Messages

Only really seen Ahearn and COwan, maybe some of sargeant. As i said though, you can only really measure people in government because when they are the opposition or in an election campaign all they do is shout and use soundbytes.

Dubs for Sam the point i'm making is that FG revival is nothin really to do with Kenny. Its the fact that FF are a shambles. They are the largest two parties and when one does poory the other does well.

Dubs for Sam, lets be honest Enda Kenny making Fine Gael the biggest party in this election race is hardly a challenge. IN the History of the state, FG (albeit in different guises) have always been the largest and obvious alternative to FF. When one is doing poorly the other tends to do pretty well. Its just the same in Britain with Labour and Tory. FG's policies will alsways be typical conservative policies and will change only slightly depending on the Leader.

As for Gilmore, isn't everyone simply shouting and making soundbytes in the election race?? We will have to see when they get elected as Taoiseach (which is pretty inevitable in Kenny's case) as to whether or not that have 'strong detailed policies' and a 'strong leadership team'.

The thing about Kenny is that even though FF have made a complete shag of the past 4 years his party aren't higher up in the polls than they are!!! People still won't vote for him. Maybe thats a CIvil War thing but you just have to say that most people simply do not see him as capable.

Aye he is wanting Gerry to come clean about his 'past'. Typical gutter politics. At the end of the day what does it mattter? He's never gonna change his stance on it now.

Gaeilgoir, I agree with you there that charisma is not the most important thing and quite often papers over cracks in ability. With that in mind if you want to go for a capable leader that lacks charisma pick Gilmore not Kenny.

I don't really think that its Kenny allowing his team to get on with it because he trusts them i think its more that his team do all the work because they don't trust him!! haha

Has anyone noticed that the opinion of the debate on this site and the opinion on the panel after the debate on RTE are compeltely different other than the fact that Kenny didn't do too badly? The RTE panel completely castigated Adams and heralded Martin as doing a great job. Is that to be expected of RTE? They also had Kenny as being very impressive and slick..,lets be honest he was impressive for Enda Kenny but as a leader he has as much charisma as a brown wall. He's so feckin wooden.

For the record I think Adams did pretty well (he has improved dramatically since 2007 and his interview earlier this year and at least when he was asked about VAT rates etc. in that interview he admitted he didn't know and has dome some work since then. He really still should've known) and John Gormley performed ok considering he has given up the ghost already.

Martin has a cheek to attack anyone in these debates. He really should let the others have turns with the cat of nine tails on him after 14 years of Fianna Fail failure. He really has a brass neck accusing anyone of anything. I see he's now engage in dirty trick tactics against Sinn Féin in todays press interviews. How low can you sink??? Even the DUP have relented on the issue. Sign of a man in complete desperation.

Gilmore to me is a man who really does appear competent but is not a party leader. He is much too nice in debates and lacks aggression to go after the other parties but ability wise he strikes me as the most able.

BTW Fair play to AZ Offaly, some great work there!

Should this thread read...'Berlusconi's Cabinet if her was Taoiseach'? 

I bet Andy Gray is behind this!!!

Just for the record...first two would get my vote

Is Louth not in the north? 

The best one i ever heard was Beal Fierstian

Evil Genius, one thing your forgetting here is that names such as armstrong/johnston etc. probably all derive from scots Gaelic which obviously was brough to Scotland by the Irish around the 5th Century, when Irish missionaries and indeed clans dominated the western shores of Scotland and penetrated further East as time went by, eventually introducing their language to the Picts. . Therefore these names qutie likely are anglicised from gaelic.

Oh and Saffron Sam, if you're going to rate the quality of someones responses based on the number of posts they make then thats just a tad snobbish.

Saffron Sam, while i completely agree with you on the point you made that many bastardised Irish names have been misconceived as 'planter' names (hawthorne, armstrong etc. among others) i take issue with the fact that you say that people who may have been mistaken as being of planter stock have had their blood 'diluted'. It is a such an extreme right wing statement to make.

I am presuming by that statement that you are a nationalist who is of the opinion that the greater Irish ancestry you are the better an Irish person you are which is complete balls. So waht if someone has a 'planter' name or an english name, it doesn't matter. Tone clearly stated that it didn't matter whether you were Gael, Scot, Anglo-Norman or Huguenot in terms of descent but it was your own personal outlook that mattered. People's Irish credentials should be based on their own personal outlook.

Well squareball,

One example, the Derry Hurling managers job has been vacant for weeks. Did you know about that? All of a sudden a new manager is named. When Damien Cassidy left the Derrry job no stone was to be unturned to try and get the best man for the job. inerview panels would have been set up and if no one was found they would have headhunted someone. Now you may say that there simply isn't the interest in hurling for this to be reported in the media but I could almost guarantee that the county board didn't do those things for the Hurling job. No advertisement or interview panels would have been held. In fact, i would say that the people who searched for a manager were probably people who are invovled in Hurling rather than the County Board itself. To comment on a previous post as well, the Hurling leagues and c'ships are treated with contempt. It is almost like a 'Footballing Parliament for a Footballing people' and no hurlers need apply!

Hopefully someone like Mickey McCracken can have a positive effect in there.

Just seen on website that Ger ROgan has been appointed manager. Should be a positive appointment. I think we should thank James O;Kane and his team for putting their best efforts into the set up. The problem now is getting the best 30 hurlers in the county onto the panel. Some lads just don't want to play for their county. That isn't taking away from the lads their at the minute. Many of them deserve to be there and want to be there.

Would be grea to see full commitment from players and the county board backing Ger with whatever he wants to do. Parity with the footballers is all that is asked in terms of resources. Without that from your county board why would anyone be encouraged to represent their county?

Any one heard anything about the squad for the Derry Senior Hurling Panel??

hope their is a big effort this year to try and restore some pride. The county board should be doin g their best to try and bring Derry back above Armagh (we were beaten by Armagh in Senior, u-21 and minor last year).