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[Money was found for the Soccer and Rugby, it will need to be found for the GAA ultimately.]

what big matches are going to be at casement apart from ulster finals.

All Antrim home games in all codes. They need a home.
Concerts are the obvious big money events.
The jobs generated by the build and also the running of it should boost the local economy.
Stadium tours maybe?
Ulster final - a welcome change from Clones.
It absolutely will get paid for - I still think Croke Park may include a little more. NI/UK government have to put up the rest.
Money was found for the Soccer and Rugby, it will need to be found for the GAA ultimately. The sport with arguably the largest fanbase in Ireland and with the greatest number of participants in any sport here should have a stadium to represent the importance of GAA in NI.
My only complaint is that it has taken so long and parking/transport is likely to be an issue. 

It was found for GAA too. Lots of it.

The GAA were not promised a stadium. Nor were soccer or rugby. They were promised a certain amount of money to redevelop a stadium of their choice. That promise has not been reneged. The idea that soccer and rugby got and we didn't is nonsense.
Soccer and rugby used their allocated funds wisely and delivered a stadium for their games. The GAA didn't and any anger or sense of injustice on that fact needs to be directed solely at the GAA.

It's the spoofing that annoys me. A bunch of amateurs and their only hope now is that the UK Government throw the money at it to deliver the Euros, whatever it takes. That may save their skin in the end, but never forget it has been a complete fiasco.

And every chance it will be an underused white elephant. The euros will be gone in a blink, and then what?  Potentially one or two capacity games per year, and as far as concerts, there are plenty of established venues already so there'll be plenty of competition for the big artists to pick from - no guarantee at all of success there either. 

And where will an Antrim U16 final be played?  Will they really go to the cost of opening a 34k seat stadium for a club underage final?

Like who cares? The Euros will pay for it itself. Even if it will be a white elephant (which i don;t think it will), we often see tournaments build stadia and leave them in place for use. Why is this seen as a bad thing? It'll be paid for and got the money back in tax, and then will be used for otehr events

And yes? Hardly would think they'll open up every stand and have 100s of stewards. But absolutely. Isn't this the point, that finals even underage ones are played at the main county ground? Jeez, this is mad stuff you're getting annoyed at. It hardly costs millions to open a gate and one stand for a club match

The point being that Casement is no longer Antrim's county ground.
Do Dublin play their county finals in Croke Park?
I mean, they could open one gate...

[This strike is pointless]

Be interesting to know how many of those striking today are DUP voters and how many will vote for the DUP again.

The union trumps everything. The Unions anger is aimed squarely at CHH.
I think the unions need to tread carefully. This strike is pointless. Everyone agrees they need fair pay inc the UKG. So what is the point of the strike?

3 weeks down the line, I think it is fair to say it had some significance.

Well as we can see they are going out on strike again, so like I said.. pointless

We'd still be living under a feudal system and eating grass to survive if it was down to people like you.

I have said on here before if your public sector job is so terrible just hand in your notice and move on somewhere else. No need to eat grass.

You might want to stop saying it because you're making yourself look stupid. What type of society aspires towards that for their public sector?
Lazy comments like that are beneath you, Tony.

Casement must happen because:
1. Genuine Concerns can be addressed.
2. Antrim GAA people deserve it
3. Ulster GAA people deserve it
4. West belfast deserves it
5. Belfast and the neglected 9 counties of Ulster deserve it.
6. The Euros has presented an opportunity
7. Shared future by benefitting all
8.  Not allowing further DUP bullying and lack of generosity to hold us back

Is this not just guff?

For example, you say that Antrim and west Belfast deserve it. Why?

And when you say "deserve it", do you mean having their county ground  removed from them with zero reward?

[We have lost the claim to the ground a long time ago, its not ours anymore so let's hope a good deal was negotiated back in the day.]

Casement or whatever name its finally given as I doubt it will remain, as its public revenue being used and I would think some of our senior officials would have been aware of this for a long time. This will be a venue for everything and anything so long as its profitable and thats fair enough, but what revenue will Antrim GAA receive annually once it's opened thats the question that needs to be asked, and how do we plan to invest that going forward as i would hope that a robust Business case exists. We have lost the claim to the ground a long time ago, its not ours anymore so let's hope a good deal was negotiated back in the day.

Amazingly, that only happened in 2021.
And we still went through with it!

Ballyragget camogs up for the night.

[currently]

So you're not a fan of Corrigan?

What pitch/ground currently in Antrim can be used?

I've asked you this a few times but you haven't come back to me.

Been to a few grounds already this year, they are in piss poor state.

So I'll be interested to hear what's better.

Now if you are thick enough to keep going back over old ground on where Antrim are currently playing their home games then knock yourself out.
 
It's been discussed, plenty.

You've been made to look like a fool a good few times but keep coming back. I love your endeavour

It's ironic that someone who has made some of the decisions you have in public before has the audacity to call someone thick!

Like I've said before wee man, you don't know what you don't know.

You are asking an irrelevant question because no other ground received the funding and input that Corrigan did to develop it and continues to receive. That can't be undone. What bit of that don't you understand??

Most clubs are only just opening their pitches and no club has had to prepare their pitch to host county matches so what would be the rush with maintenance?  And all 5 Ft 5 (in your studs) of you calling someone thick on the internet!    

So at any of these numerous pitches you were at, did you get parked or did you have to go looking parking in a housing estate nearby?   Meanwhile another sh#t show for parking and access to Corrigan today. Keeping the Johnnies afloat. Maybe they'll be the first club in Belfast able I afford floodlights at this rate, that'll be a proud day for the gaa in Belfast, team effort paid for by us all.

Hold on, so parking at Corrigan seems to be a major issue for you?
Yet, you've been championing Casement lately. Surely much of the parking there was side streets & housing estates?
How is the parking at Croke Park?

You have an issue. It's something to do with St John's/Belfast/Antrim Co Board but it's hard to work out because instead of just coming out and saying what the problem is, you are desperately trying to create other non-issues to channel it through.

And I'll return to how I entered this discussion.
Casement, Corrigan, Ballycastle, Dunloy, Loughgiel, Cushendall....our county has called them all home at some stage in the last 20 years and not a blind bit of difference has it made to the standard of our county hurlers.

[we made up all the excuses of the day]

For God's sake man, we couldn't even win the Christy Ring cup, we made up all the excuses of the day why we failed to perform in croke park etc..
We couldn't play on a proper pitch against second tier teams who we could see off no bother in Corrigan.  We ran out of steam and very exposed big time against Kerry the year we did win it.... Because we couldn't handle the pitch, nothing to do with occasion or anytime else.  The excuses were embarrassing

This paragraph was an eye-opener.

Interestingly, we lost 2 Christy Ring finals. 2016 and 2017.
In 2016, we played our home games in Ballycastle, Dunloy & Loughgiel.
In 2017, we played one home game in Corrigan and the rest in Cushendall.

But it's Corrigan holding us back....

2021
Lost to Laois 2-27 to 2-21 (6)

2022
Lost to Cork 3-27 to 2-19 (11)

2023
Drew with Dublin 1-19 to 1-19
Lost to Wexford 1-30 to 1-26 (4)
Lost to Kilkenny 5-31 to 3-20 (17)
Lost to Galway 5-29 to 1-22 (19)

That's our most recent top tier championship results.

Erm, it ended at 2013 because that's when Casement closed....which was what we were comparing today against.

The point being no matter where our pitch is we have always taken tankings.

As for not winning Ulster in the 90s. You can't say you are competitive if you aren't doing that. Simple.
Not sure why you are mentioning Derry as they didn't win Ulster in the 90s, Mr Insight.


And you mention making pathetic excuses. This pitch ballix is one big excuse!

[We were at a low ebb before he came in and he's really turned it round.]

Only in the 90s and under Danny Cahill have we been very competitive. We've made really good progress under gleeson though. We were at a low ebb before he came in and he's really turned it round.

Most of the years between the closure of Casement and the appointment of Gleeson we hurled out of Ballycastle, not Corrigan.
Anybody who thinks that our pitch has any bearing on why we are not top table standard at senior inter county hurling needs their head looked at.
Our juvenile teams are miles off it every single year so we're extremely unlikely to produce senior teams that can properly compete at the top table.

And "The 90s" is maybe a bit of a stretch too. There was the odd big performance and hard luck story but, I mean, we didn't even make it out of Ulster on 3 occasions

[We were largely competitive against anyone]

Casement was a fantastic surface and a big wide open field.
Not a blind bit of difference did it make to the quality of hurling our county team served up.

Total tripe.

We were largely competitive against anyone. Yes we took some big beatings but nothing on a par with what we regularly ship against the big guns nowadays. 

Amuses me the inferiority complex on here.

Are you being serious?
We're as far away from the big guns today as we have been at any time in the last 25 years (at least)

You've misunderstood.

As I implied we are further away from the big guns than we have ever been.

We never shipped the hidings by the margins we do now on a regular basis.

Really? I went back through our results in the business end of the championship in the 10 years prior to Casement closing.
It was a rare occasion that we played a big gun and didn't ship an awful hiding.
To say that "we were largely competitive against anyone" just simply isn't true.

2004
Lost to Cork 2-26 to 0-10 (22)

2005
Lost to Limerick 4-25 to 1-09 (25)
Lost to Galway 3-29 to 0-10 (28)
Lost to Laois 0-21 to 1-16 (2)

2006
We were in the Christy Ring Cup

2007
Lost to Clare 3-21 to 2-15 (9)
Beat Laois 1-23 to 1-13
Lost to Galway 2-31 to 1-09 (25)

2008
Lost to Galway 6-21 to 1-10 (26)
Lost to Waterford 6-18 to 0-15 (21)
Beat Laois 2-18 to 0-16

2009
Lost to Laois 0-18 to 1-12 (3)
Lost to Offaly 1-28 to 0-13 (18)

2010
Beat Carlow 2-18 to 3-12
Beat Dublin 1-17 to 0-19
Lost to Cork 1-25 to 0-19 (9)

2011
Beat Westmeath 2-25 to 1-19
Beat Carlow 0-23 to 1-12
Lost to Limerick 3-22 to 0-12 (19)

2012
Lost to Limerick 8-26 to 1-15 (32)

2013
Lost to Wexford 3-18 to 0-17 (10)

Michelle on the Late Late.  When Adams and McGuinness picked her as the heir, they saw the potential. Very impressive and self assured tonight.

I like Michelle but a lot of soundbites and cliches. And usual Sinn Fein thing of sitting on fence on issues.

If ever a post described itself, it is this.

Could you put a bit more meat on the bones of what you mean?

The housing for immigrants issue for one. Went way of on a tangent. Then said we'll hear what people say and decide. They're meant to put up a position and face the electorate based on that.

I'm not sure that's particularly true. Positions on anything aren't written in stone. Where they came from in northern politics to where they are today is testament to that.
Also, I'm sure she is aware that she can't anchor her party to anything on a Friday night light entertainment show nor does she want to castigate those in the electorate who are against her party on the refugee issue at present.
What did you expect her to say?

Isn't part of the reason they're slipping in polls is that they don't take a position on big issues. Same during covid, they kept saying we'll wait till there's more evidence. And just kicked can down road.

I don't know.

I think there is a lack of awareness of what the Late Late Show is though.