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Roddy McCorley - Tommy makem singing. If that doesn't get them fit to bull cattle, nothin will.

  Aye - the announcers are great.

'Patrons wishing to go to the toilets at half time should use the passage under the stand' - Portlaoise, 2003.

'Don't go to the stand turnstiles. The stand is now full. I repeat, the stand is now full.  I think' - Navan, 2002.

I'd say a good few lads in some clubs I know of might have been playing on the same team as their fathers. But they mightn't have known.

Seán O'Neill - even without the word 'Down' in the thread title.

Certainly a seminal event in the GAA's history is worth noting and remembering. What's much more worthy of note and celebration is the fact that it IS in the past and that people are not being shot down in our streets (by the authorities, at least) or in our stadiums any more.

Nobody can deny that the past wins hands down over the future when it comes to celebrations etc. in this country. A little balance wouldn't go amiss and so a little shouting for the future is welcome. We have plenty of marches commemorating past events where people were killed but none at all celebrating the fact that we've had relative peace for twelve years. We have a whole industry in marches celebrating our differences but none at all (that I can think of) promoting or celebrating what unites us.

Remembering the past is beneficial to building a decent future. Using it as tool of division is not. And sadly, for too many people, that is the purpose of these remembrances. We had people here citing the fate of Mick Hogan as a reason not to allow soccer and rugby in Croke Park, for instance and people still fulminating about the possibility that the flag of Britain may fly over it for a few hours, on the basis of what happened 86 years ago. That is a view very informed about what happened in the past but with no regard at all for the future. For instance, what beneficial future effect would it have on the growth and development of the GAA, particularly among the community for whom that happens to be their national flag? Maybe it wouldn't matter to tell them any flag but theirs is acceptable to us. Not if you really don't want them about the place anyway, I suppose.

So the question about how far back we should be 'allowed' to remember can be turned on its head too. When will it be alright to put the past in its place and look to the future, uninfluenced by the considerations of past oppression, massacres, injustices, etc. Now? Twenty years from now? 100? When?

you blueshirts

Yahey!!! That took longer than usual.

HANRAHAN by John O'Brien

"We'll all be rooned," said Hanrahan,
In accents most forlorn,
Outside the church, ere Mass began,
One frosty Sunday morn.

The congregation stood about,
Coat-collars to the ears,
And talked of stock, and crops, and drought,
As it had done for years.

"It's looking crook," said Daniel Croke;
"Bedad, it's cruke, me lad,
For never since the banks went broke
Has seasons been so bad."

"It's dry, all right," said young O'Neil,
With which astute remark
He squatted down upon his heel
And chewed a piece of bark.

And so around the chorus ran
"It's keepin' dry, no doubt."
"We'll all be rooned," said Hanrahan,
"Before the year is out."

"The crops are done; ye'll have your work
To save one bag of grain;
From here way out to Back-o'-Bourke
They're singin' out for rain.

"They're singin' out for rain," he said,
"And all the tanks are dry."
The congregation scratched its head,
And gazed around the sky.

"There won't be grass, in any case,
Enough to feed an ass;
There's not a blade on Casey's place
As I came down to Mass."

"If rain don't come this month," said Dan,
And cleared his throat to speak -
"We'll all be rooned," said Hanrahan,
"If rain don't come this week."

A heavy silence seemed to steal
On all at this remark;
And each man squatted on his heel,
And chewed a piece of bark.

"We want an inch of rain, we do,"
O'Neil observed at last;
But Croke "maintained" we wanted two
To put the danger past.

"If we don't get three inches, man,
Or four to break this drought,
We'll all be rooned," said Hanrahan,
"Before the year is out."

In God's good time down came the rain;
And all the afternoon
On iron roof and window-pane
It drummed a homely tune.

And through the night it pattered still,
And lightsome, gladsome elves
On dripping spout and window-sill
Kept talking to themselves.

It pelted, pelted all day long,
A-singing at its work,
Till every heart took up the song
Way out to Back-o'-Bourke.

And every creek a banker ran,
And dams filled overtop;
"We'll all be rooned," said Hanrahan,
"If this rain doesn't stop."

And stop it did, in God's good time;
And spring came in to fold
A mantle o'er the hills sublime
Of green and pink and gold.

And days went by on dancing feet,
With harvest-hopes immense,
And laughing eyes beheld the wheat
Nid-nodding o'er the fence.

And, oh, the smiles on every face,
As happy lad and lass
Through grass knee-deep on Casey's place
Went riding down to Mass.

While round the church in clothes genteel
Discoursed the men of mark,
And each man squatted on his heel,
And chewed his piece of bark.

"There'll be bush-fires for sure, me man,
There will, without a doubt;
We'll all be rooned," said Hanrahan,
"Before the year is out."

 
Maybe we've stumbled on something here! Dayton is dead. Forget the Oslo accord. The Portlaoise Peace Process could be the answer.

yeah bad meomries of that game. mcananey was going to send off john mcdermott along with mchale but when he conferred with his umpires one of them said that colm coyle had to go as he was after striking 3 mayoplayers so mcanany changed his mind.it brought a smile to my face to see boylan condemming aussie thuggery last week when some of the actions of his own players were much worse back then.

Arrah for jaysus sake who started the fight that day? You can't have it both ways - start the thing and then complain when you lose it that it's the other team's fault. If your forwards had kept their fists under control when Darren Fay was coming out with the ball there would have been no fight, no McHale sending off and, of course, Mayo would have won, as the Lord intended. Just as he intended in 89, 97, 04, 06. There's always someone else to blame.

Isn' it funny how mistakes in the first 65 minutes that lead to scores never seem to cost games. Still those scores are there on the scoreboard too, along with the 'real' scores from the last five minutes.

is the whole county jersey is sacred attitude not a bit precious. Surely its a good thing.

I suppose it is a bit precious. And there are more sacred things than that gone forever. And of course the money is a good thing and things won't change now anyway. I'm just saying how I personally feel about it. I'd never wear the county jersey because I never earned the right to wear it. Not that I'd be seen dead wearing a football jersey as clothing anyway. It's just me.

I was dear jesusing at the rest of yer point

Exactly. Just FYI, I wasn't exactly being serious. I thought the long coats and wellies would be a giveaway ...

However, I do admit to a grain of truth in my attitude to non-players wearing the jersey and I seriously don't ever recall seeing players wearing the jersey off the pitch. Maybe I'm wrong and many do it, but I haven't seen it. Anyone?

Nice attempted wum with the doormat bit aswell. 

Attempted? 

And the crowd is shouting: Yiz shudda locked the dressingroom  - we have yizzer watches and wallets.

Jackeens lined up in the photo - in my fantasy, there's a firing squad just out of shot, to the right.