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Looking forward to this one, though the question for Tyrone is which Galway team will turn up: the vanquished to Westmeath, the victors over Meath, or both.

I've never, thankfully, suffered from migraines myself, but am now convinced of one particular culprit due to having seen how its omission from a diet eliminated migraines completely.

The partner's 11-year-old girl had been plagued with them for years: excruciating head pain, accompanied by continual convulsive vomiting. To cut a long story short the cause of her woes was the 'flavour enhancer' Monosodium Glutamate, aka MSG, aka E621, aka sodium glutamate.

Since identifying it as a potential cause and avoiding it the wee lass's migraines ceased, completely, except when she took it again unawares, e.g., a bag of Tayto... Removing it from the diet completely is not easy: it's one pervasive sonofabitch, found in a whole range of foods from ordinary crisps, i.e., not wholly natural crisps, to Paxo to Chinese takeaways, and most other savoury concoctions (Chinese ready meals, in ASDA for example, are MSG-free).

It's possible to eliminate 99% of MSG foods from the diet quite easily – organic foodstuffs, for example, won't contain any additives like that; it's probably possible to ask your Chinese takeaway not to add MSG to your meal (Indian meals, and probably Thais, etc., never use such crap to 'enhance' flavours); curiously, usually the cheaper supermarket's own-brand stuff too will be clear (it represents an avoidable cost).

Here's decent link outlining the difficulties: http://www.ukhippy.com/stuff/showthread.php?10726-MSG-free-shopping-list

It necessitates, however, eternal vigilance, though it's notable how many run-of-the-mill foodstuffs now explicitly state that they're MSG-free, and it's a growing number.

Although, where MSG is concerned it seems to be the younger folk who are particularly susceptible, it might nonetheless be worth a try if you're an (adult) sufferer yourself; can do no harm.

Nicely set up now as a must-win for both counties: Meath to avoid relegation, and Tyrone to entertain any hopes of promotion.

The Meath lads didn't seem to enjoy life in Division II, so maybe we can do them a good turn and relieve them of their discomfort and dispatch them southwards. Not that we'd enjoy that of course 

Needs its own thread I think, but please bear in mind that anyone can view what is written here.

[MICHAEL PARSONS]

Here: Irish Times Story

MICHAEL PARSONS

THE GAA is undertaking a secret project to create exact replicas of the iconic All-Ireland hurling and football trophies to satisfy unprecedented demand for "appearances" of the silverware at social, sporting and marketing events.

The plan to create "twins" of the trophies began last year and is nearing completion.

Some of the country's leading gold and silversmiths have been confidentially engaged to create copies of hurling's Liam McCarthy Cup and football's Sam Maguire Cup. The cost, which has not been disclosed, is likely to be significant as both trophies are made from solid silver and require painstaking and intricate metalwork.

It is understood that the duplicates are being made to satisfy the growing and often conflicting demands for the trophies to appear at a range of sporting, social and promotional occasions. The winning All-Ireland team in each code (currently Kerry for football and Kilkenny for hurling) is entitled to retain the trophy for 12 months. Both cups are frequently borrowed for social occasions ranging from christenings to funerals as well as regular visits to schools and GAA clubs. But the trophies are also increasingly used for commercial promotions by the sponsors of both championships.

GAA headquarters yesterday declined to comment on the project.

The original Liam McCarthy Cup, based on the design of an old Irish drinking vessel, cost £500 and was made in 1922 by Edmund Johnson, a Grafton Street jeweller. It commemorates the memory of Liam McCarthy, born in London to Irish parents in 1851, who was prominently involved in the establishment of a GAA county board in London in the 1890s.

Gaelic football's Sam Maguire Cup is named after a native of Dunmanway, Co Cork, born in 1879, who emigrated to London, worked with the post office, was prominent in GAA circles and reputedly initiated Michael Collins into the Irish Republican Brotherhood. Often simply referred to as "Sam", the original cup was modelled on the Ardagh chalice, cost £300 and was made in 1928 by Hopkins and Hopkins of O'Connell Bridge, Dublin.

Over the ensuing decades, both trophies endured considerable wear-and-tear. Following one Kerry All-Ireland victory, the base of the Sam Maguire was reputedly "cracked" during its tour of the county as a result of babies being placed in the cup for "photo opportunities".

Eventually, the GAA authorities deemed that both trophies had been "worn out" and they were retired, put on permanent display in the museum at Croke Park, and replaced by identical new copies of the Sam Maguire Cup, in 1987, and the Liam McCarthy Cup in 1992.

Hard one to call this, after that great 2nd half display from the Kildare men today -- if they can put two halves like that together they'll not be easily thwarted.

The wonderful Dubs against the cute Corkonians 

Canty will be a huge loss for the Cork men if he's not fit in time, possibly decisively so.

Onwards and upwards, though safe to say that we'll need to be a bit more switched on from the throw-in for the final.

Any word on Stevie's injury?

Just to get the ball rolling...

Happy with the application of the players (in the main) last night, but still a few problem positions.

Should have Justy back, and possibly Stevie on the bench.

10/10 to this lot for giving the oul native tongue parity of (fraudulent) esteem. This arrived yesterday:

Dia duit, a chara
Is é do thoil logh linn chun cur isteach do time.We lómhar a Tai company.This Pingyang ar company.one leictreonach de na mórdhíoltóirí is mó trádála idirnáisiúnta i China.We den chuid is mó a dhíol táirgí leictreacha, amhail ríomhairí glúine, tv LCD, ceamara, soghluaiste, Mp4, agus mar sin de.
Is féidir linn a thairiscint ar chaighdeán ard agus praghas iomaíoch, agus na táirgí go léir a thagann le baránta idirnáisiúnta. Má tá tú am, le do thoil tabhair cuairt ar ár láithreán gréasáin: www.zzzzzzzzzzzzzz.com

Anyone else get junk mail as Gaeilge, or am I truly a chosen one 

What a gift for Antrim!

There is no more graphic an illustration of the rot at the root of the body financial and societal in today's world than the obscene bonuses that are to be paid to every single employee of Goldman Sachs at year-end.

Barely one measly solitary year after the taxpayer/citizen/subject/child saver/browbeaten labourer bailed Goldman Sachs out to the tune of 10 Billion (Sterling) pounds, it's about to reward its gamblers with its largest ever record bonuses, which will average around the €400,000 mark per employee. This largesse, while unemployment climbs (still), manufacturing declines (still), and consumer sentiment remains in the doldrums (still), is nothing short of an obscenity. An obscenity gladly and weakly facilitated by just about every Western government, what with their pathetic pleading with, and pandering to, the financial institutions to take it easy on the rewards, not to be too showy. 

They (the financials) were/are, however, obviously and obliviously so important that they couldn't be done without, so important that whatever it would take to guarantee their survival would be furnished unquestioningly but... "please, if you really wouldn't mind, just go easy on the ostentatious displays of gratuitous glee as a result of your fortuitous betting, sorry, forecasting, on the correct movement of the markets! Thank you so much, so very kind."

We have our own version of this grotesque socialisation of debts and privatisation of profits here of course, in the spectre of NAMA, which depends on a reinflation of the property bubble to break even, or at least not to incur hideous penalites for the ordinary Joe, i.e., it depends entirely on what got us into this mess to get us out of it. Is there a more stupid approach to tackling this crisis?

And what are we doing? Nothing. We're letting them get away with it, the whole f**king shebang. An idiot like Lenihan at the helm, who's called it wrong at just about every turn, and we haven't the balls to turf him out to fcuk. Not that the Brits or the Yanks are any better. We'll deserve all we get.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/oct/16/goldman-sachs-bankers-bonuses

[The Vibrator]

The Scientific American magazine of last month ran with an 'Origins' theme, and one section of which was an Origins Roundup - The Start of Everything (after Life on Earth, Computing, etc.). One of the items dealt with therein was this one, concerning female' hysteria' and 'paroxysms' 


The Vibrator

One of the first electrical appliances made its way into the home as a purported medical device


For a sex toy, the vibrator's roots seem amazingly antiseptic and clinical. Prescribed as a cure for the curious disease hysteria, the device for decades found clinical application as a supposed medical therapy.

Derived from the Greek word for "uterus," hysteria occurred in women with pent-up sexual energy—or so healers and early physicians believed. Nuns, widows and spinsters were particularly susceptible, but by the Victorian era many married women had fallen prey as well. In the late 19th century a pair of prominent physicians estimated that three quarters of American women were at risk.

The prescription of clitoral orgasm as a treatment for hysteria dates to medical texts from the fi rst century A.D. Hysterical women typically turned to doctors, who cured them with their hands by inducing a "paroxysm"—a term that hides what we now know as a sexual climax. But manual stimulation was time-consuming and (for the doctors at least) tedious. In The Technology of Orgasm: "Hysteria," the Vibrator and Women's Sexual Satisfaction, science historian Rachel P. Maines reports that physicians often passed the job off to midwives.

The invention of electricity made the task easier. Joseph Mortimer Granville patented an electromechanical vibrator in the early 1880s to relieve muscle aches, and doctors soon realized it might be used on other parts of the body. That innovation shortened treatment time for hysteria, fattening doctors' wallets.

Patients were happy, too. The number of health spas offering vibration therapy multiplied, and the service was so popular vibrator manufacturers warned doctors not to overdo it with the modern appliance: if they met relentless patient demand, even mechanical vibration could be tiring. By the turn of the century needlework catalogues advertised models for women who wanted to try the treatment at home, making the vibrator the fifth electric appliance to arrive in the home — after the sewing machine, the fan, the teakettle and the toaster.

The vibrator's legitimacy as a medical device declined after the 1920s, when Sigmund Freud correctly identified paroxysm as sexual. In 1952 the American Psychiatric Association dropped hysteria from its list of recognized conditions. When the vibrator was again popularized years later, women no longer needed the
pretense of illness to justify a purchase. — Mara Hvistendahl

More at stake here for Mayo than Tyrone, but after good results for both at the weekend and players striving for Championship places it should make for a good one.

Onwards on upwards 

Can Tyrone win their first League game in Healy Park of '09 on the evening of Saturday 28th March? On current form the answer would have to be an emphatic 'No', but then again this is against Derry, and that has its own dynamic - a repeat of last night's fare is not an option.

[THE LAST OF THE THE HIGH KINGS]

From today's Gaelic Life. A Tyrone story with a unifying effect (perhaps).

THE LAST OF THE THE HIGH KINGS

It's five years since the tragic passing of Cormac McAnallen. Five years since Fr Gerard McAleer announced it at morning Mass to an astonished and disbelieving congregation. Five years from the morning Sean Cavanagh thought he had been dreaming that his mother told him his friend was dead. Declan Bogue takes a journey through the memories.

MONDAY nights are one of the many things that brings back memories for Bridget McAnallen. While her son Cormac was about, he would sit down with the whole family and they would compete with each other in the University Challenge programme. The competitive edge that won many accolades in Scor quizzes up and down the country had to be fed and nurtured and this was one way of doing it.

When Cormac was in Queen's University, Bridget had taken on a course herself and they entered a preliminary test to get on the series. They came in the top five of all entrants in the famous seat of learning. He had sat his eleven plus exam at the age of nine, simply because his parents had seen 'no point' in holding him back academically. He ended up enrolling in Queen's a year early.

"Cormac was studying capital cities of the world before he started school," reflects Bridget, "he truly fell under the category of a gifted child. I wouldn't say Cormac always won, but he was capable of guessing things that he shouldn't have been able to. For example, classical music and I would have known a lot more about that than he would, but he could jump in and make a guess. He had a fantastic capacity to understand and take in knowledge and remember and have an inspired guess."

Five years from his death, it continues to affect the family deeply. The McAnallens have been zealous promoters of the cause of heart screening and the name of Cormac lives on with 'The Cormac Trust'. "I didn't choose this life," says Bridget, "It became inevitable for me. I didn't know anything about these heart conditions, I would not have chosen this subject to be campaigning about, but I am very, very keen on justice. Truth and justice and have been all my life. I think justice is not happening when there is nothing being spent on the cardiac health of young people. "When I started to hear what was the cause of Cormac's death and finding out about these conditions, I feel what every parent feels when this happens to them. Outrage."

When sudden deaths occur in the sporting realm, it brings back the pain. On a national level, the fate of Motherwell and former Glasgow Celtic midfielder Phil O'Donnell was a stark reminder. More locally, the tragic case of young Packie Breen, an underage player with the Drumquin club in Tyrone, is also mentioned. "Every death, whenever I hear about it, I'm not surprised," says Brendan M McAnallen, Cormac's father. "I keep asking myself, 'why Cormac?' and that's a natural reaction. I am only urprised there are not more and unfortunately you come to almost accept it."

"We had to come to terms wth it in the week that he died," elaborates Bridget. "Come to terms wth it logically, but emotionally, it never really goes away. You feel very sorry for the family of a person who has passed away and we try and sympathise with them by going to the wakes or the funerals. I must say I was very grateful for the help that people gave us, both at the time and since. We had so much help with minibuses, food, lighting and there was never a bill came." Brendan adds, "There's not a week goes by that someone does not contact us. There are functions run and school teachers using Cormac as a role model, in Dublin and different places."Mickey Harte and his wife Marion still remain good friends with the McAnallens. They are aware that he often talks about the example of their son within the Tyrone setup.

They are grateful that the first place Sam Maguire was taken to when they won it back in 2005, was secretively across the border in the company of Harte and Dooher, to Cormac's graveside in Eglish. Back to the man who should have been hoisting it over his head in the Hogan Stand that day. One of the most touching expressions of sympathy that they mention, came from Kieran McGeeney. In the 2003 All-Ireland final, an off-the-ball collision between the two shook Croke Park and perfectly summed up the attritional nature of the game. Shortly after, the two combatants were side by side in the trenches, fighting Australian brutality in the International Rules Series. "He wrote a four-page letter", recalls Brendan, "Very, very emotional. He put in it that Cormac was a Cúchulainn-type character, how he promoted Tyrone and the game and everything he stood for. People say he's a shy, perhaps unapproachable individual, but there's not that many would sit down to write a four-page letter, hand-written."

Before Cormac the role model, there was Cormac, the enthusiastic child. Brendan played a bit around the local clubs of Benburb Eoghan Rua, was a founder member of Aghaloo and had goal posts up for the kids before they were three. Bridget's brother Peter O'Neill was on the bench for Tyrone in the All-Ireland of 1986. They were brought up with an appreciation of the Irish language. A lot of the children who now attend Campa Chormaic pick Irish as a subject at school because of the grounding they get in the Summer camps. As a founder of a local historical society, Brendan would spend the weekends visiting the plentiful archaeological sites in the heartlands of the O'Neill kingdom. He never wanted for company, as Fergus, Donal and Cormac would clamber into the car and head off to discover some "treasure". Cormac toyed with the idea of studying psychology, but decided history was his first love. "There was always an overspill of history at home," says Brendan with a chuckle.

When he was making his own history, as the inspirational Tyrone full back that took them to their first Sam Maguire, it passed the family by. "There was ferocious problems with tickets and trying to get everyone sorted out," says Bridget, before Brendan takes up the story. "It was hyped to such an extent, that the game was over before we knew it." Coming from the Moy, hard on the Armagh border, it held special significance for Bridget. "It was so enjoyable, great spirit, it was different and remarkable. Cormac would have been very aware of it, with TV cameras everywhere." Special times for all.

After the game, everyone's lives changed utterly. The social whirl of the maiden All-Ireland triumph took top billing. There was the International Rules tour in Australia, dinner dances, visits to schools, workplaces and hospitals. For someone who had taken on such a workload as a teacher and with such an obliging nature, it became exhausting. In club matches, he took savage punishment from some opponents, shipping wild tackles and ending up in hospital on three occasions

Soon though, it was back on the inter-county tread mill. Again, there was no doubt who would be Mickey Harte's captain and it came to pass that Cormac lifted the Dr McKenna Cup in January 2004. He stood outside in the freezing cold, in  just his Tyrone kit, while obliging other people. His knee needed icing, but again he put himself bottom of the priority list. He had been complaining of feeling run down and having a cold immediately before his death and the statistics of people who suffer Sudden Adult Death Syndrome will show a high level of people with cold infections at the time. With the body busy putting out fires, the immune system can get overloaded. "It was something that Brendan mentioned the other day, while watching the rugby," comments Bridget. "As soon as a player leaves the field, he is given a cloak or a coat to keep him warm. It's the same principle in horse racing, where a horse is always given a blanket after a race, it's somethingthe GAA are only now catching onto.

Player's welfare is slowly coming along." For Brendan and Bridget, the simple pleasure of going to watch football now, is not what it once was. And really, how could it be anything other than a series of painful reminders of what could have been? "I do often think what Cormac would be like now, in his prime, providing he stayed clear of injuries," wonders Brendan. Instead, what they feel sometimes, is let-down by certain areas of GAA officialdom. When they speak about the Ulster Council they are fulsome in their praise. In other matters, they feel Cormac's name has been exploited by certain members for political means.

The naming of the International Rules trophy has been a contentious issue. "I thought it pretty disgusting that they wouldn't even ask us to present a cup named after our son," comments Bridget. In the past they had, but Sean Kelly had given the cup to Brendan to hold, before snatching it off him and handing it to the winning captain. Brendan continues, "There was a meal afterwards, with both teams there and I went up to Sean Kelly and told him I would like to say a few words on behalf of the McAnallen family. I was told it would be dealt with, but it wasn't. I was never keen on it, for the reason being it isn't a GAA sport." "We were always kept in the dark about things and you never knew what to expect," says Bridget. "I would be a lot more frustrated with the GAA now," says Brendan. "There is a 'Parish Priest' attitude of talking down to you, of people protecting their own wee patch. I asked to see the Thomas Markham Cup along with the Sam Maguire Cup and was told they would not be available until the end of June. I'll never ask for them again and I felt they forgot who they weretalking to."

If the politics of the GAA causes annoyance for the McAnallens, then they are not alone. What they have seen in the past five long years is the generosity of people, how they rally around others in times of grief. "There has been some really rewarding experiences," says Bridget, "People writing to us, calling to us and the Book of Condolences. I know a lot of people do not get that." Back home in The Brantry, life moves along in its own slow pace. Some days are better than others, but still the parents of Cormac have their targets. While researching this piece people talked of Cormac's quiet ambitions and you see it in his parents, when they say, "Our main objective is to see a heart screening centre here in mid-Ulster. For everyone. The GAA in Tyrone should be taking a lead in this, promoting screening. Croke Park should also have been taking it more seriously, to cater for the young people playing the sports."

They will continue in their work. If they should ever need inspiration, they need only look to their late son's views on luck, as Bridget recalls them, "I used to say to him, 'you're lucky to be on such a team and you're able to achieve all these things.' And he used to say, 'You make your own luck.'" Hard work and discipline. You make your own luck.

[GAA introduce new disciplinary measures]

From the Irish Times, could be interesting...

GAA introduce new disciplinary measures

The GAA rules taskforce announced new disciplinary measures that will take effect during all inter-county competitions from January 1st, 2009. The most significant change will see a player who receives a yellow card get sent off and be replaced by one of six designated substitutes. There are now up to seven and six different ways a player can receive a yellow card in hurling and football respectively - all of which fall under the guideline of "highly disruptive fouls". In hurling there are up to 16 red card and nine black card offences and 13 red plus nine black card offences in football. Today's sanctions are considered the latest solution to ongoing disciplinary problems within the game. And rather than introducing the measures on a trial basis like the ill-fated sin-bin sanction in 2005, it is expected today's new rules will remain in place.  Red card offences include striking, kicking, stamping and contributing to a melee and will result in immediate dismissal. Yellow cards will also merit a dismissal but the player in question can be replaced by a substitute.

"Three years ago (GAA Director of Games) Pat (Daly) almost had it right but we shirked our responsibilities that time and didn't follow through with it," said GAA taskforce chairman Liam O'Neill at today's announcement in Croke Park.

"We've allowed our games to become cynical and we've allowed our players to get away with fouling. We've allowed our managers to essentially train our players to foul because it pays to foul in the present system. We're saying, enough of that. It is time to change and we hope our presentation will be seen at this point in time as an effort to clean up our games. Essentially what we want to do is reclaim our games from those who want to destroy them with foul tactics," added O'Neill.

A DVD and website outlining the new rules have been produced to inform referees, players, officials and supporters.

We wish 

And latterly, Mr Peter Tatchell has (surprise, surprise) confirmed that he has no suspicions whatsoever that King William of Orange wasn't a raving homosexual, and that there be no end to the proof of such liaisons to attest to such. His myriad gay partners are something, not only of the written history, but of legend no less. Yes, the king of orangeism, was, erm... a queen. His protestations of truth have drawn the usual protestations of shit-stirring (pardon the phrase) from the usual quarters, but not to be intimidated, Tatchell will see this one through (so to speak).

The delicious irony in all of this, in that Orangemen can produce no proof to the contrary (of such allegations of Billy being less than original alpha-male, insatiable heterosexual), is that in their prescience, the Orangemen may well have instituted the first ever, and most irrepressibly irrepressible and recurrent, gay pride march, on each 12th of July.

And fair fcuks to them!

So there it is, and we need to up our workrate and application somewhat from the Challenge-game fare (of yesterday).