Happy daze for Longford fans

Conversation during the Louth Meath match on Sunday:

‘Do ya see that fella grinning like a lunatic there?’

‘Yeah, is it a Louth fan gritting his teeth in advance of the inevitable Meath comeback?’

‘No, it’s a Longford fan.’

‘How do you know?’

‘Well, the jersey’s a dead giveaway, obviously. I mean, it’s still damp from Newry last night. I bet he

had to dry it out the window of the car on the N4 this morning.’

‘He’ll catch his death of cold.’

‘But boy, will he die happy? Look at him, he’s grinning from ear to ear….’

Non-Longford Person trying to make conversation with a Longford fan after the Louth Meath match:

NLP: ‘Did you see the whack the referee got? Wasn’t that awful?’

Longford fan: ‘What whack? Where?!!’

NLP: ‘On the pitch, after the match. After the goal that wasn’t a goal…’

Longford fan: ‘What goal? Where?!!’

NLP: ‘During the Louth Meath game – the senior final?’

Longford fan: ‘God, was there a second match? I only saw Longford win. After that…. Well, everything’s a blur…’

Such was the joy, the sheer unabated happiness and delight of Longford fans in Croke Park on Sunday, that the first time many of them noticed the scenes after the Louth Meath match was when they were sitting at home in front of the TV watching the Sunday Game on Sunday night. After Dylan Quinn held up the Fr Larry Murphy Cup, everything else passed in a complete daze.

The grins said it all – absolute bliss.

They say revenge is a dish best served cold and Longford certainly proved this is the case on Sunday.

The 22 point beating from Offaly was still fresh in their minds and, if any of the rest of us had forgotten it,

the official programme helpfully included the match report from that sunny April day with the score line screaming: Offaly 2-19, Longford 0- 3.

Indeed Dylan Quinn twice referred to, what he termed, the ‘trouncing’ Offaly had meted out on them in April during his acceptance speech. This match sent Longford on the circuitous back door route, where they dispelled with Wexford, Carlow, Westmeath and Kildare until they found themselves facing Offaly once again, in the Leinster Minor Final in Croke Park on Sunday.

And so less than three months after Offaly had beat them by 22 points, Longford turned around and beat them back.

There is something special about a team that does this.

A team that ‘gets over’ a 22 point defeat in the first round and grabs their second chance with both hands.

A team that goes out on a sunny July Sunday midday onto the pitch in Croke Park and beats the crew that ‘trounced’ them three months before.

A team that doesn’t let the occasion of Croke Park on Leinster Final Day get to them.

A team that comes out and delivers a hearty, gutsy performance and wins a Leinster title.

That’s a very special team.

Longford fans, parents, friends, family, who followed the team in the past few months were paid in full for

their efforts. So too, the diehards who had travelled to Newry the night before and returned miserable,

wet, defeated but who had still made the journey to Croke Park.

Longford fans often tell themselves that they’ll get their reward in Heaven but they got their own little glimpse of Heaven on Sunday. And it made them smile, all the way out Croke Park, across North Circular Road, down the N4 and home.

Next up, is the All-Ireland quarterfinals on the August Bank Holiday weekend but for now, Longfordians

are still grinning, walking around in a happy daze, remembering a very happy day.

If the Queen was to see the real Ireland, she should visit Longford........

So the Queen is coming to Ireland? There has been quite a mooted response to her impending visit (except in the Seanad where, as usual, they lost the run of themselves) so maybe it’s time to launch a campaign to bring her to Longford.

What do you mean, she wouldn’t come to Longford?!! If Queen Elizabeth does visit Ireland, doesn’t she deserve to see the real Ireland – not the Bord Failted version? You can’t go to Kerry or Clare without tripping over a shillelagh or a bloody leprechaun – if the Queen wants to see the real Ireland she should come to Longford…….

Forget Newgrange. Queen Liz could visit the Aughnacliffe Dolmen or even the Granard Motte, the highest Motte of its kind in Europe. If she has time she could have a cup of tea with the North Longford Men’s Group who, the last we heard, were learning how to text and use computers. Jeez, they could all become friends on Facebook, although I don’t know if it is actually appropriate to poke the Queen.

Meanwhile in Longford we could host a civic reception for Queen Liz in the vacant shopping centre in the town on the grounds that this is probably the only use that will ever be found for this venue. The fabulous glass structure at the bottom of the town was built at the height of the boom and now lies completely empty due to the lack of an anchor tenant. Maybe if the Queen performed the official opening ceremony this would attract retailers to the shopping centre?

I’m not sure how the Queen’s tailors would go down on Longford’s Main St but at this stage beggars can’t be choosers.

The Queen could go out to see the Kenagh clock tower built in 1798 and lovingly restored in recent years. From there she could head on to Corlea Trackway Centre for a bit of a history lesson.

She could take a trip up the Royal Canal – sure, it’s practically named after her!!!! It’s a pity that the QE2 has been decommissioned because it would look fantastic in Clondra Harbour – it would be a bit tight for sure, but on the plus side, the Queen could reach out a porthole and pull a pint in the Richmond Inn, if she fancied. Even without the QE2, the Queen and presumably Prince Philip could hop on a canal boat at Clondra and head up the historic canal. What better way to see south Longford? She could hop off at Abbeyshrule, officially Longford’s Tidiest Village, and check out the wonderful surroundings?

Isn’t Prince Philip a formal naval officer? He could navigate!

When it comes to so-called country pursuits, if John Gormley hasn’t succeeded in shutting them all down in the meantime, the Queen could take to a spot of clay pigeon shooting at the Longford Agricultural Show. As she knows a thing or two about horses, she would be the perfect judge for the horse competition and as a dedicated corgi fan, she could double up to judge the Dog Show. By that time, someone will probably have set up a hunt specifically to target Green Party members, so perhaps she’d enjoy a day or two at that. While in the area, she could compete in the new Gate Jumping Competition at the Granard Agricultural Show. In these recessionary times, even a Queen couldn’t turn her nose up at the 500 quid prize. Oh, there’d be so much for her to do, the Royal Visit could last the entire summer in Longford alone. It’s just such a pity she missed the Abbeylara Tractor Pulling Competition……that beats Royal It's a Knockout any day.

Best of all, the Queen can bring all her relatives, servants, dogs, cats and whatever else it is that forms part of a Queen’s entourage to Longford because the one thing we are not short of is houses. We have thousands of them, all empty.

All you have to do, as any good auctioneer will tell you, is turn the key.

Batten the hatches, folks, the bulldozers are on the way

Batten the hatches, folks, the bulldozers are on the way . Both Brendan McDonagh, Chief Executive of NAMA and Planning Minister Ciaran Cuffe have signalled that some ghost estates will have to be knocked down. The NAMA chief said that the agency may consider paying for the completion of some estates but he added he went so far as to say that some developments “should never have been contemplated as it is hard for anyone with an objective view to see how they made sense even at the top of an over-heated market.” Ciaran Cuffe’s announcement of an audit of ghost estates in the country is certainly welcome but surely this information is already available to local authorities? A national audit sounds like it would take an awful long time.

In fact, Longford Co Council has already carried out an audit of housing estates and according to their figures, there are around 100 unfinished housing estates in Co Longford. Some of these estates contain houses at foundation level and others contain houses that are fully complete but ancillary works such as driveways, manholes, etc have yet to be completed. However there are 19 ghost estates – developments that are either finished or half-finished but have only one or two occupants.

We don’t need Brendan McDonagh to tell us that some of these developments will never be completed. It is obvious, that as he says, they should never have been built in the first place.

In Longford, Leitrim and Roscommon whole villages and communities have been destroyed by developments.

Take Kenagh village in Longford for example. Ten years ago, it was a picturesque little village of around 30 houses with lots of one-off houses in the surrounding areas. Between 2002 and 2006, planning permission for 261 houses was granted in the village and surrounding area. Yet between 2002 and 2006, the population of Kenagh increased from 225 to 241 – that’s just 16 people. Incidentally, between 1996 and 2002, the population of the village rose by just two people. This was never going to be a population hub.

Over 100 houses were built in Kenagh in private residential developments and today most of these estates are finished or part-finished. One estate lies closed off with the buildings standing at various levels of completion but the rest of the housing developments fared better. In some cases, the developments are finished but some houses lie eerily empty, while other houses are bursting with family life – bikes in the driveways, plants in the windows, clothes on the line. In other cases, lived-in homes stand side-by-side with half-built houses cordoned off with fencing and security tape. Young children playing beside the houses this week were using the fencing as a place to hang their jackets.

Bulldozers will not solve Kenagh’s problem. They can’t knock the entire village, and they can’t go in and knock only the empty houses like taking out teeth. They can, however, knock the unfinished houses and insist that the developers pay for the completion of the estates.

In other cases, the bulldozers don’t have to discriminate. They can just go ahead and knock entire estates. Let me suggest that they start with those estates built in random fields away from towns and villages around the county. These are not just ghost estates, they are half-baked estates – they didn’t address any long-term needs, they only addressed short term greed.

Then please let them move on to the developments which are so badly built that if you slam a door in Number 4, the walls shake in Number 6. Although, maybe we shouldn’t waste diesel on these estates, by the sound of things they will have knocked themselves down in no time at all.

But there are questions. Where will the bulldozers go? Who will decide this?

Who will pay for them? The developers who built them? The County Councils who granted planning permission? The banks who threw out the money for them? Us?

Ciaran Cuffe says the local communities will be involved in the decision-making process. Maybe he’s been swept away with the Conservative Party’s new manifesto but it’s hard to see how exactly that’s going to work.

What about the one or two occupants in the otherwise empty housing estates? What will happen to them? Even if they are thrilled to get out of these estates, they still will have to receive compensation for their houses.

Of course, there is a question about the practicality of knocking housing estates, however ill-advised they may have been. It’s not just a case of sending in the diggers and ripping up houses, foundations, water pipes and tarmac drives. What do you do with the debris? It would take a lot of money and a considerable amount of time to make this land suitable for agricultural use once again.

If these questions are addressed properly, then Brendan and Ciaran will be more than welcome to come in on their bulldozers and knock some of the housing estates. It won’t solve all our problems but it’s a start.

A children’s football game was taking place in Kenagh the other day, at the pitch on the Lanesboro Road. The changing rooms are old freight containers. Bricks and mortar are for houses only, apparently. Everything else takes seconds place.

'Get over it'; George wasn't cut out for the job

In the words of Roy Keane, it's time to 'get over' George Lee's resignation from Fine Gael.
The RTE man found that the system in Leinster House doesn't accommodate star candidates who think they can change the world.
There's no doubt the George Lee's heart was in the right place.
He's a guy who entered the political ring with fire in his belly, and a belief that he had something to give towards solving this country's economic crisis.
There was no mention of fixing potholes or sorting out medical cards when George put himself before the people.
Nonetheless The electorate in Dublin South loved him and duly returned him to the Dáil in last year's by-election.
But that's where the good news stops.
George seems to have thought that he would be central to providing the solutions to our ever worsening economic problems, but he hadn't bargained for 'the system' that rules everything, and everybody, in Irish political life.
It's the system that tells new TDs that they must serve their time and earn their promotions and positions of power.
You don't go from the RTE newsroom to the heart of political decision making in nine months- no matter who you are, or how good you think you are.
That's why going into politics is a marathon style event, and not the sprint that George had in mind.
It's no wonder then that, by the time many politicians get their chance to shine, their best days are behind them.
Leinster House and Fine Gael have proven themselves, in this case, to be the killers of enthusiasm and the knackers yard for a naive belief that one individual has anything to offer 'the system'.
I think George Lee was wrong to jump ship before he really tested Fine Gael's willingness to embrace him and his ideas.
But who knows, maybe he is better off getting out before he gives any more of his time to a party that plainly only wanted him for his vote gathering ability at election time and his 'star' quality and communications skills.
George Lee was used by Fine Gael, and used badly.
This episode should be a lesson to all; you can't be part of the political system unless you submit to it from the start. It dictates how, and when you rise through the ranks and start to make a real difference.
That's why only true politicians, and those who are willing to wait their turn, should go anywhere near a political party to make their mark.
It's time to move on and get over George Lee's 'toys out of the pram' moment.
It may have been great media fodder, and it may have exposed Enda Kenny's style of leadership, but in reality it's been nothing more than a pointless sidewhow.

Pope says: ‘Get blogging with the Leader’

Yes it true; Pope Benedict XVI has urged all priests to embrace the opportunity that digital media provides in order to spread the word of the Gospel.

In his message for the 44th World Communications Day Pope Benedict says priests can discover new possibilities for carrying out their ministry through the technologies that are now available.

He challenged priests to: “proclaim the Gospel by employing the latest generation of audiovisual resources (images, videos, blogs and websites) which, alongside the traditional means, can open up broad new vistas for dialogue, evangelisation and catechesis.”

Here at the leader website we totally agree- that is except for any mention of vista; what an awful mistake that was by Microsoft!

According to the Bishop of Clogher, Joseph Duffy, the Church has a responsibility to ensure that Christ is present in cyberspace so as to give a ‘soul to the fabric of communications that makes up the web.’

Well Different Deadline would like to offer the public platform for our local priests to blog to their hearts content.

There’s a whole new conversation to be had about where the Church stands in Irish life in 2010. What better place to start it, but online.

Now that the Pope has given the web his blessing, you’d never know- it might just catch on!

Leader Talk podcast has arrived

The Longford Leader has launched its first Leader Talk podcast this week.
This will be a fortnightly production which will be posted to the Longford Leader website on the first and third Friday of each month.

This week presenter Fintan Duffy was joined by RTE journalist Fran McNulty, Vice-Chairman of the Leinster Council of the GAA Martin Skelly, Sheila Reilly, the editor of the Longford Leader and Seamus Butler the president of Longford Chamber of Commerce.

The podcast was recorded in Backstage Theatre in Longford on Friday January 22nd.

Check it out at: http://bit.ly/5njJnB

'No one saw this coming'- Government needs to visit Specsavers

This surely is the epitaph for Brian Cowen's government. When the economy went bust all the experts inside and outside of Leinster House used the mantra that there was no indication that this collapse was on the cards.

When the country flooded late last year any criticism of the Government's response was once again rebutted with the line that this couldn't have been predicted.

Then the snow and ice came and what do you think happened?
Yes, the excuse for needlessly allowing the country to grind to a halt was that 'no one saw this coming'.

All three events which have exposed the lack of organisation and command at central, and indeed local level.
The financial crash was a worldwide issue; the flooding was due to historically high rainfall; and the freezing temperatures were the worst since the 1980s.
All three excuses are true; but it's how the Government responded in all three cases that is the problem.

For Minister Gormley and the Taoiseach to use this sort of guff to try to explain why they were so badly caught asleep on the job, is pitiful.
Gormley's attempts to pass the buck on Prime Time last week concerning who reported to him and who didn't, shows us that he has bought into the Fianna Fail way of doing business.
Blame the system for your own failure and establish a committee to make sure it never happens again.

These guys think that rounding up a few heads of department, and a couple of outsiders with some credibility, and using the phrase 'emergency response' to describe the work of the committee, is the way to keep the angry punters off their backs.

There must be serious concern now that the State can respond to any major national emergency without putting on the usual Keystone Cops performance.
The emergency plans of all local authorities should now be the subject of independent examination.
Some of them read like something out of Alice in Wonderland. They would crumble under the pressure of even the slightest test.

I'm suggesting that the ad agency that runs the Specsavers account use the economic crash, the flooding and the Big Freeze as the backdrop for their next campaign.
Use all the news clips of Cowen, Coughlan and Gormley repeating the 'no one saw this coming' mantra, and they will be onto a winner.
It would be very funny too, if it wasn't so serious.