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http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/mhqlmhidojkf/

Rest in peace Ronnie.

Dhani Jones is doing a reality TV programme where he tries other sports.

http://www.dhani55.com/commerce/inthenews/inthenews.asp?reqdate=5/2/2008&id_passed=72

Jones is filming a series of segments for the Travel Channel in which he learns how to play international sports that are unknown to most Americans. He's currently in Ireland learning the old Gaelic sport of hurling.

My nomination - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mo7IgS_x_fc&feature=related

RTE.ie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6x7WKtQKQU&feature=related#

Click http://www.speedtest.net/

Mine is 9753kb/s download and 7983kb/s upload.

Anyone care to educate me as to whether this is good/bad/normal?

British media calling it the storm of the century. In Belmullet they are calling it a rustle.

Looks cool on the satellite:
http://saturn.unibe.ch/rsbern/noaa/dw/realtime/current/n1bcurr.jpg

G'day Meat!

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/top-gaa-players-banned-over-hotel-rampage-1283469.html

I believe it wasn't Roscommon this time.

Must say I thoroughly enjoyed that programme.

Bush: Guess where I keep the bow?

I took a serious shine to this song recently and downloaded the chords and words to add to the (never to be sung sober) repertoire. Pogues-Thousands are sailing

Anyway the lyrics got me interested in the subject and I picked up Robert Whyte's 1847 Famine Ship Diary and fcuk me it makes terrible reading. But any Irish person with an interest in their past should read something about those ships. Whyte (some claim the book is fictional but it hardly matters as the truth about the subject matter is not is question) was a protestant man of means who had his own cabin and dined with the captain of the ship but his account of what the 'peasants' went through is harrowing in the extreme.

The book quotes the likes of Dickens who warned about the awful conditions in British ships in 1842 5 years before the worst of the coffin ships disaster and also mentions that in the same year the potato crop was so good that 'beggars refused them' and much of that year's crop was used as manure.  It also highlights that one of the main reasons the famine was so devastating was that the British goverment insisted on payment of land taxes by landlords most of whom passed this cost on to the penniless peasants. (There are people still advocating a property tax in this country, Ireland of all f**king places!)

I don't mean to upset the season of goodwill here but looking at what people are arguing about on other threads a reality check mightn't do any harm.

BreakingNews.ie

Ireland has the second-highest consumption of alcohol in the Western developed world, according to a report on health from the OECD which was released today.

It also shows that we're just below average when it comes to the amount of money spent on health care.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's 'Health at a Glance' report places Ireland above the average for life expectancy for Western developed nations, at 79.5 years.

Infant mortality rates are below average, while Ireland comes sixth in the survey for the amount of adults who say their health is good, very good or excellent.

Health spending as a percentage of gross national income is 8.8%, just below the OECD average of 9%.

Funny how the article has has stats on infant mortality and life expectancy but the headline is how good we are at drinking.

Click here

Maybe we could send books and things? 

Just for a laugh

You can see where this is going.

After a long struggle we will end up with a divided board ruled jointly by the Magpie Seanalists and The Real Laoisladuplicans who will nominate themselves as First Moderator and Deputy Moderator.

A few days after that we will wonder what all the fuss was about.l

[Issues that might lead them to vote for 32 county Ireland:]

 Given the large scale immigration into both parts of the island it is not inconceivable that the immigrants will decide the fate of unification in any future vote.

Assuming they are neutral now how do posters think they would vote in a future referendum and what would the issues be?

For the record here are a few off the top of my head:

Issues that might lead them to vote for 32 county Ireland:
* A lot of the Eastern Europeans are Catholic
* They see a thriving economy in the South with good prospects
* Sympathies might lay easier with the underdog against the Imperial power

Issues that might lead them to vote for the 6 remaining in the UK:
* No Health Service in the South
* A taste for vigilante killings among Republicans (not unknown on the other side)
* A government with a shocking record of corruption
* A state unable to deal with rising crime
* An infrastructure 20 years behind where it should be

It may come down to those voters and by my reckoning we (Nationalists) have an awful lot to do.

 RottenTomaotes.com (great name) have Irish film 'Once' rated as 3rd best movie this year although their 'Tomatometer' has it at number 1.

Talk of a big push to get an Oscar nomination for best score. Anyone who has seen the film would agree the music is fantastic.

Not bad for a flim made for €100,000.

Here is what American critics are saying about it. 

 Ireland playing terribly

Nearly halftime 19 -6 to Scotland flatters Ireland if anything

 Just announced on BBC's 'The Championship' that McGrath suffered head injuries in an accident with a digger at his home. They said he will be out at least for the season. Hope it's not as bad as it sounded.