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I was there and I've a major problem with it.  Getting on the pitch was always a big part of the celebrations.  Ordinary members of the GAA rightly feel an ownership of Croke park and it was appalling today to see youngsters today held back behind the hill 16 fence in particular.

Interesting to see the change of stewards from the end of the minor game to the end of the senior game.  After the minor game there was an amiable looking bunch including women and elderly gents, well spread out with their temporary barrier.  After the senior game they turned into burly bouncer types almost shoulder to shoulder. 

And the minor team presentation was a farce.  Bad enough that we've stopped minor captains from making acceptance speeches, but now we need to drown out the presentation speech with totally inappropriate music?  Great song that it might be, the black eyed peas blaring out about "Getting spaced out" and "losing all control" and "going out and smashing it" etc etc is hardly an appropriate victory anthem for a group of under 18s -  from an association that keeps going on about ASAP programmes etc.

funerals..

Just returned from one, a local lad i knew passed away, what grinds my gears is the whole set up of irish funerals e.g going around shaking hands with each & every family member not knowing what to say?

A life should celebrated & not mourned... for family to sit through that is terrible

I used to avoid the shaking hands where possible, thought it was an endurance test for the family, especially at big funerals when they could be sitting in the church for hours shaking hands - until I was on the other side of it and found great comfort from it.  Can't say that it's the same for everyone, but I now make a bigger effort to do it.  And what you say doesn't matter in the slightest (well within reason!!)

I still cringe though when I think of the first Mass I was at after the funeral and someone offered me the sign of peace at the appropriate time and my response was "thanks very much" :S

Quite likely these have been covered before but anyway.............

TextMe - free iphone to iphone texts
Eirtext - access your free online texts and end like an ordinary text
Shazam - music recognition app

(Free versions)

Anyone else having difficulties with vodafone signal this weekend?  I'm getting "no service" for hours at a time.

I hope the ruling will bring some relief to families who not only had to suffer the loss of loved ones but then endure the attempts to sully their reputations with ridiculous claims of self defence.

Surprised this hasn't been posted already.......

http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/0608/redmondm.html

The Health Service Executive has set up a helpline after a pregnant woman was given a misdiagnosis at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda that could have resulted in the death of her baby.

Melissa Redmond was told that her foetus was dead when in fact it was alive.

Mrs Redmond was given an abortive drug but decided to seek a second opinion that found no problem with her pregnancy.

A spokesperson for the hospital said the helpline was set up after a number of calls from concerned patients. The 1800 200 529 helpline will open at 9am tomorrow morning.

Earlier, the HSE said the misdiagnosis was 'an extraordinarily rare event'.

Speaking to the Irish Independent, Mrs Redmond said she decided to go for another scan at a GP with her husband Michael.

That scan confirmed the foetus was still alive and baby Michael was born in March.

In a statement, the HSE said it had carried out a review following the misdiagnosis.

Recommendations included training junior doctors in the 'correct methodology of scanning for early pregnancy' and a consultant is engaged in a process of verification with all junior doctors involved in scanning to ensure their competency.

No patient will receive the abortive drug until a miscarriage has been confirmed by a qualified sonographer.

The review of the case also found several problems with equipment, including an examination couch, which the HSE says has since been replaced.

The scanning machine, which was used at the time of this incident, has now been taken out of service, although the HSE did not say how long after the incident that took place.

A qualified sonographer is to take up their position in the Early Pregnancy Assessment Unit next month. They will be based in the unit from 9am to 1pm.

No idea how reliable a tip this is, if at all, but jsut been told Capdalight in Killarney in 8 mins.  8/1 on PP.

Um.... thanks for all those lads......... I'll try them all and get back to ye.............

Ok, now that I have your attention...

Any bright (simple) ideas for quick and easy so-called team building/ice breaking exercises for a group doing a training programme?

I'm basically looking for a gap filler that won't bore everyone to tears and might even get a laugh!

Not a bad day, couldn't decide between Niconar and Otay Kawn, so backed them both, and had Arvika as well, so in small profit overall.  Dunguib was the one let me down for the placepot, which would have been nice.  I was hoping to see him do it for Brian O'Connell's sake but great to see Hurricane Fly back in form and what a race.

Only downside of the day was the number of times I managed to find my toes under the stiletto heels of some young "lady" - although the risk was less as the day wore on and they switched to limping around in bare feet

Que Vega saves the day and not for the first time

Anyone know of any pubs/hotels in Paris that might have RTE or At the Races on today?

["Many psychologists and psychiatrists have shown that there is no link between celibacy and paedophilia but many others have shown, I have recently been told, that there is a relationship between homosexuality and paedophilia,]

I could put this in the WTF thread but I think it deserves a thread of its own.  It's worse it's getting...

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2010/0413/1224268227768.html


Paedophilia link to homosexuality, not celibacy - cardinal

It is homosexuality, not celibacy, that is linked to paedophilia, the Vatican's secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, said yesterday, seeking to defuse the sex scandal that has battered the Catholic Church.

On a visit to Chile, Cardinal Bertone, dubbed the deputy pope, also said Pope Benedict would soon take more surprising initiatives regarding the sex abuse scandal, but he did not elaborate.

"Many psychologists and psychiatrists have shown that there is no link between celibacy and paedophilia but many others have shown, I have recently been told, that there is a relationship between homosexuality and paedophilia," he told a news conference in Santiago.

"This pathology is one that touches all categories of people and priests to a lesser degree in percentage terms," he said. "The behaviour of the priests in this case, the negative behaviour, is very serious, is scandalous."

Meanwhile, a new report commissioned by the Catholic Church in Germany has found that children were "sadistically tormented and also sexually abused" at a monastery in Pope Benedict's native Bavaria.

A lawyer investigating accusations of abuse in a Benedictine monastery school in Ettal presented a final report to the archdiocese of Munich and Freising yesterday, including 173 pages of victims' accounts of abuse.

"My investigations quite clearly show that for decades up until around 1990, children and adolescents were brutally abused in the Ettal monastery," Thomas Pfister said in a statement.

"The number of victims' accounts has increased significantly since the intermediary report of March 5th," added Mr Pfister, who said last month that hundreds of pupils had been beaten and some sexually abused at the school.

An archdiocese spokesman said he could not comment on the specific number of victims before a news conference today.

A survey published yesterday found that a quarter of German Catholics were considering quitting the church in the wake of reports of hundreds of cases, some many decades old, of sexual abuse by clerics. – (Reuters)

120 rides a year? I want to come back as a horse.

Just make sure you're not a national hunt horse

[Only one more sleep before we find ou]

Flying out later this evening. Less than 24 hours now until Dunguib powers up the hill with the rest of the field in his wake! Will Captain Cee Bee jump round? How late will Carberry wait with Go Native? Can Garde Champetre and Quevega retain their crowns? Only one more sleep before we find out. See you in the Guinness Village tomorrow morning.

Happy punting!

You can sleep???!!