Corcaigh

Pretty rubbish alright, caveat being its only a friendly. Hourihane anonymous, Horgan looked lively when he came on.

Terrible challenge, these things happen however. Bale should have seen a red as well. The team in red were more Wimbledon then Wales. Disappointing that Ireland couldnt go on and take the 3pts.

I have not, but I will also leave it for the sake of the thread.

Murdering peaceful protestors on the streets of Derry is a funny way of 'defending your land', much like blowing up children for the cause of a United Ireland is objectionable to say the least. McGuinness was no angel, but neither were the British actors involved. If you're going to call one side murdering scumbags (which is what i was responding to if you care to read the post I responded to) then you can call the otherside the same. To quote Gerry Adams, McGuinness didn't go to war, the war came to him.

Love it. The Ra rattling ingerlund types for 30+ years and counting. I expect a lustier then usual rendition of **** the IRA in Germany tomorrow night.

Kinda like the wankfest that happens every year glorifying the murdering scumbags of the British army

RIP

Steveo covered most of the West Cork bases, knows more about the scenic spots than I do tbh. I'd echo the get a car comments if you're heading southwest out of the city. Bus services between the the towns and villages in West Cork are sporadic to non existent outside of the big towns (sadly the West Cork Railway died a death decades ago), car is really your only option if you want to visit the rural beauty spots. The city is great, small enough that you'll do it all in a weekend.The usual thing of museums, good food, reasonable night life. Cork City Gaol probably the highlight museum wise. There's Elizabeth fort as well which is in the city limits. Then you have the big tourist draws like the Blarney stone which sounds a bit shit tbh and its outside the city,The English Market if you're a foody and the usual mix of pubs and restaurants for all tastes. One of the big tourist draw is apparently the Butter Museum, rather random, never been myself. There's a Titanic/immigration museum down in Cobh which is cool, Fota Wildlife park/nature reserve thingy as well which you can wander around (Cobh train goes to both). Random scenic walking routes in the city include out down the harbour to the Blackrock observatory (which has astronomy stuff if you're into that kind of thing and also a bar). You can go west from the city centre out to UCC (Glucksmann Art Gallery), the Mardyke, Fitzgerald park (cool small museum there) and onto the Lee Fields. If you feel adventerous you can trek up to the northside by Sundays Well where you'll get great views of the City and harbour. If you're basing yourself in the city then the likes of Kinsale, Crosshaven and Clonakilty are all close enough to the city to visit from, are pretty/scenic and have stuff of interest, and have decent bus connections to/from Cork. If you're a history buff then let me recommend two sites in particular; Spike island is a former Navy base and prison, its situated in Cork Harbour and has a cool imperial history going back centuries, great views as well from it, Likewise Charles Fort in Kinsale which has some great history and views (Kinsale town has Desmond castle as well). You can get to Spike via ferry from Cobh, Kinsale harbour is beautiful and the town itself is a great food and night spot. Loads of natural beauty like the ones Steveo referenced, most well away from the city though - Garnish island, Bantry Bay, Mizen Head, the Beara Peninsula, Allihies etc. Stick in and around the N71 road if you are driving and that'll take you near the scenic spots. Most importantly, If you want a football fix then the League of Ireland will be in full flow in April. Local behemoth Cork City FC play on Friday nights and the atmosphere is class, especially when Dub scum teams come to town.

When you're in the shit you need a Cork man to sort it out

Pathetic, no wonder he never got a premier league move.

Good post there BOF, great result Saturday night but still a little long way to go. No point doing a Scotland 2014 on it and thinking qualification is secure after 1 good win. Plenty twists and turns left in this group.

Villa Scout (along with Newcastle/Bristol City/Sunderland amongst others) at Austria - Ireland game this evening.

Be weird seeing that pixie troll traitor show up at Villa. Good player alright, fast with an eye for goal.

Duffy and Clarke coming up against the likes of Bale and Alaba is a scary prospect.

Ireland well familiar with Georgia over the years, they've improved campaign after campaign so not overly surprised with the Wales result. Not going to be easy for most teams to go Tbilisi and pick up points.

^ some gloriously awful performances in that list Chris, my personal fav probably being the win in Kazakhstan having been 1 nil down with 5 mins to go. Moldova seem to be in crisis with their manager calling his own players rats and threatening to resign, 3pts should be there for the taking. Going off the 2 games so far, Ireland appeared to have regressed since the summer, last 2 games have been quite reminiscent of late era Trappatoni.

The Ref and Ireland were rubbish, Coleman/Whelan/Sheasy not at the races. So a good point earned all things considered.

Nothings changed, team of bottlers.

Pfft Dundalk, the big game is @ The Cross on Thursday night

To think we could've been playing Iceland in the QF. Dam cheating French

Sickening, our C'ship defenders wobbled for 5 minutes and it punished us big time. Fair result nonetheless. Faith restored somewhat in this tournament, we can play some football, Tardelli can feck off.

French will probably win, but there's always hope. Team unchanged - COYBIG

Wake me up for penalties

On the North, the imperative in negotiations must be to keep the border open without prejudice as it is now. If customs posts, security forces and barriers and the like re-emerge on border crossings, those things will be like flies to shit for any nascent Republican groups with a couple of AKs and semtex wishing to restart their war. Of course, the dreary steeples, green fields and hills of Fermanagh, Derry, Tyrone, Armagh and Down now constitute an international boundary between a jilted economic block and a paranoid, insular state. Goodness knows what nonsense either side will be proposing in the exit negotiations.

Made it out of the toughest qualifying group, then came through the toughest group stage, now we have the hosts who we have previous with, It's never easy for the BIG. French have had 4 extra rest days and probably 80% of the crowd, talk about a fix.