Messages

Twitter................. Who the feck wants to know what someone had for their breakfast or what they seen up the town. Twitter is for nosey people as is Facebook.

Players shouldn't be getting abuse, can they just let the firends they know see what they update? Why do they want Joe Bloggs up the road to know what they think about something....... It eventually leads to slagging.

Quick question- does this entitle free entry to club finals day in croke park on St$Patricks day?

No luck again today! Damn ye the Offaly hurlers!! Waiting on them for 5/1 acc and were coasting according to RTE Aertel until closing stages. Mind ye Aertel is terrible at updating scores so maybe it was closer than throughout the game than ye think!!

Catríona Ruane: You need to swing more to the left Enda.

Enda: You need to learn how to serve.

Enda: 'Oh I do enjoy this upperclass version of that dreadful hurling game.'

Only a couple of weeks ago, the leader of the DUP was at the McKenna Cup Final in Armagh in a PR exercise to show how we are "Moving On". Plenty of photo's, and good TV. Yet, when it comes to this band parade, his party supports it.

Since Himself and McGuiness milked the shit out of the McKenna Cup, then maybe they could be in Armagh once again together on St Patricks Day and stand together as a St Patricks Day parade moves around the town, and then 40 bands later in the day.

Tell us then how we are "Moving On".....

Oh wait, no chance of that happening as they will probably be standing beside Obama, telling the gombeems listening that we are "Moving On" as they wear shamrocks.

Pathetic, the whole fecking thing, and the losers are the genuine people who want to live together and put this nonsense behind us.

Giver er Dixie, ye bring up and intersting point. That annoys the bejesus out of me every year, here SF and SDLP call themselves socialists and working class people and they are standing beside the biggest capitalist and dictator in the world - the US President (with all his cronies). No doubt these trips cost an absolute fortune to the tax payer, I would have more repsect for them if they stood by a young mother who his getting fucked out of her house in Belfast or Derry on the same day.

A US soldier in Afghanistan opened fire on civilians after walking off his base in the southern province of Kandahar.
Provincial governor Tooryalai Weesa told the BBC 10 people had died and five were wounded in the shooting.
The soldier is reported to have suffered a nervous breakdown before the attack. He has since surrended himself to the US military authorities.
Nato said US and Afghan officials were working together to investigate the "deeply regrettable incident".
Local tribal leaders said women, children and men were among the dead in Panjwai district.
Protests over the attack have broken out in Panjwai district, and travel to the area should be avoided, the US embassy in Kabul has said.

Alright lads any wind in Portlaoise??

well lads.................whats the bankers this weekend?

Friday 6th

There was no priest in last night or tonight. They stopped me from seeing my solicitor tonight, as another part of the isolation process, which, as time goes by, they will ruthlessly implement. I expect they may move me sooner than expected to an empty wing. I will be sorry to leave the boys, but I know the road is a hard one and everything must be conquered.

I have felt the loss of energy twice today, and I am feeling slightly weak.

They (the Screws) are unembarrassed by the enormous amount of food they are putting into the cell and I know they have every bean and chip counted or weighed. The damned fools don't realise that the doctor does tests for traces of any food eaten. Regardless, I have no intention of sampling their tempting morsels.

I am sleeping well at night so far, as I avoid sleeping during the day. I am even having pleasant dreams and so far no headaches. Is that a tribute to my psychological frame of mind or will I pay for that tomorrow or later! I wonder how long I will be able to keep these scribbles going?

My friend Jennifer got twenty years. I am greatly distressed. (Twenty-one-year-old Jennifer McCann, from Belfast's Twinbrook estate, was sentenced to twenty years' imprisonment for shooting at an RUC man).

I have no doubts or regrets about what I am doing for I know what I have faced for eight years, and in particular for the last four and-a-half years, others will face, young lads and girls still at school, or young Gerard or Kevin (Bobby's son and nephew, respectively) and thousands of others.

They will not criminalise us, rob us of our true identity, steal our individualism, depoliticise us, churn us out as systemised, institutionalised, decent law-abiding robots. Never will they label our liberation struggle as criminal.

I am (even after all the torture) amazed at British logic. Never in eight centuries have they succeeded in breaking the spirit of one man who refused to be broken. They have not dispirited, conquered, nor demoralised my people, nor will they ever.

I may be a sinner, but I stand — and if it so be, will die — happy knowing that I do not have to answer for what these people have done to our ancient nation.

Thomas Clarke is in my thoughts, and MacSwiney, Stagg, Gaughan, Thomas Ashe, McCaughey. Dear God, we have so many that another one to those knaves means nothing, or so they say, for some day they'll pay.

When I am thinking of Clarke, I thought of the time I spent in 'B' wing in Crumlin Road jail in September and October '77. I realised just what was facing me then. I've no need to record it all, some of my comrades experienced it too, so they know I have been thinking that some people (maybe many people) blame me for this hunger-strike, but I have tried everything possible to avert it short of surrender.

I pity those who say that, because they do not know the British and I feel more the pity for them because they don't even know their poor selves. But didn't we have people like that who sought to accuse Tone, Emmet, Pearse, Connolly, Mellowes: that unfortunate attitude is perennial also...

I can hear the curlew passing overhead. Such a lonely cell, such a lonely struggle. But, my friend, this road is well trod and he, whoever he was, who first passed this way, deserves the salute of the nation. I am but a mere follower and I must say Oíche Mhaith.

If ever you wanted evidence that Sands (or his editors *) already had one eye on his status as republican legend, look no further. The use of a curlew as a poetic device is well documented in Irish literature and Sands (or his editors) slip it in here to signify the loneliness of the long distance hunger striker. The litany of republican martyrs is also no accident: this is a statement designed to place Sands alongside those same martyrs, to link their struggle with his. (This was at a time, remember, when the republican movement was facing mounting criticism from a nationalist community sick of 10 years of atrocities).

* Sands' later communications are significantly better on the grammar front than some of his earlier stuff. In one earlier comm, he says 'I was took to Castlereagh' He also refers to 'them days'. He continues: 'I must have wrote you articles...' Yet by the end, he's waxing on about curlews with hardly a grammatical mistake in sight.

If you read through the works of Bobby Sands it is clearly to be seen that he is a poet and scholar. His work is one of the finest this country had ever seen but due to the fact that he was a Republican during this time of struggle his true place in Irish literature history will never be accepted.

Did anyone get a bet up....... Only banker of last week was Leinster -3 in the hurling which then went out to -5 before the off with WH.sportsireland.com. Said it was only 5 points in it, however in checking the paper the next morn to my surprise they won by 7!!! Sweet. Think WH must of got hammered in that match at weekend!

However very hard to pick winners in the NFL! My advice is get all yer money on whoever is playing Kilkenny and win small!!

Aye an easy win alright. Derry had a strong wind in first half and made use of it especially after Monaghan went down to 14. Monaghan failed to make use of the elements, but to be honest the wind had slowed and the wind had been taken from their sails in the first half.

Monaghan set up in a very defensive mood. This usually makes Derry struggle but the Farney failed to do it properly; they set up their defensive plan between 25m to 45m out and left enough space for Lynn and co to make runs inside the 21m line. Tyrone do this properly they set up home from the 14m line ou and make life very difficult for opposing teams and especially Derry.

Derry improved in the middle sector with PJ McCloskey and Neil Forrester winning clean ball and breaking ball respectivley. They moved the ball quicker also and there were better runs from the inside trio.

Much improved performance but Monaghan didnt seem their own bustling themselves. Even Dick Clerkin gave a wry smile on a few occasions; usually he would just thump ye!!! ah oul Dick good GAA man and good player; not his best day today.

1st March 1981 Bobby wrote in the 1st page of his dairy

Sunday 1st

I am standing on the threshold of another trembling world. May God have mercy on my soul.

My heart is very sore because I know that I have broken my poor mother's heart, and my home is struck with unbearable anxiety. But I have considered all the arguments and tried every means to avoid what has become the unavoidable: it has been forced upon me and my comrades by four-and-a-half years of stark inhumanity.

I am a political prisoner. I am a political prisoner because I am a casualty of a perennial war that is being fought between the oppressed Irish people and an alien, oppressive, unwanted regime that refuses to withdraw from our land.

I believe and stand by the God-given right of the Irish nation to sovereign independence, and the right of any Irishman or woman to assert this right in armed revolution. That is why I am incarcerated, naked and tortured.

Foremost in my tortured mind is the thought that there can never be peace in Ireland until the foreign, oppressive British presence is removed, leaving all the Irish people as a unit to control their own affairs and determine their own destinies as a sovereign people, free in mind and body, separate and distinct physically, culturally and economically.

I believe I am but another of those wretched Irishmen born of a risen generation with a deeply rooted and unquenchable desire for freedom. I am dying not just to attempt to end the barbarity of H-Block, or to gain the rightful recognition of a political prisoner, but primarily because what is lost in here is lost for the Republic and those wretched oppressed whom I am deeply proud to know as the 'risen people'.

There is no sensation today, no novelty that October 27th brought. (The starting date of the original seven man hunger-strike) The usual Screws were not working. The slobbers and would-be despots no doubt will be back again tomorrow, bright and early.

I wrote some more notes to the girls in Armagh today. There is so much I would like to say about them, about their courage, determination and unquenchable spirit of resistance. They are to be what Countess Markievicz, Anne Devlin, Mary Ann McCracken, Marie MacSwiney, Betsy Gray, and those other Irish heroines are to us all. And, of course, I think of Ann Parker, Laura Crawford, Rosemary Bleakeley, and I'm ashamed to say I cannot remember all their sacred names.

Mass was solemn, the lads as ever brilliant. I ate the statutory weekly bit of fruit last night. As fate had it, it was an orange, and the final irony, it was bitter. The food is being left at the door. My portions, as expected, are quite larger than usual, or those which my cell-mate Malachy is getting.

"Our revenge will be the laughter of our children the Unionists having to make room for us at Stormont, so that we may help them to administer British Rule in Ireland..."

We'll never forget you, Jimmy Sands

I think yer getting mixed up with Bobby Sand's principles and those of SF

best kicker of the ball on display yesterday was the number 8 fella for Garrycastle! wouldnt mind getting the service he gave yesterday.

by the sounds of it they are better off without him

Had a feeling one of the favourites would be beaten shame it had to be St Brigid's. Congrats Garrycastle without a shadow of doubt on the day the best team won. Anthony Cunningham (former St.Brigid's manager) did his home work & got his tactics spot on. St. Brigid's downfall was the slow start they have been getting away with the slow starts in the Roscommon championship but it wasn't going to happen v the leinster champions.

Has been a long two years for St Brigid's they proudly flew the Roscommon/Connacht flags & i'm sure they will be back to give it another lash in the years ahead.

P.S well done Crossmaglen the Armagh machine keeps rolling has the makings of a good final.

Slow start , missed chances , midfield bet, big names not that influential... maybe a team just gone a biteen past it?
Best of luck to Garrycastle in the Final . I think they're going to need it all.

Age profile and underage success says differently. No need to over-react - they're easily the best club in the county and will be a good bet for another county title this year. In Connacht they'll have a huge battle to put together three Connacht titltes but it's not like any team in the providence will be able to out-class Brigids. The possibility of an All-Ireland is very much still there.

They were very lucky in connaught final when the ref gave them everything................ THANK ECK cause I was waiting on them for a bet!!!!!!!