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Having bother reading that but it's well known that the landed gentry with their sprawling estates had hurling teams from the peasants who worked on their land.

It isn't by chance that hurling is strong in South Galway, Tipperary, East Cork , Kilkenny etc with the good farmland

Splash why is it that hurling people always seem convinced that every Irish person will love playing hurling, if only they are exposed to it young enough?

You folks could do with taking a wee step back and accepting that choosing to be chased around a field by 15 people holding sticks, is not a natural human instinct.

It can of course become a normalised thought process if everyone else is at it. This is evident in Kilkenny, Waterford, other places.

But the idea that a single hour a week of a guest coach bumming and blowing about hurling, is going to somehow reverse those human instincts? No chance.

Be realistic.

I don't think Splash even suggested that every kid will love hurling if they are exposed to it but they certainly won't if they aren't exposed to it.

There are moves to give kids exposure outside the traditional areas, heck Kilcoo primary school won the P7 INTO cup 2 years ago as well as the football one I believe and even Conor Laverty had a son playing on that team.

As one of the County "participation officers" (coaches) told me he was speaking to one of the other county coaches and ex count footballer from a club who currently don't have hurling and his son does love the Primary school hurling but "don't force the kid to choose" is how it was left and for me that's the biggest challenge.

At some point there will be pressure on kids to choose and from a county perspective we need to ensure that's as far down the line as possible, but it will happen, no doubt.

[Dial-a+drink.]

The taxi driver on 100k, he selling drugs on the side, like the Larne soccer team bus driver!

Tates Avenue had a firm delivering booze and fegs at one time out the boot. Wonder if its still a thing.

Dial-a+drink.

They would have been plan B back in the 90s if you had no success with knocking the side door of the Hatfield at 1am looking for a few cans.

Grub from the hatch in the Shell garage and cans from The Hat. Used to be queues outside the place in the 90s.

Good times 😎🤓

+1

Simpler times!

As a country boy moving to the big smoke, the lower Ormeau at 2am was no place for the faint hearted!

You could add Bradbury Place to that, always great craic around McDonalads & Bishops.  Some nights you could have had more 'success' in these places than in Laverys or the M Club.

We must all have been knocking around the same places.
I remember the lad who worked at the hatch in that Shell garage was always stoned off his head.
M-Club had me barred for about a year when it opened, even though i'd never been in  the place. First night I got in, a row broke out behind me, didn't even know them and wasn't involved, bouncers threw me out and barred me. lol.
Bishops, mickey d's, spuds all lively there after the night out. There doesnt seem to be anything like that now about the 'shaft.

1994-1998 for me.

Young fella you.

I was probably in and around the Holy lands a few years after leaving Uni when working down in lovely Lurgan till the mid to late 90's.

I'd stay up all summer and remember the night the peelers turned the Ballynafeigh lodge from crossing the Ormeau Bridge into the lower Ormeau and the wee riot that ensued. We lived just off Agincourt at the time.

I also remember trying to go to the garage on the 12th morning and the RUC landrovers parked back to back, blocking off all those wee side streets, yet the Holy lands side was all open.

Hard to live under those circumstances.

[top manager]

In an ideal world Carrick would get top 4, you'd get a few good signings in the summer, get a top manager in that'll steady the ship for a few years with Carrick as his assistant with a view to taking over in the longer term.

Who might that be?

As someone else has pointed out they've tried all sorts of everything and with limited success, so for me the structural failings are still there and Tory Jim hasn't helped.

best steak I had in a long time came from a local Centra who had steaks from a local butcher in the fridge.

A nice big Tomahawk which cost me £15.

Give it a bit of a sear in the pan in butter, on both sides and then put it in the oven in the same pan for a further 10 minutes.

Fell off the bone and still plenty moist with a little salt and nothing else.

Are Arsenal the new Wimbledon?

Scoring most of their goals from set plays were they lob it into the box, make it a bit of a scramble and hope for the best.

The lack of goals from open play must or should be a concern.

This weekend, Down will play in the Division 1 of the NHL for the first time since 2007.

Down are favourites to go straight back to Div 2, but staying up is not out of the question and it would be amazing for Down's development to regularly get games against Liam MacCarthy teams in the coming years.

Clare, Wexford, and Dublin will, in all likelihood, be far too strong.

But it is well worth remembering Down beat Kildare to win the league last year, and had been something of a bogey team for Carlow in the not too distant past.

If what is coming out of Antrim is to be believed, they could be in for a rough year and I really do believe Down should be targeting that game on the last day for survival.

Carlow will be favourites this weekend, but it is certainly a winnable game for Down. The preseason was fairly unremarkable and it is clear that the management knows who their key players are.

The step up this year will be huge, but there is no reason Down can't solidify themselves in Div 1.

There's two going down from Div1B and Down are a certainty for one of those spots sadly.

Carlow won well pulling up on Saturday, the harsh red didn't help (seems to be if someone loses their helmet in a melee or coming together then someone is getting a red, Ruairi in this case) but Carlow were dominant throughout.
Scoring and getting the ball to our forwards with anything like a decent bit of play is going to be an issue.

We'll get nothing from Clare, Wexford and Dublin as you point out, so Kildare and Antrim are the only 2 games where Down might compete and yes whilst Down beat Kildare twice in the league last year Kildare have kicked on but Down have regressed.
Kildare gave Kilkenny their fill of it in the Kehoe Shield final recently and whilst Antrim do seem shorn of some of their best club players will be expected to beat Down in the marshes.

That's no a slight on anyone, it's just the hard reality of Down hurling.

An Asbestos check the first thing you do. It been fair possible Asbestos was there.

Surely to fúck they knew years ago when this all kicked off that there was asbestos in the stand and its removal was priced into the job.

https://x.com/i/status/2014029456562626811

If Larry Fink thinks the digitisation of currency is a good thing, I'm totally against it.

The Glenariffe/Glenravel project has worked well at under age, especially for Oisins as they will benefit at at adult level more with the success they have had.

There was a good few good hurlers from Glenravel in that amalgamation team so you can only hope they get to see the rewards from it as well at senior level.

Oisins will find the first year tough going but with teams missing county players in the league series they will pick up wins i don't doubt.

Interesting though at U12 level Glenariffe ploughed their own way in 2025 whereas previously they had been amalgamated with Cushendall up to U14 level as Gael Na Glinti. They seem to have enough numbers to push on themselves so you might see them ending the amalgamations at underage and go their own way without Cushendall & Glenravel.

My sources tell me that it was Cushendall that pulled the plug on Gael Na Glinti as they'd young lads on the bench not getting much game time. I'd presume they were younger kids though, but can't be sure.

Is U12 in North Antrim 15 aside?

It isn't in Down and we can get the 11 out OK, but we know we're really going to struggle to get 15 on the pitch come U14 and beyond in the next few years and that's including all boys in the four calendar years that will be eligible.

No new houses in the parish for quite a while now and that's having an impact big style.

Don't see the problem with it either.

when you see Francesca Albanese getting her bank accounts frozen just for reporting the truth about Gaza then you really need to start worrying about big brother, tech, Planatir and how they use your information and control you.

ID's would just be another piece of the puzzle.

Playing is a stretch. Employed by them?

?

Am guessing he's on about Greenwood...JCPen said he was playing for Marseille, whereas BB2 is questioning him being shit and therefore merely only an employee?

He's one of their most important players and was joint top scorer in the league last year with some other lad called Dembele.

Did he touch the ball last night? The bottom half of L1 is LoI standard. He does hee haw in Europe or the big games.

Greenwood was the best player Marseille had for most of the game. He died off a bit when Liverpool got on top in the second half.

I think we watched different games. Not Pavard?

Yeah, he was good too and was busier especially in the second half.

All subjective

Playing is a stretch. Employed by them?

?

Am guessing he's on about Greenwood...JCPen said he was playing for Marseille, whereas BB2 is questioning him being shit and therefore merely only an employee?

He's one of their most important players and was joint top scorer in the league last year with some other lad called Dembele.

Did he touch the ball last night? The bottom half of L1 is LoI standard. He does hee haw in Europe or the big games.

Greenwood was the best player Marseille had for most of the game. He died off a bit when Liverpool got on top in the second half.

Rather, the American order is over because the United States has decided that it no longer wishes to play its historically unprecedented role of providing global security. The American might that upheld the world order of the past 80 years will now be used instead to destroy it.

I've taken his excerpt from J70's monologue from the Atlantic and want to put it into the context of Mark Carney's speech to the great and good at Davos.

The US has always looked after it's own self interest (And why shouldn't it?). It was never the protector of the poor or downtrodden anywhere in the world, let alone those within it's own borders.

In my living memory it has been responsible for more deaths around the globe, in the Middle East in particular and I include it's proxy Israel in this statement.

Carney is right to point out that the "middle powers" were more than happy to live under this rules based order, ignoring the difference between rhetoric and reality as it suited them.


longer version of Carneys speech

https://x.com/i/status/2013809774417047673

who would ever have expected Global Banking shill Mark Carney to call it for what it is;

https://x.com/i/status/2013639956476965169