Otaga Daily Times 2/5/2012
Taz-Where did you get that information as I have seen nowhere that he(Penney) was ruled out?
Editor - The writer stands by the Penney information.
Otaga Daily Times 3/5/2012
Editor-- This article originally said Rob Penney had missed out on the Munster coaching job. That information was incorrect.
Bit of both, Indo & RTE stirring it up.Originally Posted by The Last Stand
Joe Duffy on about the inhumanity of all those childers left outside the airport with no hero's to see
The Homecoming thing is a whole crock... If people really gave a sh!t about these athletes they'd go see them compete at national championships and offer support year round and beyond this miserable excuse to get p!ssed in Dublin city center and make a show of ourselves.
This homecoming celebration of the athletes is a misnomer as it is, all most people want to see is Katie Taylor (and maybe the other boxers who won medals), they wouldn't know or even care who all the other non-winners are. If Rob Heffernan or Annalise Murphy didn't turn up at the thing how many 'fans' would even notice? Its pathetic. Its also a massive waste of money & resources on a nothing party/bus tour through a busy city center, when we can hardly afford a pot to piss in, I'm sure the patients on trolleys in our hospitals will really appreciate public money being spent on something like that.
We are only giving politicians a photo op and a chance to act as if they were responsible for any of it. Bollox, again the majority of our Olympic sports are woefully underfunded and seeing the likes of Enda, Veradker and co celebrating our non performance by anything other than a handfull of the athletes sent is pathetic.
The likes of Derval O'Rourke, Deirdre Ryan and Paul Hession who all felt they let themselves and the country down by sub par performances won't want a fuss being made. After all if one is made then it is a fuss celebrating mediocrity and its about time we stopped doing that. Sure lets celebrate the medalists by sending them to the Aras for dinner, but give all other athletes the choice of turning up or of just going home to their families to get on with life and don't go creating work for our already burdened Gardaí etc.
These weak ass excuses to have parties because we were there is a leftover from the Celtic Tiger era and it needs to be stamped out and a more realistic approach taken. I doubt any other nation is celebrating mediocrity at this moment. Its a typically Irish attitude, 'look we were there, aren't we great!'
As i Said at the top, 'What a crock'.
“People are broad-minded. They'll accept the fact that a person can be an alcoholic, a dope fiend, a wife beater and even a newspaperman, but if a man doesn't drive, there's something wrong with him.” - Art Buchwald
Apparently she turned up to the wrong track, should have been Walthamstow chasing around after a bit of hare.
Lukachenko will give her some bollocking for "damage" to his reputation when she gets home, bread and water for a few years will soon cure her drugs habit.
http://www.highlandradio.com/2012/08...-sunday-sport/
EDIT:This really is worth listening to ...
Last edited by taz; 13th-August-2012 at 13:40.
Otaga Daily Times 2/5/2012
Taz-Where did you get that information as I have seen nowhere that he(Penney) was ruled out?
Editor - The writer stands by the Penney information.
Otaga Daily Times 3/5/2012
Editor-- This article originally said Rob Penney had missed out on the Munster coaching job. That information was incorrect.
as taz said rugby season is ramping up, but there's also the paralympics around the corner.
Having spent just over a week attending the olympics I have to say it was great and the irish contribution extended well beyond our athletes .. there were irish "gamesmakers" all over the place and apparently irish companies also heavily involved in various construction projects and those "pixel" yokes used for the light displays in the main stadium.
There was a great athmosphere all around, I reckon at least half the irish women's 7's rugby squad were at Katie Taylors final, there was a group of them leading a great sing song in the queue into the excel secutiry check point.
And I have to say a MASSIVE thank you to the Irish olympic house for being the source of my ticket for Katie's final, I was headed in there to watch the match on TV but was told on my way that someone on the premises was selling tickets, I asked at arrival and was given the "last ticket" they had... cost a fortune (but face value) but well worth it to be there after having been at the quarter final & semi.
There was loads of irish support at all the events I was at which was fantastic to see.
Plato: \"One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.\"
Are you for real? To come home with 5 medals is far from mediocre and deserves to be recognized and acknowledged accordingly. Going on about patients on hospital trolleys is absolutely ridiculous. On that basis none of us should bother going out for a few pints or a meal every now and then and should instead donate that money to a charity. While a very noble notion it is simply not realistic. People have to enjoy themselves. Money has to be spent on events like this to raise peoples spirits and and try and keep people in a positive frame of mind. Mental health is vital and never more so than in today's climate.
The money that would have been spent on the homecoming, while it would make you or me very rich, in the grand scheme of budgets etc... is a mere penny in an ocean, but the feel good factor and positive energy that could have resulted if it was done right, would have been immense. To see how everyone perked up over the last week because we were winning is testament to that.
You go on a bout these homecomings being a celtic tiger trend. Italia 90, Carruths return, Michelle Smith, Ken Doherty etc etc.. all pre boom time. Its a natural thing when men and women go and represent our country in such a brilliant fashion as Katie et al have done that we are gonna want to join in on the fun and show our appreciation. It is also healthy to do so, gets us out and brings us all together.
It doesn't matter if we are not all out in a showjumping arena in Dublin or a Gym in Bray, they are representing us all and they want us all to enjoy their achievements. It brings the country together. Britain spent god knows how many hundreds of million on the Olympics that no doubt could have been spent on health care in Britain but they have show cased themselves to the world in a very positive manner and it has brought them all together with a sense of pride and achievement, the results of which they will benefit from for years. This is the real world we live in.
A simple parade for our athletes is far from a crock, to not have had anything, that would have been a crock.
"We've got to be really careful we get our backyard right before we start looking over the fence."
Rob Penney - Rugby coach and Philosopher
Have to agree with BOK - we celebrate things that we shouldn't ("best place to live in the world" during the Celtic Tiger anyone?) and not the things we should do e.g. these Olympians.
It's the best result the Irish team have achieved since 1956. It's certainly not mediocre - it's bloody great achievement.
Why not celebrate it?
“Do not repeat the tactics which have gained you one victory, but let your methods be regulated by the infinite variety of circumstances.”
I dunno if it made the news coverage here, but there was a serious debate ongoing over in england last week about the whole "olympic legacy" & "inspire a generation" theme from London 2012 v's the government selling off sports fields at government funded schools. Major debates about it on the radio over there saying that selling off the sports fields was short-sighted and just ensuring the path to elite sports will be restricted to those in "public schools" (aka the fee paying types).
The politicos were saying they couldn't fund sports without cutting from other areas, and the opponents were saying that either spend now on sports, or spend later on health costs.. etc. etc. I'm sure everyone can imagine the arguments, very similar to how the same debate tends to go over here.
Plato: \"One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.\"
Its ramping up,its cranking up,it's going to be tremendous,it's going to be emotional,it's uplifting,it's time to get fired up.
I am ecstatic,jubilant,euphoric,on cloud nine, exultant,flying high, excited,delighted,exhilarated...............In short I am very happy.
(P.S. I knew i was running in trouble when I started watching BMX racing at the weekend.)
Otaga Daily Times 2/5/2012
Taz-Where did you get that information as I have seen nowhere that he(Penney) was ruled out?
Editor - The writer stands by the Penney information.
Otaga Daily Times 3/5/2012
Editor-- This article originally said Rob Penney had missed out on the Munster coaching job. That information was incorrect.
Just to put things into context, I just had a look at the final medal table.
Of the 205 counties that completed, 79 countries received at least one medal.
Of those that did receive medals, we came ahead of counties like Argentina, India, Greece, Bulgaria, Belgium and Portugal in the table.
So much for mediocre!
“Do not repeat the tactics which have gained you one victory, but let your methods be regulated by the infinite variety of circumstances.”
The whole selling off of state school playing fields thing has been going on for years under all governments in the UK. The private/ public school debate is a massive red herring BTW, I don't know the exact figures but Millfield school,which is down the road from me, provided stacks of medals for "team GB". Millfield is effectively the senior sports academy in the UK and always has been. It has the best facilities (paid for by the likes of the Sultan of Brunei whose children went there) of any school in the world. It is the most expensive school on earth if you are thick, cr*p at sport or your daddy is a billionaire; if you are talented academically, athletically or indeed at chess it can be effectively free.
There are other centres of excellence like Kelly College in Devon, which is taking one of the three 50 metre warm up swimming pools from the Olympic village, Plymouth College which had Tom Daley as a pupil but which also educates the young Lithuanian girl who swam to a gold medal (for free I should imagine). There are plenty of people who rant away about the iniquities of it all but it is actually not that iniquitous just highly elitist in that the elite young sports people get the best facilities and coaching and become Olympic champions.
Obviously it is not just Olympic sports, the English, Welsh and Scottish rugby teams would be completely f*cked without the fee paying sector as would English cricket.
Bread and water if she is very lucky with that evil b*stard, think she would be best advised to not go home.
I don't think any of us feel that our medalists and including people like Rob Heffernan and Annalise Murphy were mediocre in any sense, however there are athletes and swimmers etc who did not perform well & I bet they don't want to be wheeled out for some 'celebration' I bet they just want to get home quickly to their families
Look at the photo taken on the plane steps, all the medalists out to the front, don't see too many smiles from behind. Ireland had a damned good Olympics and I'd imagine each of the medalists will get a royal welcome in their home towns, but a big national hoopla? I have my doubts
Con Artist
I never said that the achievements of our medalists was mediocre, so don't editorialise me like some Daily mail Article! I said that far too many of our athletes underperformed and they themselves admitted as such. Most of them want to get home to their families, most of them don't want to be reminded of how they came up short and most of them won't want to be in front of a crowd of cheering kids and drunks who are only there to see Katie Taylor and maybe the other boxers.
“People are broad-minded. They'll accept the fact that a person can be an alcoholic, a dope fiend, a wife beater and even a newspaperman, but if a man doesn't drive, there's something wrong with him.” - Art Buchwald
Should really go to who ever came third, new Zealand forgot to put valerie Adams name on the team sheet and as such she was not down to compete.
So i got the parade-celtic tiger reference wrong and you had loads of non tiger examples, but remind me where was our homecoming for Sonia in 2000? For the Beijing boxers Egan, Barnes and Sutherland in 2008? Put them on the Late Late and a few kids shows and allow the whole country to share in it. I remember the one in 2002 for the soccer team, it was in the Phoenix park and was truly a low point and a pathetic effort to celebrate something the players themselves didn't want any part in celebrating.
“People are broad-minded. They'll accept the fact that a person can be an alcoholic, a dope fiend, a wife beater and even a newspaperman, but if a man doesn't drive, there's something wrong with him.” - Art Buchwald
In all fairness, it's a great achievement to come home with a gold, silver and 3 bronze medals, and why not celebrate it, christ, whats it going to cost to have a few buses, some railings and a few gardai out on 'patrol'.. Most people know that the government are clowns anyway, so Enda sticking his head into a pic with Katie and co. is just reminding us of that fact. It's true that we should be investing in things like education and sports etc. and thinking about the future, and making progress, pushing on from here and developing models/systems that work..but this government isnt going to invest anything in the future, just cut it's way out of it, at any cost, so I cant say that im optimistic about the future of 'team Ireland' with council budgets being cut etc. Such a shame. The Olympics was good to watch, but the UK coverage was so so painful at times, making a point of how many gold's they won every 30mins or so, keeping a leader board. Very cringeworthy... They didnt even come 3rd on the medals table.. Anyway, Well done to the medalists and the other athletes.
On the Munster pack: "Mothers keep their photo on the mantelpiece to stop the kids going too near the fire." - Jim Noilly, BBC TV (1995)
Katie's homecoming on RTE One right now, great scenes.
however for the Nuacht, they found a camera from the 1980's for that proper backwards country look.
Anyone remember how much coverage the paralympic games got 4 years ago?
Was it only evening coverage of the best bits?
The axe that cuts the tree can easily forget, but the tree thats been cut will not forget.
Howie your Connery disturbs me..
Otaga Daily Times 2/5/2012
Taz-Where did you get that information as I have seen nowhere that he(Penney) was ruled out?
Editor - The writer stands by the Penney information.
Otaga Daily Times 3/5/2012
Editor-- This article originally said Rob Penney had missed out on the Munster coaching job. That information was incorrect.
Thigh high cowboy boots......
I am the million man.
Its scary to think that the only thing I've photoshopped is a munster crest belt... That actually happened.
The axe that cuts the tree can easily forget, but the tree thats been cut will not forget.
James,
Don't know if you heard Carruth talk today - DCC had planned a bus to take 'em into to the city, but everything had to go through a certain Pádraig Ó h'Eochai - and of course he always causes controversy. Seems the public wanted it, the athletes would have done it but not after what had gone on (at least Sonia and Billy kept them out of 'the controversy').
But totally agree on the hi-jacking by politicos who don't care when it is needed. In the wake of what went on a dignified Áras meet-up in a month would be more suitable, than the thing planned for Wed (and clashing with LC too....).
--------------------------------------------------------
Re. those few you name, maybe they didn't do PB's (some did.....), but that I think is for another day/thread. That sport has a person in the High Performance spot just not doing his job. Rob was unlucky not to medal and I'll meet up with him sometime in the future to just shake his hand and say 'well done'; His was a fantastic performance. Derval did a SB, D. Ryan is our first qualifier ever in that event, so the question I'd ask is why they all have to go abroad to avail of any facilities.
On that team we could have sent others - I'd have sent English, Robinson (or Chesser), Gregan and Colvert. That would be picking our form runners and looking to the future.
http://www.medalspercapita.com/
Rank Country Medals Population Population
per Medal1 Grenada 1 110,821 110,821 2 Jamaica 12 2,705,827 225,485 3 Trinidad and Tobago 4 1,317,714 329,428 4 New Zealand 13 4,432,620 340,970 5 Bahamas 1 353,658 353,658 6 Slovenia 4 2,057,540 514,385 7 Mongolia 5 2,736,800 547,360 8 Hungary 17 9,962,000 586,000 9 Montenegro 1 620,029 620,029 10 Denmark 9 5,580,516 620,057 11 Georgia 7 4,469,200 638,457 12 Lithuania 5 3,192,800 638,560 13 Australia 35 22,880,619 653,731 14 Estonia 2 1,318,005 659,002 15 Croatia 6 4,290,612 715,102 16 Belarus 12 9,461,400 788,450 17 Cuba 14 11,241,161 802,940 18 Netherlands 20 16,731,770 836,588 19 Cyprus 1 838,897 838,897 20 Qatar 2 1,699,435 849,717 21 Azerbaijan 10 9,111,100 911,110 22 Ireland 5 4,588,252 917,650 23 Great Britain 65 62,262,000 957,876 24 Latvia 2 2,070,371 1,035,185 25 Czech Republic 10 10,504,203 1,050,420 26 Armenia 3 3,268,500 1,089,500 27 Sweden 8 9,490,683 1,186,335 28 Bahrain 1 1,234,571 1,234,571
SHABOOM
I am the million man.
Thought the Brits put on a great show. A few little things like too many corners in the wet for the cyclists (ouch Aileen ...), handing the men's marathon to the already advantaged Africans (why not a 9am start...?) by basically frying our white-skinned lads, but overall a brilliantly run event and spectacle. And they showed a lot of fair play too - Pendleton being DQ'd just one e.g. Wouldn't be Seb Coe's biggest fan 'til now, but credit him with doing a top job here.
Oh, I really loved last nite's party - Eric Idle included...! Maybe 1 song less from George Michael, but hey. The athletes seemed to be really involved in a party I bet they'll never forget.
Good post JL, but use of the word mediocrity is harsh.
The best welcome home parties have been partly spontaneous - Stephen Roche 1987 and Ireland after Euro 88. College Green for the soccer team in 1990 was good, because although organised, there was a fairly unamimous view that Ireland in getting to a WC quarter-final had done great. But the USA 1994 welcome party was moved to the Phoenix Park and fell really flat - because it wasn't really deserved, but we had already set up the precedent of awarding non-winners.
To me, the above remain the relative yardsticks, and this Olympic team falls short of deserving a traditional public parade because the few really great performances were completely outweighed by the ones that fell short.
Look - I'm a really positive person about these games, and several of the Ireland performances were really noteworthy, not least Katie Taylor's and the other boxers. I shed tears at some of the performances, cracked up over Katie's win, and I've coached kids for years. I'm a sports romantic. But no public reception for me please, because a welcome home for the entire team is undeserved.
Last edited by blackwarrior; 13th-August-2012 at 20:20.
"Playing against ROG, your big game plan is to try and pressure him but he’d dump it off to Wally and next thing you’re five metres behind the gain line because he was an absolute freak." Rory Best, Irish Examiner, May 2012
The John Dunbar Theme from Dances With Wolves was the music that played just as the flame was extinguished. A beautiful simple arrangement that sounded like a Last Post.
Nice touch for a great composer, who only passed away late last year.
"Playing against ROG, your big game plan is to try and pressure him but he’d dump it off to Wally and next thing you’re five metres behind the gain line because he was an absolute freak." Rory Best, Irish Examiner, May 2012
RTE are tossers, and Duffy is a wanker - a friend of a friend filled in for him some years ago and their two comments were: biggest bunch of maoners in Ireland ring in, esp reps and taxi drivers; andwhether there is any news or real isue that day, there is a Liveline to be filled up. Remember the nonsense about the Michelin starred Dublin restaurant and the wanker who wanted 'chips with tha' bud'? Indo are unspeakable and a noxious attempt to have a Sunday Mail thing going. Two questions for star columnist Harris that his cohorts are too gutless to ask - what do you and the former Stickie Politburo know about the killings of Larry White and Seamus Costello and let the accusations against McGuinness and co be asked by those with clean hands.
Das ist nicht nur nicht richtig, es ist nicht einmal falsch! "Not only is it not right, it's not even wrong!"[Wolfgang Pauli]
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