Topics

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GAA Discussion / GAA pitches in Craigavon - a gale in a pale?

« on: June 12, 2019, 06:28:03 PM »

What's all the hullabaloo about the ABC council not providing municipal pitches for Gaelic games? According to the shinners the SDLP are being west Brits by going along with the decision to provide facilities for Rugby and Soccer but no GAA, and claiming that the GAA was not consulted.

According to the SDLP this has been a 3-year process in which all councilors, including SF, were involved. The GAA was consulted, the Armagh county board is fine with the plan, the GAA Ulster council is fine with the plan, the North Armagh clubs are fine with the plan, St Ronan's College is fine with the plan, and SF was fine with the plan all along. Only now are SF raising objections.

Is this a bit of a cheap shot by SF or what?

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GAA Discussion / Let's move the All-Ireland finals to St Paddy's Day

« on: May 30, 2019, 10:03:42 PM »

And while we're at it, Gaelic football needs an oval ball to make high fielding easier. The posts should be moved two feet closer together in hurling, we need to bring back lateral point posts, the opening clash should be above head height like in Shinty, pitch invasions at Croke Park should be reintroduced, we should go back to making a goal outweigh any number of points, the club championship should have a different format every year, and each provincial council should run their championships on a different format.

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General discussion / Mormon temples

« on: May 28, 2019, 05:31:44 PM »

Mormon temples aren't open to non-Mormons - except for yesterday when the Oakland temple was opened for tours by the public. I went with some family and friends (some of them former Mormons) just out of curiosity because it's an impressive looking building from the outside.

Well inside it's just and endless labyrinth of corridors, smallish rooms, more corridors, cramped staircases, more corridors, and strikingly dull decor. It's like a cheap and tacky middle eastern hotel inside. I was expecting to see a big cathedral-like worship space, but all I got was some bland looking auditoriums roughly the size of a college lecture theatre. There was a cool looking baptismal font, something the size of a hot tub, supported by big statues of bulls, but that was about the most impressive thing about it. Everything else was just dull or outright weird.

These include:

• Tons of changing cubicles with multiple clothing storage lockers in each one
• Storage for white robes that people are supposed to wear during certain ceremonies like baptism (they go for the full immersion version, hence the hot tub)
• Small and dull rooms where they perform "marriages" (they don't call them weddings for some reason) and there's a small altar at the middle of the room where the couple kneels opposite each other
• Code violations left right and centre. There's no emergency exit signs despite it being confusing where is the way out, I saw no signs of any sprinkler systems, no emergency lights, and stairs are non standard dimensions
• All the decor such as carpet is custom-made in a specific pattern, but it still looks like something out of a hotel
• There's one auditorium with a curtain behind the stage. They didn't tell us what that's for, but my former Mormon friend told me it's where you reach through to the people hiding behind the curtain and they give you the Freemason-style secret handshake which you're supposed to use when you get to heaven

What I found most striking is that it's high on a hill with a stunning view over Oakland, the bay, and San Francisco looking out through the Golden Gate - and there's not one single window in the whole damn building. They have these rooms where you're supposed to go and supposedly meditate or something, contemplating the grandeur of God's creation, but you can't look out a window at one of the best views ever.

An interesting day out, but weird.

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General discussion / Bygones

« on: March 29, 2019, 10:47:18 PM »

Old fellas on ancient black bikes cycling around the country.

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General discussion / Eamonn news

« on: March 15, 2019, 08:08:43 PM »

Adolph1 is now on ignore.

That is all.

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General discussion / Things people do on TV / in films that never happen in real life

« on: February 07, 2019, 12:19:26 AM »

Getting into the shower and then turning on the water without testing the temperature with their finger first.

Driving for long periods without looking at the road without crashing.

Hanging up the phone without so much as a goodbye.

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General discussion / Motion to ban Dolph1

« on: December 26, 2018, 04:31:54 PM »

Dolph1 is a sock puppet who raised his ugly head as soon as Foxkkkommander was banned. His sole purpose is to wind people up with extremist alt-right talking points. Ban him.

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General discussion / Tautologies

« on: December 05, 2018, 05:05:24 PM »

ATM Machine.

Or better still, Automatic ATM Teller Machine.

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General discussion / Pivotal "Riverdance" moments and positive memories

« on: August 10, 2018, 09:44:48 PM »

I don't know what people think of Riverdance nowadays but I distinctly remember at the time how ground-breaking it was. When Flatley came bounding across the stage with his arms lifted up and not welded to his sides I knew immediately that this was a radical departure from traditional Irish dance and was going to be something special.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0v_pu6miJ8

This was before the Euro, the property bubble and the banking shenanigans. I remember there being a positive atmosphere about the place, it was a country on the up, leaving behind the poverty of the past. Riverdance captured the spirit of that time beautifully.

There have been other positive moments in the national mindset too. Free from the usual cynicism and begrudgery, it's nice when something positive happens and people can celebrate something.

During the World Cup I was looking back at old YouTube clips from Italia 90, and the "nation holds its breath" moment in the Ireland v Romania match really jumped out at me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0LR0fmN3gM

Others include the Croke Park fireworks of 2009, an underrated cultural moment in my opinion - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLRS8w5ehfk

Any others you can think of?

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General discussion / The beating of that girl in Bangor

« on: April 25, 2018, 07:15:37 PM »

Anyone see the video? Mad stuff. She was lucky to walk away alive from that pounding. The perps are being charged with GBH but I'm wondering why it's not attempted murder. There must be a high bar to proving that charge.

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General discussion / Formula 1

« on: March 07, 2018, 12:27:17 AM »

Any fans on here?

I thought it was a bit dull during the Schumacher years, and the year when the Mercedes Silver Arrows were ahead of the pack was a bit predictable. Seems to be a bit tighter now though. Merc and Ferrari are a bit closer in standard. Will be interesting to see if Red Bull can close the gap. McLaren has gone to the dogs but there's hope of a comeback this year. Hamilton and Vettel seem to have a nice little rivalry going.

I think I might pay it a bit of attention. Could be a better use of time than watching pro cycling where the result is always in doubt even years after the fact because of doping.

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General discussion / Bob Geldof

« on: November 14, 2017, 12:05:04 AM »

Deserves a thread of its own, I think.

Am I being a begrudger or is he really an insufferable West Brit bollox?

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General discussion / Sexual harassment/assault allegations

« on: November 10, 2017, 10:32:14 PM »

Bit of a tsunami underway now. Women starting to speak up and a lot of high profile people are getting implicated.

Louis CK and Steven "every film I make is a great big self-indulgent w***-fest about how tough I am" Seagal were hitting the headlines this morning.

I see now that Sepp Blatter has been accused by Hope Solo. Every day seems to be a case of "which high profile celebrity is going to be de-throned today"?

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General discussion / Ibrahim Halawa

« on: October 24, 2017, 06:05:44 PM »

After four years in Egypt jail, Ibrahim Halawa is home

An Irishman who was detained in Egypt for more than four years has finally returned home after being acquitted in September.

Ibrahim Halawa, arrested at the age of 17 as part of a deadly crackdown on protests in Cairo, had faced the death penalty.

He flew into Dublin Airport on Tuesday to a welcoming party, having travelled on the plane with Sean O Regan, ambassador of Ireland to Egypt.

Imagine going on a family holiday as a 17 year-old only to be arrested, tortured and facing the prospect of being sentenced to death. Seems like the Irish government deserves some credit for working on this case and getting him out. Fair play to them and shame on the Egyptian authorities for dragging their heels on this. 4 years is a long time to be locked up for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

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GAA Discussion / Does the GAA's amateur status work against working class players?

« on: October 12, 2017, 05:56:32 PM »

Splitting off from the Paraic Duffy thread because I think this deserves a discussion of its own.

(5) Another new evolution in GAA has been the amount of time involved in playing intercounty, which in turn means that whole swathes of people are ruled out, purely because their employers aren't able to be as flexible. And yes, that feeds into elitism, because it means that if you have a Tesco employee in Kinlough, playing for Melvin Gaels, and another five miles down the road in Bundoran, playing for Realt na Mara, and they are both potential county players - the county with the far greater level of funding (in this case Donegal) has a far better chance of getting their player a handy job that's compatible with playing county, while the guy in Leitrim has no option but to keep his job with all the weekend and evening hours that are incompatible with joining a county panel.

This is a great point. For all the talk about "elitism" regarding anything that looks professional, there are advantages and disadvantages to the amateur status. One of the biggest disadvantages is that people in certain types of job who may be good potential players cannot rise to the top because of work commitments. Public sector employees with very understanding bosses and long summer holidays are at a huge advantage over labourers and the self-employed who lose a day's pay for every day they don't work.

Sports like soccer and rugby used to be "gentleman's" pastimes, i.e. a hobby for the upper class only. The only way the working man had access to playing the games in front of big crowds was if the clubs compensated them for time lost at work. This evolved into pay-for-play. The powers-that-be resisted the encroachment of pay-for-play because they didn't want the working class anywhere near them, but they had to bow to the unstoppable market forces in the end because payments were creeping in regardless of the rules.

In those days it was the amateur status that was the "elitist" mindset. Michael Cusack founded the GAA not just to preserve Ireland's sporting identity, but also because he wanted the working man to have access to sport.

Is the make-up of today's inter-county panels looking increasingly white collar as opposed to blue collar? Are we so dedicated to the amateur status that we're losing sight of Cusack's original vision? Is the GAA's amateur status, however well intentioned, inadvertently squeezing the working man out of top flight hurling and football?

Discuss.