like hurling) the Irish News and other Media should promote both sports equally.

Gaelic Life is worse again, two pages in total!!!

But i do like some of his work, he can be a bit smug at times. And claim things he never done (standing on his seat at the boxing match, cheering and clapping on McCloskey) but thats ok, some of us do that here

to be fair there are regular pieces and columnists about hurling. Sands for instance.

The simple fact of the matter is that hurling is not terribly popular in the North and the overwhelmingly vast majority of readers are either primarily interested in or solely interested in football. This is called a target audience.
Why should the Irish News promote hurling with equal coverage to football? They are trying to sell papers and their audience is a mainly football one. If they are going to promote equality should they have 1 page for football, 1 for hurling, 1 for road bowls, 1 for handball, 1 for soccer, 1 for swimming, 1 for rugby?

Irish News claims to be number one for Gaelic Games, I'd agree that they number one for Gaelic Football. Sands gets one page once a week!!!

i'd like to see the break down on how Gaa members in Ulster play hurling and football. and how many play just the one. In Belfast alone we have only 2/3 single code clubs at senior level (they may have juvenile hurling teams) from 22 clubs. how many club in all of Fermanagh in total? so the target audience is there. but we are being short changed.

I've been playing both sports since i was 10 (still do!!) so while my main passion is hurling i still enjoy playing football

sell papers for the target audience is fine but stop claiming they are number one for Gaelic Games then

who gives better coverage? IN may not give as much to hurling as you want but its still the market leader for Gaelic Games in the North of Ireland.

its this statement that is annoying. as you clearly know that the 'overwhelmingly vast majority' of the readers are into football

can you back that up with figures?  in Antrim alone there are 40 clubs with I'd say Irish News readers that play both football and hurling. so in one County alone the vast majority of of its readers are getting short changed. I'll not get into the figures of the other counties. i know it drops but that is a sizeable audience

[screenexile]

Is Paddy a one trick pony? Gaelic football and nothing else? A bit like The Irish News.

They claim that the majority of the people who read it are Footballers so thats why they publicise it more. Which is a cop out in my opinion

To generate interest in a sport (like hurling) the Irish News and other Media should promote both sports equally.

Gaelic Life is worse again, two pages in total!!!

But i do like some of his work, he can be a bit smug at times. And claim things he never done (standing on his seat at the boxing match, cheering and clapping on McCloskey) but thats ok, some of us do that here

to be fair there are regular pieces and columnists about hurling. Sands for instance.

The simple fact of the matter is that hurling is not terribly popular in the North and the overwhelmingly vast majority of readers are either primarily interested in or solely interested in football. This is called a target audience.
Why should the Irish News promote hurling with equal coverage to football? They are trying to sell papers and their audience is a mainly football one. If they are going to promote equality should they have 1 page for football, 1 for hurling, 1 for road bowls, 1 for handball, 1 for soccer, 1 for swimming, 1 for rugby?

Irish News claims to be number one for Gaelic Games, I'd agree that they number one for Gaelic Football. Sands gets one page once a week!!!

i'd like to see the break down on how Gaa members in Ulster play hurling and football. and how many play just the one. In Belfast alone we have only 2/3 single code clubs at senior level (they may have juvenile hurling teams) from 22 clubs. how many club in all of Fermanagh in total? so the target audience is there. but we are being short changed.

I've been playing both sports since i was 10 (still do!!) so while my main passion is hurling i still enjoy playing football

sell papers for the target audience is fine but stop claiming they are number one for Gaelic Games then

who gives better coverage? IN may not give as much to hurling as you want but its still the market leader for Gaelic Games in the North of Ireland.

its this statement that is annoying. as you clearly know that the 'overwhelmingly vast majority' of the readers are into football

can you back that up with figures?  in Antrim alone there are 40 clubs with I'd say Irish News readers that play both football and hurling. so in one County alone the vast majority of of its readers are getting short changed. I'll not get into the figures of the other counties. i know it drops but that is a sizeable audience

There you go! You've spotted a gap in the market... why don't you fill it and see how much profit you make by introducing a Hurling Publication into Ulster! Not very much I would reckon.

The Irish News are a well established business and their coverage reflects this... Say for example there are 500 odd clubs in Ulster with maybe less than 1/5 of that being Hurling/Dual Clubs.... then their coverage would reflect this.

Trust me if it meant getting a sizeable amount of new readers the Irish news would cover more hurling like a shot.

My own view is that their Hurling Coverage is more than adequate. Our Minor Hurlers won Ulster there and had a sizeable half page on it. Should St. Gall's win the hurling then I'm sure they will get decent coverage also.

Given the actual popularity of Ulster Hurling with players/supporters and its lack of quality on the National Stage I think they get more coverage than they probably should.

[Milltown Row2]

Aye cheers screen i'll look into that gap in the market...... Nob

coverage at best of Hurling in the Irish News is shite, thats a fair reflection.

[eireogatron]

i think the point is that if there was more interest in hurling, there would be more coverage.

I dont think its a pre conceived idea by the Irish News to annoy the hurling fraternity.

PS your previous statement on the popularity of hurling is balls. Theres little to no hurling in Donegal, Armagh, Tyrone, most of Down, Monaghan, Cavan. There is interest in parts of Derry, Down and Fermanagh and admitedly a sizeable interest in Antrim. However, in these places there is also (for the most part) equal or greater interest in football.

I'm not getting down on hurling or belittling it but just trying to point out that it is nowhere near football in terms of following or popularity in Ulster. I dont see how this can possibly be disputed. People who try to argue otherwise are kidding themselves on.

Look at the individual club championships in each county and then Ulster and then at the inter county scene of both codes and you'll see the difference. In hurling Armagh and Derry played an Ulster semi in front of about 500 spectators this year did they not? How many attended the Ulster Final, a couple of thousand? Thats a bad return for even a McKenna Cup match.

Hurling is on its arse in Ulster bar 1 or 2 club sides, thats the sad truth of the matter unfortunately.

[Milltown Row2]

i think the point is that if there was more interest in hurling, there would be more coverage.

I dont think its a pre conceived idea by the Irish News to annoy the hurling fraternity.

PS your previous statement on the popularity of hurling is balls. Theres little to no hurling in Donegal, Armagh, Tyrone, most of Down, Monaghan, Cavan. There is interest in parts of Derry, Down and Fermanagh and admitedly a sizeable interest in Antrim. However, in these places there is also (for the most part) equal or greater interest in football.

I'm not getting down on hurling or belittling it but just trying to point out that it is nowhere near football in terms of following or popularity in Ulster. I dont see how this can possibly be disputed. People who try to argue otherwise are kidding themselves on.

Look at the individual club championships in each county and then Ulster and then at the inter county scene of both codes and you'll see the difference. In hurling Armagh and Derry played an Ulster semi in front of about 500 spectators this year did they not? How many attended the Ulster Final, a couple of thousand? Thats a bad return for even a McKenna Cup match.

Hurling is on its arse in Ulster bar 1 or 2 club sides, thats the sad truth of the matter unfortunately.

and will continue to be unless it gets proper coverage. generate interest and it will become popular. stick it away in the corner and eventually it will die out.

[eireogatron]

yeah, you might very well have a point there. however, is this the responsibility of the Irish News or the Hurling Council / GAA?? What is being done by the organisation to turn the tide with regard to schools/clubs etc and traditionally non-hurling Gaels being brought into hurling? I for one have never had any opportunity to play the sport, be educated on it etc.

Thats where the problem lies IMO, not with the media. Although I understand your frustration.

[Minder]

The thing that annoys me about the hurling coverage in the Irish News is the standard of journalism when there is coverage. The main one seems to be the fella O'Hara, going by his reports he knows as much about hurling as my arse does about snipe shooting.

[blanketattack]

Anyone else having problems accessing the irishnews website http://www.irishnews.com

[Minder]

Anyone else having problems accessing the irishnews website http://www.irishnews.com

Aye, I want to access it without paying for it but they are having none of it.

[thewobbler]

and will continue to be unless it gets proper coverage. generate interest and it will become popular. stick it away in the corner and eventually it will die out.

This is a bit of a cart before the horse scenario. It's not the role of a private newspaper to generate content that doesn't interest its readership. To this end the Irish News is no more responsible for providing a balanced hurling content than the Newsletter is.

Hurling folk in the North always cry foul about a lack of funding, coverage and equality for their game. I would suggest they should concentrate this energy on improving thier base product.  If Ballygalget can get within a hair's breadth of defeating a star-studded Newtownshandrum side, it would suggest the playing gap isn't quite as big as the quite frankly ridiculous series of defeats suffered by Down and Antrim in recent years infers. So do the problems lie elsewhere? Are hurling folk unable or unwilling to come together as a team? For when an Ulster hurling team does rise from the ashes as National level, it will be a bigger boon for the game than 10,000 bylines from Paddy Heaney would be.

[Minder]

I think there were 3 from that Newtownshandrum team that had represented Cork. Two O'Connors and Mulcahy. There is a world of difference between club and inter county hurling.

The gaps in standards between Antrim and Down and the strong counties down south is as big as the beatings suggest.

[Out in Front]

From Down/Armagh  - getting weekly hurling fixtures/results, league tables, club championship dates and venues would be a start...at all grades...not just senior.

Clubs have to take responsibility too if they want to promote hurling through the local media...and not just when they win a match.

[longrunsthefox]

Heaney has really surpassed himself today... hyping up Derry.
You'd think he'd have more sense, but his analogy about foxes is way out.
He says, "A study revealed that 26 per cent of trapped foxes chewed their limbs off in order to avoid capture."
Then goes on to waffle about wild young foxes on the Derry team.
ffs.. how many foxes have you ever seen with a limb missing? I've never encountered that and know a lot more about foxes than the average GAA supporter.  Seen a boy on the Late Late Show who cut off his own arm when caught in a rock in a mountain. As usual with Derry league v championship  form and fox analogies... Paddy doesn't look at their record.