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Happy New Year,  all the best to you all.  Thanks for all the different views on topics I wouldn't know anything much about without dropping in here every so often.
Wishing you all and yours health and happiness through 2022.

Hopes: promotion from Division 2, Connacht title, to end up in an All-Ireland semi-final by accident or design would be fantastic.
Worst case scenario (always a possibility- more often than not,  an ounce of expectation converts to a ton of disappointment!!): Relegation, annihilation in Connacht.

Expectation: something in between.  Decent u20 team in the making again,  so to stay competitive at minor and 20s, and to hopefully see a few of last years 20s getting league experience would be good.

Nollaig shona daoibh go léir- go raibh maith agaibh do chách as ucht eolas,  léargas agus siamsaíocht thar ama, agus go n-eirí 2022 go geal libh.
Thanks to all for the information,  insights and entertainment across different threads. 
To paraphrase Rimmer in Red Dwarf- 'Over the years, I've some to regard you as...people I've read online!!'

Hopefully 2022 is a happy,  healthy, peaceful and rewarding year for you all.

Good luck, God bless, and thanks.

1209 pages since this thread started.  Every now and then I flick back to the first few pages, then skip along to other parts,  to see how it looked at the outset.
I still tune in here every day, and sometimes read links posted, but I'm tired of it all now.  I did the vaccine, will probably get the booster, I do the mask and hand sanitizing if I go into a shop or whatever,  not necessarily because I trust any of it implicitly,  but simply because the likelihood of it maybe helping to make a positive difference outweighs the alternative of ignoring all these things.
I'm tired of it all now, really fed up.  I wish it was done, but wish in one hand and sh*te in the other, and see which fills up first.  I'm public sector, so haven't had to worry about wages, or where my job is headed.  I can't imagine that kind of stress.  I haven't been directly affected or bereaved by Covid, but I can only try and imagine what those people must think when they see things being said from across the spectrum of opinions about the whole scenario.
Even if it did peter out in the next few months, the legacy issues will last decades.  I see in school how it's affecting the normal dynamics.  Yes kids are robust, adaptable and resilient than might often be portrayed, but it's alien and difficult for a lot of them.  You steer them along as best you can, but in the back of your mind, you're questioning everything about what you are asking them to do.
The entire thing is just a headache.

I'm feeling a bit melancholy tonight but my baby brother Sean, aged 46,  passed away recently.

Condolences to you and your family- things are very raw and difficult now, but he'll always be alive in good memories and get togethers with friends and family.

One of my earliest memories is being fascinated with the song and video for Ultravox 'Vienna'.
I always considered myself an REM fan first and foremost, but I only really got into them with Out of Time, so it was great to be able to work back to Murmur as well as subsequent albums.  On fan pages there's a lot of division about where to draw the line for their 'decline'- for me, while there was a few great songs after Up, that was the last complete album for me, I never got into the rest the same way.
Since then I've flitted from band to band based on a few songs here and there, but The National are a decent substitute for REM for me.
Perfect Circle from REM and Terrible Love from The National would be my signature choices, but my favourite all-time songs are James Getting Away With It All Messed Up, and Fiction Factory's Feels Like Heaven.

An interesting thread, looking forward to this as a break from the usual sniping on other threads.
Some characters will be divisive- Mickey Harte would be one, and for what it's worth,  I do admire him.
Mandela would be my choice,  but I think we often attach aspirations to figures we admire that they may or may not live up to: Roy Keane would be another for me, but I would tend to focus on what I would consider the ideals he represents for me, and consequently downplay or ignore the negatives.

UCG mid-90s.  I suppose everyone sees their era in college as a golden era, but I genuinely believe there's a compelling case for that particular time.
A lot changed while I was there: Smoky Joes when you could smoke, for one.  The staff there were sound, I lived on coffee, doughnuts, playing cards and having the craic.  There was the H block, the old college bar, and I can't remember the name of the canteen between the Quad and the library, it's the conference office now, or was the last time I was around.
Mussolini used to patrol the corridors, caught me smoking in the early days and I thought I was going to be arrested!!

No social media, but emails were beginning to be a thing.  Everything went by word of mouth: the River Inn was a great spot,  but Cookes always seemed too far up.  Parties in Legoland were massive for us 1st years, but usually lost in what seemed like a labyrinth for a poor culchie,  because most of the signs were nicked.  The Hole in the Wall was the 1st year pub, after that you graduated to the King's Head.  Salthill was where it all was at: the Castle was the biz, and then CJs.  There was one beside the Warwick,  I can't remember the name but it changed a few times while I was there.
As you progressed (only a year or two, but back then it was eons), McSwiggans became the local, with discerning heads settling in Bar an Chaladh, or Neachtains.  The cool alt set were Roisin Dubh or the Crane aficionados, but they were a bit  out of my way, although I retired in Monroes.  I forgot Matt's bar for shots as you were following the promotions and the free passes into whatever nightclub.  The GPO for drinking and music (loved Shite Night), CPs was more upmarket.  Cuba had a few great years in Eyre Square.  The obligatory once a term visit to Padraig's Place on a particularly ferocious drinking session to prove you were hardcore.
All in all, I loved it.  I'd give anything to live those years again.
The people,  the music, the fact that there was always something going on in Galway.
Magic.
One final thing: despite the fact that many of them to this day are my best friends, it kills me anytime Galway or Mayo win anything!!

Just starting a topic,  it might or might not be of some interest,  it's just I often miss some or most of it depending on the day and work and whatnot, so I'd be hoping that some of you good people might maybe mention from time to time any interesting topics or interviews and so on, or any other chat shows, for that matter.
Thanks in advance!!

I'm a teacher.  I would be totally against any form of industrial action now, and I'd bet the vast majority of my colleagues would be the same.
It's yet another PR disasterclass from the unions banging this particular drum.  Create an avenue towards a priority vaccine for at-risk teachers, fair enough,  but the majority just want to get back to doing the job in as normal a fashion as possible.

Teacher bashing is a convenient storyline for the press to field- just throw out the headline,  and let social media do the rest.  Overpaid, lazy, selfish, holidays, afraid to work, wouldn't know a day's work if it headbutted them, retail workers, doctors, nurses, etc, etc. 
Just what is it people want from teachers, that teachers aren't delivering?  With the amount of expert opinion you come across reading comments on an IT article, homeschooling must be the way forward,  because it's blatantly obvious that teachers either can't or won't or don't want to do the job.

If balloted on industrial action, I'll be voting no.  Not because I'm heroic,  or virtue signalling, or whatever.  It doesn't matter anyway, because I'll be accused either way.  And if it comes up with someone I know- someone who maybe hit a home run on facebook with a vitriolic post, or someone who wades in in the comments section, I get the classic backtrack- not all teachers, sure the school is doing everything it can, etc, etc. 
Yeah, me bollix. 
You know the bit that amuses me most, very often these are the very people that'll bang a drum about mental health,  and the impact the covid restrictions will have on mental health and mental health services.  But if it's a teacher's mental health, pity about them- see above,  lazy, holidays, etc, etc.

The teacher bashing narrative then redirects to the impact the greedy, selfish,  lazy teachers' actions and demands will have on pupils.  Primary school is formative, I teach secondary,  so I see adolescence unfold.  Yes, I would be acutely aware of the stress and toll on the mental health of those either sitting in front of me, or logging in for remote learning.  I also see the impact of those with little or no engagement.  I know those that will catch up, and those that will struggle.  I'll do my best, but it won't be good enough,  because I'm lazy, selfish,  overpaid and only interested in the holidays.

When we came back in September, we were told to start softly,  softly, to get the students readjusted, to be mindful of their wellbeing and mental health,  and not to be causing stress.  It seems a lot of that has gone out the window lately.  I don't recall being told to reverse this, but it looks like it's my fault anyway,  because I'm a teacher.

Sorry...

I think one of the most disheartening and frustrating aspects of the lockdowns and vaccine rollout is the wavering and uncertainty, with the narrative shifting daily or weekly.  If people thought there was a definitive direction, then people would be more likely to be on board and engage with the processes.
The same would apply in the case of reunification.  Reading here the last week or so reminds me of a section in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy- the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything was 42, but the problem was no-one could define the question.  There are so many strands that it is natural that people would focus on specific ones either closest to their hearts or their economic circumstances, and idle speculation or hearsay would do little to dispel doubts or not fuel anxieties about other strands.  There would need to be some form of forum whereby people could submit their views across a range of local, community and national issues, and then this data to be analysed to suggest directions.  This process would need to run concurrently with cross-party talks at a political level, again from local to regional to national scale.  It would take a lot of time, and again it would take time to digest the findings, but there is such diversity, even from the comments here in the last while, to encapsulate all views would be a pretty herculean task.
How do you eat an elephant?  One bite at at time, and it would be the same here- a lot of small steps to get things in motion, but even before these could happen, there needs to be a framework which could point the way, and ultimately see a timeline evolve.  The old Gaelic chieftains' complaint that the Normans were becoming more Irish than the Irish themselves (or was it the other way round with the Normans complaining, I can't remember) shows a difficulty in defining being Irish, and the who or what is an Irishman argument sidetracks the debate when identity is so crucial to different groupings and backgrounds.
There needs to be options put before people, with possibilities and alternatives, and when people can see these options, they can start thinking about what the end product would look like.
The entire concept just can't be reduced to a yes or a no.
Otherwise, the answer is 42.

For a few reasons, I only saw bits of it- missed the whole Joe Brolly segment, although I gather it wasn't that long.

Mary Lou spoke well, I thought- carefully constructed, focused on being inclusive: buoyant and positive, and effective without getting snagged on what will undoubtedly be major thorny issues,  I thought.

I don't like Leo, full stop.  I think a lot of what comes from Fine Gael and Fianna Fail the last few years regarding Sinn Fein always seems to be snide and defensive.  It always seems so contrived that it becomes tiresome, and legitimate challenges therefore get diminished in the overall rhetoric. 

Micheal Martin reminds me so much of Enda Kenny, just less crude and more prissy.  I would class neither of them as a leader, let alone a statesman.  Maybe I just have an idealistic view of what I'd want politicians and cabinet members to be, but I try to imagine what a history book in 50 or 100 years time might read as defining or distinguishing features about them, and I can't see anything in them.  Bertie,  as despicable as he might be, will always have the Good Friday Agreement to his name.

I'm sorry I missed Trimble and the unionist take, although hearing Bryson and Campbell referenced shows the kind of span of a bridge that would be required.

So my conclusions from tonight, albeit on a limited basis,  would be the Irish government position is to sit on their hands and do nothing.  Yes, a huge amount of groundwork is required and all of this would take time, and yes it would be imperative to bring along the unionist population, including the most entrenched, but I didn't see any sign of impetus or desire from either Martin or Varadkar.

I get the feeling this will be a long, long thread before there is a poll, and then the aftermath.

Personally,  I would vote yes, but there is a myriad of issues that would need to be addressed,  and I'd imagine any reunification process would need to be phased in over a number of years and stages. 
I think that the vision any of us have of how a United Ireland would work or look depends on our ages, influences and experience.
I know that while I was in school (a long way from the border, and violence in the North was a regular feature in the news), there would always have been a pretty significant tacit support, but for us nationalist and Republicans were interchangeable.  Up the ra was familiar graffiti and sentiments.  I'm not interested in debating the rights or wrongs of this- Sid and Angelo are both far better equipped to do this than me, but it always struck me as somewhere between odd and sinister the portrayal in the media even from when I was a teen: it was overwhelmingly anti- Sinn Féin and the IRA, but there never seemed to be near as much about the UDA or UFF.  I think that's a fair observation, but I don't have anything to back it up, so maybe I'm wrong.
Again as a teen my Dad started doing business with a few different lads from Tyrone,  Armagh and Belfast for a while.  It was fascinating to hear them describe day to day life, and regular encounters with the RUC and the British army, and on one or two trips with him to that part of the world I saw it for myself- in what world would it be considered normal to be questioned by a soldier with a gun pointing into the car?  It got me thinking at an early age that we were living in a complete bubble by comparison, and not only were we being insulated from all this, we were being conditioned by the media and the other political parties: I always found it baffling how it seemed that the powers that be seemed so eager to condemn anything Sinn Fein or nationalist, and why?  Because we were so dependent on the UK economically, we wouldn't want to be seen or heard to cause offence?  There are so many strands and layers- I haven't the time, or the required knowledge or comprehension to go into so many things here.
I have noticed over the past 20 years that the school environment and attitude towards the North has changed a lot.  Kids growing up now have other things that take up their time and attention.  Up the ra is very rare, either written or said.  So I'd imagine the concept of a United Ireland or vote, and the thought processes for people in their 20s or teens, and for those of us old enough to remember' the Troubles' are different, possibly very different.
The entire concept is big, bigger than a couple of paragraphs on a chat forum.  That's my tuppence worth- I don't post too often, but I read a lot of threads every day.  I try to keep an open mind, and I used to find this forum great because of the variety of views or links that I could read, and sometimes take on board for my own point of view.  I know very little,  and understand less, and I'm slow to make my mind up because there's always the other side of the story to consider.

Itchy can't do the Home schooling Maths....too hard for him..

All messing aside I was at a bit of fraction work with the eldest myself and it's hard enough to remember. I can do it. But I don't know how I can do it. And I don't know how to explain it, he gets it and then he doesn't get it and round and round and on and on and on.

I wouldn't be hectic at maths- always found OL grand, but HL used to be one step too far into the abyss.  I would always look at it as a step by step process, so break what you know into steps in sequence.  Chances are there's a rule that you know implicitly, but you're not saying it or showing it to the young buck.  A very quick Google might find it, and save ye both a bit of frustration.

Best of luck to your Dad, Sid.  Hope things will go well.