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Did you even read the article you posted??

Yes. Did you?

Ask some nurses working on COVID wards what the surge was like?! Just because it didn't affect you doesn't mean it didn't happen!

It did affect me. But that doesn't mean it was ever remotely of biblical proportion.

Exactly... possibly 15k deaths "without protections"

No, 9,000 "if people don't adhere to measures". And he's been complaining all year about people not adhering to measures.

And his "The scale of the surge coming towards us is of biblical proportion" prediction was a mile off.

[nd I'm not being alarmist here, folks, I'm being factual – at an 80% infection rate and 1% mortality, we could be talking in the region of 9,000 deaths]

"In our modelling for worst-case scenario – and I'm not being alarmist here, folks, I'm being factual – at an 80% infection rate and 1% mortality, we could be talking in the region of 9,000 deaths," he said.

"That is without the protections that we've put in place as an Executive and that's without the personal steps that we're asking individuals to take."

Minister Swann added: "The scale of the surge coming towards us is of biblical proportion."

https://www.itv.com/news/utv/2020-03-19/nine-new-cases-of-coronavirus-in-northern-ireland

Dublin hurling has already been split though, albeit for leagues.

[possible having 3 to 4 div 2 and div 3 teams, only the other top 7 or 8 teams are allowed to compete for all irelands.]

If it is your opinion the problem is the Dublin Senior Footballers and not other factors. If you were splitting Dublin in 4 say, is it satisfactory to split the Hurling team too? possible having 3 to 4 div 2 and div 3 teams, only the other top 7 or 8 teams are allowed to compete for all irelands.

Your point here is unclear. Can you maybe reword it please?

Common denominator here. Leave Dublin alone but twist, bend and break the weaker counties.

Am I missing something?

Why split Dublin or in other words punish Dublin? Oh the population argument, 1.4 million males between the ages of 18-35 who play Gaelic footfall and senior club football.

When the inevitable happens with certain counties exiting the provisional and all Ireland championship, why not give them another bite of the cherry as a regional team? Gives some players a chance to enter the fray late into the championship and complete at the Q/F S/F and final stage. Similar to the Kerry model.

And no I'm not Pat Gilroy.

Because when you find yourself anywhere with a structural problem caused by the dominance of one entity in a group of 32, it makes more sense to address the problem by making changes to that entity than to the other 31.

[Earn your right to play at the top level. Play the provincials as a stand-alone competition.]

I often think the perfect solution for Intercounty season is one that's sitting right under its nose - the clubs structure of Senior/Intermediate/Junior.

Earn your right to play at the top level. Play the provincials as a stand-alone competition.

Not ideal maybe but current structure isn't working. Attendances falling  all the time and been masked by Super 8s which haven't worked. Competitiveness isn't getting any better in Leinster.

Offer real solutions, splitting Dublin is not a solution, its a cop out and would destroy Dublin GAA and perhaps the larger GAA as is for many reasons.
Finance, take away all the sponsorship deals you want, don't go after funding for underage though and children and Schools, another cop out.

I like the idea myself of amalgamations, lets explore this option. It works in Kerry.

Common denominator here. Leave Dublin alone but twist, bend and break the weaker counties.

Am I missing something?

Our personal 5km border is very very suspect at present. We see the numbers happy to travel overseas are taking the €500 fine and continuing the journey, it's even more at local level with €100 fine and in most cases a chance to just turn round and try a different route to destination.

There is neither science nor logic about the 5km limit. Most people in rural areas routinely go well outside their 5km for grocery shopping, which they are both legally permitted and well entitled to do, so it's pointless to stop people doing likewise for exercise and relaxation.

Not just nursing homes it should be noted, the INMO released a statement last week or the week before that the hospital outbreaks were related to lack of proper PPE being made available to healthcare worker.

Yep, great regulation there though.

[b) Failed to regulate the private healthcare industry efficiently]

So you're effectively trying to deflect blame from government when they:

a) Hawked out health care to private interests to run it at a profit
b) Failed to regulate the private healthcare industry efficiently which lead to massive outbreaks in nursing homes and huge levels of fatalities.

It wasn't a regulation failure. This time last year, and indeed all spring, nursing homes across the country were crying out for PPE which was nowhere to be found. And the government did nothing. Apart from moving patients from infected hospitals into the same nursing homes. With predictable results.

[I'm not comparing Trump to them obviously]

Hitler said what he thought.
Mussolini said what he thought.
I'm not comparing Trump to them obviously but it shows how silly the "he says what he thought" line is.

You are, really.

Sad that local places can't operate a click and collect or a phone and collect.

So wrong.

It is. But that is the plan, to crush small businesses. They're making the rules to benefit their big business chums.

I shouldn't ask but please enlighten me on this tale. The reasoning behind these conspiracy theories are fascinating in themselves.

Are you saying that Amazon/Google/ASOS/Nike etc (to name a few random online retailers) have got together with heads of state all over the world, in countries that operate under different regimes and social standards from communists to capitalists to royal families to liberals and they have followed rules and imposed restrictions so Doris the Hairdresser, Joe the florist, Barry the Bookie and Maggie's nail bar is closed down and put out of business. Ignoring that the heads of state have borrowed Billions to give to these people so that they open up again. Yet these has all remained under wraps.

The business chums included in this plan must have ignored anyone from the hospitality sector or suppliers to the smaller retailers.

In fairness it's a serious operation that Business Chums Inc have pulled off. Credit due to them, must have serious and loyal employees who have held it all together.

Not so much a conspiracy as reflecting the reality that Amazon/Google/ASOS/Nike have the money and means to lobby politicians and civil servants, and the likes of Doris the Hairdresser does not.

I didn't expect you to.

You're saying people were wary of Covid in June/July/Aug/Sep but not wary of it Oct/Nov/Dec.

Less wary yes.

I'm not sure this is true. For starters, very few people were wearing masks until well into August.  Cavan had 2 serious outbreaks caused by post-county final pissups in September and early October but none after we won the Ulster final in late November.

In my eyes it absolutely is. People distanced much more at the start. They were more wary when meeting people. This has eroded over the summer and people started to think it was beat.

When you put it that way, it is indeed true. People were literally jumping out of each other's way in the early months. That in fairness was OTT and was always going to erode fairly quickly.

I didn't expect you to.

You're saying people were wary of Covid in June/July/Aug/Sep but not wary of it Oct/Nov/Dec.

Less wary yes.

I'm not sure this is true. For starters, very few people were wearing masks until well into August.  Cavan had 2 serious outbreaks caused by post-county final pissups in September and early October but none after we won the Ulster final in late November.

Did you read the report and evaluate the evidence?

I've read bits of it, not all 2,850-odd pages. You?

Did you take into account the criticism from Catherine Corless and many of those  closely associated with the issue over the years?   

Who elected Catherine Corless to run the show? She's not even a qualified historian.

The report "fails to find that mothers were coerced into giving up their children", saying it instead refers to some mother who claim they did not properly consent." and   the babies were not swapped for cash

the report ignored  the scale of forced and illegal adoptions and the State's role in same.

The report finds the women were not physically abused, 

Some evidence for these strong (and presumably easily verifiable) assertions would be nice.

Mother's say their testimony recorded  in the the report was distorted and edited and now they have trashed all the 500 oral submissions. The investigations on the adoptions and infant mortality rates was lackluster. .
Mother's say the report does match their experience.

Who are these "mothers"? Is this a cut & paste from somewhere else? If so, where?

Go do your own research and see how easy it is to find evidence of the adoption fees paid along with the generous donations paid to local church in the USA, starting from USD 1,000 upwards,

If it's easy to find, it's easy to link.

or would you rather put equal value  to the  contrary evidence emanating from the convent of liars.

Oops, your bias is showing.

The report says impossible to prove or disprove, what a load of tosh,   just print the evidence of the adoptees and adopters  on the matter of fees and bungs paid.

Uncorroborated testimony is not evidence.