Johnnyp

Happy with that. Not sterile possession. We are moving it quickly in their half.

McGinn been immense.

Wonder why Hearn is dragging his feet a bit on Taylor - Cameron for May 20th now that Serrano is out. It’s the obvious fight. A world class fight. I think the plan was to maybe manoeuvre Cameron into more bigger fights over the next year. By proxy, this has come up. Taylor even took to social media to call her out, which she never does. Cracking fight, hope it gets made.

Agreed. A small example. During the election campaign last year, Sinn Fein took out whole page adverts in the Washington Post and New York Times. A column in the corner of one page of either of those publications would cost a lot. A whole page ! Talking some serious coin. Funded no doubt by very wealthy Irish - Americans. And that wealth vehicle they have has no handbrake really.

Exactly yes. NI makes up, population wise about 4% of the UK. Hampshire nearly the same !! Then you half that 4% probably because it’s representative of all NI which nationalists are the majority - so the unionist NI Ireland makes up about under 2% of the UK. Let that sink in. Like i said previously, they are fast running out of road.

Very true. You can’t eat a flag.

I certainly would want a reunification vote eventually, but not tomorrow. Say if a vote for a United Ireland won. The good friday agreement says the number would have to be 50 plus 1. Not 51 % !! 50 plus literally one vote. If Nationalism won a vote at margins so tight and it was 50 plus 1 - how on earth could you drag unionism into a united ireland with a razor tight victory like that. It would never work. Back to violence. I’d hope the secretary of state calls the border poll when the demographics have changed considerably and there is a sense after lots of planning and conversing with unionist communities, they’d be open to it.

I don’t think it would be a case, and im paraphrasing “ we hand it over to you on a Tuesday and from Wednesday morning on it’s yours “ The withdrawal would be deliberate and incremental. I read before that if such a scenario came to pass, Westminster would stay be financing Northern Ireland in part for a good while. Inevitably though, with NI remaining part of the EU essentially in this deal, Dublin and Brussels will become a bigger trading partner than ever before. The politics will follow. Eventually a United Ireland, economically.

Huge dent to the ego - understandably.

Unionism are petrified to come to the table and at least have a discussion of how a United Ireland would look. Dublin has even conceded there would likely be a new flag, anthem, constitution. It would look nothing like a republican united Ireland either. The UK that the NI unionists want to stay married to does simply not exist anymore .

I do agree. I think eventually ( and I’ll be honest im unmoved by it as a southern Irelander ) we’ll eventually end up by proxy of some sort of United economic Ireland. I’ll never get the mindset of unionism. Loyal to a place that doesn’t even want you. Really. They don’t.

The hate will get more and more diluted over time. It can’t be sustained because how can a unionist kid/teen in 2023 have the same feel and authenticity of hatred that a unionist in the troubles would of had to nationalists and vice versa. You can’t keep passing your hate down. You’ll eventually bump into someone who stops and says “ nah, this is bullshit “

If they won the election last may they would of went back to stormont, guaranteed. The ironing out of the protocol would of went on. They’ll never publicly say it but they do not want to be in government with a nationalist first minister. They’d sooner burn the place down than govern under sinn fein rule.

It was extremely clever from Westminster and the EU to have Charles seen publicly meeting Von der Leyen. I sometime find NI unionists thick as pig shite. The poorest area in the UK, well known that catholics there are better educated, finish school, get good jobs. Their whole culture is wrapped around being loyal to a monarch - who’s just met the EU leader to copperfasten a deal that still means EU law will be governed in Northern Ireland. That must be pulling at the heart strings and some mental gymnastics going on They are running out of road.

I’m of the same mentality really. Ordinary people in NI have no appetite anymore for this nonsense with flags, rebel songs, orange marches etc. That’s stuff of yesteryear. There is ( an irrational one i think ) amongst unionists that if they were put into a United ireland against their will that Irish nationalists would do on to them what was done to nationalists in NI over the last 100 years.

Hopefully some end in sight. Would love, as an Irishman, to see how English people feel about NI unionists holding them to ransom for the last few years. Do you have an affinity with NI unionists ? Lots of English I’ve spoke to have said they’d hand the place back to the republic in the morning if they’d a choice. The UK needs a solid relationship with the EU - that’s basic common sense.

Does he really ? He’s gonna get the “ the first time you fought an actual boxer you lost “ jibe now from many people. And fighting the KSI’S and Nate Diaz’s of this world is gonna be hard to go back to now because people will think he isn’t taking it serious when he says he is.

Fury in a tricky place now if anything. Paul can go back to “ his world “ and even match MMA fighters again and make his money off what brought him into the public eye in the first place. Tommy has said he’ll be kicking on with his boxing career. Looking at him, id say he’s not ready to fight even for an English title. He’s probably Northern area title level. Get a few grand fighting at that level.

Both look exactly as they should. Novice fighters.

Any little streams for this ?

Mad thing, these 2 fighting now are fighting for a world title and nobody there probably knows who they are

Can’t see it, kid is as stiff as a poker, can’t move his head or feet. Campbell put him over. Tank will flatten him i think. Still don’t believe it happens until they in the ring, confirmed or otherwise.

Fans can definitely play their part. I’ll give you an example alluding to a comment a guy above rightly said. If we are at home and say Cash turns around and passes to Kamara or Konsa, it’s met with groans and complaining. Similar pass made at Goodison yesterday and nothing. The mindset of our fans away from home is different. Hey, i get people want to be entertained but im not having “ we spend good money “ You got up at probably 7-8 am, got ready for a trip to Merseyside, spend money on petrol, train, food than you would had it been at Villa Park so the “ we pay good money to be entertained at Villa Park “ line is bollocks. Give them the same sort of support away as at home. Be consistent.

Totally agree. I’ve been to a few Union Berlin games ( in Bundesliga 2 ) Fans never get angsty, if the tempo slows or increases, their noise from minute 1-90 is pretty much the same. They support in the true definition of the word. Let the players play.

If Smith went on a 3 game losing streak after “ trying to play football “ he’d buckle and compromise on his principles. Emery is made of elite stuff.