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https://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/gaa/arid-41791670.html

Football championship total crowds being up by a quarter is absolutely massive.

Absolutely crazy to think that for every 4 people who went to a championship game in 2024, 5 people went in 2025.

The Sam Maguire Cup race drew in a total of 641,429 spectators in 2025, compared with 512,001 in 2024, a jump of 25.33%.

I'd say Meaths run had a big say in that, brilliant support in Croker.

42,000 more at  last years Leinster final than 2024

Meath brought 15,000 more to semi

And Kerry folk were shamed into  attending by David  Clifford

They all made a difference

Award-winning actress Catherine O'Hara died of a pulmonary embolism, her death certificate in the US has revealed.

O'Hara died on 30 January in a Los Angeles hospital, at the age of 71. In addition to the blood clot in her lungs, the death certificate listed rectal cancer as the long-term cause of death.

It was indicated that she had been receiving treatment for the cancer since March 2025

Kerry V Galway - Kerry by 2.5 KERRY
Meath v Louth - Meath by 3.5 MEATH
Down V Westmeath - Down by 2.5 WESTMEATH
Laois v Sligo - Sligo by 1.5 LAOIS
Waterford v Wicklow - Wicklow by 4.5 WATERFORD
Kildare v Derry - Derry by 0.5 KILDARE
Dublin v Monaghan - Dublin by 5.5 MONAGHAN
Fermanagh v Clare - Clare by 1.5 CLARE
London V Leitrim - Leitrim by 2.5 LONDON
Donegal V Mayo - Donegal by 1.5 DONEGAL
Roscommon v Armagh - Armagh by 1.5 ROSCOMMON
Tyrone V Cavan - Tyrone by 4.5 CAVAN
Offaly V Cork - Cork by 2.5 CORK
Limerick V Wexford - Wexford by 2.5 LIMERICK
Antrim V Longford - Antrim by 2.5 LONGFORD
Tipp v Carlow - Tipp by 1.5 CARLOW

When you say they don't know what the stand for do you mean Labour? Labour have been lost for years. They're tory lite. Starmer is useless.

While things are bad Farage in charge doesn't really bear thinking about. That ICE crowd in the states could be replicated you'd imagine.

Labour/Tory, they're  all the  same. All bought and controlled by lobbyists. They  tell them what they  stand for.

Titanic sinks tonight on BBC

Actors playing out the  tragedy based on  survivor interviews.

As good as the  film was in terms of the  ship they built, the story was  crap, but even at over 3 hours long, it didn't do  the story justice.

This  program delves more into the  mechanics/physics of the  disaster, how unprepared they were  for emergencies, and the  class divide  that basically meant if you werent in 1st class, you weren't privy to vital information  and had  little chance of survival

Fascinating, and  very sad.

Jimmy White is the Whirlwind ffs, come on!

Higgins was the hurricane.

He was also a  regular cocaine user

Breezy Johnson. 

An easy going  personality  or a flatulence problem, I wonder?

Such a  name to give a child!

[An 8 point lead two years ago would have trudged to the finish line.]

Aye Oisin was originally Abbey. Has a young lad there at the minute too I think.

Momentum is a wonderful thing. Hopefully more of the same on Friday night.

Is right. Oisin 5 years at the Abbey. Youngster in year 10 there.

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I'm not sure if the ref had much say in the change of momentum. Between the 5 -and 15 minute marks in the second half, Abbey made a handful of big tackles and Dungannon missed a couple of very kickable scores. Combine that with with Abbey's midfield dominance and it was a mental minefield for the Tyrone lads.

Abbey might rue not going for the jugular after they equalised. Dungannon were gasping for air at the time.

Some game of football though. MacRory football one of the biggest benefactors of the new rules. An 8 point lead two years ago would have trudged to the finish line.

Brilliant.

From what I recall, Abbey only got one 2 point free  from when  they were 8 begins , so not sure how you  can say that the new rules had a big bearing on  the comeback 

Dungannon will be  mighty relieved they get another day out. They absolutely collapsed.

Great second half from  Abbey though

Theme from Local Hero
Walk of Life
Sultans of swing

Saw a good one the other day, a short YouTube piece about Theresa May. (I always find former UK Prime Ministers interesting to listen to, they've seen how it all works, and now that they're no longer in the job they're not constrained in what they can say.)

Anyway, she remarked how you used to go into a pub there would be "old Joe" sitting at the end of the bar having too much to drink, and muttering all sorts of nonsense, conspiracy theories, maybe a dose of racism or xenophobia, and things that are just generally not true. Well in those days everybody just ignored "old Joe" and got on with their business. He didn't have a whole lot of influence because there weren't many people like him, they were spread thin across society and were never well enough organised to get together.

Nowadays, old Joe can go online and connect with similar characters like himself. Now he starts to feel like he's part of a community. Now he can talk to people like himself, and one or two of their number will have enough skills to arrange a physical meet-up. Throw in the algorithm, and it starts serving up content that appeals to him, further reinforcing his ideas no matter how outlandish they are.

The rise of the internet has had a lot of unintended consequences. America is the extreme example of this.

I've heard this analogy before and it's absolutely spot on. The consequence is that the cohort of people who historically would have been mildly susceptible to it but didn't really care have now become so radicalised and set in these beliefs. Alot of "semi old joes" have now become full blown old joes because of what they consume on their phone for hours every day.

Do you have a link to the interview?

I take your point , but all you have to do is look at what's been going on in the world to  make people sceptical.

Venezuela, the genocide in Gaza and the subsequent  Palestine Action demonisation, those cretins who meet in Davos , the Covid scams , Epstein and all his cronies , the Royals, corruption in sport, etc.

The internet, while it does spread a lot of guff , does shine a light into dark corners as to what  the elites are at , and how we're all  being taken for a ride

We all know  how the Gaza genocide has been portrayed, and closer to home , how  we're told by unionism that collusion  was a myth.  We don't need the internet to tell us they    are bullshit

It wasn't exactly a fringe theory he was pushing. The taigs-as-troublemakers trope was already a well established foundation of Ulster unionism.

It was still  a conspiracy theory. And he had a lot of people  believing in it

Just up. What have I missed?

Something about a  monster. I'm  just up meself

Paisley didn't need Twitter or Facebook to  coax the knuckledraggers out onto the streets during the  troubles.

Tony does his best pop picking come the weekend by the looks of things

Maybe the missus  only  allows him online at the weekend 

Maybe he's right though. We've all probably had enough of  Neil Diamond by now. Some more  than others 

Next up......

Dire Straits