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https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/2025/08/25/denis-walsh-gaa-must-take-a-leap-on-paying-managers-and-deal-with-the-consequences/

The certainty this time is that something will be done. A profound change will be made. The crocked status quo won't be waved through, on the nod. Some provision will be made to account for the day-to-day reality of the GAA's relationship with so-called amateurism. It will involve sanctioned payments, and it will alter the landscape for good. Can you think of any other credible outcome?

In recent weeks, the GAA president Jarlath Burns and members of the latest Amateur Status Review committee have met county board officers in a series of gatherings around the country. The purpose of those meetings was not just to explain the committee's thinking but to workshop their ideas. They were happy for the officers to drill holes in them.

Eurozone inflation is 2%. UK inflation is 3.8%. Northern Ireland inflation is 4.4%
https://www.fgibson.co.uk/resources/market-data/-annual-inflation

Another reason for a United Ireland.

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/2025/02/01/paddy-tally-this-is-your-life-new-derry-coach-may-get-deja-vu-as-season-kicks-in/

Paddy Tally, this is your life: New Derry coach may get deja vu as season kicks in
Tyrone man's opening fixtures as Derry manager will stir up some sporting memories
 
Gordon Manning
Sat Feb 01 2025 - 06:00

Paddy Tally could be forgiven if, during these early weeks of the new season, he felt the urge to search the Derry dressingroom to make sure Michael Aspel wasn't preparing to pop out from behind an old white board or a stack of training cones.

Because Tally's opening three fixtures as Derry manager certainly have a fair whiff of This Is Your Life about them. Tyrone, Kerry, Galway – Tally's GAA family of old friends, profound relationships and unforgettable memories.

The fixture makers and script writers have dovetailed just lovely on this one.

Tally's first competitive outing as Derry manager was against his native Tyrone last week, the league encounter taking place in Omagh, just a little over 20 miles from his home, in Galbally.

READ MORE
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Limerick's Seamus Flanagan may face disciplinary action over alleged incident during Cork game
Friday night lights the one spotlight GAA seems unwilling to step into
Friday night lights the one spotlight GAA seems unwilling to step into
Five things we learned from the GAA weekend: Player and referee fitness is tested by new rules
Five things we learned from the GAA weekend: Player and referee fitness is tested by new rules
In 2003, Tally trained the Tyrone footballers under Mickey Harte when they made history by winning the county's breakthrough All-Ireland. But that success was to be only the prologue of a very singular coaching story.

He has now been to All-Ireland finals with three different counties: Tyrone, Down, Kerry.


The Kerry chapter came to a sharp, unexpected end late last year. Tally was involved with the Kingdom from 2022-24. And when Jack O'Connor announced his management team for 2025, Tally was again included. But in mid-November he was unveiled as the new Derry manager. Inevitably, Tally's second game-day task as Oak-leaf boss is to welcome O'Connor and Kerry to Celtic Park this Sunday.

Kerry's manager Jack O'Connor and Paddy Tally. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho
Kerry's manager Jack O'Connor and Paddy Tally. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho
After he negotiates that tricky test, his third league fixture will be against Galway, where Tally coached in 2018.

"It has been no surprise that Paddy has moved around over the years – a man of his intelligence and adaptability to the modern way of playing, he's always keen to learn and improve," says Danny Hughes, who played under Tally during his time in Down.

Despite him being a Tyrone man, Tally's appointment in Derry didn't generate the same ferocious pitchfork-wielding backlash directed towards Mickey Harte just over 12 months earlier.

There are several reasons for that. Firstly, Harte is such an iconic figure in Tyrone GAA. For some who had steadfastly followed and supported his teams for almost 20 years, it felt like a form of betrayal for Harte, of all people, to be hopping across the fence to help out the noisy neighbours.

Secondly, Tally – despite his link to that 2003 Tyrone team – has tended to be viewed more as a coaching evangelist; his philosophy has been cultivated and developed in Killarney and Newry as much as it has been in Galbally.

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Thirdly, he also previously coached the Derry footballers during Brian McIver's spell as manager between 2013 and 2015.

But when Tally's CV is cited, his first spell with Down is often the detail most overlooked. In 2010, the unfancied Mourne Men burst from the pack to contest that year's All-Ireland final.

"The one thing that really sets Paddy apart and what allows him to be a brilliant coach is the absence of ego," adds 2010 All-Star Hughes.

Paddy Tally during his time as Down manager in 2021. Photograph: Tommy Dickson/Inpho
Paddy Tally during his time as Down manager in 2021. Photograph: Tommy Dickson/Inpho
"He's very personable and doesn't think he is better or worse than anybody else. He gets on with people – that's a great starting point for any coach. He was huge for us that year in getting to the final.

"Often when managers and coaches come in, on some occasions they bring with them a reputation from their playing days, but management and coaching are very different. That ability of arriving to a dressingroom with no ego, I think that really stands to Paddy."

That's not to say Tally wasn't a decent player himself. He played for Galbally Pearses in the 1997 county senior football final while he was also part of the Tyrone senior football panel when they contested the 1995 All-Ireland decider.


He attended St Mary's where he trained to become a teacher and later completed a master's in sports science. Tally was just 29 when he was invited by Harte to join the Tyrone management team.

Those famous passages of play from the 2003 All-Ireland semi-final when the Tyrone footballers swarmed Kerry players like frenzied bees descending upon an open jar of honey – that was Tally's work, honed in small-sided training games. It is now a part of GAA folklore.

But Tally's relationship with Harte became strained the following season and in September 2004 it was announced that the young coach would not be involved with Tyrone in 2005.

When Tally next emerged on the national stage it was with the Down footballers during that 2010 season.

He later spent three years with Derry while at the time lecturing in St Mary's University Belfast and training the college's football teams. In 2017, his coaching work with The Ranch reached its apex. St Mary's games development officer Gavin McGilly was part of Tally's back room team that year when they caused a shock by winning the Sigerson Cup.

"Paddy knows what it takes to win," says McGilly, who is also the current St Mary's Sigerson manager.


Paddy Tally lifts the Sam Maguire following Kerry's All-Ireland win in July 2022. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho
Paddy Tally lifts the Sam Maguire following Kerry's All-Ireland win in July 2022. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho
"It was something Paddy would have aspired to and I suppose that was nearly 20 years in the making, so it was great to see him get his just rewards for all that hard work. We have very fond memories of that year."

McGilly has not been surprised to see Tally become one of the most sought-after coaches in the game.

"It comes so naturally to Paddy, he's a brilliant man manager and players want to play for him," he adds. "He's at the cutting edge of coaching and at the very highest level he has proved himself – from 2003 with Tyrone to most recently his time with Kerry, he knows what it takes to get teams up the steps of the Hogan Stand."

That 2017 Sigerson success put Tally back on the intercounty radar. Kevin Walsh persuaded him to link up with Galway for 2018 – a season during which they won the Connacht title and contested the league final.

Later that same year Hughes was part of the committee tasked with finding a new Down manager in advance of the 2019 season. Hughes believed the right man was from Galbally. They appointed Tally for three years.

He remained at the helm for that period but Covid proved a difficult time and despite being offered an extra season, Tally opted to step down in July 2021.


But just as one door closes ...

A series of events conspired to facilitate Tally's most high profile, if unlikely, coaching role. Just two months after Tally's Down departure, Jack O'Connor left Kildare. Peter Keane was the Kerry manager at the time, but the screw was starting to turn in the Kingdom and O'Connor's sudden availability changed everything.

Paddy Tally celebrates with Tyrone manager Mickey Harte in September 2003. Photograph: Morgan Treacy/Inpho
Paddy Tally celebrates with Tyrone manager Mickey Harte in September 2003. Photograph: Morgan Treacy/Inpho
Before September was out, O'Connor was back as Kerry boss for a third time. In the background, he had been arranging his poker hand – but confirmation Tally was to be part of the Kerry management team wasn't seen by all as a royal flush. It wasn't the first time an outsider had been drafted in – Cian O'Neill had coached Kerry under Eamonn Fitzmaurice – but bringing Tally down weighed heavily on some traditionalists in Kerry.

And the undertone to much of the criticism was that Kerry didn't need or want an Ulster coach, a Tyrone coach. There were some who would rather lose football matches the Kerry way than win them on the back of some guidance from elsewhere.

[ Joy unconfined as Kerry faithful welcome home Sam MaguireOpens in new window ]

Tally arrived with his defensive coaching credentials widely praised, and the numbers indicated the Kingdom needed some repair work at the back. In 2022, they proved to be a far more resolute group. Sam Maguire was won, all was forgiven – or perhaps just ignored. Winning has that tendency to make folk forget the other stuff. O'Connor's gamble had worked.

Players who have worked with Tally say the pigeonholing of him as a defensive coach is unfair. Brendan Rogers made his Derry debut during Tally's time as a coach there in 2015 and is pleased to see him return.

"Paddy gets probably lauded for his defensive credibility, and rightly so, but nobody gives him credit for how to get out of a defensive system," said Rogers before the start of the league. "What he could actually do is help make us a better transitioning team. I'm excited to see what he has learned from the last time he was with us."

And yet the Derry job radiated like a double-edged sword last winter – at once both attractive and hazardous.

"I think it was well known Rory Gallagher wanted it and some of the players seemed to want that as well," says Hughes. "So, it is a difficult one, but if anybody can manage it and convince the players, then it's Paddy Tally."

And a victory against some old friends this weekend certainly wouldn't hurt.

Number One question will be key for Limerick as they reach a crossroads
https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/2025/01/25/no-1-question-the-key-one-for-limerick-in-a-pivotal-season/

Nickie Quaid has been a hugely influential figure in five All-Ireland triumphs but John Kiely must now plan without the outstanding goalkeeper
Nickie Quaid: at the beginning of November he won his third All-Star award; a fortnight later he tore his ACL playing soccer with friends. He now faces months of rehab.

 
Denis Walsh
Sat Jan 25 2025 - 06:00

At the end of the 2018 season Brian McDonnell, the analyst and coach, produced The Green Monster, a stunning piece of long form analysis on the hurling championship.

The document runs to 12,000 words, logging every heartbeat and muscle movement and brain wave of Limerick's All-Ireland. The analysis, though, begins with the goalie.

McDonnell illustrated each of Nickie Quaid's 265 puckouts in three graphics, with coloured dots to denote the outcome.

"Quaid enjoyed an extraordinary season," wrote McDonnell. "Limerick retained possession on their own puckout 72.25 per cent of the time, which is absolutely ridiculous."

READ MORE
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After a fortnight of tragedy, Conor Loftus slots a last-minute penalty to win Crossmolina the All-Ireland
Storm Éowyn can't destroy Connacht GAA's ambition – Prenty's Tenty will rise again
Storm Éowyn can't destroy Connacht GAA's ambition – Prenty's Tenty will rise again
Number One question will be key for Limerick as they reach a crossroads
Number One question will be key for Limerick as they reach a crossroads
In their breakthrough season, Quaid's puckouts were Limerick's most powerful instrument of control. Their principal puckout targets would have flourished in any era, but that year they were animated by Paul Kinnerk's imagination and Quaid's capacity to split an apple with an arrow.

"We started drilling down into it when Seanie O'Donnell came on board [as their lead analyst, in 2017]," says Barry Hennessy, who was first reserve to Quaid for a decade. "The percentage return for Limerick puckouts at that stage was 30-something per cent."


In less than two years, Limerick's efficiency doubled. In the long run, those numbers were unsustainable. There is too much transparency and too many camera angles, and too many nimble minds engaged in opposition analysis. Limerick's point of difference, though, was Quaid. Nobody could shut down his capacity to scramble.

"I know it's a cliché that the qoalie is the quarterback now," says Paul Browne, who played with Quaid for nine seasons, "but when you're watching the NFL playoffs over the last couple of weeks you'd hear fellas saying, 'that's a rookie quarterback throw,' because he's after throwing it to the wrong place at the wrong time under pressure.

"That's Nickie's biggest forte – he'll hit the right puckout at the right time, under pressure. That only comes with experience, unfortunately."

Quaid has been the Limerick goalkeeper since 2011. Their championship team has been famously stable over the years, but still, in their five All-Ireland-winning seasons, only four players were ever-present starters: Quaid was one.

At the beginning of November, he won his third All-Star award; a fortnight later he tore his ACL playing soccer with friends. If Limerick reach Croke Park at the beginning of July there is an outside chance that Quaid will be fit to play, but that would mean a rehab of not much more than seven months. David Burke, the Galway centrefielder, managed it, but the typical recovery period is a month longer. In any case, Limerick must plan without him.

Limerick's goalkeeper Nickie Quaid consoled by manager John Kiely after the defeat to Cork in last year's All-Ireland semi-final, the team's first defeat in Croke Park since 2019. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho
Limerick's goalkeeper Nickie Quaid consoled by manager John Kiely after the defeat to Cork in last year's All-Ireland semi-final, the team's first defeat in Croke Park since 2019. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho
The void that Quaid leaves behind comes at a crossroads for this group. Just like the Kilkenny team that failed to win five-in-a-row, they are good enough and just about young enough to win another couple of All-Irelands, as long as there is some judicious pruning and replanting.


John Kiely and Kinnerk have committed for another two years, and O'Donnell is still on board too, all of which is hugely significant. Without these three legs the stool could not stand. But during the close season there was more boardroom turnover in the Limerick set-up than at any other time during Kiely's eight years in charge.

For the coming season there will be a new strength and conditioning coach, a new performance coach, a new goalkeeping coach and a new nutritionist. O'Donnell had a team of three helping him with analysis; they all stepped away and needed to be replaced. There will also be two new coach/selectors and a different captain.

Declan Hannon had been in that role since Kiely's second season in charge and in that time Hannon has also been their preferred centre back. He only turned 32 in November, but that number must be set against 14 seasons in the front line. At some point, longevity is more about subtraction than addition. In recent years injuries have become more intrusive, and his form has been more volatile. It is likely that other options at number six will be explored.

But it is certain they will need a new goalkeeper. The problem with replacing Quaid is that he was not just the executor of the puckout strategy he was also its co-creator and curator and its chief critic. That kind of institutional knowledge cannot be replaced.

Browne remembers arriving for training an hour before the appointed time to find Quaid and the other goalkeepers "pumping with sweat because they had an hour's training done already". On other nights Quaid would do an hour of video analysis with O'Donnell, just on puckouts.

Munster GAA Senior Hurling Championship Round 2, TUS Gaelic Grounds, Co. Limerick 28/4/2024
Limerick vs Tipperary
Tipperary's Ronan Maher and Declan Hannon of Limerick after the game
Mandatory Credit ©INPHO/James Crombie
Munster GAA Senior Hurling Championship Round 2, TUS Gaelic Grounds, Co. Limerick 28/4/2024 Limerick vs Tipperary Tipperary's Ronan Maher and Declan Hannon of Limerick after the game Mandatory Credit ©INPHO/James Crombie
After the peak of 2018 and 19, Limerick's puckout efficiency inevitably dipped; other teams came up with workable solutions, which forced Limerick to think again.


"Teams had a plan in place either to push up on Limerick or fill the gaps," says Hennessy, "so your puckout return would have gone from the high 60s [per cent] down to the 40s."

Limerick's response was to re-tool Barry Nash as a play-starter from corner back.

"They'd play it to Nash and he'd play the Nickie Quaid role nearly, with the same movements [up the field], but it was just staggered," says Barry Cleary, an analyst with GAA Insights, who work with a range of intercounty teams.

That worked spectacularly for a season, but with all these innovations the law of diminishing returns applies. In the second season, Nash was more harassed and disrupted. One of the alternatives that Kinnerk devised was for a fourth Limerick player to drop into the full-back line as a first receiver.

"Kinnerk is a big fan of Man City," says Cleary "and if you look at the way soccer kick-outs changed where players stand to the side of the goalkeeper [just outside the six yard box] I think he was working off that principle. By bringing Kyle Hayes or Diarmuid Byrnes into the full-back line they're opening up a gap at wing back which asks a question of the opposition. If you leave that zone free, they'll run somebody into it."

But they also had emergency puckouts and Quaid would instinctively know when to push the button.


"You look at the Crusaders [New Zealand rugby team]. Sam Whitlock [their captain] used to talk about what they did when lads' eyes were starting to glass over," says Hennessy. "You just make it as simple as possible.

"It would be a case of Gearóid [Hegarty] standing on the sideline [for a puckout] or Diarmuid Byrnes coming into the full back line. Lads would know that if the ball went to Diarmuid it was going to be landing hot and heavy down the field. Those set-ups were more of a trigger to say, 'Look, we know we're under pressure. Let's just relax for a second and get back into the game.'"

Nickie Quaid: the problem with replacing him is that he was not just the executor of the puck-out strategy he was also its co-creator and curator and its chief critic. Photograph: Laszlo Geczo/Inpho
Nickie Quaid: the problem with replacing him is that he was not just the executor of the puck-out strategy he was also its co-creator and curator and its chief critic. Photograph: Laszlo Geczo/Inpho
Limerick's puckout numbers returned to the mean over the last three seasons, in part because "everyone else is obsessed with their puckouts," says Cleary. "The other thing to understand is that if you're at 50 per cent you're grand. Tipperary won the 2019 All-Ireland with the worst long puckout in the country – they were winning something like 28 per cent. But they were eating everyone else's long puckout."

That is what Limerick have consistently done too. The common pattern in Limerick's three big defeats since 2019 – against Kilkenny and Cork twice – was that they suffered under their opponents' long puckouts. In those matches, that trend was the most subversive of all.

In clutch situations, though, Quaid had the wherewithal to find a home for the ball. When they struggled against Kilkenny in the 2022 All-Ireland final he leant on his two favourite receivers: Hegarty and Tom Morrissey. Between them they had 32 possessions. With the goalie, they had that connection.

It will be fascinating to see how it plays out. After injury forced his retirement in 2020 Shane Dowling was restored to the panel this winter, having been reinvented as a goalkeeper with Na Piarsaigh.

Learn more
"Unbelievable striker of the ball," says Browne, "and has the accuracy piece to go with it. It's not a canon, it's a gun."

But Jason Gillane was the third goalkeeper for a couple of years behind Quaid and Hennessy, and he was the reserve goalie last year.

"He has everything," says Hennessy. "A brilliant brain, a brilliant shot-stopper. He's matured a lot. He was away from the panel for a couple of years, and it hurt him. The only unknown for Limerick is, whoever goes in there, do they have the temperament Nickie has?"

In a pivotal season it is the first big question.

France is on the verge of a vote to take down the Government
South Korea had a short lived military coup. That was just yesterday
Trump is around the corner.

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/2024/11/11/roscommon-gaa-home-ground-to-be-renamed-king-moffatt-dr-hyde-park/

Roscommon GAA home ground to be renamed King & Moffatt Dr Hyde Park

Things are getting awkward.

https://www.ft.com/content/5003b5b9-7d36-49a7-96cc-d5fecc7a0a96
Donald Trump asks arch protectionist Robert Lighthizer to run US trade policy

What will this mean for Apple and co.?

What aspects of the State in the North are annoying to nationalists?
What aspects of the South are attractive ?
What aspects of the south are not attractive ?

https://www.rte.ie/sport/football/2024/0513/1448909-cavanagh-clarifies-gaa-comments-after-burns-riposte/

I haven't pulled out the recent accounts but I remember seeing a couple of years ago 40, 50, 60million of cash reserves and a balance sheet of €100million. I'm an accountant, I know this stuff.

"For an amateur organisation owned by the members, owned by the people that are lining pitches, by people in every club up and down the country, for me that looks like a very healthy position.

"I previously worked with a lot of soccer organisations, a lot of them go bust all the time and haven't got 2p to rub together. For me, the GAA is in a very healthy financial position, they're acquiring lots of strategic assets all over the country.

What are these things ?

Far right parties are expected to gain significantly in this year's Euro elections. The Far right uses emotion to wind up voters and never fixes anything. European Far right politicians such as Le Pen, Wilders and Orban specialise in conspiracy theories and gaslighting  and target ignorant voters . They are all anti immigrant, anti climate action and pro Russia.  They are much better at politics than right wing politicians.   The North has had the far right for a very long time in the form of the DUP.

https://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/gaa/arid-41315656.html

Seven of the 16 slots in the Sam Maguire Cup come by way of league standings. The best four are seeded third and the remaining three fourth but their identities really don't emerge until the confirmation of the eight provincial winners and runners-up, who are first and second seeds

Meath are Tailteann winners and Clare, Tipperary or Waterford are going to reach a Munster final

So there are 14 spots available at best outside the other provincials.

https://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2024/0323/1439607-green-light-for-soccer-rugby-at-major-gaa-venues/

The GAA has granted permission for "rugby and soccer activity" to take place in Croke Park and Supervalu Páirc Uí Chaoimh in the coming months.
Meetings of the GAA's Management Committee and Central Council took place on Friday night and Saturday.

At the GAA's annual Congress in 2019, the green light had been given by 91% of delegates to allow games other than Gaelic football and hurling to be played at county grounds, once approved by Central
Council.

Last October, Cavan's Kingspan Breffni hosted an Ulster Rugby pre-season game against Glasgow Warriors - the first Ulster Rugby game hosted at a GAA ground.

This latest news signals further activity from both codes in two of the association's marquee venues in the near future.

The venue for the Republic of Ireland women's team's Euro 2025 qualifier against France on Tuesday 16 July has yet to be confirmed.

The Aviva Stadium - which will host their other two qualifiers against England and Sweden - is unavailable, while Shamrock Rovers could potentially be in Tallaght Stadium for a Champions League first-round qualifier the same night as the French come to town.

The FAI have yet to confirm where that game will take place but the prospect of the Girls in Green heading to Cork is not unfathomable.

Recently, Croke Park has been slated as a possible fan zone venue for the UEFA Europa League final in May if needed, and last winter it was used as a fan's event base for a Pittsburgh Steelers NFL game.

Páirc Uí Chaoimh hosted its first rugby match on 10 November 2022. That fixture broke the record for the biggest crowd to attend a rugby match in the province with 41,400 in attendance as Munster beat South Africa 'A' 28 to 14.

In February of this year, URC champions Munster hosted Super Rugby winners the Crusaders at SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh. That clash sold out the GAA venue in the staging of its first game since the
rebranding of the stadium.

In 2018, a testimonial match for the late Republic of Ireland soccer international, Liam Miller, was held at the Leeside venue.

Back in 2005, approval was first given for the gates of Croke Park to be temporarily opened for rugby and soccer internationals while Lansdowne Road was being redeveloped.

Even though the move was not permanent it necessitated a lengthy campaign by officials to gain approval from within the GAA.

Down through the years, however, Croke Park had provided a home to non-GAA events.

The Tailteann Games were held there in the 1920s, while in 1946, an exhibition of American football games was held at Jones' Road.

In 1972, Muhammad Ali beat Al 'Blue' Lewis at a boxing bout there, with Croke Park hosting a college American football game in 1996.

The first all Ireland was in 1887. There was no championship the following year.
In the 20 championships from 1887 to 1907,

Dublin won 10
Kerry won 2
The rest won 8

https://twitter.com/RTEgaa/status/1759618085349134424

Does anyone understand them ?

[flow]

https://www.rte.ie/sport/football/2024/0130/1429369-no-immediate-prospect-of-gaa-introducing-tmo/


"Further feedback is to be requested from referees as the prospect of the GAA introducing a Television Match Official (TMO) looks to be a distant one for now.

A workgroup set up by GAA president Larry McCarthy at Congress 2023 presented a preliminary findings on the use of a TMO in Gaelic games to Central Council at the weekend, but further feedback will be sought before a final report is published.

Following the 'silent' trial use of video technology in last year's championship, RTÉ Sport understands that there is no immediate prospect of the GAA exploring the TMO option further anytime soon.

Conclusions found that the flow of a GAA game could be severely interrupted – with the TMO possibly having to judge incidents on the number of steps players took without releasing the ball within seconds of each other.

This increased the prospect of having to judge on issues repeatedly during games and there were concerns on how disruptive replaying such incidents might prove with the flow of games likely to be affected."

GAA is pure Irish emotion. A TMO would only get in the way.

https://www.rte.ie/news/2023/1229/1423082-redrawing-of-border-considered-as-possible-solution/


unilateral British withdrawl from Northern Ireland

Secret government documents from 1975 considered what might happen in the event of a British withdrawal from Northern Ireland.

The cabinet ordered civil servants to draw up a series of discussion papers looking at possible scenarios in July 1974, shortly after the collapse of the Sunningdale power-sharing agreement, at a time when paramilitary violence was intensifying and when there were serious doubts about the British government's commitment to stay in the North.

One option studied was possible military intervention to prevent the emergence of an independent Northern Ireland. This would involve an attempt "to subdue loyalist resistance and to dominate the entire Protestant population of Northern Ireland". The group concluded that "this is beyond our military and administrative capabilities".

Another scenario discussed was redrawing the border, with up to two-thirds of Northern Ireland and almost half a million people being transferred to the Republic.

The report, "Negotiated Repartition of Northern Ireland", found that this could cost up to £873m, the equivalent of around €8.5bn today, with no guarantee that Britain would bear any of that cost.

A British soldier with a boy in the New Lodge area of Belfast

Officials thought it unlikely that if the border were redrawn the British government would keep the remaining part of Northern Ireland within the UK, because such an area, which would include Belfast, would contain "the seeds of further violence unless there was a very large population movement which would be unlikely to take place voluntarily if the area were to remain under Westminster jurisdiction".

With military action ruled out, the only possible solution, the group felt, would be to agree a redrawing of the border, to transfer majority nationalist areas to the Republic.

Officials looked at a range of options for the transfer of territory. Under their minimum scenario, Fermanagh, parts of Tyrone, Derry City, Newry, and other parts of south Armagh and south Down would transfer to the Republic, or around 40% of the land area of Northern Ireland, with a population of 323,000 (205,000 Catholics and 118,000 non-Catholics).

The maximum area for transfer would include other parts of Derry, Tryone and Armagh. The entire area would be around two-thirds of Northern Ireland, with a total of 486,000 people (285,000 Catholics and 201,000 non-Catholics).

The cost, including repairing the damage caused in previous violence, and the provision of housing for people who left the remaining area of Northern Ireland, could range from £353m to £873m, though there was a possibility Britain might help pay for it.

Most of the areas transferred would be poorer than the remaining portion of Northern Ireland, which would therefore be more economically viable than an independent state containing the entire six-county area.

Officials were unable to say what the integration of the transferred areas would mean for the Republic's economy, but noted that if repartition was agreed by all sides, without any prior escalation of violence, it would benefit the entire island because it should see the end of existing tensions.

However, if the border had to be redrawn following serious violence and involved substantial population movement, "it could impose a tremendous economic burden".

By David McCullagh

Casement is still pie in the sky.
Interest rates went up but house prices haven't fallen yet
No sign of the A5
Sterling is an emerging market currency.

What else? 

https://www.rte.ie/sport/hurling/2023/1110/1415789-a-farce-fermanagh-captain-slams-ahl-exclusion-plan/

A Fermanagh hurler has labelled proposals to potentially exclude a number of counties from the Allianz League from 2025 onwards as "a farce".

A recommendation from the GAA's Central Competitions Control Committee, if approved, would see any county with fewer than five adult hurling teams competing solely in the fifth-tier Lory Meagher Cup – meaning the Erne County, Cavan, Leitrim, Longford and Louth would be impacted.

With no league action, their county seasons would be reduced from six months to three with the saved spending, along with additional funding, instead aimed at improving hurling development in those counties.

Fermanagh captain Ryan Bogue, one of the longest serving inter-county hurlers having made his debut off the bench against Cavan in 2006, said he was gobsmacked when he was presented with the document explaining the possible changes.

"The whole thing seems to be made up and pulled out of the sky with no consideration put into it at all," he told RTÉ Sport.

"I wouldn't say I would be overly surprised. Over the last six, seven years, the treatment of hurling in counties like our own has definitely improved but previous to that you were always obviously second best in terms of privileges.

"I thought we had got past that but this is just back to that. Our county board is great, anything we want, we get, but this is coming from the top.