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Topics - IolarCoisCuain

#21
General discussion / New Junior Cert Syllabus
October 04, 2012, 07:39:56 PM
I know more than a few people on here are Knights of the Blackboard and I was wondering what you made of this new Junior Cert syllabus: http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/1004/quinn-to-announce-major-overhaul-of-junior-cert.html

Any teacher I know is worried about dumbing down and I have to say, anything I heard about that Project Maths thing terrifies me. Are we behind the curve on this? Are we bringing into Ireland what the British tried and have given up on, twenty years off the pace?

QuoteUnder the new plans, students can substitute two short courses for one full subject to allow for courses such as Chinese or Digital Media Literacy to be taken.

That's the sort of thing that worries me. There is no comparision between something like Digital Media literacy - which means telling lads not to send photos of their lads to everyone in fourth year - and bucking Chinese. I heard some flunkey from the Department talking it up on Radio One this evening and again, my heart didn't soar listening to her. But I'll leave it to professionals - what do you think?
#22
GAA congress to consider RWC role

SEÁN MORAN

Sat, Aug 18, 2012

The GAA will consider making available six grounds to facilitate Ireland's rugby world cup (RWC) bid. Today's Central Council meeting viewed a presentation proposing that a motion go to next year's annual congress to amend Rule 5.1, governing the use of association property in order to allow venues to be used for the tournament in 2023 or 2027.

If the motion passes the IRFU, who floated the proposal earlier this year, can proceed with formulating a bid by the deadline of this time next year. This would also be contingent on substantial government funding.

Croke Park would be needed for the final, as a venue with a capacity of at least 60,000 is required whereas a number of other provincial venues would also be required in order for the IRFU to propose sufficient locations to sustain their bid.

The grounds suggested at today's meeting include four Munster venues: Semple Stadium in Thurles, the Gaelic Grounds in Limerick, Fitzgerald Stadium in Killarney and Cork's Páirc Uí Chaoimh, which is due to be refurbished. The other two are Pearse Stadium in Galway City and Casement Park in Belfast, which is also due to be redeveloped.

During the rebuilding of Lansdowne Road between 2007 and 2010, Croke Park was made available for rugby and soccer internationals but that dispensation applied only to the headquarters venue and not any of the GAA's other venues.

A statement from the IRFU this afternoon, said: "The IRFU fully understands and respects this process and looks forward to the GAA's response in due course, while also acknowledging that any bid would be heavily dependent on support from the Government and the GAA.

The number of stadia that would be required for the tournament has not yet been decided, but a key element will be to establish the number of locations and venues available before a feasibility study is undertaken to determine Ireland's overall capacity to host the tournament."

IRFU chief executive Philip Browne added: "The Rugby World Cup in New Zealand showed what a country of four million people could achieve in terms of attracting visitors and showcasing the potential of a country, so an overall Ireland bid is something that the government was keen to discuss with us.

"I think everybody is aware of the benefits from both a social and economic perspective that would come from hosting the third largest sporting event on the globe. We are at the early stages of examining the feasibility of a bid and part of this study is to determine the interest and support of Government and other relevant bodies."
...

© 2012 The Irish Times




Thoughts on this? Seems a rock and a hard place to me. The GAA can't be seen to oppose to such a move, but if the GAA supports rugby in this way it will sign its own death warrant. An amateur body can't hope to compete with a international professional sport like modern rugby. The best thing the GAA had going for it was its nationalist identity. That's still strong in the Six Counties but down here in Mexico it seems to mean less and less by the day.
#23
GAA Discussion / Bryan Cullen Joins Leinster Rugby
September 21, 2011, 09:31:13 AM
We've heard for years about how an All-Ireland win would help promote football in Dublin. If I were involved in Dublin football, this development would really, really piss me off.

http://www.independent.ie/sport/rugby/dublin-skipper-cullen-joins-leinster-rugby-2882572.html




Independent.ie
Dublin skipper Cullen joins Leinster rugby
By Ruaidhri O'Connor
Wednesday September 21 2011

LEINSTER rugby chiefs have signed up Dublin's All-Ireland winning captain Bryan Cullen to coach their
next generation of stars.

Having made history by becoming the first Dublin skipper in 16 years to lift Sam Maguire, one of
Cullen's next big tasks will be to help deliver success for Leinster rugby.

The Skerries native will be overseeing the fitness programme of the province's next generation of
stars when he starts his new job as the Heineken Cup champions' sub-academy fitness coach in the
coming weeks.

The 27-year-old is in the process of completing a PhD in exercise physiology at DCU where he has
studied under sports science expert Niall Moyna. He is believed to be keen to develop his skills in a
fully professional environment.

Cullen has been working part-time at the Medfit Wellness and Rehabilitation centre in Blackrock, but
now he will form a key part of the successful Leinster Academy team under academy manager Colin
McEntee and former Ireland and Leinster full-back Girvan Dempsey.

The province's production line is impressive, with nine of Ireland's 30-man World Cup squad having
come through their ranks.

Based out of the Riverview gym in Donnybrook and UCD, the Dublin half-forward will provide
specialist support in the area of physical conditioning to age-grade and nominated development
players, implement the IRFU national fitness programme and work with schools and youths coaches
to develop young players with prospects of provincial success.

The job was advertised as an "exciting and challenging position," and Cullen was required to have an
IRFU conditioning certificate, strength and fitness coaching experience, his educational qualifications
and organisation and communication skills.

His decade playing at the top level of competitive Gaelic games is sure to have helped his cause,
and it will be regarded as a notable coup for rugby to appoint such a high-profile GAA star.

Leinster's gain will definitely be seen as the GAA's loss, with the association hoping to capitalise on
the huge goodwill in the capital following Sunday's momentous victory over great rivals Kerry.

However, Leinster manager and former Ireland scrum-half Guy Easterby believes that the city is big
enough for two massive sporting brands in blue.

"It's a huge positive, especially with Kilkenny winning the hurling and now Dublin the football -- it's
great for the area," he said.

"Their season doesn't run along our season and I just hope that the positivity that has come out of
Sunday that was plain for all to see, it was a fantastic atmosphere there, can be carried on."

Newly-crowned All-Ireland champions Dublin will play county champions Kilmacud Crokes in a charity
challenge in Parnell Park (7.45) this evening. Admission is €10 with the entire proceeds divided
between two charities that the Dublin team is involved with -- Crosscare and Temple Street
Children's Hospital.

- Ruaidhri O'Connor
#25
Mods.

Do you think you could change the rules so that people can't use the names of real people, living or dead, as names on the board?

Two trolls are currently using the names of famous footballers. One has picked a man from an opposing county to add to the aggro, but the man who's chosen a name of one his own county's great players is perhaps doing that man a greater disservice. The original player is a gentleman, and the troll is a troll. It seems worse, somehow – a greater disservice to the man impersonated, because his loyalty should be greater. A double insult.

There'll always be banter on boards, and one man's troll is another man's hero. Not much you can do about that. But men have a right to their own names and reputations, and for their own names not to be taken in vain. John Proctor says from the gallows in The Crucible that he cannot give the puritans his name, as his name is all he has. We shouldn't let heroes' names be traduced by trolls and scallywags. And because who's a troll and who's a gas man is a matter of judgement, the fairest thing is to just ban all names of actual people, other than a poster's own if he or she feels so inclined. That's then fair to everybody.

I hope you can change the rules and restore men's reputations. And I doubt I'm alone.
#26
GAA Discussion / Match Tracking Software
March 28, 2011, 08:40:52 PM
Does anybody know what the standard match tracking software that most GAA teams would use is? Are there a few packages out there, or is there one that's pretty much standard?

What sort of stats do they track anyway? Are they any good? I know there was one for tracking player movements in soccer but I'm damned if I can remember it. Our games would be a biteen more complex of course.
#27
I don't want the Gaeilge to spoil people's fun who aren't comfortable with it either. We can chat the game in English too.

Thoughts on this one boys? Dublin only have to turn up I feel. Sure aren't they the best team in Ireland?
#28
GAA Discussion / Seachtain na Gaeilge
March 13, 2011, 10:50:54 PM
Tá Seachtain na Gaeilge linn arís agus d'éirigh chomh maith linn anuraidh ag plé cluichí na seachtaine seo is ceart is cóir dúnn leanúint ar ais an bhliain seo. Chuireas féin tús ar an bplé anois, ach níl mo dhothain eolais ar na foirne eile scríobh gan amadán níos láidre a ndéanamh dom féin ná mar a rinne mé céanna ag bladaráil faoi Maigh Eo agus Gaillimh.

Ach tá súil agam go ndéanfaidh daoine iarracht. Tá neamhspléachas na tíre féin i gceist anois sa domhan polaitiúla. 'Sé ceann de na fáthanna gur chóir dúinn bheith neamhspléach ná mar go bhfuil ár dteanga féin againne. Ba chóir dúinn úsáid a bháint aisti.
#29
Tá an drochlá tagtha cois Coiribe. Tá an tóin tithe as pheil na Gaillimhe agus seans go n-éireoidh rudaí níos measa roimh go n-éireoidh siad níos fearr.

Threascair Corcaigh an Dún oíche Dé Sathairn agus is docha go bhfuil scríos ceart i ndán do na Gaillimhí. Agus an mbeidh éinne i bPáirc an Phiarsaigh ag breathnú orthu? Bítear deacair go leor daoine a thabairt isteach agus Gaillimh ag imirt go maith - cé a rachaidh chomh fada leo agus iad ag titim as a cheile? Fadhbanna móra os a gcomhair, agus bua easca is dócha ag Corcaigh.
#30
Cuireann dhá fhoireann ar bhealaí difríochta adharca ar a cheile anseo - Áth Cliath ar bharr an bhoird agus Maigh Eo bocht tar éis dhá chailliúnt i ndiaidh a cheile, agus daoine ag éirí buartha arís sa mbinnchontae Mhaigh Eo.

Cad a ndéanfaidh James Horan? An leanfaidh sé ar aghaidh ag feachaint ar imreoirí difríochta, ná an chóir dó a fhoireann Craoibhe a roghnú anois, agus leanúint leosan as seo amach?

Agus cad faoi Pat Gilroy? Beidh an t-inneall "hype" na cathrach ag cur deataigh go mór agus na buachaillí ghorma ar bharr an bhoird. An dtiocfaidh an smaoineamh do b'fhéidir nach mbeadh an scéal chomh dona sin dá dteipfidís lá éigin, agus an brú a ndéanamh níos ísle? Nó an leanfaidh sé mar atá sé, agus gach rud ag teacht leo?

Agus cathain a n-imreofar an chluiche? Dé hAoine nó an Domhnach? An bhfuil seans oíche mór istigh i gCoppers ag lucht leannúna Mhaigh Eo tar éis tráthnóna deas peile agus óil an fós?
#31
General discussion / Horse Outside
December 09, 2010, 11:16:31 PM
#32
Sorry about this lads, I know there's another thread about Prague, but a friend of mine will be in Montenegro at the weekend and he's eager to find a pub that will be showing the All-Ireland.

He'll be in a place called Herzeg Novi, but he'll go as far as Dubrovnik if he has to. Any dig-outs appreciated.
#33
Nach ait an cluiche é seo? Cad a n-inseoidh na bainisteoirí lena bhfoirne roimh an gcluiche? An mbeidh fonn bua ag ceachtar acu? An dtabharfadh bua aon rud do cheachtar acu? Dúirt John O'Mahony tar éis an bua i gcoinne na Gaillimhe sa Sraith FBD nach bhfuil rud chomh maith le buachaint, ach tá fios aige freisin nach maitheann bua Earraigh cailliúint Samhraidh.

Agus cad faoi Ciarraí? Táid ag áth-thógáil an bhliain seo, deirtear. Tommy agus Tadhg thar sáile, Darragh éirithe as agus Mick McCarthy ar tí. Seans nár bhain Joe Mór aon sásamh ó shin agus eisean ar a bhealach abhaile tar éis an scrios a rinne Ciarraí ar na Gaillimhí i mBóthar an Trá inne.

Beidh sé spéisiúil go leor na foirne a fheiceáil agus cé acu ó na bainisteoirí a choinneoidh a cheartaí lena chliabh fós.
#34
Seans go raibh fios ag John O'Mahony ceanna seo gurbh fada í seachtain i gcúrsaí polaitiúla - an mbeidh sé ar an dtuairim céanna maidir le cúrsaí peile an Domhnach seo chugainn?

Bhí Maigh Eo faoi lánsheol aige ag leath-uair tar a dó ag Johnno inne. Uair agus leath níos déanaí, bhí an bua ag Áth Cliath agus lucht tacaíochta Mhaigh Eo buartha arís maidir le easpa cruinneas tosaithe Maigh Eo, an sean-fhadhb go deo acu.

Is cúis buartha mór é an turas thuas go Doire an Domhnach seo chugainn. Thug Doire buille mór ar Maigh Eo sa gCraobh Chúl Dorais i 2007, an chéad séasúr ina raibh Johnno fillte le Maigh Eo. Dúirt Joe Brolly tar éis an cluiche gur chuir Michael McGoldrick Conor Mortimer isteach ina phoca, agus gan le n-ithe ag Conoirín bocht ach tuthóga. Crua go leor, ach bíonn an lom-fhírinne crua i gcónaí.

Tá lán-chúlaí brea ag Doire i Kevin McCloy, Fergal Doherty i lár na páirce acu agus Paddy Bradley ina cheannaire i measc na tosaithe. Beidh Doire reidh chun oibre ar a bhfód féin - mo bhrón, ach is dócha go bhfuil lá fada eile i ndán don gContae Mhaigh Eo.
#35
Is ait go leor an cluiche seo. Níl sé á phlé i mBaile Formaid nó i mBéal an Átha, agus tá sé deacair go leor cén fáth a thuiscint. Tá tús maith ag an dá foireann go dtí seo agus plé sna páipéir go ndéanfaidís fíor-iarracht an Srath a bhuacaint, ach tá gach suim sraithe caillte at Pat Gilroy, bainisteoir Átha Cliath, de réir an foireann a roghnaigh sé.

Tá John O'Mahony ag leanúint leis an bhfoireann céanna (seachas fir faoi choisc, ar ndóigh) agus an tuairim amach sa gContae go bhfuil a fhoireann féin aige ar deireadh, in a cheathrú bhliain mar bhainisteoir. Ach ní bhíonn an t-éadóchas i bhfad ó lucht Mhaigh Eo riamh, agus má chuirtear cúpla liathróid in airde isteach sa gcearnóg agus cúil a roinnt uathu, beidh súgán Johnno a chasadh arís.

Beidh an comórtas i lár na páirce suimiúil go deo. Tá an-chaint faoi Eamon Fennell Átha Cliath ach, toisc nach nglactar é ina Chontae féin, is é Ronan McGarrity ceann de na fir lár na páirce is fearr in Éirinn. Má n-éiríonn Fennell i gcoinne McGarrity agus Tom Parsons, beidh fear ionaid Whelo ag Pat Gilroy. Mura n-éiríonn, beidh turas fada smaointeach abhaile aige ó phlánaí dheas Mhaigh Eo.
#36
GAA Discussion / Seachtain na Gaeilge
March 05, 2010, 04:47:57 PM
Tá Seachtain na Gaeilge tagtha linn arís. Déantar iarracht snáth Gaeilge a coinneáil anseo, ach teipeann air toisc nach bhfuil rud cinnteach ann a phlé. Táimid ag scríobh na Gaeilge gan ábhar.

Mar sin, má tá sé ceart go leor leis na Mods, bail ó Dhia orthusan go léir agus go maire an chéad gach uile duine acu, b'fhéidir go gcuirfear tús le plé Gaeilge ar ábhair atá ar an mbord fós. Mar shampla, cuirfidh mé féin tús leo anois leis an gcluiche idir Maigh Eo agus Áth Cliath. Ní dóigh liom go scríobhfar ocht nó deich leathanach mar a scríobhtar sa mBéarla ach beimid ag déanamh iarrachta ar aon nós.
#37
Keith Duggan says what needed to be said, after all the blather and hype. Superb writing.





This time England free to play different role

KEITH DUGGAN

Sat, Feb 28, 2009

SIDELINE CUT: It is time to acknowledge that Ireland versus England, Six Nations 2007, was one of the weirdest evenings in the history of Irish sport

ENGLAND AGAIN! Much has changed since that chill and hazy February evening two years ago when 15 men in pristine white shirts emerged from the tunnel of the Hogan Stand in Croke Park, beaten before they ever took the field. In retrospect, the men wearing the red rose of England that night hadn't a chance. As John Pullin immortally remarked of his own English team that showed up in Dublin during the tense months of 1972: "We mightn't always win, but at least we turn up."

Two years ago, an English rugby team turned up for what was, as they say, a night to remember. But remembered for what? It is time to acknowledge that Ireland versus England, Six Nations 2007, was one of the weirdest evenings in the history of Irish sport.

How could the English have won on an evening aquiver with the weight of a dark episode in Irish history being righted – through a rugby match? Gamely, the boys from the Home Counties appeared on the field. Englishmen, back on Croke Park, so many decades after . . . lest we forget . . . uncertain of how they would be received. The sight of them standing there brought to mind Captain George's description in Blackadder Goes Forth of his pals as they signed up in August 1914: "Crashingly superb bunch of blokes. Fine, clean-limbed; even our acne had a strange nobility about it."

They walked out onto the field fully accepting their meek roles in what, with the distance of a full two years, seems an even more bizarre pageant of mixed-up history, sentimentalism, boozy national pride, slick marketing, incessant anthem singing and the vaguely uncomfortable sense that a rugby match had become a mass rally for Irish jingoism. Gravely, the English boys stood along shoulder to shoulder as God Save the Queen sounded over out. They understood the significance of the moment. They understood their presence in Croke Park was a big deal, that the idea of St George's flag fluttering over the red-bricked terraces of Dublin city evoked keen emotions in the Irish.

And they understood that in the dim and distant past, when Europe was recovering from one world war and assembling the various attitudes and philosophies that would set it on an irrevocable path towards a second, that Englishmen in uniform had once done something terrible in this ground. They knew because they were given a history lecture on Bloody Sunday in the days before the game. Nobody can be certain how that little talk ended, but it might have been along the lines of: "All in all chaps, it might be best if you finished second best in the match."

So a few lonely-sounding English voices loyally sang their tribute to queen and country and the glories of lost empire in this old sporting theatre, the last bastion of Irish nationalism.

And then the miracle: you could hear a penny drop. That is what we said afterwards, pouring out of the ground and into the super-pubs. The Irish stood up and stood silent and allowed the guests of the nation to sing it out. And we were proud of ourselves.

A bit teary, in fact. We are nothing if not a sentimental lot and never pass up a chance to celebrate ourselves. Look at us now, we marvelled: a mature, sophisticated, modern country. And rich! When it came to our turn for the anthems – Amhrán na bhFiann for Southerners, Phil Coulter's best for Our Friends in the North – we gave it socks. Shook the foundations of "Croker".

In fact, we proclaimed, the old girl never had such a good time in all her years. The GAA opened up their hall but it took the rugby crowd to show them how to hold a real dance.

On to the game, and there was only one team in it. Ireland thundered into England and it soon became clear Albion's challenge was pale. As the match turned into a rout, the atmosphere was raucous and jubilant and it thirsted for more scores, it thirsted for the sight and sensation of an England team crushed in this old theatre of new dreams.

The English team played their part, the English newspapers said all the rights things – were glowing in their praise of us, in fact – and, as their aeroplanes wheeled high over Dublin Bay to deliver them back to Blighty, they must have scratched their heads and wondered what the hell it was all about. If ever the English were destined not to understand the Irish, it was that weekend.

But the whole occasion was all just plain wrong. It was manufactured emotion. The big problem with everything that happened that night was that it overlooked the huge, glaring fact that what happened on Bloody Sunday belongs to GAA culture. It is part of their history. True, there were GAA men in the crowd delighted their stadium could play host to this international sports fixture. But equally, there was a significant minority of GAA people who rued – and continue to – the day when Croke Park was opened up.

And there was still another element who could never quite understand how the memory of what was a real and terrible atrocity could be married to what was a finely tuned international sports event, as if it were somehow part of the programme of events along with the three-course dinners, the advertising and the television hoopla.

It is easy to understand why the night mattered so much to the Irish rugby players. The hype and moral expectation in the days before the game was all but unbearable: whatever about the public forgiving them had they lost, it is unlikely that they would have forgiven themselves. The players were as this group have been throughout: committed and blazing with pride, proud to play for Ireland.

The fault was with the rest of us. It was with everyone who contributed to the myth that Ireland versus England 2007 marked some sort of natural understanding between two nations with a close and bloody past. It was never that. Ireland got carried away with the conjured portents that the evening held and the English sportingly played along. Then, they had no choice to do otherwise.

Two years on and England come back, the underdogs again and thorns in those roses they wear on their breasts. Martin Johnson could recite Henry V's St Crispin's Day's speech for all anyone cares this evening: there is not so much talk about Croke Park as the hallowed ground this time around.

That must be a relief for the English lads. At least they won't have to listen solemnly to Irish history lessons. At least they won't have to run into a stadium full of 70,000 Paddies in High Pomposity mode. And at least they won't have to feel guilty about being English.

© 2009 The Irish Times
#38
GAA Discussion / The Role of the GAA in Irish Life
September 02, 2008, 02:03:42 PM
Father Kevin Hegarty had a nice piece in the Mayo News a week or two ago about the role of the GAA in Irish life. Sometimes we take these things for granted. We shouldn't, and it's good to be reminded every now and again.

http://www.mayonews.ie/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4789&Itemid=38




An oral history of the GAA 

Tuesday, 19 August 2008 
"I sense that all boys and girls interested in football desire county fame.
In the Walter Mitty space of our minds we dream of scoring the crucial point or goal in the All-Ireland Final"

Second Reading
Fr Kevin Hegarty

I WELL remember when I first learned what my peers thought of me. I was in third class in Scoil Pádraig in Ballina. An icy spring wind whipped through the school veranda where those of us interested in playing in the Gaelic football leagues were gathered.

One of our teachers, Brother Nicholas, had chosen the captains. They, in their turn, picked eleven players. After the tenth pick there were only a few of us left, looking forlorn and feeling foolish. Shades of the Janis Ian song, 'At Seventeen', and its line about those whose names were never called when making teams for basketball.

A discussion arose as to how the dregs of the sporting world might be accommodated. One captain, with the ruthless insight of youth, commented: "It does not matter with which team they play. Sure, they are all useless anyway."

Despite that humiliating start, I persevered. Hope does not spring eternal but it can take a while to rendezvous with reality. I even won a North Mayo Under-14 medal as a sub with Ballina Stephenites. You would not want to read any significance into that. Our team mentors were kind dads, with gentleness in their eyes. They did not know how to hurt us. So their list of subs was of a charitable length.

I eventually got over my failure to be a Mayo football superstar and perhaps, even, to be immortalised in a Saw Doctors' song. I sense that all boys and girls interested in football desire county fame. In the Walter Mitty space of our minds we dream of scoring the crucial point or goal in the All-Ireland Final.
It is the kind of thing that Brian Friel dramatised so well in 'Philadelphia, Here I Come', where Gar, as he completes his daily chores in his father's shop, fantasises in the private part of his consciousness: "It looks as if – I can't see very well from the distance – but it looks as if, yes, yes, the free is being taken by dashing Gar O'Donnell, pride of the Ballybeg team. O'Donnell is now moving back, taking a slow, calculating look at the goal. I've never seen this boy in the brilliant form he's in today – absolute magic in his feet."

Patrick Kavanagh once wrote that no one 'can adequately describe Irish life who ignores the Gaelic Athletic Association'. Not only did the organisation codify the rules of football and hurling and structure the games on the foundation of club and county, it also played a major role in the resurgence of nationalism in the early 20th century.

Not that all nationalists understood its significance. Seán MacBride, possibly because he spent his childhood outside Ireland, failed to understand its importance. In August, 1936 he chaired a meeting as Chief of Staff of the IRA to discuss how to establish a Republic. Towards the end of a long meeting, the delegates from Mayo and Kerry were getting restless.

MacBride asked the writer, Máirtín Ó Cadhain, what was wrong. Ó Cadhain explained that, as Mayo were playing Kerry in the All-Ireland semi-final, the delegates were anxious to get to Roscommon to see the game. "I see," said Seán, "so a game of football is more important than the future of the Irish Republic." Ó Cadhain reckoned: "I knew then that he would never do any good in politics because he did not understand Ireland."

The civil war was especially bitter in Kerry. The needs of the county football team, however, transcended the corrosive politics. It has been argued that the mutual passion for All-Ireland success helped heal the wounds of war.

Gabriel Fitzmaurice, in his poem 'Munster Football Final, 1924', tells the story of how Con Brosnan, a captain of the Free State Army, granted immunity to John Joe Sheehy, a Republican on the run from the authorities, for the duration of the game:

"Nothing polarises like a war,
And of all wars, a civil war is worst;
It takes a century to heal the scars,
And even then some names remain accursed.
The tragedies of Kerry, open wounds –
John Joe Sheehy on the run in twenty four
The Munster Final in Gaelic Grounds:
There's something more important here than war,
John Joe Sheehy, centre-forward, Republican,
Con Brosnan, free state captain, centre-field;
For what they have they both put down the gun –
On Con's safe conduct, Sheehy too has the field.
In an hour the Kerry team will win.
Sheehy will vanish, on Brosnan's bond, again."

My random thoughts on the GAA have been prompted by the announcement that the association is to embark on a major history initiative to mark its 125th anniversary next year. A team of researchers will interview over 3,000 players, officials and fans of all ages. They also hope to collect documents, letters and photos. They are especially interested in the social influence of the games.

I think that this is the most important item of GAA news this year. It is essential that the narrative of our past be recorded. But, then, I may be a little bit biased. I never made it as a footballer, but I did manage to become a kind of historian!
#39
Can someone with the gift of YouTube - or maybe even someone from Vodafone or the GAA themselves - stick that ad that Seán Boylan does up on YouTube, and maybe link to it here? I think it's marvellous. Really, really well done.
#40
A few of us are organising a table quiz this Thursday night at half-eight in Tom Maye's Tavern on Dorset Street if anyone would like to come along.

It's to support education in Belize. Belize is the one-time British Honduras, one of the poorest countries in Central America, and education is these people's only chance of making a better life for themselves. A friend of mine was teaching there last year and the kids would be queuing outside the school waiting for her in the mornings. Back here, the kids generally need to be bet in the gate by the Guards. :(

Anyway, it's a tenner a scalp, a good night's crack and all for a good cause. My fellow Mayo exile An Spailpín Fánach has his oar in as well: http://spailpin.blogspot.com/2008/05/table-quiz-on-thursday-in-tom-mayes.html