Antrim Hurling

[Usain]

I read this response on the County website in regard to Sambo' comments at the Féile an Phobail talk and thought WTF

Success and hard work?
12th August 2016

Sambo was talking in West Belfast about the hard work behind the success of clubs like Cushendall, Dunloy and Loughgiel. Maybe it's not that 'hard' when you and your club have been successful? Even one winning championship side in the past 20 years will have say 25 players within that club with medals and recognised as a great team. No success, no medals, no Cups, no silverware ( of significance) in 20, 40 years or ever and keeping going - well could that be called 'hard'? So to those hard working ( successful) clubs that Sambo mentioned maybe you don't really know the meaning of hard work ? Hard is when it is a struggle. 'Hard' when nothing of significance is being won; has been won or in foreseeable future likely to be won. Those clubs and those within them starved of success - (the majority in Antrim ) maybe have a different concept of what 'hard' really means? 'Hard' is the experience of being perennial losers because we all wish to be winners . 'Hard' is being on the wrong end over many years of hammerings , trouncings meted out by strong clubs in juvenile competitions . 'Hard' on the young players, hard on the coaches, hard on parents, hard on those in non successful clubs who care... hard going, hard to take. Harder in that it contributes to self inflicted killing off of our games - by ourselves. It is more than 'hard' - it is painful, full of pain to literally see us being the architects of our own destruction. It is those stalwarts who pre- dated the successful era in the likes of Cushendall and Dunloy clubs who worked when it was hard - year in / year out without much to show for it? Maybe hard work and success / successful in the past 25 years extends beyond the 3 North Antrim clubs and before the modern era of their success? But then our world loves 'the winner'?

Is this dispiritedness common amongst our Belfast Gaels ?

Of course its hard work. At senior level the small spread of winners certainly does nothing to help encourage the top sides in Belfast but hopefully those days will come to an end soon. We need Rossa/St Johns/St Galls to be thought of as genuine contenders for senior honours rather than the whipping boys. Creggan/Clooney Gaels are further behind, but if they want to compete at this level they also need to step up 'work harder' etc etc. These clubs need to make our senior club cship a much more dangerous place for the likes of cdall, lgiel, town and dunloy. At the minute, with perhaps exception of Rossa, they lag far behind. Its hard work for everyone.

[Seamroga in exile]

Yeah. Not winning a championship for 21 years and getting beat in 6 straight county finals isn't hard. Ffs, what planet is this space cadet from?

[theskull1]

Yeah. Not winning a championship for 21 years and getting beat in 6 straight county finals isn't hard. Ffs, what planet is this space cadet from?

+1

Dunloy won their first all county Feile for 22 years a couple of years ago, all whilst City teams have had the lions share of success at juvenile levels. We've a pile of lads on our senior team who played B juvenile hurling and took many's a hammering along the way at that level. I don't need a championship to be immensely proud of these lads who have give their all for their club and are competing admirably in Div 1 today.... I say I don't need ... but I'd sure as hell take one 

[Usain]

Yeah. Not winning a championship for 21 years and getting beat in 6 straight county finals isn't hard. Ffs, what planet is this space cadet from?

Lucky number 7 SIE!! Twas a fine day! All the sweeter after the pain endured along the way.

Is Johnny Campbell your manager or a selector? Who's doing the coaching now?

[Usain]

Has anyone got an idea of what Glenariffe are getting for their £180K? Any plans/designs yet?

I have to say I'm very jealous but its great to see money being invested like this and hopefully neighbouring clubs can make use of the new facilities.

[Na Glinntí Glasa]

i think its a disgrace that they have sold out their history for a pile of unionist money. Sure why dont they let mervin storey drive the bull dozer to flatten their front gates for them.

They should be ashamed of themselves

i accept that they want the facility but should it be done by wiping out a piece of their own clubs history?

[NAG1]

i think its a disgrace that they have sold out their history for a pile of unionist money. Sure why dont they let mervin storey drive the bull dozer to flatten their front gates for them.

They should be ashamed of themselves

i accept that they want the facility but should it be done by wiping out a piece of their own clubs history?

DR we live in the real world and this is the game you have to play, get the funds get the building up and running for the local community and put the gates back on. Simple as that really.

What better money could there be than Unionist money being invested in a Nationalist area to further enhance the community spirit and well being?

You think the same investment in these loyalist dens is having any impact? Its not.

Might not be nice in the short term but we all have to play the game.

[Na Glinntí Glasa]

Yeah. Not winning a championship for 21 years and getting beat in 6 straight county finals isn't hard. Ffs, what planet is this space cadet from?

+1

Dunloy won their first all county Feile for 22 years a couple of years ago, all whilst City teams have had the lions share of success at juvenile levels. We've a pile of lads on our senior team who played B juvenile hurling and took many's a hammering along the way at that level. I don't need a championship to be immensely proud of these lads who have give their all for their club and are competing admirably in Div 1 today.... I say I don't need ... but I'd sure as hell take one 

def skull, we have had to stand and watch years of no success at under age level whilst teams have won around us. The club took a bold step to drop to B level and those lads have now progressed into senior level now.

People forget we didnt win our first championship until 1990, an 82 year wait with only 2 final appearances in that period of time. Success was hard worked and fought for at underage level by good people to get us to where we are now for a long time.

It continues today with the same hard working people who look after our under age teams.

Loughgiel were the same, they have raised the bar for years by perseverance and hard work to gain their sucess

[Na Glinntí Glasa]

i think its a disgrace that they have sold out their history for a pile of unionist money. Sure why dont they let mervin storey drive the bull dozer to flatten their front gates for them.

They should be ashamed of themselves

i accept that they want the facility but should it be done by wiping out a piece of their own clubs history?

DR we live in the real world and this is the game you have to play, get the funds get the building up and running for the local community and put the gates back on. Simple as that really.

What better money could there be than Unionist money being invested in a Nationalist area to further enhance the community spirit and well being?

You think the same investment in these loyalist dens is having any impact? Its not.

Might not be nice in the short term but we all have to play the game.

What next, change the pitch names, change the club names???

no tri-colour at the ground, no anthem? thats what it leads to.

The unionist council have got exactly what they wanted, and glenariffe got a building that they will never own. im guessing that due to it being cross community it will be run outside of their hands by a committee.

[Minder]

i think its a disgrace that they have sold out their history for a pile of unionist money. Sure why dont they let mervin storey drive the bull dozer to flatten their front gates for them.

They should be ashamed of themselves

i accept that they want the facility but should it be done by wiping out a piece of their own clubs history?

DR we live in the real world and this is the game you have to play, get the funds get the building up and running for the local community and put the gates back on. Simple as that really.

What better money could there be than Unionist money being invested in a Nationalist area to further enhance the community spirit and well being?

You think the same investment in these loyalist dens is having any impact? Its not.

Might not be nice in the short term but we all have to play the game.

What next, change the pitch names, change the club names???

no tri-colour at the ground, no anthem? thats what it leads to.

The unionist council have got exactly what they wanted, and glenariffe got a building that they will never own. im guessing that due to it being cross community it will be run outside of their hands by a committee.

Glenariffe was never going to own the facility, it will be on their grounds, and run by Friends of Glenariffe (a separate entity)  that's why the issue of the gates came up.

I wonder how many people knew the pitch was called McAllister McVeigh Memorial before the gates where put up in 2004? Quite a few in Glenariffe wouldn't have known.

6 UUP councillors voted to grant the funding.

If the hurling club wants to use the facility they have to get in line and pay for it like everyone else. Personally I think they will be crippled by the running costs but time will tell.

[Na Glinntí Glasa]

Lavey have the same arrangement as well, its on their grounds but they dont own it. They have to sort out with Knocklougherim for the slots and the running of it.

Those same grants are available to all clubs if they wish to avail of it. we didnt want to look at them simply because of crap like that.

Our place is open to anyone in the community to use. its been used by Ballymoney FC, Coleraine FC, Dunaghy FC, Coleraine RFC & local archery club and they are all welcome any time they want to use it.

[johnneycool]

Lavey have the same arrangement as well, its on their grounds but they dont own it. They have to sort out with Knocklougherim for the slots and the running of it.

Those same grants are available to all clubs if they wish to avail of it. we didnt want to look at them simply because of crap like that.

Our place is open to anyone in the community to use. its been used by Ballymoney FC, Coleraine FC, Dunaghy FC, Coleraine RFC & local archery club and they are all welcome any time they want to use it.

Was Dunloys facility part funded in conjunction with Sport NI (or whatever they're called) rather than this local council shared initiative that Glenariffe as going with?

Surely the cross community aspect is relevant to both forms of grant aid, albeit Dunloy weren't reliant on some bigots agreeing to it.

[Na Glinntí Glasa]

yeah Sport NI, lottery funds and club fund raising like;
Club Dunloy - still going strong
Club Lotto
Monthly draw
Yearly fund raiser on May Day
Other smaller fund raisers

we didnt have any pre-conditions put on us or our grounds in receiving the money. yes it was extremely hard work and were lucky to have so many people with a keen interest in wanting to be involved. It was one of the first few about at the time so that made it a bit easier to get the funding.

Money can be raised by the simplest of things that you wouldn't think worth it. Example - tea and chocolate bars during a match. Silly some may say but for all the effort it lifted near £400 at the recent championship double header. Thats £400 that didn't exist before and we have done this small thing at every home game. The simplest and smallest things all contribute to something bigger.

What irks me about this is that they had the funding sorted without any pre-conditions then someone told the DUP about the gates - something that ive never even paid attention in my many visits to the ground or noticed - and all of a sudden it was something that they could stop them getting the money for.

The DUP latched to it and knew they had the club over the barrel. It was breaking their hearts to give them money and they got their way.

I wouldn't of taken a single penny of the money after that

[oisinog]

Just for information the funds have no been approved with no conditions ie the Gates are remaining in place. The gates were being relocated within the grounds if this was being required and thankfully this is now not the case.

Fund raising has been going on for this for a number of years and it has been a very long process.

This will be a community center available to everyone and the primary user will be the Oisin Club and this hopefully will benefit the whole community in the long run.

[Minder]

yeah Sport NI, lottery funds and club fund raising like;
Club Dunloy - still going strong
Club Lotto
Monthly draw
Yearly fund raiser on May Day
Other smaller fund raisers

we didnt have any pre-conditions put on us or our grounds in receiving the money. yes it was extremely hard work and were lucky to have so many people with a keen interest in wanting to be involved. It was one of the first few about at the time so that made it a bit easier to get the funding.

Money can be raised by the simplest of things that you wouldn't think worth it. Example - tea and chocolate bars during a match. Silly some may say but for all the effort it lifted near £400 at the recent championship double header. Thats £400 that didn't exist before and we have done this small thing at every home game. The simplest and smallest things all contribute to something bigger.

What irks me about this is that they had the funding sorted without any pre-conditions then someone told the DUP about the gates - something that ive never even paid attention in my many visits to the ground or noticed - and all of a sudden it was something that they could stop them getting the money for.

The DUP latched to it and knew they had the club over the barrel. It was breaking their hearts to give them money and they got their way.

I wouldn't of taken a single penny of the money after that

I am getting from that, could be wrong, that we have just went for funding without raising  any of our own ?

We have raised £170k of our own