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Rally at Belfast City hall tomorrow 3.00 pm

Good man Rory,mad now didn't have faith and stick a few pence on him.

Stenson
gmac
Kaymar
dubulssson
Scott
lowery

Great turnout tonight in West Belfast for Gaza,white line picket from Divis to bottom of Whiterock.

Not so bad, itll be all sorted by morning so

Don't be a dick

Great turnout tonight in West Belfast for Gaza,white line picket from Divis to bottom of Whiterock.

The Shinners are on fire tonight 

Has anyone ever been to Bundoran on 12th July?
What's it like?
[/quote

The Falls

What can be said glens other than the Israelis are barbarian tramps. Unfortunately nothing will be done.

Shocking and since I posted that the death toll has risen to 52.

Don't want to get involved in the tit for tat row on this thread but think its a terrible situation in Gaza at present and the international community needs to do something .This is a list of the dead over the past few days

Updated 5:52 pm: The Gaza health ministry has released the names and ages of 41 Palestinians killed so far in the besieged strip since Israel began its relentless assault early Tuesday. Among those killed, 13 were aged 16 or younger. The youngest victim, 18-month-old Mohammed Malakiyeh, was killed along with his 27-year-old mother. The oldest victim, 80-year-old Naifeh Farjallah, was killed in an air strike on the town of Moghraqa, southwest of Gaza City.

The single deadliest strike killed eight people Tuesday in southern Gaza when Israel bombed the Hamad family home.

Al-Akhbar will update the list as new information is released.

Tuesday, July 8:
1. Mohammed Sha'aban, 24, was killed in a bombing of his car in Gaza City.
2. Ahmad Sha'aban, 30, died in the same bombing.
3. Khadir al-Bashiliki, 45, died in the same bombing.
4. Rashad Yaseen, 27, was killed in a bombing of the Nusseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.
5. Riad Mohammed Kawareh, 50, was killed in a bombing of his family's home in Khan Younis.
6. Seraj Ayad Abed al-A'al, 8, was wounded in the same bombing and succumbed to his injuries on Tuesday evening.
7. Mohammed Ayman Ashour, 15, died in the same bombing.
8. Bakr Mohammed Joudah, 22, died in the same bombing.
9. Ammar Mohammed Joudah, 26, died in the same bombing.
10. Hussein Yousef Kawareh, 13, died in the same bombing.
11. Mohammed Ibrahim Kawareh, 50, died in the same bombing.
12. Bassim Salim Kawareh, 10, died in the same bombing.
13. Mousa Habib, 16, from Gaza City's al-Shujaiyah neighborhood, was killed along with his 22-year old cousin while the pair were riding a motorcycle.
14. Mohammed Habib, 22, was killed with Mousa Habib.
15. Sakr Aysh al-Ajouri, 22, was killed in an attack on Jabaliyah, in northern Gaza.
16. Ahmad Na'el Mehdi, 16, from Gaza City's Sheikh Radwan neighborhood, was killed in a bombing that wounded two of his friends.
17. Hafiz Mohammed Hamad, 30, an Islamic Jihad commander, was killed in the bombing of his home in Beit Hanoun, along with five of his family members.
18. Ibrahim Mohammed Hamad, 26, died in the same bombing.
19. Mehdi Mohammed Hamad, 46, died in the same bombing.
20. Fawzia Khalil Hamad, 62, died in the same bombing.
21. Dunia Mehdi Hamad, 16, died in the same bombing.
22. Suha Hamad, 25, died in the same bombing.
23. Suleiman Salman Abu Soaween, 22

Wednesday, July 9:
24. Abdelhadi Jamaat al-Sufi, 24, was killed in a bombing near the Rafah crossing.
25. Naifeh Farjallah, 80, was killed in an airstrike on the town of Moghraqa, southwest of Gaza City.
26. Abdelnasser Abu Kweek, 60, was killed in the bombing of Gaza's central governorate along with his son.
27. Khaled Abu Kweek, 31, Abdelnasser Abu Kweek's son, was killed in the same bombing.
28. Amir Areef, 13, died in a bombing in Sha'af.
29. Mohammed Malkiyeh, one and a half years old, died in a bombing along with his mother and a young man.
30. Amniyeh Malkiyeh, 27, Mohammed Malkiyeh's mother, died in the same bombing.
31. Hatem Abu Salem, 28, died in the same bombing.
32. Mohammed Khaled al-Nimri, 22
33. Sahar Hamdan, 40, died in the bombing of her home in Beit Hanoun.
34. Ibrahim Masri, 14, Sahar Hamdan's son, was killed in the same bombing.
35. Unknown
36. Sumoud al-Nawasra, a mother, was killed in a bombing along with her two children.
37. Mohammed Khalaf al-Nawasra, 4, arrived at the hospital "in shreds."
38. Nidal Khalaf al-Nawasra, a child of unreported age, died along with Mohammed and Sumoud.
39. Salah Awwad al-Nawasra, was killed in the same bombing. His body was found under the rubble of the house.
40. Amal Youssef Abdel Ghafour
41. Ranim Jawde Abdel Ghafour, a young girl

With 5 kids we've been through most of what everyone has already said on here.

Our first pregnancy ended in a suspected miscarriage when we were on holiday, only for us to discover when we came home that she was still pregnant and on admission to hospital be told it was an ectopic pregnancy (where the baby is growing in the fallopian tube) and would abort itself. We waiting 10 days in hospital for a natural abort which never happened whilst my wifes health deteriorated due to internal bleeding. Eventual surgery left us in the position of being told it would be unlikely for us to be able to have children due to the damage done.

Stressful.

So we went to a private gynaecologist consultant who specialised in fertility, got on treatment and eventually the IVF waiting list...when out of the blue my wife became pregnant. The pregancy went smooth and a natural (scheduled) birth produced a baby girl.

Happy!

However, my wife quickly developed post natal depression and it was quite severe.

Stress again!

Treatment for that eventually worked and a 2nd pregnancy came quite quickly and ran smoothly until or 2nd was born, a baby boy. Everyone well for once, even though the post natal crept back but we were prepared this time.

Stressful but manageable.

Then a 3rd pregnancy came along, whilst she was on the pill. It seems the treatment for the post natal had counteracted the pill and so we were expecting number 3. This pregnancy was difficult as my wife had to come off her meds and the depression really took hold. A few near death experiences ensued and we were lucky to get through it, then we discovered the baby was breach and had to be delivered by c-section.
The baby girl was well, my wife wasnt. We now had 3 kids under 3 years old and my wife finished up admitted to hospital. She was severely ill. I finished up taking a year off work to mind the kids and tend to the Mrs who spend several months in hospital.
Eventually she got home and slowly things got better, but our new baby had severe reflux and spent a lot of time in and out of hospital.

Again more stressful.

But over time it all improved and my wife got back to herself (more or less) and after about a year and a half our youngest started to come out of the reflux and we decided it was too risky to have more kids.

Fast forward another year, and out of the blue my wife finds she's pregnant again!

Holy f**K!

Stress x 1000.

Not knowing how she would be, and not knowing how we'd cope with another kid. We went back to our consultant as we had with the others, to be told we were having twins.

Stress x 10000000000000

Just as we were getting used to the idea, and the Mrs's health was holding out, we were told there were problems, twin-to-twin syndrome where one of the twins is getting all the nutrients. As the twins were identical, they shared bloods supplies so if the weaker twin was not to survive neither would survive.

Stress through the roof.

We had scans and tests at the royal 3 times a week until 31 weeks we were told we needed immediate delivery.

Both boys born by section, after losing their heart rates several times. 2lb2 and 2lb4.
About 30 people in delivery theatre expecting the worse, only for everything to be reasonably good. Both breathing on their own, very small but reasonably healty.
The next 6 weeks was a blur in neo-natal with blood transfusions, surgeries, and too many things to mention but eventually everyone got home and everyone is well.

Now almost 2 years later we have twin terrors, one of which still gets up every night and wakes us all. But it could have been worse.

With our older kids we used the controlled crying technique and it worked.

With twins its harder as you dont want one to wake the other but they'll eventually grow out of it (I hope).

So now we've got an 8 year old girl, a 6 year old boy, a 5 year old girl and twin 2 year old boys.

I'm more stressed than ever, but sure I wouldnt change a thing.

Stressed just reading that,great story and wish you and your family good health.

[loyalist bands]

Some person came up with a plan to reroute the parade through a neighbouring loyalist area. Did anyone else read about that? Seemed like a sensible idea.

it definately does but that would take a few sensible politicians to sort that out and im afraid to say they are few and far between,proacative parades through nationalist areas are not on but i do believe if dealt with correctly at the time (15 years ago) these issues would have been sorted eg Derry and apprentice boys,but instead a problem has become a monster in our society where its got to the stage nobody is prepared to move and the more residents say no the more loyalists protest,i firmly belive some resident groups and republican representitves have been to the orange order what thatcher was to the IRA in the 70's early 80's,ie recruiting agents

OO membership has been rapidly dropping year on year since the early 90s if I'm not mistaken

The bbc did a piece last week where loyalist bands have nearly doubled and the orange order have become a lot stronger

These are not mutually exclusive, loyalist band membership could be on the rise with the OO on the decline.

That band membership is mostly a Belfast thing

Aye right u are Glens abu..................but will such grand plan involve ensuring that all will make themselves available..............?

Don't think it is about all being available,think it is about CB getting the right dedicated team in place to put such a plan into action.There are many ex county players out there who have shown an interest in being involved with the county from Minor up.Put the money in and get them on board with a 5/ 10 year plan not putting another Dawson or Baker in place hoping to win one C'chip game or get a promotion one season and down again the next.

The only way to get rid of tribal politics is to get rid of tribal parties. I do believe Direct Rule/Joint Authority would at the very least switch the focus onto real issues handled by politicians a lot more able and experienced than the Stormont Shower

The British Tory party or Labour Party for that matter never had any concern for us Irish so I can't agree with your logic

I mean real politicians from South and UK who at least have a clue about running health,education,welfare reform etc however imperfectly, with no tribal constituencies to serve

You really think they are running the health service,and welfare well in the south?Yes I agree it would be great if we hadn't tribal politics here but wishing it away will not change it.

Would anyone miss the Stormont institutions? Are they advancing the nationalist cause one iota when unionists have a veto on everything anyway (as opposed to advancing Sinn Fein's agenda of simply being in government North and South)?

I'm thinking that either joint authority or even so called direct rule (with strong Dublin involvement) would be much better than the current situation.At least we would be governed by real politicians instead of 17th century fundamrntalists  and bigots who generally haven't a clue

Yeah right enough those REAL politicians are doing a great job in the 26.

But can you argue FOR the politicians in the Assembly?

Not too many of them but then they are who we voted for and the institutions are also what we voted for.

But the question is whether we'd miss them if they weren't there.

Well the alternatives,direct rule or as Tony thinks real politicians from the 26 don't excite me either.