Monday, April 30, 2007

First turn

Mahon tribunal is postponed until after the election.

Sunday, April 29, 2007

And we're off!

So, Bertie called into Mary this morning and brought an end to the 29th Dail. We'll have an election on May 24th. Between now and then, we will have Tom Gilmartin and the Quaryvale accusations, Bertie and Ian at the Boyne, Bertie, Tony and co. at the opening of the Assembly and Bertie addressing the joint houses of Commons. We'll also have lots of twists and turns.

I hope that the Green Party will be in government but I still think it's gonna be Fainna Fail and Labour.

Monday, April 23, 2007

Peace at a time

Yesterday morning, we hadn't even gotten up yet and we were already having a BIG TALK on immigration and racism and government when we heard birds outside.

Trish went, -what's that?
I said, -pigeons, probably.

She hopped out of bed, opened the curtains and there were two doves on the windowsill. We were speechless. They flew off, circled the roof tops and landed back on our windowsill. Trish practically squeaked with excitement. Then they flew off.

I don't know why but I felt it was the most beautiful thing to happen in so long

Saturday, April 21, 2007

No end in sight

On Wednesday, up to 200 people were killed in a series of bombs in Baghdad. This slaughter was somewhat overshadowed by the Virginia Tech massacre.

200 people in a single day. One bomb killed 150 people in a market place where labourers were rebuilding after a previous bomb. A witness described how the market place was turned into a "swimming pool of blood."

--

Mission accomplished, eh?

"To be a good mom, you need to be an armed mom"

Today's Irish Times has an article on gun culture in the US. Here's a brilliant quote in relation to marketing guns to women and how it helps the image of gun ownership -

"So that instead of thinking of about someone like Cho, the crazed loner out shooting his fellow students, we think of a nice, blond, suburban mother tucking her children into bed with a .38 on the nightstand. It's a much softer image."

A softer image indeed.

Sunday, April 15, 2007

And there ya have it

Leitrim 2-10 1-14 Monaghan
Offally 1-16 4-11 Roscommon

That means Roscommon make the semi-finals and division 2 next year and Leitrim will play division 3 football next year. At one stage in the second half, we were leading and Roscommon were losing but it wasn't to be. You get what you deserve in football and division 3 is better than division 4.

Now that the league is out of the way, we can concentrate on bigger business - the championship.

Saturday, April 14, 2007

The elite

Irish writer, John Connolly was on Radio 1 this morning. When asked about other Irish crime writers, he recommended Ken Bruen. Bruen writes about, Jack Taylor, a disgraced cop (wow, that's new) based in Galway. As I'm moving to Galway soon, I said I'd check him out.

So, I read a quick preview of the first Jack Taylor novel, The Guards, on Bruen's website. And I cracked up at the following...

Jack Taylor's life is spiraling downward. Dumped from the Garda Siochana ("the Guards"), Ireland's elite police force, he now passes his days drinking in a friend's bar....

I love it - Ireland's elite police force. It put me in fear of good old Ken Bruen until I got hold of his book from the library and read the first couple of lines...

It's almost impossible to be thrown out of the Garda
Síochána. You have to really put your mind to it....

Now that's more like it.

Friday, April 13, 2007

Outcomes

Actually it is a hell of a lot more complicated than I thought.

WARNING! If you have no interest in the GAA or sport in general, this post may well cause the blood to flow from your eyes!

Right now, NFL Div 2A looks like this (courtesy of www.leitrimgaa.ie):

TeamPWDLFA+/-Pts
Monaghan66004-905-483912
Roscommon64026-716-58138
Leitrim64026-673-6798
Longford630313-703-76246
Offaly63036-816-59226
Clare63036-686-6716
Carlow61055-5810-81-382
London60064-4711-96-700

Last Update: 20:30, Wed 11 April 2007

Now, Monaghan have won the division; whatever happens on Sunday, their semi-final place against Meath is assured. But as to who wins the second place, this is where it gets tricky.

As I understood it, we need to beat Monaghan and Offally need to beat Roscommon for us to come second. This is extremely possible - our game is in Cloone, Monaghan don't even need a draw from the game and Roscommon have to play in Offally.

But, of course, nothing's as simple as that. Here are just 15 of the possible outcomes for the division (again courtesy of www.leitrimgaa.ie):

1. If Leitrim and Roscommon both win next Sunday, score difference will decide second and third, at the moment Leitrim are four points behind Roscommon.

2. If Leitrim and Roscommon both draw Roscommon will finish second and Leitrim third on score difference.

3. If Leitrim draw and Roscommon lose Leitrim will finish second.

4. If there are wins for Monaghan, Roscommon and Clare next weekend, Offaly, Longford, Carlow and London will play in TM Cup and Division 4 2008. Leitrim and Clare will play in Qualifiers 2007 and League Division 3 2008, with Monaghan and Roscommon playing in Division 2 2008.

5. If there are wins for Offaly, Longford and Monaghan, then Roscommon, Leitrim, Longford and Offaly will be tied on eight points each and playoffs will be required to decide who qualifies for Division 2 (one team), Division 3 (two teams) and Division 4 (one team) from among these four.

6. If all three games finish level, Roscommon will finish second, Leitrim third and playoffs will be required to separate Longford/Clare/Offaly to decide one reaming place in Division 3 2008 and two remaining places in Division 4 2008 and TM Cup 2007

7. If Offaly/Roscommon and Longford/Clare matches are both drawn then Leitrim will finish second if victorious over Monaghan.

8. If Offaly/Roscommon and Longford/Clare matches are both drawn then Leitrim will finish third if losing/drawing versus Monaghan.

9. If Longford/Clare draw and there are wins for Leitrim and Offaly, then Leitrim will finish second.

10. If Longford/Clare draw and there are wins for Monaghan and Offaly, then Leitrim, Roscommon and Offaly will be tied for second place and playoffs will be required to determine the remaining one place in Division 2 and the two remaining places in Division 3 with Clare, Longford, Carlow and London playing in Division 4 2008 and TM Cup 2007.

11. If Offaly/Roscommon draw and there are wins for Leitrim and Longford then Leitrim will finish second.

12. If Offaly/Roscommon draw and there are wins for Monaghan and Longford then Leitrim will finish fourth.

13. If Offaly/Roscommon draw and there are wins for Leitrim and Longford then Leitrim will finish second.

14. If there are wins for Monaghan, Longford and Roscommon: Monaghan & Roscommon in Div. 2 with Leitrim and Longford in Division 3 2008 and the remainder in Division 4.

15. If there are wins for Monaghan, Clare and Roscommon, Monaghan and Roscommon will play in Division 2 2008, Leitrim and Clare will play in Division 3 2008 with Longford, Offaly, Carlow and London playing in TM Cup 2007 and Division 4 2008.

Phew. Now I'm lost.

Why is this important? It's just the league. The Championship is where it's at!

True, but Leitrim in a league semi final would be super, as would division 2 football next year. However, it's even more serious if we lose. Because, and here I'm a little unsure, if we end up on the bottom of the division on Sunday, not only do we end up in division 4 next year, we don't get a qualifier shot in this summer's championship. That is, if we lose in the Connacht championship, we'll be dumped straight into the Tommy Murphy Cup! The fucking remedial football class (woohoo, big change on last year's attitude).

So, let's just hope we win... and Roscommon lose. Hang on, isn't that what we always want? Sure this isn't confusing at all.

Monday, April 09, 2007

When football and maths COLLIDE

Actually it's not that complicated. If Leitrim beat Monaghan next Sunday in Cloone and Offally beat Roscommon on the same day, then we make the league semi-finals and division 2 next year. However, despite the fact that beating Monaghan in Cloone is do-able, even if we don't progress, the championship is just around the corner.

Christmas comes earlier and earlier every year.

Saturday, April 07, 2007

Good Friday disagrees with me

Imagine it, you walk into a supermarket, buy a few items, remember to get sweets for the kids, go to get them but the sweet aisle is cordoned off. You ask a shop assistant why and he says it's because Jesus died this day, 2000 years ago or so.

Pure daft.