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Leitrim GAA thread - 7 Like(s)
Methinks our USA friend is a WUM.

LongfordgaaAbú (National) - 10/05/2022 15:42:43

Donal O'Gs Comments On Football In General And The TC In Particular - 5 Like(s)
Cusack came across very badly. Quite aggressive in accusing JC of not quoting him properly (she actually did). It was a legitimate question to ask of someone employed by the show given the furore caused by his comments in the days prior. The notion that you can't discuss a nasty swipe taken by an RTE employee during a hurling podcast because you are somehow only supposed to discuss hurling on muster hurling championship day, is as laughable as it is hypocritical. God be with the days when you could admit you stuck your foot in your mouth, apologise and have a good laugh and move on.

LongfordgaaAbú (National) - 22/05/2023 13:00:49

GAA-GPA Stand Off - 5 Like(s)
Cap county sessions at 4 per week maximum, as a rule, thus having consistency across all counties and no extra benefit for counties with rich sponsors to fund more sessions. This also deals with player welfare too in an amateur game too. Job done.

LongfordgaaAbú (National) - 16/03/2022 10:54:54

Tailteann Cup 2022 - 4 Like(s)

Replying To StoreysTash:  "What is the craic with the name? Who or what was Tailteann?"
In Bronze Age Ireland, large sporting gatherings known as funeral games were held. These were athletic competitions held to honour a recently deceased person. The name Tailteann derives from the Aonach Tailteann (the Tailtin Fair) held in the townload of Teltown in County Meath. According to the Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland, the fair was established by the legendary king Lugh Lámhfhada (reigned 1849 to 1809 BC) in honour of his foster-mother, Tailtiu. The Tailteann Games were re-established just after independence as a sport championships for Irish people or those with Irish ancestry. They were held across Ireland in 1924, 1928 and 1932. Launched to celebrate independence, the Games were first announced in 1921 but due to the Civil War the Games were postponed until August of 1924. In 1924 and 1928, the Tailteann Games were held shortly after the Summer Olympics, allowing athletes that had participated in Paris (1924) and Amsterdam (1928) to compete. Additionally, some Olympic athletes who were not of Irish ancestry were invited to compete to increase the competition and attract audiences. The Tailteann Games were held in various venues across Ireland, centred in Croke Park. Events were held in athletics swimming and other aquatic sports, rowing, boxing, rounders, yachting, golf, tennis, gymnastics, wrestling, weight-lifting, billiards, chess, Gaelic football, hurling, handball and camogie. There were events beyond sport too, with Irish dancing, music, painting, crafts, writing and storytelling competitions. In the 1930s there was less will to continue with the Tailteann Games. In 1937, a committee was formed to explore the possibility of holding further games, but with the beginning of World War II, the games never took place again. The cup is named after those ancient games.

LongfordgaaAbú (National) - 03/05/2022 12:59:22

Leitrim GAA thread - 4 Like(s)
Congrats guys - If we couldn't go up am glad ye could. Fair play.

LongfordgaaAbú (National) - 24/03/2024 16:15:38

Longford GAA thread - 4 Like(s)

Replying To Oddball:  "Lads, I'm just after looking back over the history of winners of the Longford Championship and I just wanted to get peoples take on the lack of championships for town/big village teams. In Roscommon we have Roscommon Gaels who have gone 19 years without a title, Castlereagh 14 years and Boyle 96 years!! In Longford you have Longford Slashers 10 years (not really a big drought!), Ballymahon 21 years (only 1 title), Mostrim 31 years (3 titles), Granard 41 years and Rathcline 47 years (only 1 title). For Mostrim and Granard to go 31 and 41 years without a title is astounding. Also, for clubs like Ballymahon and Rathcline only having won 1 title each is a strange one considering the size of Ballymahon and Lanesboro is a decnt size village/town. Looking in from the outside discounting Slashers, all these other teams are bordering other counties. Have players in the past thrown in their lot with clubs across the border or are there other reasons for the lack of success? I just would be interested in Longford peoples take on this."
There's no one answer to this, but it's not down to players throwing in their lot with clubs across the border. The census data in 2022 showed 6 urban centres with population over 1000 in the county: Longford Town (10,957), Edgeworthstown (2199), Lanesboro (1733), Ballymahon (1714), Drumlish (1124) and Granard (1058). The next nearest after that was Kenagh with 753. Urban centres tend to have more alternative sporting options for kids (soccer, basketball, athletics, rugby) whereas rural areas can focus attention on Gaelic Games perhaps? That was true when I was a kid, not sure if it still applies now. For Killoe, a combo of an expanded new school and new principal focused on football, helped to build a great underage structure in 2000's and 2010's which paved the way for those senior titles. It also helps to be on the periphery of the county town when population is increasing (Clonguish benefit from that too). Abbeylara and Mullinalaghta (who between them have been in 7 of the last 10 County finals!) played all their underage together as Northern Gaels which allowed them to play at a very competitive level while winning championships - all of which helps prepare lads for a better transition to senior. Stonepark built an impressive new school just 5km from the centre of Longford town and next to the refurbished Grattans club grounds, and some of that big town population will opt for that school and align with Grattans instead of Slashers in Longford parish. In the past you would get a couple of good players from outside the county with Connolly Barracks being in the town (Slashers and Killoe both benefited from that in the past), but that closed in 2009. Similarly the Bord na Mona facilities around Lanesboro played a role too, but also now gone. For some clubs it is down to the luck of raw talent or having a few special people who go that extra mile to drive the club harder than others. So it is not any one thing, which is why you don't see any club dominate for long. Granard, Mostrim, Ballymahon, Rathcline and Fr. Manning Gaels should all be much stronger than they are, but numbers don't always translate to the GAA club nowadays. Perhaps the multi-million re-development of Monaduff will be the spark that reignites the Gaels? A rearrangement of SFC, IFC and JFC to make each more competitive rather than having so many clubs sat in Senior Championship, would help more clubs win things competitively and grow.

LongfordgaaAbú (National) - 10/01/2024 13:52:19

Withdrawals Sound Death Knell For O'Byrne Cup? - 3 Like(s)

Replying To KillingFields:  "Get rid of the competitors but don't move League start. Counties will play Friendlies sin this rime anyway"
O'Byrne cup is effectively a set of centralised pre-season friendlies with just enough competition history and credibility to ensure that a good chunk of those involved take it seriously enough to want to win it. Most stars of today in Leinster got their start in an experimental line-out in an O'Byrne Cup game. It serves a purpose. Dismantling it and throwing the playing of friendlies to the county boards to manage arbitrarily, is not progress, certainly not for my county! I don't think we should declare an existential crisis just yet. Leinster council need to sit a couple of counties down and do some hard talking about responsibility, even for dead-rubber games!

LongfordgaaAbú (National) - 11/01/2023 13:01:17

Non-Gaa Forum - 3 Like(s)

Replying To Tirchonaill1:  "If you want to see how this unchecked illegal economic migration is going to end up just look across the water at our friends in England and see how their cities and towns are now. Anyone who speaks up against it is a far right racist, if that's the case then I'd guess that the vast majority of the people fall into that category. I have nothing against legal migration and genuine asylum seekers, anyone who can't se what's going on is either naive or willfully blind."
The main reason many English cities and towns are in the state they are in is because of a decade of chronic underfunding by national and local government and corruption and mismanagement by local councils, many of which are now bankrupt. Nothing to do with lazy whipping boy of 'unchecked illegal economic migration'. There are no 2024 figures yet, so last data anyone can use is for 2023. In 2023 a total of 1.2m people entered UK and 532k people left. So net migration of 685k. Of the 1.2m entering UK last year, 29k entered illegally, which is 2.4%. So the amount of so-called "unchecked illegal economic migration" into the UK as a whole last year was 2.4% of all those who migrated to the UK last year. Don't let the Daily Mail and its affiliates direct your thinking on this. The political class in the UK let down the towns and cities which are left behind and looking for someone to blame, and the ideological thinking of a few rich charlatans in that political class in separating from the EU has deepened the hole for many of those forgotten regions who now can't even get EU structural funds to help them. Pointing at 2.4% of those who enter the country (the poorest and most desperate who put themselves in more danger than we can imagine) and placing the blame on them, is doing the work of Farage and the Daily Mail and similar slime-ball outlets. The data simply doesn't bear this view out.

LongfordgaaAbú (National) - 01/11/2024 13:15:50

All Ireland Club Final, Kilmacud V Glen (Derry) - 3 Like(s)

Replying To Greenfield:  "Some details here: https://m.independent.ie/sport/gaelic-games/gaelic-football/dunboyne-lodge-objection-over-navans-extra-sub-25967165.html I always blamed one of the O'Mahonys bottle men for this. The game finished in acrimonious circumstances following an incident with him on the terrace side. I think after that dunboyne we're always going to appeal if there was a chance."
An extra man objection also happened in 2016 in Longford SFC. See link. Game ended with Killoe beating Longford Slashers by 1-9 to 2-5 but was replayed after Slashers objected to 16th Killoe man on the field at the end of the game. Slashers then beat Killoe in the replay. They met again in the Quarter Finals a few weeks later and Killoe won to put Slashers out of the Championship. Mullinalaghta then beat the then champions Killoe and went on to win their first title since 1950, and the rest as they say.....

LongfordgaaAbú (National) - 27/01/2023 11:24:58

Longford GAA thread - 3 Like(s)
I think you've taken a wrong turn on the way to the Limerick forum. Nice to have you visit, hope all is well but you need to go down to the end of the road and take a right and follow that road for about 150km and that's you. I've found that Birr is a nice place to stop for a cup of tae on the way.

LongfordgaaAbú (National) - 03/03/2022 15:20:21

New 40K Stadium Required In Middle Of Country - 3 Like(s)

Replying To ExiledInWex:  "I think the GAA need to look at having a 40-45k capacity stadium in one of the midlands towns, either in Portlaoise or Tullamore. It could host a lot of neutral matches, and could host Leinster hurling finals when Galway are playing. 40k in a full house in Portaloise or Tullamore would be a much better atmosphere than 40k in Croke Park, and the crowd will likely be smaller given the distance from Galway on Sunday. Either that or just get rid of the farcical situation where the Leinster hurling final has to be played in Leinster and play the game in Thurles."
Athlone. Build it now.

LongfordgaaAbú (National) - 06/06/2023 15:53:05

Páirc Uí Chaoimh - 3 Like(s)
Mayo: Hastings Insurance MacHale Park Armagh: BOX-IT Athletic Grounds Carlow: Netwatch Cullen Park Wexford: Chadwicks Wexford Park Louth: Protection & Prosperity Louth GAA COE Cavan: Kingspan Breffni Park Westmeath: TEG Cusack Park Leitrim: Avant Money Páirc Seán Mac Diarmada Longford: Glennon Brothers Pearse Park Kilkenny: UPMC Nowlan Park Offaly: Glenisk O'Connor Park Tipperary: FBD Semple Stadium Laois: Laois Hire O'Moore Park Wicklow: Echelon Park Kildare: Manguard Park COE Tyrone: O'Neills Healy Park Carlow: Netwatch Cullen Park Cork: Supervalu Páirc Uí Chaoimh When work is done on the new Louth stadium and on Kildare's St. Conleths Park, there will almost certainly be naming rights associated with both. So almost 60% of main county grounds in the country have naming rights and that number will grow. The only issue here was the foolishness of Cork CB in dropping O'Chaoimh rather than adding the sponsors name to it. They will have learned that lesson the hard way and on we go. 12 years after the naming rights deal was signed with Glennon Bros, everyone in Longford calls it Pearse Park. If the naming rights deal lasted a century, that would still hold true.

LongfordgaaAbú (National) - 23/01/2024 18:03:20

GAA Officials - 3 Like(s)

Replying To Claretandblue:  "Hawkeye at every ground in the country? Cracking idea. €300-400K multiplied by 30? €12m. Good use of money. Maybe accept the odd mistake."
Nailed it. It is still an amateur organisation where people give their time to do these roles, sometimes imperfectly and often thanklessly. Perfectly acceptable to ask for good standards, but if we vilify everyone who makes a mistake while doing something for free in their spare time, we will be left with nobody willing to give up their time to do these jobs. We are making professional demands of amateur volunteers. Mistakes come with the territory. Suck it up.

LongfordgaaAbú (National) - 23/03/2022 15:09:21

Longford GAA thread - 3 Like(s)

Replying To ETHarmy:  "I see Joe O'Brien not in the Longford hurling squad yesterday. He must finally have retired. Fair play to the amount of service he has given the county hurlers, he surely must go down as the best hurler ever to wear the Longford jersey. Hopefully there is a few younger hurlers now to come in and drive it on for the next few years."
Joe must be up there with highest scorers ever for Longford in hurling. I hope the county honours him at some point for almost 20 years of county commitment. A well deserved retirement.

LongfordgaaAbú (National) - 06/02/2023 11:21:57

New York's Hurling Ambitions - 2 Like(s)
Longford competed in Connacht Senior League last year but weren't in a position to be able to compete this year. How in Gods name would a county with three hurling clubs and struggling numbers be able to fund a trip to America for a Lory Meagher game? Difficult enough to get across to Birmingham to play one of the two teams in Britain. The notion is great, the practicality for lower tier hurling counties is hard to see.

LongfordgaaAbú (National) - 06/01/2024 11:20:20

Longford GAA thread - 2 Like(s)
Anyone care to have a stab at Longford hurling managers over the years? Here is best I can do, others here might add more knowledge... 2022 Adrian Moran (Westmeath) 2019 Derek Frehill (Galway) 2018 Colum O'Meara (Galway) 2014 Ray Gavin (Westmeath) 2012 Frank Browne (Wexford) 2010 Tom Lynam (Longford??) 2009 Mattie McLoughlin (Longford??) 2008 Noel Boyce (Westmeath??) 2006 Michael O'Rourke (Longford??) 2006 Peter Curran (Westmeath) 2002 Tom Lynam (Longford??) 2000 Alo Lawlor (Offaly)

LongfordgaaAbú (National) - 09/02/2022 13:10:36

Tailteann Cup 2022 - 2 Like(s)

Replying To kentuckytucky:  "I think if we have it at all it should be the All Ireland shield competition, and have an actual decent sized and nice shield as a trophy, not one of these tiny cups that seem to be the gaa's favourite at the minute."
Nothing kills the pedigree and allure of a competition faster than the word Shield. Not to say it couldn't work with epic PR and the worlds best looking trophy, but it would take a Wimbledon Ladies or Community Shield type design to get over the stigma. I agree on the cups comment - the yokes that have been produced in recent years for Division winners in lower leagues and for colleges competitions are cat altogether.

LongfordgaaAbú (National) - 26/04/2022 14:37:50

The One Change That Would Revitialise The Entire Football Championship - 2 Like(s)
Less than two pages before this thread descended into WUM-ville. Impressive!

LongfordgaaAbú (National) - 21/06/2022 16:23:43

Longford GAA thread - 2 Like(s)
Feels like deja vu. Carrickedmond got relegated in 2015 (lost to Ballymahon in relegation final) but the structure of the SFC was then changed from 12 teams to 13 for 2016 and they managed to stay up. Not picking on Carrickedmond, there are plenty of other clubs got relegated and magically avoiding the drop over the past couple of decades. It's a racket. Hard to make sense of the club voting intention here. SFC needs to be reduced - It's been comically big for years. IFC needs to be boosted and JFC needs more first teams in it. How is any of that remotely controversial or something to vote down. The blame sits squarely with the clubs who voted for this. Self interest and short term goals superseding any longer term good.

LongfordgaaAbú (National) - 12/02/2025 14:01:03

Longford GAA thread - 2 Like(s)
Great win by the hurlers. Longfords sixth Division 3B final in ten years, and won it three times in that period, so fingers crossed we can add another title next weekend.

LongfordgaaAbú (National) - 26/03/2022 16:52:27