Corcaigh

Been a fan of Clark and thought he'd come good eventually and iron out the deficiencies in his game, not looking likely at this stage. Hasn't actually played a lot of football given his age either going by his wiki stats.

Hey nervy companies in the City of London and elsewhere reliant on the EU, there's an English speaking country in the EU ready and waiting to take all that capital and jobs which needs to stay within the Common Market

Bets made, come on Bales!

I'm ahead of the curve and am having a 4 day weekend

Finally the day has arrived. COYBIG!

Don't mind England tbh, Scotland, not so much (Off topic I know ). Don't like Norn Iron at all, I'll be glad to see them flop miserably.

Some epic bantz from MON/Keano down south last week, those new contracts are well earned.

Not great, though I suspect City will do better in Europe this year then Malmo

Nearly there now. Looking forward to seeing Netherlands at Lansdowne tomorrow night, they've been a bogey team of ours many a time over the years so it'll be good to remind them that we're going to France and they're staying at home . Have a feeling the dodgy keeping situation will catch up with MON sooner or later. Supposedly Dundalk's keeper is in the mix to make an appearance tomorrow night.

Cork City FC, League of Ireland.Pwned Malmo in Europe big time back in the naughties.

The LRB have a good back round on the politics and players involved: http://www.lrb.co.uk/v38/n08/perry-anderson/crisis-in-brazil TL:DR, Brazil is messed up.

Make Villa great again

MON fell out with Westwood apparently at S'land years ago, surprising I know to hear that O'Neill holds grudges. I'd have had Elliott starting both games and No.1 at the Euros before the injury. Now I'd put Westwood as No.1, Randolph has looked solid enough any time he's played for Ireland, but he's played more this season for his country then for his club. Duffy/Clark combo looked good Friday night.

Get Pearson in to get the team promoted out of the Championship, then do a Southamption and sack him and have one of those sophisticated contintental types from the Bielsa school lined up to takeover.

What I find most interesting about the Rising is that by the early 20th Century, Ireland was well on its way to establishing itself as a 'loyal' constituent nation of the UK. Following emancipation, the rise of the Catholic middle class, the Land Acts and the extensions of the franchise were among the factors which had seen Ireland establish itself as a functioning part of the UK rather then an imperial possession with John Bull's boot on its throat as had been pretty much the case until the mid 19th century. The natural progression appeared to be a devolved Irish home rule parliament responsible for domestic affairs with Ireland staunchly committed to remaining in the empire and Westminster being the imperial parliament. I find it amazing how these decades of integration were shattered so comprehensively in the years before and after the Rising. Another aspect is finding out how comprehensively the presence of the old order was erased post independence. In my immediate area there are abandoned churches, graveyards, schools, Big Houses, military bases etc. which have long fallen into decay and disrepair. I think its only being in the past few decades that 'revisionist' histories have emerged and challenged the narrative that Ireland was oppressed for 800 years and achieved independance. The relationship between Ireland and Britain was a lot more interlinked and complex then that by the time independence was won. The site linked below is the work of a photographer who has done great work recording the above, sadly however I note that now he has now taken down most of his images as he wants to people to buy his books instead http://www.abandonedireland.com/start.html

The price of tickets in the Premier League is just mad, and I'm aware I'm part of the problem being a foreign supporter visiting a couple of times a year. The price of an average ticket for the regular match going fan should never be more then €15 - 25 whether it's the Bundesliga or the League of Ireland. How low income workers in England can afford to regularly go to home and away games is beyond me.

Agree with thabucks. Probably get nothing out of the Soton & Arse games, but if this team can continue creating chances like today then they can pick up some wins and stay in it.

Greatest bandwagoners in the world

I'd agree, we rightfully expected the national team to be scrapping to make it into the top 2 in every Euro & World Cup qualifying group over the past 20+ years. Sometimes the team did finish top 2 sometimes they very much didn't. But did Ireland scrape through this group? In the toughest qualifying group it went to the last day where we still had a chance of winning the group, then Ireland were the only non seeded team to beat a seeded team in the playoffs. Not bad going if you ask me. Granted, under the old format finishing third meant nothing, but Ireland, Poland and Northern Britain were effectively in a mini play off series, with all games being cagey affairs. If it were top 2 only then perhaps those games might have been more lively.

Glorious night in Lansdowne last night, though I wasn't sobbing like Dunphy. I'll shed a few tears when we do a Greece 04 next summer. COYBIG

Happy with that. This tie is ours to lose now, which we are very well capable of. Going to be a tense Monday night in Dublin.

B&H is a tricky draw, hopefully we can squeeze a trademark 1-1 victory over there.