The Connaught Thread

[Rossfan]

Sod them . Let the hoors continue to wallow in ignorance. We can get on grand without them.
And will you please ignore them Syf.

[Lar Naparka]

Lar Naparka, we're not looking for sympathy from Mayo posters, because sympathy from Mayo is a currency of no value in Roscommon. As for you saying you have a pain in your arse, i'm not surprised, because that's where all your posts on this thread seem to have emanated from. Most of what you wrote was condescending bullshit against Roscommon people.

You seem to be one thoroughly decent individual and I've no doubts about your sincerity but I see you are unused to the cut and thrust as well as the reciprocal insults that fly about on an anonymous internet forum.

Maybe you take things too much to heart but maybe also you should read what I have actually written rather than feeling insulted before you've reached the end of my first sentence.
You seem to be totally unaware of the fact that a number of Roscommon posters intervene on every thread with a Mayo interest to moan about Ballagh playing with Mayo.
Doesn't matter what the thread topic is, the whine is the same.
Mayo does not force Ballagh to play in Mayo's competitions. That's a matter of free will. We are certainly happy to have them and would be sorry to see the club depart but that's as far as it goes.

I have gone to very detailed lengths to explain my points of view but you and other Rossies are quick to say it's rubbish. Do you mind pointing out anything I wrote that is factually incorrect?
I also think weareros is a sincere man and I can certainly understand his angst but there's nothing I or any other Mayo poster can do about it.
Now people read what they want to see and there's little point in going back over the same old points ad nauseam.
But maybe, just maybe, you might give me a straight answer to a simple question I have asked several times already. Each time all I get back is childish insults and general waffling.
Why is it that people who are Rosssies through and through refuse to play with their own county and want to play with their neighbours instead?
As an addendum, would you consider that the row is between the Ross CC and the club's members?
It's an internal row and blaming your neighbours for anything is a cop out.

[ross4life]

In '84 (I think) the Ross CC applied to let a junior club be set up in the parish but again the appeal was turned down.
You lads here gripe about Galway and Leitrim doing the dirt and siding with Mayo while your staunch ally, Sligo, did the right thing. Maybe the fact that Roscommon and Sligo were having talks at the time about Sligo moving their championship games to the Hyde might have something to do with it. (I think it was because of structural alterations to Marky Park but I'm not 100% sure.)

Was the early 90s & St Johns is what the club was to be called. The deciding vote came down to Leitrim and their county senior manager at the time was John O'Mahony hmm..

St Johns would be over 20 years old now would be interesting to see what level they would be playing in Ros now and how Ballagh club would fare with less of a pick in Mayo.

Hyde park was redeveloped in the early 90s with the promise to be Clones of Connacht e.g host all Connacht finals but both Galway,Mayo GAA had other ideas once the work was completed.

[Shrewdness]

Lar Naparka, i'll do my best to give a response to your questions. You asked about why 5 or 6 generations of families continue to play for Mayo. The only explanation i can give for it is a family tradition, following in a father or grandfather's footsteps. Sean and Dermot Flanagan would be an example, and i'm sure there are many more. It has been the done thing for Ballaghaderreen players to represent Mayo, and the reality is that they don't expect it to be any other way..I know of a couple of Ballagh lady footballers. As Ballagh don't have a ladies team, they could have gone out to play for Kilmovee Shamrocks and represent Mayo. But they didn't. They went out to Frenchpark and played for Western Gaels, all because they wanted to play in Roscommon.. I'd love to know the breakdown of Ros and Mayo allegiance re the Ballagh club officers. Any of them i know of, are all staunch Mayo supporters. I'm not sure how many, if any, are Ros supporters.

[Lar Naparka]

Lar Naparka, i'll do my best to give a response to your questions. You asked about why 5 or 6 generations of families continue to play for Mayo. The only explanation i can give for it is a family tradition, following in a father or grandfather's footsteps. Sean and Dermot Flanagan would be an example, and i'm sure there are many more. It has been the done thing for Ballaghaderreen players to represent Mayo, and the reality is that they don't expect it to be any other way..I know of a couple of Ballagh lady footballers. As Ballagh don't have a ladies team, they could have gone out to play for Kilmovee Shamrocks and represent Mayo. But they didn't. They went out to Frenchpark and played for Western Gaels, all because they wanted to play in Roscommon.. I'd love to know the breakdown of Ros and Mayo allegiance re the Ballagh club officers. Any of them i know of, are all staunch Mayo supporters. I'm not sure how many, if any, are Ros supporters.

Fair dues to you, you're the first one to give me a straight answer to a direct question. Another Rossie, weareros, gave an honest answer and it would be hard not to feel sympathy for him, but he didn't make any attempt to answer that question.
And that, more or less, is all I was asking for.
I don't understand why the club is still dominated by Mayophiles who are Rossies in every other sense of the word but whatever it is, it's an internal matter. That's why I have no sympathy for the same old tirades from the same old moaners who keep butting in on Mayo-related threads.
Don't get me wrong here; I don't take any of this seriously, who could?
Right now, I'm just marking time until the league resumes and if I stay awake tonight it won't be because I'm upset over something you or anyone else has had to say.

[mjg]

Its all one way traffic with ballagh gaa.when they  were  without a pitch the community park 100% roscommon affliliated along with western gaels an eire og stepped in to help them.A player born an bred in ballagh can play for sligo but no ballagh player can play for ross.And they wonder why there support is pitiful

[Syferus]

The situation is toxic. The amount of proud Ballagh men and women who were cheering for Brigids in the Brigids-Ballagh Connacht final tells its own story.

Ballagh GAA != Ballagh, the opposite is the fallacy being peddled here.

[Lar Naparka]

The situation is toxic. The amount of proud Ballagh men and women who were cheering for Brigids in the Brigids-Ballagh Connacht final tells its own story.

Ballagh GAA != Ballagh, the opposite is the fallacy being peddled here.

Okay Syf, a few quick questions for you.
I'm being brief as I have to go forth into the real world for a few hours so you have plenty of time to think of answers.

What exactly is this fallacy?
Can you point a single point I have made that is factually incorrect?
Why is it that those Ballagh people will back Brigid's to the hilt and still refuse to play with them?
Why do otherwise sensible Rossie posters persist in butting in on very Mayo-related thread to moan about their hard luck and to blame Mayo for it all?
Is Ballagh's status a matter for the whole world to consider and sympathise with you or is it an intenal matter between two Rossie factions?

Were you in Durkin's last night?
If you weren't, how come you were still griping away at 4 am this morning?

[Shrewdness]

Lar, more than likely, it was the real Roscommon people around Ballagh who supported Brigid's, seeing as they were county champions, and representing Roscommon.

[muppet]

In '84 (I think) the Ross CC applied to let a junior club be set up in the parish but again the appeal was turned down.
You lads here gripe about Galway and Leitrim doing the dirt and siding with Mayo while your staunch ally, Sligo, did the right thing. Maybe the fact that Roscommon and Sligo were having talks at the time about Sligo moving their championship games to the Hyde might have something to do with it. (I think it was because of structural alterations to Marky Park but I'm not 100% sure.)

Was the early 90s & St Johns is what the club was to be called. The deciding vote came down to Leitrim and their county senior manager at the time was John O'Mahony hmm..

St Johns would be over 20 years old now would be interesting to see what level they would be playing in Ros now and how Ballagh club would fare with less of a pick in Mayo.

Hyde park was redeveloped in the early 90s with the promise to be Clones of Connacht e.g host all Connacht finals but both Galway,Mayo GAA had other ideas once the work was completed.

That is an interesting twist to that particular story.

3 of the 5 Connacht CBs decided it would be Castlebar: Galway, Mayo and Sligo. The Sligo delegate at the meeting then bizarrely voted for Roscommon, against his mandate from the Sligo CB. Seeing as one or other of Galway and Mayo appear in the vast majority of Connacht Finals they gave that 'vote' the two fingers and maintained their home and away arrangement, thus scuppering The Hyde's miraculous elevation to Provincial Ground status.

I would like to have seen an independent investigation into that 'vote'.

[Lar Naparka]

Lar, more than likely, it was the real Roscommon people around Ballagh who supported Brigid's, seeing as they were county champions, and representing Roscommon.

That's a bit disappointing. Seems there's far more to the ongoing row than sons following in fathers' footsteps. Going by what Syferus had to say I thought there was an across the board turnout.
Funny, while I've heard and read assloads from your side of the argument, I've yet to hear of a single reason why there is such bitterness between the camps.
Anybody from Free Ballagh on this board?
I've had no problem going along to Croke Park to cheer for Brigid's and I'd do the same for any Connacht club if and when a Mayo side gets knocked out.
I hear that in Ballagh there are tensions between family members, never mind between neighbours.
Can't figure it out at all.

[Shrewdness]

Lar, i'll give you an example of the bitterness that exists. I know this is true because i saw it myself. In the week of the 2006 All Ireland Finals, a certain Mayo supporting business put up the Mayo and Roscommon flags as our minors were playing. Mayo got hammered, our minors gallantly drew with Kerry. On the Tuesday, BOTH flags were taken down, even though our minors still had a replay. The Ros flag never went up for the replay..Bitterness and resentment kicked in. I'd love to name the business, but won't.

[Syferus]

Lar, more than likely, it was the real Roscommon people around Ballagh who supported Brigid's, seeing as they were county champions, and representing Roscommon.

That's a bit disappointing. Seems there's far more to the ongoing row than sons following in fathers' footsteps. Going by what Syferus had to say I thought there was an across the board turnout.
Funny, while I've heard and read assloads from your side of the argument, I've yet to hear of a single reason why there is such bitterness between the camps.
Anybody from Free Ballagh on this board?
I've had no problem going along to Croke Park to cheer for Brigid's and I'd do the same for any Connacht club if and when a Mayo side gets knocked out.
I hear that in Ballagh there are tensions between family members, never mind between neighbours.
Can't figure it out at all.

It's not hatred, sure I went to school with and know some of the Ballagh players well and they're grand lads, it's only when football is being played that division lines are drawn. For the rest of the time everyone is just from Ballagh, no more and less.

I'm happy to see Ballagh doing well in league and championship but there was never any chance I'd be supporting them over the Roscommon county champions. You can't isolate yourself from your county and then expect them to row in behind you when you're playing other teams from the county.

[muppet]

Lar, i'll give you an example of the bitterness that exists. I know this is true because i saw it myself. In the week of the 2006 All Ireland Finals, a certain Mayo supporting business put up the Mayo and Roscommon flags as our minors were playing. Mayo got hammered, our minors gallantly drew with Kerry. On the Tuesday, BOTH flags were taken down, even though our minors still had a replay. The Ros flag never went up for the replay..Bitterness and resentment kicked in. I'd love to name the business, but won't.

Your eternal search for things to be offended by is truly inspirational.

[Farrandeelin]

Lar, i'll give you an example of the bitterness that exists. I know this is true because i saw it myself. In the week of the 2006 All Ireland Finals, a certain Mayo supporting business put up the Mayo and Roscommon flags as our minors were playing. Mayo got hammered, our minors gallantly drew with Kerry. On the Tuesday, BOTH flags were taken down, even though our minors still had a replay. The Ros flag never went up for the replay..Bitterness and resentment kicked in. I'd love to name the business, but won't.

To be fair, that is poor form from the business' point of view. I'd say 99% of Mayo people wanted ye to win that replay, I know I certainly did anyway, and I was even cheering ye on in the drawn final too. It's a pity that people can be so narrow minded, especially when young gasúrs couldn't be supported.