Messages

I thought this was to be part of the deal with the IRFU? Must be like the demensions of Lansdowne being big enough to accomidate gaelic games, lies!

Republic of Ireland - no such place Offaly only in soccer

"another country" what? maybe from another juristiction - only Isaac Boss is from another country!

Take your points - excellent points there - worried about the future of our games!

"partitionist anthem"

I don't agree its the anthem of the Irish nation, something that is not defined by the border. Its the anthem that which commands the respect of five sixths of the people on this island.

"maybe we should have had enough confidence in ourselves to be proud of what we had achieved with the stadium and enough faith in generations of toil that we shouldn't need the approval of others for what we do and how we achieved it."

I would agree that this need for recognition or approval from others is hugely immature. I'd prefer that we had not opened up, but I think we had to as the back lash would have been massive, so while I think its a real challange for the GAA I'm not sure relastically we had many options.
Offlay I which I could bask in the glory but I can't as I have this sinking feeling about the impact on our games and a unique Irish way of life.

Not doomsday lads but Rugby took a massive step forward in terms of its growth in Ireland. I've never seen hype like it lads and we've the Heniken Cup and Rugby World Cup to look forward to. Its tough for us to compete in ways as we don't have the international aspect and its ability for one team to appeal to the whole island or the glamour of professional sport. We will also now have to have every GAA events athmoshpere compared to the that of the game yesterday. Oh and the clamour to stay at Croke Park on on permanent basis is well and truely up and running with planning issues making the new Lansdowne less and less likely.

True I was selective as that's the part I had an issue with. Being from down south too I can understand how you might come to resent some for the comments from our northern countrymen. I can understand how this might cause you to say a plague on all there houses but if you are a proud Irishman, how can you say you don't care about a  "free Ulster" – (thankfully 3 of the 9 counties are free). I'm not sure where you are from, but just imagine that your part of Ireland had been cut off by an artificial border, in a sectarian and discriminatory state. Would you be happy if the rest of Ireland turned their back and said "I'm alright Jack"?? As a Gaelgoir surely you understand the role of the north in our culture, how could you be happy to see Emain Macha for example under foreign domination?

"what about the british soilders who were blown to bits by bombs"

Excactly what about them, forces of occupation are a ligitmate target, of course I wish they had stayed at home and we had no British soliders in Ireland and on a human level every death is a tradgedy.

FFS lads the GAA frooze all ticket prices last year, fair play to them for that. I don't think tickets are over priced the family tickets are great value too and are avialable for all but a few games. The all Ireland final looks underpriced when compared to the Rugby and soccer tickets and when compared to premiership tickets. Its 2 days a year tends to be made up of 50% neutrals anyway, the other half will or should be counting their blessings that they are there and that their county is in the final.

Its costing counties more and more to prepare teams, many of them are struggling and I'm sure most you would agree its a less painful way of earning money than selling raffle tickets etc.

First I've heard of a tranfer for Forde was today - he's certainly not overly content at the moment, and was droped from the starting line up on Sunday but came on and scored 3 points. He's from a place only a stones throw from Wicklow so he won't have far to go if he does.

I really hope its bollix but I've no doubt he's been courted by Wicklow and other counties. IF this does come to pass I'll be calling for a GAA  and revenue investigation of Micko and the players who transfer. If cash is changing hands they should be banned and revenue should make sure tax is paid on it too.

I agree with whoever advocated paying off the CP debt as this is supposed to be a temporary arrangement so we can't build structures on a revenue stream that will come to an end in 3 years time. Pay off the debt then all monies raised by Croke Park in the future can be used to develop our games. I think however some of the money could be used to kick start the games development so that counties see some win from the opening of Croke Park immediately. I know I'd love to see a coach being dedicated to Gorey for example to develop hurling in particular in what is one of the fastest growing towns in Leinster.

would have to agree that we have too many mouments to egos being built - I mean I think Mayo are talking of upgrading Castlebar to 50k or something utterly crazy like that. I think 25k like we have in Wexford is more than adequate and then invest in 1-2 other grounds per province to bring them up to mini Croke Park stadards. I'd upgrade, Thurles, Pairc Uí Cuiv, Portlaoise, Clones, Casement and Tuam and Roscommon.