Messages

[bought]

Well I certainly agree with a lot of what cockahoop is saying in terms of organisation and fair play to his lads playing a bit of soccer and doing well at it. The organisation of underage GAA in Derry is a complete joke.

However my quibble with the organisation of soccer versus Gaelic is the way in which they are publicised and funded. How many soccer matches would be played if public funds weren't providing the playing spaces for them? I would hazard that it would be a grand total of none quite frankly as there are a miniscule number of clubs that own their own ground. Why should the public purse pay to provide soccer grounds and not Gaelic grounds?

In terms of publicity I read the News Letter most days for a laugh. Today in their sports section they had a 2 page spread on pigeon racing, [I kid you not] another page on cricket, a few pieces on bowls. There wasn't a mention of GAA at all in their coverage. Now that is fair enough as it is up to any paper to print what it thinks its readers want. But that does not wash for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC and i think it is obvious they have a similar attiude to the GAA as the Newsletter does. In particular their treatment of the Milk Cup shows the bias they have towards any sport that is not GAA. the success of their efforts is obvious on here by the number of people who are proclaiming this to be a world class event. It's not. It's a crowd of wains running after a ball on a pitch that the soccer authorities havent paid a brass farthing for.

Do you go out of your way to get offended?  Funding for the Milk Cup and GAA coverage in the Newsletter....sweet jesus but your stress levels can't be good

My stress levels are quite obviously much better than your comprehension!

The News Letter reference was merely used to illustrate a determined attitude amongst a large swathe of the population to steadfastly ignore the GAA as if it doesn't exist, and big up anything that reinforces the unionist hegemony. An unfortunate viewpoint that is clearly held by many influential figures in the BBC NI sports dept. It's not quite the 'IRA at play' anymore but it is only slowly moving away from that IMO.

Do you think it is ok for a local council to provide and maintain scores of pitches for one sport and the grand total of zero pitches for another equally popular one. It's hardly a level playing field now is it?

your stress levels are off the chart. I wouldn't open the Newsletter, never mind read it most days .

Your post above sounds like it was written in the 80s ! I can only speak from experience in the north west, but DCC have an initiative with the county board providing paid coaches to deliver sessions in the primary schools in the city to promote games. One of the intermediate sides plays on a council provided GAA pitch in the waterside. How much did Pearse's pay for their new land up in the Top of The Hill? Brian Og's and Colmcille for their prime location? Na Magha hurling pitch and new changing facilities? How much funding did Brian Og's and Colmcille get for pitch build and state of the art clubhouses?

Coleraine Council have opened a new 3g pitch for rugby, gaa and soccer, Limavady the same.

There's not a youngster in Derry to my knowledge who hasn't access to GAA facilities or free coaching partly provided for by public funding .

I'm not surprised you don't read the News Letter as it appears you can barely read.

You certainly havent addressed any of the points that I was making, though you inadvertantly supported the general thrust of my argument with your list of clubs that bought their own grounds. How many soccer clubs do can you list that have done the same? I would warrant the answer is zero as they are so used to getting pitches provided gratis to them there is no need for them to buy anything. The local government, and I notice you have highlighted one longterm natrionalist council, support is a belated and minimal effort to redress a glaring imbalance.

I never mentioned coaching programmes but I can tell you that the vast vast majority of GAA coaching is funded directly by the GAA, so how this is a relevant point is beyond me.

Do you know what the city clubs paid for their prime bit of land?

a very small percentage of junior soccer clubs would like their own pitch, the vast majority wouldn't. Most are basically a gather up of boys which changes season on season. Leagues have teams folding and new ones starting up yearly. They don't have the membership numbers of gaa clubs, the level of volunteers. Its the largest participation sport by and its the councils responsibility to provide leisure facilities for its people. The GAA is provided for in Derry City with a full sized grass pitch which holds intermediate grade matches, has done for years. this same club has also been given land to build their own new ground

Do you think GAA clubs would want to be using council pitches or ones they own (with a big help of public funds)?

you didn't mention coaching, but i did, because it shows that the council are now helping with the provision of coaching  financially.

you want to whinge away about the poor old GAA getting buck all and soccer gets everything, because thats what your initial posts boils down to...knock yourself out

Well I don't need to do that as you are proving my point for me by highlighting the fact that your beacon of GAA supporting councils has provided the princely total of one pitch for GAA. How many soccer pitches have they? I can guarantee it has scores of them.

I'm not proving you point. your general whinge is that local council provide everything for soccer and nothing for GAA. In the past this may have been true. Today its different, that's my point

Well i don't see why you need to use words like whinge or exaggerate that I said councils provide nothing for GAA. I have made a fairly reasoned and cogent argument about the disparity between the provision for other sports as compared to GAA. Your own rebuttals have even confirmed these points. I recognise that ther ehave been improvements, but it is clear that there is still a major disparity in many areas. These are facts not opinions.

[bought]

Well I certainly agree with a lot of what cockahoop is saying in terms of organisation and fair play to his lads playing a bit of soccer and doing well at it. The organisation of underage GAA in Derry is a complete joke.

However my quibble with the organisation of soccer versus Gaelic is the way in which they are publicised and funded. How many soccer matches would be played if public funds weren't providing the playing spaces for them? I would hazard that it would be a grand total of none quite frankly as there are a miniscule number of clubs that own their own ground. Why should the public purse pay to provide soccer grounds and not Gaelic grounds?

In terms of publicity I read the News Letter most days for a laugh. Today in their sports section they had a 2 page spread on pigeon racing, [I kid you not] another page on cricket, a few pieces on bowls. There wasn't a mention of GAA at all in their coverage. Now that is fair enough as it is up to any paper to print what it thinks its readers want. But that does not wash for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC and i think it is obvious they have a similar attiude to the GAA as the Newsletter does. In particular their treatment of the Milk Cup shows the bias they have towards any sport that is not GAA. the success of their efforts is obvious on here by the number of people who are proclaiming this to be a world class event. It's not. It's a crowd of wains running after a ball on a pitch that the soccer authorities havent paid a brass farthing for.

Do you go out of your way to get offended?  Funding for the Milk Cup and GAA coverage in the Newsletter....sweet jesus but your stress levels can't be good

My stress levels are quite obviously much better than your comprehension!

The News Letter reference was merely used to illustrate a determined attitude amongst a large swathe of the population to steadfastly ignore the GAA as if it doesn't exist, and big up anything that reinforces the unionist hegemony. An unfortunate viewpoint that is clearly held by many influential figures in the BBC NI sports dept. It's not quite the 'IRA at play' anymore but it is only slowly moving away from that IMO.

Do you think it is ok for a local council to provide and maintain scores of pitches for one sport and the grand total of zero pitches for another equally popular one. It's hardly a level playing field now is it?

your stress levels are off the chart. I wouldn't open the Newsletter, never mind read it most days .

Your post above sounds like it was written in the 80s ! I can only speak from experience in the north west, but DCC have an initiative with the county board providing paid coaches to deliver sessions in the primary schools in the city to promote games. One of the intermediate sides plays on a council provided GAA pitch in the waterside. How much did Pearse's pay for their new land up in the Top of The Hill? Brian Og's and Colmcille for their prime location? Na Magha hurling pitch and new changing facilities? How much funding did Brian Og's and Colmcille get for pitch build and state of the art clubhouses?

Coleraine Council have opened a new 3g pitch for rugby, gaa and soccer, Limavady the same.

There's not a youngster in Derry to my knowledge who hasn't access to GAA facilities or free coaching partly provided for by public funding .

I'm not surprised you don't read the News Letter as it appears you can barely read.

You certainly havent addressed any of the points that I was making, though you inadvertantly supported the general thrust of my argument with your list of clubs that bought their own grounds. How many soccer clubs do can you list that have done the same? I would warrant the answer is zero as they are so used to getting pitches provided gratis to them there is no need for them to buy anything. The local government, and I notice you have highlighted one longterm natrionalist council, support is a belated and minimal effort to redress a glaring imbalance.

I never mentioned coaching programmes but I can tell you that the vast vast majority of GAA coaching is funded directly by the GAA, so how this is a relevant point is beyond me.

Do you know what the city clubs paid for their prime bit of land?

a very small percentage of junior soccer clubs would like their own pitch, the vast majority wouldn't. Most are basically a gather up of boys which changes season on season. Leagues have teams folding and new ones starting up yearly. They don't have the membership numbers of gaa clubs, the level of volunteers. Its the largest participation sport by and its the councils responsibility to provide leisure facilities for its people. The GAA is provided for in Derry City with a full sized grass pitch which holds intermediate grade matches, has done for years. this same club has also been given land to build their own new ground

Do you think GAA clubs would want to be using council pitches or ones they own (with a big help of public funds)?

you didn't mention coaching, but i did, because it shows that the council are now helping with the provision of coaching  financially.

you want to whinge away about the poor old GAA getting buck all and soccer gets everything, because thats what your initial posts boils down to...knock yourself out

Well I don't need to do that as you are proving my point for me by highlighting the fact that your beacon of GAA supporting councils has provided the princely total of one pitch for GAA. How many soccer pitches have they? I can guarantee it has scores of them.

[bought]

Well I certainly agree with a lot of what cockahoop is saying in terms of organisation and fair play to his lads playing a bit of soccer and doing well at it. The organisation of underage GAA in Derry is a complete joke.

However my quibble with the organisation of soccer versus Gaelic is the way in which they are publicised and funded. How many soccer matches would be played if public funds weren't providing the playing spaces for them? I would hazard that it would be a grand total of none quite frankly as there are a miniscule number of clubs that own their own ground. Why should the public purse pay to provide soccer grounds and not Gaelic grounds?

In terms of publicity I read the News Letter most days for a laugh. Today in their sports section they had a 2 page spread on pigeon racing, [I kid you not] another page on cricket, a few pieces on bowls. There wasn't a mention of GAA at all in their coverage. Now that is fair enough as it is up to any paper to print what it thinks its readers want. But that does not wash for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC and i think it is obvious they have a similar attiude to the GAA as the Newsletter does. In particular their treatment of the Milk Cup shows the bias they have towards any sport that is not GAA. the success of their efforts is obvious on here by the number of people who are proclaiming this to be a world class event. It's not. It's a crowd of wains running after a ball on a pitch that the soccer authorities havent paid a brass farthing for.

Do you go out of your way to get offended?  Funding for the Milk Cup and GAA coverage in the Newsletter....sweet jesus but your stress levels can't be good

My stress levels are quite obviously much better than your comprehension!

The News Letter reference was merely used to illustrate a determined attitude amongst a large swathe of the population to steadfastly ignore the GAA as if it doesn't exist, and big up anything that reinforces the unionist hegemony. An unfortunate viewpoint that is clearly held by many influential figures in the BBC NI sports dept. It's not quite the 'IRA at play' anymore but it is only slowly moving away from that IMO.

Do you think it is ok for a local council to provide and maintain scores of pitches for one sport and the grand total of zero pitches for another equally popular one. It's hardly a level playing field now is it?

your stress levels are off the chart. I wouldn't open the Newsletter, never mind read it most days .

Your post above sounds like it was written in the 80s ! I can only speak from experience in the north west, but DCC have an initiative with the county board providing paid coaches to deliver sessions in the primary schools in the city to promote games. One of the intermediate sides plays on a council provided GAA pitch in the waterside. How much did Pearse's pay for their new land up in the Top of The Hill? Brian Og's and Colmcille for their prime location? Na Magha hurling pitch and new changing facilities? How much funding did Brian Og's and Colmcille get for pitch build and state of the art clubhouses?

Coleraine Council have opened a new 3g pitch for rugby, gaa and soccer, Limavady the same.

There's not a youngster in Derry to my knowledge who hasn't access to GAA facilities or free coaching partly provided for by public funding .

I'm not surprised you don't read the News Letter as it appears you can barely read.

You certainly havent addressed any of the points that I was making, though you inadvertantly supported the general thrust of my argument with your list of clubs that bought their own grounds. How many soccer clubs do can you list that have done the same? I would warrant the answer is zero as they are so used to getting pitches provided gratis to them there is no need for them to buy anything. The local government, and I notice you have highlighted one longterm natrionalist council, support is a belated and minimal effort to redress a glaring imbalance.

I never mentioned coaching programmes but I can tell you that the vast vast majority of GAA coaching is funded directly by the GAA, so how this is a relevant point is beyond me.

Well sure the Irish News can cover whatwever it likes, if you don't like it, don't buy it.  The BBC however must be paid for if one has a TV and must therefore be held to a higher standard of impartiality.

They are providing god knows how much coverage to this tournament, there would be more people at a decent club match than would attned the whole thing, with the exception of when Man Utd were playing or for the final.  For the vast majority of games there wouldnt be 2 men and his dog at it.

A high international standard?? Wtf? Ghana?

Fearon wouldnt go to watch Armagh playing if he had to pay in.

But if Armagh were playing on Sunday he'd be on here spouting nonsense about what a great chance they had, regardless of who they'd beaten to get there. A fool hoor who just likes to listen to himself.

Well I certainly agree with a lot of what cockahoop is saying in terms of organisation and fair play to his lads playing a bit of soccer and doing well at it. The organisation of underage GAA in Derry is a complete joke.

However my quibble with the organisation of soccer versus Gaelic is the way in which they are publicised and funded. How many soccer matches would be played if public funds weren't providing the playing spaces for them? I would hazard that it would be a grand total of none quite frankly as there are a miniscule number of clubs that own their own ground. Why should the public purse pay to provide soccer grounds and not Gaelic grounds?

In terms of publicity I read the News Letter most days for a laugh. Today in their sports section they had a 2 page spread on pigeon racing, [I kid you not] another page on cricket, a few pieces on bowls. There wasn't a mention of GAA at all in their coverage. Now that is fair enough as it is up to any paper to print what it thinks its readers want. But that does not wash for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC and i think it is obvious they have a similar attiude to the GAA as the Newsletter does. In particular their treatment of the Milk Cup shows the bias they have towards any sport that is not GAA. the success of their efforts is obvious on here by the number of people who are proclaiming this to be a world class event. It's not. It's a crowd of wains running after a ball on a pitch that the soccer authorities havent paid a brass farthing for.

Do you go out of your way to get offended?  Funding for the Milk Cup and GAA coverage in the Newsletter....sweet jesus but your stress levels can't be good

My stress levels are quite obviously much better than your comprehension!

The News Letter reference was merely used to illustrate a determined attitude amongst a large swathe of the population to steadfastly ignore the GAA as if it doesn't exist, and big up anything that reinforces the unionist hegemony. An unfortunate viewpoint that is clearly held by many influential figures in the BBC NI sports dept. It's not quite the 'IRA at play' anymore but it is only slowly moving away from that IMO.

Do you think it is ok for a local council to provide and maintain scores of pitches for one sport and the grand total of zero pitches for another equally popular one. It's hardly a level playing field now is it?

Well I certainly agree with a lot of what cockahoop is saying in terms of organisation and fair play to his lads playing a bit of soccer and doing well at it. The organisation of underage GAA in Derry is a complete joke.

However my quibble with the organisation of soccer versus Gaelic is the way in which they are publicised and funded. How many soccer matches would be played if public funds weren't providing the playing spaces for them? I would hazard that it would be a grand total of none quite frankly as there are a miniscule number of clubs that own their own ground. Why should the public purse pay to provide soccer grounds and not Gaelic grounds?

In terms of publicity I read the News Letter most days for a laugh. Today in theor sports section they had a 2 page spread on pigeon racing, [I kid you not] another page on cricket, a few pieces on bowls. There wasn't a mention of GAA at all in their coverage. Now that is fair enough as it is up to any paper to print what it thinks its readers want. But that does not wash for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC and i think it is obvious they have a similar attiude to the GAA as the Newsletter does. In particular their treatment of the Milk Cup shows the bias they have towards any sport that is not GAA. the success of their efforts is obvious on here by the number of people who are proclaiming this to be a world class event. It's not. It's a crowd of wains running after a ball on a pitch that the soccer authorities havent paid a brass farthing for.

Well I suppose it just goes to show that the BBC 'aren't we a great wee country getting the cream of the football world to come to our wee tournament' wankfest has certainly had the desired effect, given the amount of supposed Gaa Heads who are on here listing the merits of this as  a world class event.

Need your heads examined lads.

This is a complete Mickey Mouse event. It's played on public pitches that any U-8 Gaa player would sneer at. If it wasn't in a Unionist area it would never get a mention on the beeb.

Cleverly able to paint itself as a premier competition my ass.

The BBC is furiously flagellating itself about how important a competition it is in order to show how great OWC is, which  shows where their priorities lie.

Anybody that believes that this tournament warrants the coverage given to it by the BBC  needs their head examined. 

If it had to stand on its own two feet it wouldn't exist.

Having been involved in youth football for the best part of a decade I have to say that Northern Ireland has not one but two top tier youth competitions annually. I helped out with fundraising for the Co Antrim squad 4 or 5 years ago and was very impressed with the level and quality of the organisation. The milk cup is in youth football terms a fantastic competition.

Thats great.

But it wouldn't exist without a huge swathe of public money being given to it directly and 'in kind'.

And the media coverage it is afforded stands in stark contrast to the likes of a feile which doesn't merit a mention in the mainstream media outlets, certainly in the North.

There's a lot of people on here talking about begrudgery and not giving credit where its due or being derogatory to other sports.

Well my issue isn't with these sports per se or the people who play or watch them. However without the public provision of playing fields there wouldnt be a single soccer league able to run in this country let alone an 'international competition', as the vast majority of soccer clubs don't have a pot to piss in let alone have their own playing fields. If the public purse wasnt providing these you can be sure there would be next to zero soccer being played here.

The level of press coverage given to this Mickey Mouse competition is absurd. The contrast with how GAA is publicly funded and covered in the media is stark.

Though it is obviously working when you get people on here lauding the level of soccer talent coming to 'these shores'. Hahahaha Watson eat your heart out. You could count on your fingers the number of people who made it to the top level in soccer who played in the Milk Cup. God knows they are listed ad nauseum every year.

And don't get me started on Road Racing, a sport that needs to close the public roads to exist. And the hundreds of thousands, sorry, quarter of a million spectators, don't make me laugh, there wouldnt be 10,000 people paying to watch this nonsense.

I have no issue with anyone participating or attending , it's the orgasmic media love-in that pisses me off.

Just another excuse to show how great 'Our Wee Country' is. As with other non-events, like the NW200, bigged up to show how great Norn Iron is, it couldn't run if there wasn't a shitload of public money thrown at it.

A load of wains running round like sheep  but the BBC treats it like a mini woirld cup. There'd be more peeps at Owenbeg for an Intermediate match than would attend the whole thing.

This is a disgrace. They should just have one competition and let everyone enter it on an equal basis. To the victor/ess the spoils.

PS I read the article in the IN and she pointed out that it took her 35 strokes to complete the course whilst the winner completed it in 25.

And her using a size 4 sliothar as well, absolute disgrace, back to making the tea and sandwiches for the lads, isn't that their place Keyser?

I never mentioned tea and sandwiches.

This is a disgrace. They should just have one competition and let everyone enter it on an equal basis. To the victor/ess the spoils.

PS I read the article in the IN and she pointed out that it took her 35 strokes to complete the course whilst the winner completed it in 25.