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[A Charity GAA football match between the Jockeys and Trainers in aid of Children's University Hospital in Temple Street will take place on November 7 in Navan.]

Would be worth going to and a worthy cause.

A Charity GAA football match between the Jockeys and Trainers in aid of Children's University Hospital in Temple Street will take place on November 7 in Navan.

Temple Street Hospital is the National Pediatric Renal, Dialysis and Transplant Hospital of Ireland. Temple Street Hospital always needs new haemodialysis and peritoneal machines. The cost of this equipment is €35,000 per machine. Our aim is to raise enough money to purchase a haemodialysis machine.

The Jockeys vs. Trainers Charity GAA Match will be held at Simonstown GAA pitch in Navan, Co. Meath on Nov 7th at 7.30pm under floodlights.

So far there has been plenty of interest from both Jockeys and Trainers. There was an impromptu practice kick around between the jockeys in the Parade Ring at Navan Racecourse last Saturday much to the bewilderment of the At The Races commentary team who were unaware of what was going on!

Local Jockeys taking part in the event include Barry Geraghty, Puppy Power, Paul Carberry, Andrew Lynch, Andrew Duff and Rodger Loughran together with Davy Russell, Martin Ferris, Mark Walsh, Matthew Bowes and Alain Cawley to name a few.

The jockeys will be managed by Ken Whelan and Noel Meade is to take charge of the Trainers team with many well known faces from Irish Racing signed up to such as Willie Mullins, Colm Murphy, Paul Nolan, Conor O'Dwyer, Shark Hanlon together with local trainers Gavin Cromwell, Ronan O'Dwyer and Tony Martin!

The game will be followed by music, entertainment and a raffle in the Simonstown GFC clubhouse.

If anyone would like to donate to the cause, they can do so by logging onto www.mycharity.ie

Looks like there's enough Meath men in there to do damage.

Looking for 5-a-side and 7-a-side soccerball pitch dimensions.

Thanks in advance.

2010 O'BYRNE CUP SF

First Round
(1) Laois v DIT
(2) Kildare v UCD
(3) Carlow v Athlone IT
(4) Wicklow v Louth
(5) Dublin v Wexford
(6) Longford v Meath
(7) Kilkenny v Offaly
(8 ) Westmeath v DCU
- To be played January 10

Quarter-finals
(9) 1 v 2
(10) 3 v 4
(11) 5 v 6
(12) 7 v 8
- To be played January 17

Semi-finals
(13) 9 v 10
(14) 11 v 12
- To be played January 24

Final: To be played January 31

A win over Longford could give us a shot at the Dubs. Nice!!

Or we could meet them in the O'Byrne shield if things dont go quite to plan.

[Barnes is sent home over protest]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/boxing/8241209.stm

Barnes is sent home over protest 

Belfast's Olympic light-flyweight bronze medallist Paddy Barnes has been sent home from the World Championships in Milan for unacceptable behaviour.

Barnes reacted furiously following a 15-4 defeat to Kenya's Peter Munkai.

IABA president Dominic O'Rourke hit out at Barnes and said there could be further disciplinary action.

"Paddy's behaviour was totally unacceptable. He has been disciplined and sent home," O'Rourke told the Irish News on Monday.

"It's alright being annoyed at a decision, but the way Paddy reacted was inexcusable and to do it in the ring on the world stage is just terrible."

Barnes's composure boiled over at the end of the fight which was for a place in the last 16.

He had made all the running in the three rounds, but his opponent was picking up the points.

The clearly upset Holy Trinity scrapper threw his gloves onto the canvas in frustration at the final outcome.

However, O'Rourke was critical of the Belfast boxer's reaction.

"This sport is all about discipline and there is no way that we can allow things like this to happen. Paddy has let himself and his coaches down very badly," said O'Rourke.

"The image of the sport is at stake. The world body are very tough when it comes to discipline and I wholeheartedly back them on that.

"There was a real threat the whole team could have been thrown out because it has happened before with other teams such as the Romanian team at the last World Championships."

It is not the first time that Barnes has caused embarrassment. When he was defeated in the semi-finals of the Beijing Olympics by China's Zou Shiming he criticised the judges and was not happy with his bronze medal.

"They can keep it for all I care," said Barnes at the time. They (the judges) should hang their heads in shame. "There's no doubt I lost the fight by miles but not scoring a point?

"I'm getting drug tested here. The judges should be getting drug tested. But we're in China so what do you expect."

Once again they've cheated him out of it. Ulster bias I reckon.

Lads,

something I've been thinking about for a while, been wondering who does 'the definitive' version of popular Irish songs. There are hundreds upon hundreds of versions of popular folk/trad songs, but I'd like to get together a list of the classic versions. I'm sure this will have plenty of debate etc.

To get the ball rolling, I am having trouble finding a really great version of 'The Wests Awake', perhaps the best one I've heard was by Joe McDonagh on the steps of the Hogan in 1980, not impressed by any version that the Dubliners did nor anyones else I've heard so far.

After watching the highlights of Limerick vs Dublin something that has been bothering me for the last while and I have seen enough of it to make me take drastic action and start a thread on GAAboard. As you can guess by the title, kicking the sliotar just annoys me. Especially kicking goals. It doesn't look right and seems like an easy way out for forwards, much like Limericks goal yesterday. The defender was in a good position to hook any shot, I think in that situation it would be better if the forward had to shoot with his hurl rather than being allowed kick it.

Anyone else agree?

Finally getting to see this game with my own 2 eyes. I travelled home for this fixture last year as well, hopefully this time I'll be going home happier.

[[1]Supporters of the GAA in England, Scotland and Wales have been left without live matches since the UK Setanta operation went into administration three weeks ago.]

http://www.rte.ie/sport/gaa/championship/2009/0715/setanta.html

The GAA are currently holding talks with a pub chain in the Britain to broadcast live GAA games following the collapse of Setanta Sports.

[1]Supporters of the GAA in England, Scotland and Wales have been left without live matches since the UK Setanta operation went into administration three weeks ago.

But the Association remains hopeful of getting games back on screens in Britain, having met with an unnamed licensee last week where plans to air live games again was discussed.

'[2]We have been in talks with a pub chain in Britain. But we are not any further down the line than that and we're not in a position to comment on the issue any further right now,' Croke Park's Commercial and Marketing Manager Dermot Power said.

[1] Yeah, sure we have, its awful 

[2] Must be O'Neills Pubs. I f**king hate them but I suppose it would be good to see something genuinely Irish in them for once

Was in the gym this morning and saw an interview on the telly of some lad who was fisting an O'Neills to some lad off camera and then it cut to Tommy Bowe scoring a try for Leinster. And then it went back to yer man and he was catching an O'Neills and then a rugby ball. Now I cant lip read but I guess the gist of it was the success of Irish rugby and the cross over of players and skills from GAA. Anbyone see it and hear it as well??

I don't care what he say's, don't shoot the fuckin' telly again. Im not buying another flat screen Samsung

http://www.spike.com/show/31082?tabId=31138&fxn=getTabMembers

May 31, 2009
@ 9:00 PM Deadliest Warrior
IRA vs. Taliban
The Taliban - deadly extremists battling in the mountains of Afghanistan, versus the I.R.A. - elusive, hard-hitting masters of Ireland's urban jungles. It's a battle to the death, between two lethal guerilla warriors, armed to the teeth with flamethrowers, rocket launchers, carbines, mines and a devastating home-made bombs.

American TV channel Spike is having a virtual battle between the IRA and the Taliban. What can you say only ' For F u c k Sake' 

Dunno if it was a coincidence with Fermanagh playing and winning today but I decided today to start listening to the Erne counties finest, Mama's Boys. Great band, Needle in the Groove is such a great song. Anyone have their albums, they're hard to pick up these days I think though. Most of them seem to be on import only online. I see Pat McManus is still gigging about though.

Can anyone recommend me some albums/songs.

http://www.spiritofireland.org/index.php

Not a plane but an ambitious proposal that might help break Ireland out of the recession.

Ireland currently imports energy for 90% of her needs. The group hope to make Ireland energy independent within 5 years, after which they intend to export Irish energy to the rest of Europe. They plan to do this by harnessing Ireland's natural wind power to drive large volumes of water uphill.

The water can then be released at a steady rate to facilitate a constant rate of energy release. The project, while expensive, represents a €10bn stimulus for the national economy.

Eddie Hobbs seems to like the idea
http://eddiehobbs.com/_bpost_1462/Energy_independence

I'd hate trying to get it through planning permission. But hey, if it works why not, just needs a governmental shove.

A NEW crime of blasphemous libel is to be proposed by the Minister for Justice in an amendment to the Defamation Bill, which will be discussed by the Oireachtas committee on justice today.

At the moment there is no crime of blasphemy on the statute books, though it is prohibited by the Constitution.

Article 40 of the Constitution, guaranteeing freedom of speech, qualifies it by stating: "The State shall endeavour to ensure that organs of public opinion, such as the radio, the press, the cinema, while preserving their rightful liberty of expression, including criticism of Government policy, shall not be used to undermine public order or morality or the authority of the State.

"The publication or utterance of blasphemous, seditious, or indecent material is an offence which shall be punishable in accordance with law."

Last year the Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution, under the chairmanship of Fianna Fáil TD Seán Ardagh, recommended amending this Article to remove all references to sedition and blasphemy, and redrafting the Article along the lines of article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which deals with freedom of expression.

The prohibition on blasphemy dates back to English law aimed at protecting the established church, the Church of England, from attack. It has been used relatively recently to prosecute satirical publications in the UK.

In the only Irish case taken under this article, Corway -v- Independent Newspapers, in 1999, the Supreme Court concluded that it was impossible to say "of what the offence of blasphemy consists".

It also stated that a special protection for Christianity was incompatible with the religious equality provisions of Article 44.

Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern proposes to insert a new section into the Defamation Bill, stating: "A person who publishes or utters blasphemous matter shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable upon conviction on indictment to a fine not exceeding €100,000."

"Blasphemous matter" is defined as matter "that is grossly abusive or insulting in relation to matters held sacred by any religion, thereby causing outrage among a substantial number of the adherents of that religion; and he or she intends, by the publication of the matter concerned, to cause such outrage."

Where a person is convicted of an offence under this section, the court may issue a warrant authorising the Garda Síochána to enter, if necessary using reasonable force, a premises where the member of the force has reasonable grounds for believing there are copies of the blasphemous statements in order to seize them.

Labour spokesman on justice Pat Rabbitte is proposing an amendment to this section which would reduce the maximum fine to €1,000 and exclude from the definition of blasphemy any matter that had any literary, artistic, social or academic merit.

Hope to f**king Christ this isn't passed. Its like a step back into the middle ages and it will be giving the ultra-religous wankers of all stripes a stick to wield against people who dare criticise their views. Ian O'Doherty will be out of a job.

Well I for one just cant wait 8 weeks for the Championship to begin, let alone wait for this game so time to stick up a thread  about it.

I can honestly say since the draw was made, this game has crossed my mind every single day at least once and as it draws closer I begin to think about it more and more.
Not just thinking about the up coming game but also reflecting on the history and rivalry between the teams.
Recounting since the games mid-80's when this fixture began to take on a life of its own and its out-come had seismic effects on the outcome of the championship as both teams were expected be
never to far away from lifting Sam. Perhaps it no longer holds that weight anymore but its still a key fixture in Leinster and one that both sets of players and supporters relish.

The power has shifted over the years, with Meath wrestling the number 1 spot from the Dubs in '86 and firmly held it till '92 with men that became household names such as O'Rourke, Beggy, Hayes, Lyons and O'Connell ,most memorably the 4 game saga.

The Dubs then lead the charge for Leinster till '95 landing Sam that year with the help of Jayo, Charlie and Barr. At one stage handing us a drubbing of 10 points which spelt the end for
many of the veterns on the team.

'96 we took it back with a new generation of players, Geraghty, Giles, Fay, O'Reilly, McDermott mixed with veterns like Coyle and Martin O'Connell and held sway over the Dubs till 2002, landing Sam twice, 96 and 99.

Then the Jacks lead by Tommy Lyons on the line and on the field by Cosgrove, Christie, Brogan Whelan, and they have had the final say since. We came close in 2005 and pushed them to a replay in 2007.



So to 2009.

It has been confirmed today that Shane O'Rourke sadly wont play any part due to persistant hamstring injuries.
The sages on Hoganstand.com's Meath page have saved Eamonn O'Brien the worry of picking a team and have named the team they think should line out on June 7th:

1 Patrick O'Rourke

2 Cormac MacGill
3 Kevin Reilly
4 Eoin Harrington

5 Seamus Kenny
6 Anthony Moyles
7 Caomhian King

8 Mark Ward
9 Nigel Crawford

10 Peader Byrne
11 Cian Ward
12 David Bray

13 Stephen Bray
14 Joe Sheridan
15 Brian Farrell

Though I think its likley we might still see Moyles in at full back and Reilly in HB. Kenny has been a great workhorse this year and Byrne will share that load.
Brian Meade should feature in the line-up probably instead of David Bray unless Bray the younger can recover from injury and reclaim a spot in the mean time.

Our biggest concern is getting our forwards fit and playing at match intensity. Brian Farrell seems to be still struggling, Joe hasnt been playing much over the league,
Stephen Bray hasnt quite got back to the form he showed in 07. Cian Ward seems to be the main man during the league bagging most of the scores.
King, you have to commend him, he did well for a man playing out of position for much of the league but it will be good to get him back in the half back line.

Just watching them make sh!t of Cork. They've destroyed everyone emphatically with the exception of Limerick and Waterford, they look like they are almost back to the level they were at for last years final. Considering whats happened in Cork for the last 6 or so months todays result is not much of a shock.

In Leinster this year even with Galway and Antrim there its still looking like a stroll for them. No-one in Munster have shown anything like the intensity the Cats are bringing right now.

[Section A]

Starts today, often a good indication of how our lads fare in the Championship.

Fixtures:
Section A - Today
Monaghan  Vs    Armagh    Inniskeen 20:00
Cavan        Vs    Meath      Breffni Park  20:00   
Down        Vs    Dublin      Burren 12:00

Section B - Tomorrow
Fermanagh  Vs   Donegal  Irvinestown 12:00
Derry          Vs   Tyrone  Newbridge(Derry)  12:00

[Five teenagers arrested after 'brutal' attack on couples at beauty spot]

Five teenagers arrested after 'brutal' attack on couples at beauty spot

GARDAÍ ARE investigating a brutal attack on two young couples at a well known beauty spot in Co Louth early yesterday morning.

All four were assaulted and one of the women was allegedly raped.

Five teenagers have been arrested in connection with the attack.

The couples were in a car just inside the entrance to Townley Hall woods when it appears they were set upon by a group of males.

One Garda source described the incident as "brutal" and said the inside of the car was "covered in blood".

Another said it "looked like an abbatoir".

One of the women was pulled from the car and dragged into the woods where she was subjected to a serious sexual assault and was allegedly raped.

The second woman tried to help her but was also attacked and struck in the face. She had a suspected broken jaw.

The mother of one of the two women injured in the attack at the forest park said her daughter suffered a broken jaw, a broken nose and smashed teeth.

The 19-year-old woman was with three friends in the car when it is alleged they were attacked by the gang of young men.

Her parents were woken by a phone call from their daughter at 5am yesterday.

"She was roaring crying on the phone and then a garda came on and said she had been assaulted and hit," said her mother .

She visited her daughter in the emergency department of Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda and was shocked to learn she had been struck with what was believed to be a crowbar.

"She has had her jaw broken, her nose broken and a lot of her teeth broken," she said.

The young woman told her parents the two couples had been out at a Drogheda nightclub and went to the beauty spot afterwards.

She said they had been dragged from the car by a gang of men who beat them up.

Her friend had called for help as she was being attacked.

"She was shouting out 'help me' " but she couldn't find her in the dark," said her father.

The couples had been at a disco in Drogheda and went out to the beauty spot when the venue closed. It is unclear how long they had been in the forest before they were attacked at around 4.30am.

The alarm was raised when one of the women managed to escape and seek help at a nearby house.

The two women and one of the men were brought to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda.

While they were there a number of men arrived at the hospital seeking medical treatment for an injured 17 year old.

Gardaí confirmed that four teenagers were arrested at the hospital and were detained for questioning at Drogheda and Dundalk Garda stations. One of the teenagers was aged under 18, say gardaí.

A fifth teenager was arrested yesterday afternoon.

For some time after the alarm was raised there were serious concerns about the welfare of the fourth person in the car, who had also been attacked.

Gardaí spent over five hours searching for him yesterday morning. They feared he could have been lost in the wood's 400 acres of forest and thick copses.

The Garda dog unit and the air support unit helped in the search.

Gardaí were contacted at around 10.30am yesterday and told he had managed to make his way home.

Townley Hall is about four kilometres from Drogheda. The walks and nature trails in the woods have made it a popular spot for families.

There were calls for security at the woods to be reviewed.

The entrance gates do not close and Drogheda mayor Frank Maher said, "It is a beauty spot and people enjoy going to it and using it. Part of its beauty is it is open to the public but after this horrific incident there should be a review of its accessibility after daylight hours."

Locals have expressed concern in recent months because of reports that the area is being frequented by groups of people drinking in the woods and burning small campfires.

What the  f u c k  is going on with teenagers these days. I went to school in Drogheda and no doubt went to the same discos as the couples in this case. There are a fair amount of scum-bags in Drogheda and I went to school with some utter wasters and thugs who were by the age of 16 dealing drugs and beating each other senseless.

But this would be a new low, even for them.

Well after a hard earned win over Laois in conditions which would have made Navan man Francis Beaufort add a new notch to his scale, hopefully we can add 2 more points against a Wexford team who are currently struggling to produce the form of last year.

With 0 points after 3 games and conceeding 8-49 (73), despite our recent struggles with them surely we can win this one. Currently we have the worst attack in Div. 2 but our defense is ranked 5th overall. Wexfords defense is the worst in Div.2 by a massive 30 points but the 5th overall attack.

Moyles is likely to start in full back again I would imagine, Harrington; McGuinness have secured spots in the backs too. Brian Meade did well up front too. Ward and Crawford should remain in the middle.

It must be stressed that Wexford are without Mattie Forde and Redmond Barry. But even still you'd have to wonder what is happening with the Slaneysiders. They will be hoping to get some badly needed points and wont be afraid of this Meath team by any means.

While we in Meath know better than to presume victory over Wexford this time around we should be feeling that bit more confident. Its also a chance to lay that ghost of "Wexford Park 2008" to rest early in the year. many players will still have painful memories of that 2nd half and will want to put it right.

Meath desperatley need to win this game. In a recent challenge we just about saw off a Cavan team also in the doldrums. Things certainly do not bode well for the Royal county this year.

Kevin Reilly is definately out, As yet, have heard nothing on the status of Brian Farrell, O'Rourke or Alan Nestor.

How are Laois faring for this game?