Coaching.

sometimes it's not all about winning, the under 18 team I manage played earlier this week, and though they were brilliant, they still lost by a point, the strange thing was I did not feel at all bad about it, in fact i was very pleased with the performance, the skills they showed and the effort they put in.

Yes we made mistakes, and we'll make them the next time too, but we are looking for a reduction, not perfection.

And it was nice to know for once that winning is not everything.

In denial!

Powerful and disturbing documentary last night http://www.fairytaleofkathmandu.com/

I think the hysterical reaction has a lot to do with people's idealistic view of human nature, or even of nature itself, the abuse of power and money is as old as the world, and although many people will embrace power (social, political or financial) without allowing it to corrupt them. it's always highly likely that a significant nimber will see their powerful position as a justification for what they do. It's usually shrouded in a veil of benevolence, just as O"Searcaigh uses the guise of helping, Bush uses the term liberating, and the Christian brothers used to call it disciplining, as Haughey would have said, now lads it's for your own good.

O'Searcaigh has unwittingly, even willingly become evil personified, because we need someone to vent at, meanwhile there are many planes leaving Ireland today for Thailand, Vietnam and many other places where middle age men will use their economic supremacy to engage young women in catering to their sexual needs, in fact there's no need to go that far, the cancellation of the days racing in Cheltenham has already been described on the radio as a bonanza for the sex trade in the area.

So maybe we should think before climbing on our high horses and stoning O'Searcaigh to death. I think what he did / does is/ was despicable, but he used his power to exploit people so he could get what he wanted, you'll see that happening with individuals, countries and corporations everywhere. It's hardly a new discovery, put a hungry lion in a cage with a deer and then come back in the morning and see what's happened. Oh nasty nasty lion... get a grip.

What is unusual nay amazing about this docummentary is that O'Searchaigh allowed it to happen, allowed his ego to lead him into disaster, it did not begin as a trap but it slowely became one... and he walked right in believing his benelovence and intellect could somehow save him from the ire of a nation.

It's not shocking, it's sad. It's cetainly not surprising.

This docummentary will win many awards, not so much for the exposure of a moral issue, but more for the fact that one mans hubris enabled it to be made at all.

Love this

Here, you gotta love this, a man who says what i usually think far brilliantly than i could dream of expressing it.

Bloody brilliant.

The images of my childhood.

It's hard to get away from the images of your childhood, the six O'Clock news always had this man shouting over everyone else, in my head he was the bogeyman, the personification of evil, I used to think he would eat children alive, only catholic children of course, but he still would.

He was indirectly (and boy did he know it) responsible for the prolonging of inequality in the north for the last forty years, he was a fundie who earnestly believed in the superiority of the protestant people, he fought to preserve but ultimately only succeeded in prolonging the ethos of apartheid and supremacy that had existed for the previous centuries.

In his period of obstruction and "never never never", 3000 people died, sometimes we should trust our childhood intuitions.

Evil is Evil, but is most dangerous in the mask of righteousness.

Shame on those who now fawn over him and his legacy.

When you're just not good enough

Well done to Celtic on at least being competitive in Barcalona last night, we were so outclassed by a team with better players and more money that it's very easy today to know what it feels like to be a Kilmarnock or Caley Thistle supporter.

Sometimes the best thing abouyt being a fan is just the relentless ploughing on, be it with Celtic or Roscommon, the keeping going in the faintest hope that someday there will be that special moment and thet we enjoy it all the more because of the famine before.

I've been lucky enough to experience those moments in Seville and Ennis, and to not plough on now would mean the next one - even though it may be 15 years away, would lose it's sweetness