"The standard of hurlers we have, aren't inter-county hurlers"

In the wake of a truly dark week for Laois hurling, with commitment issues being dragged through conversations at every opportunity, Laois u-21 manager P.J Peacock defended his own panel’s desire to play hurling for their county, while still venting some frustrations after their 23 point defeat to Wexford. 

 “I was delighted with the performance in the second half, they could have thrown in the towel altogether, but they didn’t.  It shows though had they put anything at all into the first half, they would have been there, thereabouts” said Peacock. “The attitude of every single one of those lads is fantastic”. 

Despite his obvious good working relationship with the panel, after four months of preparation for just this one match, it’s easy to sense he seen such a score line occurring, after having a meeting with the county board over the low standard of players at his disposal. 

“The standard of hurlers that we have, aren’t inter-county hurlers. There are players here, that can’t make their own starting club teams. I knew that, I had a meeting with the county board about it, and I expressed my feelings on it. Realistically, their priority should be to try and make their club team, and then come into an inter-county dressing room. But, their attitude is fantastic, all they want to do is put on a Laois jersey”, said the former inter-county hurler.  

“They’re not that strong a bunch of hurlers, we were trying to get the best out of them. I mean I’ve heard lads talking ‘why isn’t such a lad in? Or why isn’t some other lad playing?’ I’ve rang everyone personally. We went to Camross, we went to the Harps and people didn’t come in, maybe for their own reasons. We went to Rathdowney, one or two didn’t want to come in. We just have to get on with what we have” stressed the Abbeyleix man. 

Despite his concerns over their standards, Peacock believes that this group of hurlers are far better than recent score lines have suggested. “You look at Neil Foyle, James Corrigan, and Brendan Reddin, they’re as good as you’ll find. Eoin Reilly in the goal is as good a keeper as anyone in the country, there is good hurlers out there”, insisted Peacock. 

Moving on from his own positive outlook after the game, Peacock believes the current situation in Laois to be very worrying. “What’s happening now, I really don’t know what’s gone wrong. I was involved with Niall (Rigney) last year and I thought there was a fantastic set up. And I thought when we stepped out, Brendan Fennelly stepped in, a Kilkenny man, for things to move on another level but. But it just hasn’t… there is no quick fix solution”.

Not fond of crowds? Then go watch Laois hurl

For those of you who enjoy plenty of elbow room in stadiums, so you can give charade styled advice to players, then following a Laois hurling team will be right up your alley.

Traditionally, we draw poor crowds on the hurling front, it’s a well-known fact.  We travel in especially small packs, but the O’Moore representation in Wexford Park was for this spectator even more distressing than the results from both senior and u21 matches in recent weeks.  

      

For one second, forget about the score line in Wexford Park. Forget about the unfavourable odds against the team going into the game. Forget about the trouncing the Model u-21s gave a minor All Ireland winning Kilkenny the week previous. Cast aside the fact that many still suffered from the Rebel hangover. 

Strip all contexts away from the event, brass tax. This was a Leinster semi-final, and nobody showed up to support the team. 

In a round robin competition where the favourites had been eliminated, we couldn’t muster up any more than 30 blue shirts. This panel were 70minutes away from getting to the county’s first u21 Leinster final in 21 years, yet nobody cared.

You can be sure had the u21 footballers of this county emerged from the Westmeath game victorious, their supporters would have made the trip down the Carlow road to Wexford, yet they had no partisan following either. Was the Thomastown road that leads the hurling side of Laois to the sunny south east to just winding?

   

How can we expect anything more of our inter-county teams with such blatant disregard for them? It must have been near impossible for the Laois players to conjure up any screed of confidence when moments like Brendan Reddin’s brilliant mazing run and point in the first half receive muted applause? Compare that to a Wexford player being greeted with rapturous cheers for a simple challenge and we already have a severe handicap before ever a ball is pucked. The Wexford support was incredible, certainly more than anything that will attend our ‘glorious’ club championship final.

The paltry following has nothing to do with ticket prices, or generic recession jargon. Laois’ hurling problems run far deeper than attendances I know, but by the time this goes to press those in the national media will have magnified our flaws times one hundred, with plans even for a Committee Room special report of the ‘state’ of Laois hurling. For lack of a Limerick issue this year I suppose.

 It’s a simple matter of interest, pride in one’s county and creating atmosphere for whatever 15 players line out in blue and white. Where was everybody?       

Borris ghost estate first to receive government funding in country

After a three year delay, work will finally begin this week in restoring an unsafe housing estate in Borris In Ossary.

 

€5 million has been allocated for safety improvements to ghost estates all over the country by the Department of the Environment. 

Four estates in Laois have been allocated funding of €59,000. Residents in Glenall housing estate, Borris in Ossory will be the first to benefit from the money, with €32,000 set aside for its restoration. The rest of the funding is being divided between Slina Mona (Portarlington), Rushall (Mountrath), and Radhairc na Sleibhte(Mountrath). 

 Walking through the Glenall housing estate, it is questionable whether this figure would even be enough to fix all its problems. 

Visitors to the area are met with an apocalyptic sight; Just yards from the main green area of the estate are uncovered sewerage lines, the foul odour of which has plagued residents for weeks at a time. 20 unfinished houses, stand all in line. Windows are broken; shards of glass, scaffolding and building materials lay scattered around the estate, with vacant houses regularly being broken into and stripped of fixtures and fittings.  

Rhoda and John Bergin, live in one of the six occupied houses and say the living conditions are “horrific”. 

“Just look around, it’s absolutely terrible. We can’t let our daughter out of our sight, even after efforts from ourselves with help from Fás to clean up; there are bars and pipes around. If she fell on them she could be impaled” said Rhoda.  

“There are lots of exposed holes down the field where the waste from the houses flow, anyone could fall into them as the grass is so high around”, said a worried John Brogan, who feels the work “can’t start soon enough”.  

Glenall estate in Borris was supposed to be an exclusive development of 60 houses when it was built back in 2008.  Only 26 houses have been built.

 Laois County Councillor for the Borris in Ossary area John King is in full support of the news to clean up the estate, while remaining critical of the developers who built the houses and left area in such disrepair. “Hopefully this will ensure a better quality of life for the people living there” said King, “But from the start, it was crazy for those builders to go in with plans for so many houses, seeing as there was no employment in Borris in Ossory to support it. You must have the industry there first before you build 60 new houses, it was all done in greed”, he added.   

 

Sinn Féin TD Brian Stanley welcomes the report on unfinished housing estates but is of the opinion that “much more needs to be done. €5million is a start, but obviously given the sheer volume of ghost estates that we are faced with, this is inadequate to deal with the scale of the problem. 

Fine Gael TD Charlie Flanagan has highlighted the “need for developers and financial institutions to take a more pro-active approach in working out long term solutions for ghost estates”. Deputy Flanagan also ensured that he will call on “the stakeholders in Laois/Offaly to honour their responsibilities.” 

Such ghost estates are the most visible scares are this country’s spectacular economic crash, yet Minister has said he does not see the need for widespread demolition despite the confirmation that over 200 ghost estates are still in a dangerous condition around the country


Repeated attempts to contact the number advertised for sales on the entrance sign to Glenall housing estate have proved fruitless.

"I HATE BERNARD BROGAN", he sing songed

View from behind the counter- as it happened. Laois vs. Dublin Sunday 5^th June 2011

Edited version appeared in Laois Nationalist 7th June 2011. 

I served up the barstool pundits with their usual orders expecting talk to be rife about M.J Tierney’s last minute omission from the starting panel, yet Tom Dick and Harry all claim to have seen the move coming. The head on Harry’s Guinness possessing crystal ball powers no doubt, informing the three that McNulty never intended to go with the starting 15 named days prior, however surprised the Tv3 panel were.

From some sections of the pub I hear wolf whistles when Billy Sheehan receives a camera close up before the anthems. All I can think is…’really’?? 

After the crush to the bar counter, to stock-pile for 35minutes and settle down, Laois are already trailing, but the gathered are encouraged by the industry shown. On seven minutes a hobbling Eoin Culliton  launches a kick out that Quigley picks out of the sky superbly.-“GOOD MAN QUIGLEY” shouts one, only to turn his back on him immediately after he scuffs his delivery-“INDA NAMEAJAAAYSUS”. 

The Dubs kick on to delight of one solitary Artane man, as the ale gluggers bemoan the lack of Tierney’s left boot for placed balls when Donnagher’s 13^th minute kick falls into Cluxton’s arms. Very harsh on the half-forward considering the distance and angle.

He has an unenviable task this afternoon, but all present agree Cahir Healy is the only person you would want to have marking Bernard Brogan, his double block 20minutes in focusing conversation. Tom reckons he is a far better operator with the hair cut tight, as if suggesting the old cornrows or locks once posed a genuine aerodynamic burden.

On 22mins Diarmuid Connelly beats Eoin “octopus” Culliton, and the pub falls quite. There was an air of inevitability, the same inevitability that has this crowd drinking at home today instead of making the Croker pilgrimage.  

Saturday night’s bad choices were still breaking down in the bloodstream of most punters as the half came to a close, Dick threatening to go walk up the Devil’s bit instead of suffering a second frustrating period. Peter Canavan’s affable northern lilt is having a positive effect on those at the bar, because as one put it “there’s only one thing worse than being six points down at half time, and that’s listening to Pat Spillane and Joe Brolly talk $h** when your six points down at half time”. 

Kingston ambles out on to the pitch, his sheer size lends himself to myth, and Chuck Norris themed jokes by those watching the game on the small telly. 

43 minutes in and Dennis Bastick is introduced for the Dubs. “Sure he’s a Camross man, he should be playing for us” bellowed Tom. Selective citizenship, as the previous night it was the same bunch questioning many of Trapattoni’s player’s motives opting to line out for the country of their father’s birth.

On 54 minutes replays suggest that Daithí Carroll should have been awarded a penalty when he picked up a serious ankle injury. The contradictory opinions of the commentators has fuelled some sort of pro Dublin Tv3 conspiracy theory in the pub, it has plenty of evidence.

60 minutes in and Bernard Brogan’s 5^th point prompts a six year old boy to cross his arms in a huff, and he is looking a bit teary eyed. “I HATE BERNARD BROGAN!!” he sing songs, over and over- which in retrospect should be considered our new county anthem, considering nobody knows the second verse to Lovely Laois anyway. And by the time Joe McQuillan blew the final whistle there were already calls to switch over to something more exciting, maybe the Fair City omnibus.  

Fleming Laois' sexiest TD

Edited version appeared in Laois Nationalist 7th June 2011 

Sean Fleming has been judged as Laois’ most attractive representative in Dáil Eireann according to an online poll.

The Fianna Fáil TD, out ranked county compatriots Brian Stanley and Charlie Flanagan in what has been dubbed Ireland’s first ever Irish political beauty contest. Sexytd.com, is seen by its creator and star of Made in Chelsea Franis Boulle, as a memorable and fun tool to help the Irish public get to know their politicians in Leinster House. 

The website, offers up two TDs at random out of the total 166 and asks users to click on the picture of the TD they would rather sleep with. This, as you can imagine, leads to some downright tantalising choices; Ming Flanagan or Mick Wallace? (pictured left on the pull) Willie O’Dea or Gerry Adams? The bizarre combinations are endless.

 Collecting the users votes from the random face-offs, the site then ranks the entire Oireachtas from most desirable to least. The websites blurb concedes that although it fully expects to offend some people, it was never its intention, hoping the majority will see funny side.

Although Fleming had secured bragging rights in the Queen’s county at the time of writing, it must be noted that the overall performance of the Laois TDs is poor, with the Fianna Fáil TD sitting pretty, and highest in 89^th position overall.

 Speaking on the issue, and embracing the funny side of things, Deputy Fleming said he was “suitably impressed” with the current standings. He also revealed plans for a charge on the top half of the table next year, admitting he “can’t wait to see the rankings further down the line, where the glasses will be shed”, for an updated profile picture presumably.  

Earlier last week Sinn Féin’s Brian Stanley polled highest from the Laois contingent, but a mention on Wednesday evenings “Tonight with Vincent Brown” on Tv3 resulted in increased activity on the site, and saw Stanley slip down to 92^nd place.

 When informed of the league table, Deputy Stanley remarked with his trademark humour, saying “wasn’t even aware of the site. And to be blunt, I have no interest. I am elected to give a voice to the people of Laois and Offaly, and I will represent accordingly”, before adding “It is only a bit of a laugh, and not to be taken too seriously”.

His father before him, Oliver, opined “sex never came to Ireland until Telifís Eireann went on air”, how times have changed, now Fine Gael’s Charles Flanagan lives in age where TD sex appeal can be accurately measured online.

Flanagan didn’t warm to the idea of a political beauty pageant, insisting his 102^nd place was the furthest thing from his mind. “I have never heard of the website, I have never seen the website and I have absolutely no interest in it.”

Fine Gael TD for Galway West Sean Kyle has topped the poll, since it went online last week, with other notable appearances being opposition leader Michael Martin at 13^th, Enda Kenny at 28^th, Joan Burton back in 105^th and Seamus Healy dead last in 166^th.