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Soprano's restaurant does a nice steak.
There's a cool little brewery close to the city centre that has a pub attached - they do a mad selection of different beers so worth a look for an hour or two.

Great news for Statsport

Irish sports tech company Statsports is expecting to significantly increase staff numbers and may seek outside funding as it looks to accelerate growth after scoring a £1 billion (€1.14 billion) deal with the US Soccer Federation.

The five-year deal will see millions of American players using its monitoring devices to aid performance on the pitch.

The partnership is expected to result in the world's largest player data-monitoring programme and it is believed to be the biggest contract ever to be signed in the elite sports wearables market.

"This is a great opportunity both for us as a company and also for the federation as soccer is growing at a phenomenal rate in the US," Newry-based Statsports co-founder Sean O'Connor told The Irish Times.

https://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/irish-sports-tech-firm-signs-1bn-us-soccer-deal-1.3444407

An unbelievable success story, founded by two young lads from Dundalk. Neither of them are even 40 I reckon.
Sean has a strong GAA connection and played underage with St. Pat's in Louth while his younger brother, Daniel, has won a few SFCs with us and played for Louth seniors on a number of occasions. The other founder, Alan Clarke, would have a connection with Clan na Gael in Dundalk.

Terrible news indeed. RIP to Terry and condolences to family and friends. Cousin of mine was at school with him and was a fierce nice fella by all accounts.

Also best wishes to David Reilly, former Louth player (and Pats manager), who is also in hospital since the incident, I believe he is stable in intensive care.

We had an interesting day at the club yesterday. On of our young lads won a Sunday Game competition for Pat Spillane to come down and take them for a training session. We only got word about it on Wed so there was much excitement with the young lads all around the place.

For a fella I wouldn't have had much time for before from watching him on the TV, I have to say I couldn't praise him enough. While everyone was expecting him to come down for a half hour and have a chat with the lads and take them out for a quick kick about, he arrived at about half three and had interviews with various people round the club, took a tour of the facilities, spoke to everyone (at length) both young and old and took the lads out for a good session for well over an hour and a half. It was obvious he had much interest in the history of the club, the people involved and he also had a chat with some of our county players. He didn't leave until around eight with everyone looking for autographs and pictures to which he was very obliging.

He also told us a good few juicy stories from the Kerry camp before the Dublin game (I'm not going to repeat them here though!) and it was clear he has a real gra for the way Tyrone play and how Mickey Harte has them set up (compare that to his 'puke' football analogy!).

There's supposed to be a piece on the Sunday Game after all the football and, while it'll probably only be a 2 minute affair (the Sunday Game don't seem to like showing actual highlights or other interesting pieces), it was a great day for all the young ones around the place and brought a bit of a lift for everyone involved in the club.

After all the begrudgery and running people down on the board over the last couple of weeks, I thought it would only be right to give some credit where it is due.

Has anyone mentioned Canavans winner in the 2005 semi final, maybe not the most difficult kick, but there must have been some pressure on him.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8R8WF2gJ8so

Jesus, at this stage I think every Tyrone score since 2003 can lay claim to the greatest score ever.

We get it, Tyrone are good (we've enough people telling us this every day on this board) but don't try and tell me that a 21 yard free is now being classified as one the greatest points of all time.

Very frustrating game although Roscommon were full value for the win. Don't know what it is with us and penalties. If we had scored all three, we would have won three and drew one. In fact, if we had to have scored the peno yesterday (and I automatically thought it was a peno LE) we would have went on to win as we had the momentum with us. However, we missed the penalty ad Roscommon went down the field and got a point.

Fair dues to Roscommon fans, turned out fairly well and got behind their team. The same could be expected of Louth fans to a degree, it was the first time since the Meath game in Croker '06 that the Louth fans got behind their team coming off at half time. However, we still have the same idiots roaring abuse at our own players and shouting at Mac to take them off the minute they make a mistake. I really wish these people would stay at home as they bring absolutely nothing to the cause. 

Looking forward to this game, i think it has the makings of a good one. Offaly will be expected to put in a good performance while Louth will be looking to get back into winning mode after the loss to Down. A month ago, I would have predicted an easy Louth win but now I'm not so sure. I will go with Louth to win a tight one especially given the players we have coming back from injury.

Any word on a team yet? Louth or Offaly?

Harte added: "There are a lot of people quick to take the high moral ground and indeed some of them would fall into the category of 'people in glass houses (or used to) shouldn't throw stones'.

While I have the highest of respect for MH, where does he get off with this sort of statement?? He is quite happy to speak out and be the ambassador on how football should be played, on the internation rules, grants etc. but when something unsavoury he does what a lot of Tyrone posters do here, turn a blind eye. No one can persuade me to believe that McMenamin doesn't deserve a ban. He was acting like a tr**p from the start of the game to the finish and rightfully deserved it. The thing is, he doesn't have to do those sort of thiings. he is a good enough player to be at that

SON was fantastic, no other word can describe that performance. Nobody could have marked him last night. However, I am going to throw the cat amongst the pigeons and query whether he meant it. Was he trying to cross the ball to the far post? I'm not sure who it was (Muggsy or Cavanagh) but there was a Tyrone player at the back post.

I pondered the same thought myself, but concluded that SoN always tries these shots because he has the confident and the skills to make them and get them. Days he gets them and days he doesn't. If he doesn't, doesn't discourage him from trying another day.

Well that's why I am wondering. He could very well have been trying it because he is just about the only player who would try to score from there! I remember the Armagh semi in '05 and he was shooting from everywhere. I think I will give him the benefit of the doubt  . I was surrounded by a crowd from Tyrone (not far from FoSB by the look of it) and there was just total disbelief when it went over. There was hardly even a cheer because everyone was so astonished, brilliant!

Louth are, indeed, on a bit of a roll but, in all honesty, they have yet to play a team of real quality: UCD, Longford, Wicklow, DCU, Limerick. I would expect that Down would be another step up in class but I would be quietly confident. Should be a good game with a decent crowd. Hopefull the pitch will be a little better than the Down/Longford game last year 

Fair play SS, Longford definitely proved me wrong 

Louth had a great win but you'd have to question the quality of Limerick. They had no real class to unlock our defense which, in the past few seasons, hasn't exactly been watertight. Louth V Down in Newry on teh 14th will be a big one, looking forward to it already.

Absolutely fantastic evening, well worth €20. What better entertainment could you get for that money? Would be great if teh GAA could do something like this every year. That really was marketing, plenty of families there whose kids were just enthralled by the whole evening. Great to see. And the match wasn't bad either!

Cavanagh, despite not having the best of games, really stood up when counted. His score to equalise was magnificent. He seemed a bit wary of taking any big hits early on in the game.

SON was fantastic, no other word can describe that performance. Nobody could have marked him last night. However, I am going to throw the cat amongst the pigeons and query whether he meant it. Was he trying to cross the ball to the far post? I'm not sure who it was (Muggsy or Cavanagh) but there was a Tyrone player at the back post.

Swift, Cassidy, Joe McMahon had good games as had McCullagh.

For the Dubs, Bernard Brogan was excellent when he got the ball but he was beaten to it a few times. May have been down to the quality of the ball that was coming in. Whelan was fairly good but his dive was laughable. I think that sort of behaviour should be treated with a red card. Ger Brennan was also good, a tough player who is also good on the ball. Sherlock was lively and Justin McMahon a tough night of it.

Fcuk off umpire 

My predictions for this week:
Roscommon
Cavan
Louth
Down

Rigt I'll put my neck on the line and predict two from Louth, Down and Cavan to progress. Maybe that's because I would have links to all three counties and would alway read their boards, ask around on their progress etc. I just think that these three counties have players of that calibre that can really win tight games.

On the other hand, I think it will be a battle between Longford, Offaly and Tipp with Longford propping up the group. We have beaten them well in the last two years and, with their injury list, I think they wll really struggle. I'll go for Tipp to stay up.

My predictions, and final league positions.

I think Louth's momentum will enable them to beat Limerick at home in the first game, with the second (away to Down) being a real crunch one. Should set them up nicely if they get four points there.
Down will be disappointed in not gettin promotion last years so I would expect them to make a big push.
Cavan, I suppose, are prennial underachievers. Alway had a grá for some of their players and, under a new management, I would expect players to be trying to impress.
Limerick, I think, were one of the worst team we played in Div 3 last year (although they beat us) and had some fierce unfit players by all accounts. Hopefully that will be the case on Sunday!
Rosscommon I think could either push close for promotion or be in the middle pack. Again, a new manager, can often bring a fresh enthusiasm and it really couldn't have been worse than last year!
Tipp. Louth have always had it tough against Tipp in recent seasons and, if they still have those giants in the middle, they will win their fair share of ball which could swing tight games their way. I wouldn't write them off like a lot here.
Offaly. Don't know much about this years team and the sounds coming from down there do not appear to be great. Always have a few decent players, although mcNamee will be a loss.
Longford. I really think they will have a hard time getting a win in this league. have heard of the extent of their injury list and, without the Barden's, Liam Keenan, possibly Kavangh (?), they do not have the strength in depth to compete.

I'm already prepared to eat my hat 

Bad news for Dundalk alright. Know a few people who work there and they hadn't heard anything about it beforehand. Have to say you could see it coming. On top of the cross-border shopping, Superquinn is without doubt located in the worst part of town. Go into Carroll's Village shopping centre (if you can call it that) and you will see that have the units are empty as it is, very little footfall going through it (even the newsagents pulled out FFS). Then you have Sascha (sp) who will probably be defunct by the end of the year, CD World have already closed s I can see many more pulling out of there unless Asda or somoeone replaces them. Superquinn was th flagship store there so that is that place fcuked IMO.