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Charlton is also on record talking about armed guards on the bus and going being terrified driving through the 'mountains' to get to the match. Inspite of the fact that the bus had no guards (armed or otherwise) and the bus didn't go near any mountains (or even small hills) on the way to WP. I suppose if you talk enough shite some of it sticks. Charlton was pissed off because we didn't just roll-over and allow the RoI to qualify, as he expected us to.

Was he talking shite Sammy?
from the herald tribune
http://www.iht.com/articles/1993/11/17/irish_3.php
"The Ireland manager, Charlton, had requested that his team remain until Wednesday afternoon in a heavily secured hotel at Carrickmacross, a short bus ride south of Belfast. But the international soccer federation, FIFA, insisted per regulations that the visiting team arrive 24 hours before kickoff, requiring Ireland to fly north Tuesday and be escorted by armored police vehicles to a hotel chosen after four changes of mind."
Charlton was a pro he knew it was going to be a hard game like everybody else, it was shite like that that no manager wants.

So based on my own experience of that night, a surprisingly clear mw rte radio commentary some 1500 miles away, the commentators were regularily drowned out by the bigots. And with the Kop End, loud and sustained, 10 times worse than ibrox. Then where GSpain was located in the stands, vile sectarian abuse were the words he used. You could conceivably see our intrepid fictitious civil servant getting the shock of his life which triggered a fundamental self examination.
Where fantasy is stretched beyond any credible limit is that a football fan would switch allegience, that just shows that Marie Jones knew feck all about soccer.
My own feelings about that night are dominated by the equaliser and getting to the world cup. Probably angry that there was the media hype before, that Irish fans couldn't or wouldn't go, that the team were left on their own, that sport was infected in this way.
Charlton has gone on record as being shocked at the level of hostility and bigotry. But immediatly after the game he was invited to give an award to some young lads and he received a standing ovation from a packed room of NI fans and many well wishes, probably confused him totally.
I can seperate the then basic hostile Ni fan who wanted to beat us from the fans who were out and out bigots. I'm glad they are gone.
But I don't get the idea put out that the play will have the opposite effect than its intention. I would have to see proof of that.

Perhaps, but GSpain who was there with the travelling support has stated on this very website that he had experienced worse at other matches and that in his opinion, the abuse at Windsor was hugely exagerated.

I dont know how it was reported.
In a GAA board it's sinisterly ironic that the witness you drag up is GS pain, does the GS stand for  - glass spreader
GSpain did acknowledge that there was sustained loud vile sectarian abuse throughout the game. Other supporters reported worse, though there could have been a hint of exageration of the peril they faced
However I think mild mannered Packie Bonner's statement of 10 time worse than Ibrox is quite damning.

Neil Lennon is one of my favorite players, not at all one of the best, just in regards to football intelligence, team leader and holding player par excellance. I am not a Celtic fan.
Games that I remember with him in particular were the away games against Ajax and Liverpool.
His time had to come some day to leave his favored club and he couldn't have chosen a better time to leave.

No problem with that, but that's not what you said. You said sex shops should be zoned off in their own zone. I don't understand why a sex shop is any different to any other retail enterprise. If you have already have a retail zone why would you also need a specific sex zone?

That's a good one, maybe unintentional.

I haven't a clue about the area at all. I assume there are residents involved and they have their reasons.
Could be they are very suspicious of sex shops. Maybee they are just fearfull that undesirables be attracted to come into their area. Maybe they have good reasons, I don't know. It would be good to know.
6 sounds a bit excesssive to me to be located in one small area.
I suppose I'm in favour of strictly controlled good city planning. That such shops be in designated retail areas.

Soft porn was freely available in the North years before the likes of the luke warm Playboy hit the streets in the South. Sex shops exist elsewhere in Belfast.
It is illegal to set up a sex shop without a licence.
Why shouldn't the council support the wishes of local residents who didn't want to have a proliferation of sex shops (6 in all) who wanted to set up there. Whats wrong with Sex (zones) in the city ?

What about bookie zones or pub zones or church zones or school zones (keep all the kids in one place and stop them annoying the adults)?

Why should somebody who is selling completely legal material, whether that is porn mags or clothes pegs be stopped from doing it by the council.

I asked the questions first Sammy.
But to keep on with the great tradition of answering questions with more questions
Why shouldn't a city have zones, residential only zones, mixed residential and office, mixed residential and shopping,  etc etc?

Soft porn was freely available in the North years before the likes of the luke warm Playboy hit the streets in the South. Sex shops exist elsewhere in Belfast.
It is illegal to set up a sex shop without a licence.
Why shouldn't the council support the wishes of local residents who didn't want to have a proliferation of sex shops (6 in all) who wanted to set up there. Whats wrong with Sex (zones) in the city ?

No more and no less pathetic than the moral outrage over Ann Summers coming to OConnell Street. Whats sauce for the goose.....

Why do you say that the Belfast council's reason for refusal to grant a licence for a sex shop in that location is pathetic?

IMO  both sides have valid arguments and both have their valid points.

Despite what your partners might say, size does matter. Unless TD have a working plan for at least 6,000 seats in a dual usage scenario then Rovers should have the priority use.
If there is a viable plan for a dual use stadium, then GAA pitch size is not a major impediment to soccer spectators.
They should try spotting a hurley ball in full flight some 150m away ?

Here's an excerpt from an e-mail sent by Kennedy to John Costello of the Dublin County Board and leaked to the press

What interests me is why would John Costello leak this to the press ?

Who said he did the leaking.

Impression Sammy, just an impression.

okay
then lets agree to spell bigotry properly.

Hang on a minute. Someone wrote a play about what was then a current, actual event which she hadn't attended. Fair enough, she's entitled to do so, whether I or anyone else likes what she's written.
But that is not the point which Sammy and I and other NI fans are making.
Rather, the fat bigot Fearon reappears to herald a revival of the play, alleging that absolutely nothing has changed since the events which Jones dramatised.

I have already dismissed Fearan's analysis as tripe in my first post.
Don't mix and match  posts or points made.

What has emerged is that
Sammy denies the play is about one man dealing with his bigoted mindset.
Many Lies in the play.
Times have changed, no context now for reviving the play.

Imo
Its so called resurrection in Belfast (did it die)
can have a continued positive effect on bigoted influences in society.
Laugh at the pure irrational hateful stupidity of bigotry. It's one way a society can deal with it. Plays like this  expose bigotry, its causes, maintaining factors and be okay with it before it is swept under the carpet.
Bring it up, expose it, laugh at it and dump it.
The impression I get from you and Sammy is that everything is fine now don't bring up the Bigotry play again. Why the feck not? If everybody is okay with Bigotry in the North then either no one will go to it or people will go and enjoy to be reminded of the vileness of bigotry.
If there is a reaction against the  showing of the play, then not everybody is comfortable with the bigoted past.
Who gives a feck if it's just about loyalist bigots. Dermot Morgan had for decades lampooning catholicism and their bigots with savage humor.

I've no idea what this means but I love Father Ted if that helps.

Sammy, It's hard to imagine that you have a sense of humor not to mention some love in your heart as well.

Down a familiar road of a Nationalists head count at WP and Neil Lennon quotes.
Therfore in this context bigotry is not obvious at WP therefore the play needs updating.
Imo the play doesn't need updating. It's a sharp enough reflection of bigotry in a moment of time.
It is a play which has travelled well to different cultures. The play has a purpose wherever in the world there are bigots.
It's based on real enough characters that the playright and the actor have identified in their own life.

Marie wasn't there that night in November, so what, maybe she had never been to a dole office or attended a golf club social. What's the insinuation, that she can't write a play about bigotry? It like some arse criticizing One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest because such and such would never have happened in an asylum.
Sammy are you the 6 county equivalant of the critics who campaigned to have Dermot Morgan censored in the Father Trendy days ?

Apparantly she was very proud of the play when Marty Maguire was doing it. Much of it was written with him in mind.
PM Marie herself for her personal thoughts and feelings about going to WP these days.