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People are talking about building a new stadium in a green site or upgrading Clones. This is not an option. The money was for Casement Park or nothing.

That was the case however the IFA have managed to get funding for various projects not just Windsor Park. Their plans are yet unknown but Im presuming a new Glentoran stadium and money for the Brandywell will be part of their spending so I reckon the GAA could argue the toss to fund a new build somewhere else.

Interesting quotes from the judge

"There was no cogent evidence that it (Casement Park) was ever going to play host to crowds of 20,000 in the future never mind one of 32,600,"

Did no-one mention any Ulster final! That aside he then goes on about the raised police concerns about safety issues and impact on the road network with a crowd of 38,000! Wait a minute I thought Casement would be lucky to get 20000 now all of a sudden he is worried about the impact of 38000 er WTF.

Quite the irony; many of same people who want rights for local Nationalist residents in other parts of Belfast think these residents should have no rights.

Are you Nelson McCausland? A fellow traveller anyway, the Orange Order and the GAA are not comparable.

Nelson McCauslands a great guy he only wanted to rename the stadium the Edward Carson Park or something not torpedo the whole project

The difference Dennis the menace is that if Antrim Football ever gets its act together, starts fulfilling it's potential, it is the one county who actually fill 30k plus. Albeit there are a few major ifs and buts there.

As a tiny example - St Brigids under 16's were within an inch of the posts of bringing the Ulster U-16 championship back to Antrim for the third time in four years, losing out to an exceptional Burren team who expect three or four future Down footballers from their squad. That's just one example of the talent pool that exists.

A new stadium (don't care what size it is) with could help trigger a massive GAA reaction that could lead to Antrim making a breakthrough which would be a big shot in the arm for the GAA in Ulster as a whole. There is no doubt Antrim are a sleeping giant that is still enduring a hangover from the troubles.

In case anyone thinks that's a bit fanciful I would like to remind you that pre troubles (1969/70 etc) we were winning Hoganstand and Mc Rorys with different schools, playing and winning All - Ireland under 21 finals and getting within a whisker if the great Down teams of that era who won Sam.

That's where we were at that point and make no mistake with the correct structures on and off the pitch that's where we can return to.

Antrim is a sleeping giant but still too many locals more interested in Celtic, Man U and Liverpool!

If people think Casement was ever just about GAA matches and the attendance at those, they may go again and I'm sure that's been said here over and over again.

Casement was a mini croker in a capital city, not just an additional 2/3 concerts a year but also premium level corporate facilities that are used 7 days a week not just on match days. Just look at Croke Park and how it is used, its not just a venue, its a working building on so many fronts - GAA Muesem, Skywalk, stadium tours and then their is the whole conference set up.

Casement, while not at the level of Croke Park, was to go that route and that will only work in a large urban setting like Belfast. Its not going to work in Clones, Dungannon or anywhere else.

Cant disagree with any of that. If Casement doesnt happen though there are not many other sites in Belfast that the GAA could look at. Some here have mentioned Musgrave park but I cant see that being allowed, on other blogs some have metioned the North foreshore or even the Titanic quarter which are ideal for the concert and conference side of things and maybe even the big GAA games but not exactly ideal for the routine Antrim GAA side of things

Ha ha hardstation in fairness the abattoir line was a joke don't know what the traveller camp is about not me. I thought a 32000 stadium would be a fair compromise but the judge seems to have indicated that this is too much. A smaller capacity and the stadium isn't big enough for Ulster finals or all Ireland QF so another site is becoming a reality, casement will be no more so tescos or new housing is the very likely outcome.

Wow between this and the Maze 11-12 years have passed and Ulster GAA have feck all to show for it

Denied, very surprised by the decision. Looks like Andytown is getting a big Tescos

Too much time and money has been wasted for the project to go anywhere else. It will be given the green light but it may have a few thousand whacked off the capacity. The GAA will be told to to reduce the project to say 32000. The GAA wont be happy as this isnt really enough for an Ulster final and the residents wont be happy because although the height will be reduced by a few metres it will still be deemed too high and still much bigger than the unrealistic 20-25000 stadium they were willing to allow. How ironic that it was the IFA crowd that torpedoed the Maze project and came very close to having all the money for the 3 stadiums pulled due to their insistence on electing all sorts of shady characters within the association and yet their project is well under way whilst the GAA and local residents are still pissing around.

http://www.irishfa.com/stadium-development

The sovereignty of NI is mostly an irrelevance to the day to day issues but very important to the identity people that live in it.

The most likely scenario is some sort of joint sovereignty where both the UK and Dublin will have joint control and NI will operate as some sort of autonomous region within that.

Basically what we have now but with Tricolours flying alongside the Union Jacks or more than likely.. nothing flying at all. There will also be increased involement from Dublin and decreased involvement from London

Whatever above transient arrangements this kind of thing is exactly what we don't want to end up with, a 6 counties as a backward dependency with everyone still fighting among themselves over flegs.

The days of NI as dependency are numbered. Increased autonomy will mean NI will have to shape up. It actually wont be as difficult as people imagine, with increased powers we will be able to make these decisions to steer the economy in the correct direction.
The 60/40 discrepancy often quoted is a little exaggerated as it includes an over inflated UK defence budget.

The biggest issue in NI is economies of scale, there aren't enough citizens to make services viable, if we aren't part of the UK then we need to have some sort of relationship with the ROI. As I stated before this is slowly happening, most evidently recently in the health sector.

"The Troubles" (what a lovely euphemism) and the collapse of the traditional NI industries like shipbuilding really hammered the economy up there. Antrim and Down were very advanced economically 100 years ago compared to the South but that is no longer the case.

I went to Donaghdee a while ago and in one of the pubs there's a photo of the prom there in 1913 and it looked really swanky , with well dressed people. It must have been a wealthy commuter town for Belfast.

Anyway I was observing the people on the prom the day I was there and most of the men were wearing football jerseys which must have been a come down from the days of their great grandparents. When they had all the economic advantages of course they could make a premium over the potato munching masses down south but now the parameters are different.   

The South has more people and thus more economic variety. So you see things like all Ireland tourism initiatives eg the Blue Book which are run out of the south and open to Northern businesses.

Once the South got going the North was going to be vulnerable to competition and the logic of capitalism. The whole collapse of the political system and the descent into tribal violence was a self inflicted disaster that NI did not need but it was probably inevitable given the way the statelet was created.

I think more economic co-operation will be the trend.

And then you have the Protestant brain drain. NI needs to keep those people but how can it do that ?

A pity Jamie and Willie wouldn't join the brain drain.

There is no Protestant brain drain. Studies have shown that just as many catholics leave for Britain as protestants for work and University. The far higher Catholic student population in Northern Ireland reflects the demographic reality and also highlights the fact that Protestants particularly working class Protestant boys are seriously underachieving. The Unionist politicians dont care though more important that they can use these people as foot soldiers for protest than try and help with their education

Did someone seriously mention repartition? It is simply a non-starter, the obvious problem being what do you do with the thousands of nationalists in Belfast. If Belfast is included in any rump state then there would still be a nationalist population of around 30%!

Interesting article here

http://belfastmediagroup.com/we-might-be-in-for-croke-park-mark-2/

I find it hard to understand why lo made those comments. I wonder what long thinks of them?

Unless it is a deliberate attempt to get catholic votes? I think it will lose them votes - a lot of them.

Story of the week and not billy hutchinson who is a disgusting man and should suffer some consequences i'd have thought for his comments? ( i.e kicked out of party) again shows how unaccountable our politicians are.

Why shouldnt she have made the comments. As I stated earlier 4/7 Alliance votes come from Catholics and maybe the majority of those catholics are Pro-union but they are not exactly going to be dead against a United Ireland either. Changing demographics and the fact that this European election already has a number of so called Unionist voices it might not be such a stupid move after all and might eat into Attwoods vote seeing as Attwood is already pretty good at turning voters off. Naomi has allready lost the flegger vote in East Belfast following the flag decision so I dont see how this can further damage her. A moderate Unionist in East Belfast should have the sense to realise she still stated that Northern Ireland will remain in the UK as long as the people here wish so hardly earth shattering stuff despite all the faux outrage from Unionism. Its also a smart move considering the make up of her South Belfast constituency with a number of her voters being of the pale green variety this being confirmed when huge numbers lend their votes to McDonnell in the Westminster election. Alliance have been defacto unionist right from the start and apart from Longs win in 2010 (a victory heavily influenced by all Robinsons scandals) they have failed to make any breakthrough so maybe its time to have a different approach.

Not that big a shock. Contrary to the original post polls show 4/7 Alliance votes are from Catholics. There is no doubt that the party is pro-status quo ie pro-union but that doesnt prevent individual members having their own thoughts on the border. Gerry Lynch is another high profile Alliance figure who recently stated that he would vote for a United Ireland in a border poll. As demographics change I would expect the Alliance party in general to be more open to change

[but hopefully by then everyone will have wised up]

The opinion polls would suggest nothing like a 50/50. At the moment a large number of people who vote for nationalists are happy with the staus quo and are unlikely to vote for a United Ireland tomorrow. This is why it is up to SF/SDLP and the Southern parties to actually try and win these people over and explain the benefits of a new Ireland and point out that the UK economy isnt so rosy but alas they cant be botherd. The opinion polls if a vote happened tomorrow have Yes as low as 4% to 20% but with a massive dont know. The reality is about 30% would vote yes and would be a good starting point but until the real issues are debated this wont increae. As for a Loyalist back lash yes there could be but I doubt it would be a sustained coordinated campaign especially with no UK government or intelligence to collude with. Noone could stop a few crazies from carrying out sporadic attacks but hopefully by then everyone will have wised up

You don't follow William Frazer on Facebook do you??!!

You should!

Complete nut job along with his deputy Bwyson. Fortunately they seem to be a dying breed and thanks to the likes of LAD get the constant ridicule they deserve