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Would like to see some softening of the relations between Cuba and america - the embargo is a disgrace to humanity.
Cuba is being kept poor and the people impoverished because of it.

Even if there was no embargo, I don't think Cuba would be much better off.
A country when you can't realistically start your own business, or buy property etc is hardly going to start thriving in a hurry.

The American embargo is petty, but it is the certainly has helped the Castro regime. Cuban people have a cause to rally behind and are less questioning of their own less than ideal living standards.

Certain dioceses still have them and others don't as I recall.
Ardagh and Clonmacnoise still do, whereas I never recall them in the Meath diocese.
Some lads only go to them for the soup and sandwiches after.
They were great craic for you young lads.
The hallways and bedrooms were great places for tittering and laughter during the solemn proceedings down in the kitchen!

A buffer for the congestion charge might be to allow private operators start to open new routes where the demand picks up on.
As stated, the current transport model makes everyone converge onto O'Connell Street.
With the intransigent unions, rigid work practices and no incentive to improve service, Dublin Bus are not going to quickly respond to the changes in commuter behaviour.

I don't know whether or not Kenny was a great manager (definitely a great great player) but I think his time at Newcastle is much maligned. I could be wrong but did he not take over over half way into a season, and then was shown the door two games into the next?

In the over all scheme Dalglish wasn't the worst Newcastle manager. However he played more conservative football and put greater emphasis on defence, which didn't go down well in the post-Keegan days.

Wow.  It's hard to believe there are still people who think like that.  Even in Australia!

A horseshit article.
You'd swear no "outside settler, blow in, whatever you call them" Australian ever benefited from the welfare state. And that every native is creaming it off the system.
Read between the lines and most of the benefits listed look like pure tokenism from a guilty state.
If there hadn't been so much interference from outsiders towards the Aborigines they wouldn't need to be trying to patch things up so much.

Worrying recent second half outings. It appears as if our stamina and/or desire fades after about 50 minutes. I think we scored poorly against DCU, Wexford, Antrim and now Tipp in the second half, and that was a common failing last year as well.

Yep.
It's a worrying stat.
I've been checking over Offaly's half time scores compared to full time scores against the top 8 counties over the last few years.
There have been some terrible second half fade outs.
I'll put together the stats soon enough.

Wicklow beat Leix in last year's league, so they are one of the better Division 2 sides.
Hopefully this performance is a sign of progress from Mayo.

It's gas in the article above.
Eoin Kelly had a quiet day and though he did take his goal well, he was be no means Tipp's best forward. Yet he steals the headlines because of 9 points from frees.

Anyway, this is what I threw up on uibhfhaili.com.

Having hurled so well for a 3/4 of the game, my overall feeling is one of dismay at yet another Offaly surrender once the opposition got the run on us.

The 17 point margin may look harsh on the balance of play, but really in the last quarter several players were either banjaxed or threw in the towel and got severely punished. There's no better county than Tipp to showboat and sow it into you when this happens.

Certainly this was an Offaly side shorn of the Birr players and with so many young players, there is propensity to allow heads drop, but I just feel it is a really bad habit from Offaly's that really bugs me.

The first 3/4 of the game. Tipp moderately the better of two sides still looking to shake of the winter cobwebs. Offaly troubles starting from the puckouts. Offaly's lack of a Gary or Rory Hanniffy, or Joe Bergin in the half forwards stuck out badly.

Shane O'Connor wasn't driving them beyond the opposition '45, but trying to find an Offaly shirt around midfield and half forward. Unfortunately Offaly got very little change here as Tipp had the superior size and fielding here. Credit Offaly lads like Ger Oakley who contested hard for the breaks and weren't afraid to use timber. Tipp used the possession better most of the time, though some of their touches were poor.

Tipp won most of the primary possession, Offaly on many occasions did battle well to win it back, or else a Tipp player made a basic error and gave it away, but too often Tipp created scoring chances. Offaly gave away a lot of frees and Eoin Kelly rarely missed. For a good stretch of the first half Tipp were held scoreless from play, but I don't remember Kelly missing a single free.

Shane Dooley put over most of the early frees, but started to miss as the game went on. Given that Damien Murray was very consistent last year, there might be call for a change here. While Murray wasn't faring any better than anyone else in winning possession, he did use the ball well and set up a couple of scores. I think Dooley might find himself squeezed out of the side as we need a more robust wing forward.

When in possession, too often Offaly players tried to tap a short ball to a colleague who wasn't in much space, where an old fashioned drive down the field would have been the better option. I fear that not enough Offaly players have to accuracy to deliver the pinpoint pass to a colleague and the recipient hasn't got the required hands and wristwork to control it first time. And barring that, the physical brutishness to compensate for the lack of the above. Too many Offaly players were static when receiving a 20-30 yard delivery. I think Joe Dooley might want to go back to basics here.

David Kenny had a super performance, of fielding covering and clearing. In the modern game, high fielding is such a prized skill and his ability to pluck balls from the sky was a pleasure to watch. His clearances were quality too. However, therein lies our problem. We simply don't have enough players greater than 6 feet, with the ability to win the high ball.

The Offaly full-forward line didn't get much in terms of quality ball. When it did come in too often, the were flat-footed and behind their men. What did help was some of the terrible mistakes made by the Tipp full back line when trying to rise, or clear the ball.

It was always inevitable Tipp would pull away at some stage. They had options on the bench and made the positional switches tell. Moving a subdued Lar Corbett to half forward made a huge difference to their attack for example.

Rampant Kelly causes Faithful to collapse

With two new managers at the helm, hope was bouncing around Thurles yesterday like a spring lamb but, of the shepherds, only Liam Sheedy looked happy with his flock after this Division 1B NHL opener.

Asked afterwards if they had picked up any residual injuries new Offaly boss Joe Dooley grimaced and admitted "our pride!"

Questions will certainly be asked about his young side's drastic capitulation in the last 10 minutes.

Twenty minutes into the second half, they were trailing by just three and holding their own, admittedly thanks largely to two first-half goals inside four minutes and some particularly timely defensive interventions by wing-back David Kenny.

And then bam! Like many a team before them they were undone in a split second by the hurling genius that locals only half-jokingly call 'God'.

Eoin Kelly, already faultless while racking up 0-7 in the first half, reached into the sky to pluck down a John O'Brien pass and rammed it home before Offaly could blink.

It was only one of the highlights of Kelly's eventual 1-10 and simply sucked the life-force from the visitors.

"With 20 minutes to go I thought we were going to win it," Dooley said. "Then we missed a couple of points, one from a free and one from play, and then they got the goal and it all switched within five minutes.

"Tipp's experience around the middle of the field showed. We played well for 55 to 60 minutes but when the goal went in we seemed to drop our heads alright," he admitted.

"We had nine or 10 U21s there today and maybe four in their first National League game so it's hard for them to come from behind," he added.

Offaly didn't score for the last 27 minutes while Tipperary racked up an unanswered 2-9, their second 65th minute goal also a stunner, started by Lar Corbett and cleverly scooped up by substitute Seamus Butler for league debutant Pat Kerwick to volley home.

Even allowing for the absences of Brendan Murphy and the influential Birr contingent, this was a bad opening day hammering.

And yet, as Sheedy noted, "until Eoin got that goal it was anyone's game," which made Offaly's collapse all the more disappointing.

Sheedy, clearly, has greater depth to work with, even without the Loughmore-Castleiney crew and, as the scoreline suggests, an arsenal of firepower that any manager would envy.

But he made some impressive calls himself on his managerial NHL debut.

The switch of Lar Corbett to centre-forward, the move of Benny Dunne to midfield and two feisty subs called Seamus Callinan and Butler, who scored 0-5 between them, visibly moved them up the necessary gear.

And even though Tipperary led by just three with a score of 0-14 to 2-5 at half-time, the warning signs were already there.

All their forwards had already scored from play. Their half-forwards were on top and rangey former minor star Pa Bourke had scored two glorious long-range points.

The problem was in defence where, apart from Eamonn Corcoran, they looked surprisingly shakey.

Tipp were four points clear before Derek Molloy beat Declan Fanning to score Offaly's first goal and then, four minutes later, when they should have cleared out of a scramble, Daniel Currams laid a ball back to Damien Murray to score into an unmarked goal and give Offaly a one-point lead.

No surprise then that recalled goalkeeper Brendan Cummins took drastic action, marching out to his '45 during a break in play to have a few quiet words with his defenders.

Sheedy clearly gave them a talking-to at half-time also.

Like? "Well, that we needed to knuckle down. People might have been getting carried away with South-East league matches but they are what they are. I knew today would be a completely different tempo," Sheedy admitted.

"But, after conceding the two goals, when questions were asked of the defence afterwards they finished strong," he said .

"Obviously I'd like to see a little more ball going in to our attack because I do think we have a full-forward line that's as good as what's in the country but for them to thrive they need to get the ball in quicker and crisper," Sheedy added.

And Limerick next week? "Yeah, it will be a step up again. Limerick will bring a real crowd, Richie Bennis is probably the most popular man in Ireland right now and what do you call what comes after 'the trilogy'?" he quipped.

Scorers -- Tipperary: E Kelly 1-10 (8fs, 1'65), P Kerwick 1-1, L Corbett, P Bourke and S Callinan 0-3 each, S Butler 0-2, R O'Dwyer, J O'Brien and W Ryan 0-1 each. Offaly: D Molloy 1-1, D Murray 1-0, S Dooley 0-3 (2f), J Rigney 0-2, C McMahon and B Carroll 0-1 each.

TIPPERARY -- B Cummins; E Buckley, D Fanning, P Curran; E Corcoran, C O'Mahony, B Dunne; J Ceaser, S Maher; P Kerwick, R O'Dwyer, J O'Brien; E Kelly, L Corbett, P Bourke. Subs -- D Fitzgerald for O'Dwyer (48 mins), S Callinan for Maher (48), S Butler for O'Brien (55), W Ryan for Bourke (64).

OFFALY -- S O'Connor; C Hernon, K Brady, D Franks; D Horan, J Bergin, D Kenny; C Mahon, J Rigney; S Dooley, G Oakley, B Carroll; D Currams, D Molloy, F Kerrigan. Subs -- J Brady for Currams (54), F Kerrigan for Molloy (63).

REF -- J Owens (Wexford).

I remember him profiled on tv nearly 20 years ago as a youth player in Leeds.
He was raised in the Ballymun flats area and was at home with his mother for a few days.

He popped up again saving that Cantona penalty looking fairly porky. He was joking at the time that he should struck a bet with Cantona before he took the penalty.

Pity to see him end up on the wrong end of the tracks. He had been in trouble with the law from his early teens, so it was probably inevitable.

Another good scalp for the Dublin colleges.
St Kieran's don't seem to be the force of old.
I wonder is this down to the ceasing of the boarding school a couple of years ago.
Also the other schools in Kilkenny seem to be improving, so perhaps Kieran's isn't the primary hurling nursery any more?


DUBLIN COLLEGES 1-11 ST KIERAN'S (Kilkenny) 1-6

Dublin Colleges toppled the famed Kilkenny nursery, St Kieran's, in last Saturday's Leinster Colleges SHC 'A' quarter-final at Dr Cullen Park, Carlow.

David Treacy and Jamie Winters were the scoring stars for the Dubs with Cuala man Treacy hitting 0-6 (including four frees) and St Brigid's Winters hitting 1-2.

The Dubs held the upperhand and led by 0-8 to 0-2 at the interval. It was a lead they extended to 0-10 to 0-3 early in the second half until a Rick Leydon goal 16 minutes into the second half cut the gap to 0-10 to 1-4.

However, Dublin settled again and Winters late goal direct from a sideline cut made sure of their slot in the last four. Dublin Colleges will face Good Counsel or Bunclody in their semi-final.

SCORERS - Dublin Colleges: D Treacy 0-6 (0-4f), J Winters 1-2 (1-1 sideline), L Rushe (0-1f), C Clinton, N McMurrow 0-1 each. St Kieran's: R Leydon 1-0, J Gannon, B O'Shea, J Brennan 0-2 each.
DUBLIN COLLEGES - F McGarry; D O Maolaigh, R O'Carroll, D Curran; R O'Loughlin, L Rushe, M Quilty; C Clinton, R Breathnach; J Winter, N Muineachain; D Treacy, N McMurrow, A McInerney, J Stapleton. Subs: F Clabby for Rushe, J Callaghan for Muineachain, M Lawless for McInerney, F Dunleavy for Stapleton.
ST KIERAN'S, KILKENNY – K Heffernan; N McQuillan, M Walsh, O Daly; P Dowling, M Phelan, P Phelan; C McQuillan, R Leydon; S Butler, J Gannon, S Quinlan; S Phelan, B O'Shea, J Brennan. Subs: T Flynn for Butler, J Walsh for Quinlan.

Keane signing up Irish players like Connolly, Harte, Murphy, Stokes, Kavanagh, McShane and now chasing Hunt and Reid.
It reminds me of Roddy Collins at Carisle and we all know how that ended.
Playing the patriotic card while admirable is probably not the best way to achieve success.

Down play Offaly in the Walsh Cup on Thursday @ 8.15pm in Ballymun, Dublin.  The game is under floodlights on a synthetic pitch.

That game has now moved to Darver in Louth.
It's like a treasure hunt at this stage.
The fixture has been switched from Tullamore to Mount Bolus to Ballymun and now Darver.

His behaviour off the pitch and on is exemplary.

Did he not go on the lash a couple of days before an important qualifier for Ireland a couple of years ago?
From what I've observed of him playing for Ireland, he does get easily put off his game when a refereeing decision goes against him.
Though he is a clean player and very good player when in the right frame of mind.

Soccer is by a long way the most popular sport of the working class areas and I think most of the reasons have been covered.

- Built up areas suit the playing of soccer better.

- Structures. Soccer caters for the social player better. 5 a-side leagues, pub teams, astro leagues, indoor halls, allow the casual player a regular game. Even the biggest GAA clubs don't field many adult teams. They are seen as a drain on the club unless they are of some benefit to the better teams. Anybody can start up a soccer team with their mates and have a bit of fun. Setting up a GAA team/club is far more cumbersome.
In cities and big towns where there isn't the benefit of tightly knit communities and sacred boundaries the GAA still hasn't found an alternative means of getting teams and players mobilised.
The GAA gets away with murder in most rural areas with its bad fixture planning. Where there is any sort of competition with other sports, the GAA cuts its own throats with terrible club fixture planning.

- The perception of the GAA being of rural/green/traditional/connected to the past doesn't appeal to a lot of urban people. In Dublin for example, my experience is that the hostility towards the GAA is very often rooted in a dislike of culchies. Lots of people are quick to tell you about their dislike of the GAA, yet can't present much of a case as to why they feel that way.
It is what the "gah" is associated with, rather than any particular bad acts by the GAA that turn them off.

On a slightly related issue GAA bashing is seen as fairly acceptable, whereas GAA people speaking ill of other sports certainly isn't. It is reflective of a certain mindset that exists in the country.

- Escapism. Soccer offers the hope (though maybe slim) of a teenager being thrust into a life of mega riches and wealth. Especially in areas where there is low participation in higher education and traditionally don't churn out the barristers, stock brokers and doctors.
Similar to why sales of lottery tickets are highest in poorer areas. Pushing your son towards a career as a professional soccer is a bit like buying the ticket and hoping your number comes in. Scouts and coaches can be very manipulative when it comes to selling the dream to teenage boys and their families.

Thousands of young people have gone through the mill of going on trial with clubs in England, or being told they are being they are being watched by scouts from all sorts of random clubs.
It almost seems farcical how few make it. I wonder is the whole thing a big setup to keep young people's heads turned, when realistically most of them haven't a hope of making it.