Ireland Not Performing to Expectation in Six Nations

Tue, Mar 05, 2019

The Six Nations is underway and by their own admissions things are not going according to plan for the Irish team. In 2018 they were riding high after becoming the Grand Slam winners so sitting in third place is not entirely cutting it. Freetips.com looks at their game so far.

Take up rather than give up this coming Lent

Thu, Feb 28, 2019

Back in the dark dreary days of the eighties, when the birds were falling off the trees with the hunger and the smell of rain-sodden hand-me down duffle coats was the overriding scent of the era, we actually looked forward to Lent and the chance to give up something you were probably unlikely to be having anyway.

Back then, there didn’t seem many vices that seemed give-up-able for 40 days. There wasn’t that much TV, there was no internet or social media of which to deprive yourselves. In the main, it was sweets and sugar — and so the beet and sweet industry took a blow during the Springtime of each year, as our souls were saved from eternal damnation by virtue of our amazing willpower to deny ourselves goodies that were probably out of reach anyway.

Fantasy Football round 29 preview

Thu, Feb 28, 2019

There are only 10 matches to go in the Premier League. Liverpool and Man City are slugging it out at the top for the right for them to call themselves the best team in the land; the battle for Champions League football is hotting up, and plenty of sides are fighting for their top-flight lives; it is exciting.

The beauty of being there

Thu, Feb 21, 2019

Midway through the first half of the National Hurling League game between Galway and Dublin in Salthill on Sunday, the stadium announcer proclaimed that somebody had handed in a house key, a “sort of elaborate-looking house key” to be more precise, and that it could be reclaimed from the stand at halftime.

As the crowd looked at each other wondering if the key was for some sort of an elaborate house, or if it was the key itself that was elaborate, it was what happened next that led me to believe that the boom is back.

Three coats of blue gloss and an understanding

Thu, Feb 14, 2019

I always loved this time of year as a kid. All winter long, the three lake boats which we had on Lough Mask would lie as part of the winter furniture — a plaything for my childhood. It was their hibernation, a chance for them to drip dry over the winter months. A chance for the floorboards, probably sodden in water all summer, to dry in the shed, alongside the oars. To have a timbered chat with each other about the adventures that they’d had all year, the rocks they’d have run aground, the stories they’d have heard, the secrets shared between anglers and gillies, the dying fish which breathed last on their thin ribs beneath the floorboards.

Consultation can move us all forward

Thu, Feb 07, 2019

Consultation is an under-rated concept. But it is key as it helps engender the support that decisions need to be successfully implemented. The importance of it is to the fore in Galway this week because of two major projects. One which is just starting out, and the other which is midway through.

Let's make more of our global connections

Thu, Jan 31, 2019

Back in the day, town twinnings were a great fashion altogether. Every little town and village had some fella living down the road, probably in on a witness protection programme or someone who said he hailed from some little Breton village named Creton-LeBlanque or Moron du Ville. And in a time when there was really nothing on the telly and it rained for eight months of the year, the temptation for a jolly to an exotic destination (anything east of Moate) was too much to resist.

Get ready for RUXI’s midnight runners

Thu, Jan 24, 2019

Imagine the scene in a small rural cottage. It’s nine o clock on a Saturday (the regular crowd shuffles in)...Paddy is in the jacks, clean-shaven, unusually clean shaven for that hour of the night. New geansai on him. His Sunday mass geansai. His sums copy shirt underneath. A pair of Farah slacks giving him shape. Smell of Old Spice and Lynx off him. At this hour of a Saturday, he’s normally just about to get ready for cocoa and slippers and a shout at the telly “how did that hoor Darcy get his own TV show...”

Fantasy Football January review

Tue, Jan 22, 2019

What a weekend of Premier League action that was.
There were seven goal thrillers at Molineux and Anfield, crucial relegation clashes, and a very angry Italian manager after a tepid London derby loss for Chelsea against Arsenal on Saturday evening. Thankfully there is cup action this week to give all Fantasy managers a well earned break. And with no league action this weekend let's have a look at the top three in the Advertiser Tribal League in association with St Anthony's and Claddagh Credit Union.

The benefits of recycling our wasted community wisdom

Thu, Jan 17, 2019

I often wonder about the amount of wisdom that filters through our lives unused. The stories untold, the knowledge unshared, the information that is left under-utilised. All of our communities feature hundreds of people who have a major contribution to make to the betterment of life, yet there is often no facilitation of this expertise.

On one level, think of the men’s sheds — set up to enable people of mixed personalities and expertise to come together, and after a few ‘howyas’ and ‘lishens’, that a conversation ensues about how they can combine to make life better for their communities.

Fantasy Football round 23 preview

Wed, Jan 16, 2019

It was a fairly quiet week on the football simply because there was very little football taking place.

Being Nora — city loses one of its great characters

Thu, Jan 10, 2019

It was only about two months ago when I was sitting scribbling in a comfy chair in a corner of Renzo cafe and gallery on Eyre Street, when I looked up and saw her face looking down at me.

Cracking Down On Gambling Laws

Mon, Jan 07, 2019

There’s been a major crackdown on gambling laws in Ireland this year, as what was once recognised as a safe haven for businesses due to favourable cooperation taxes, has seen revenue commissioners get gambling and gaming operators in their sights as they seek to clean up the industry somewhat. There’s been a suggestion that the relevant authorities want to reign in operators, as they felt things had increasingly gotten out of control. The Irish population have a real passion for gambling, with over 6,000 said to work in the gambling outlets spread around the country. The passion for gambling in Ireland increased considerably thanks to the emergence of online and mobile gambling, especially as this gives people the ability to place bets or play their favourite casino games at any time of the day or night. This has allowed PartyCasino, among others, to offer their services to a very willing audience.

Simplicity can be the hardest thing of all

Thu, Dec 13, 2018

Maybe it was all Darina Allen’s fault. For about 100 years of cooking Christmas dinners and burning turkeys, we were happy.

Fantasy Football round 17 preview

Thu, Dec 13, 2018

Another week of European action has ended with Spurs achieving their "greatest ever European result", a 1-1 draw away to a Barcelona B team and Mo Salah and Alisson Becker sending Liverpool through to the knock-out stage after a tense 1-0 win over Napoli at Anfield on Tuesday night.

In focus: Galway’s gambling scene

Thu, Dec 13, 2018

We all know the old cliché: “the luck of the Irish”. Whether this originated in the context of gambling or not, there’s no doubt it’s relevant to the Irish people’s love of a flutter – whether it’s on the horses, in the lottery or even in one of the country’s many casinos.

How we stop doing things the stupid way

Thu, Nov 29, 2018

When all is said and done, there is great wisdom to be got from Puss in Boots in Shrek. A master of the art of life, a great survivor, a curator of the nine lives that he was born with, he was often known to impart the words of a creature who had lived life to the full and knew all its twists and turns.

And although, Puss in Boots is unlikely to be ever mentioned in the same breadth as Einstein or Shaw or Wilde, there is one of his quotes that often comes to my mind, and maybe because that is the way I am wired.

Fantasy Football round 14 preview

Thu, Nov 29, 2018

It is back to the Premier League after European duties and for Irish fans, domestic action is a welcome distraction from the FAI's strange decision to bring back Mick McCarthy to manage of Ireland after parting ways 16 years ago.

Forty families a minute make the call

Thu, Nov 22, 2018

Poverty cannot be appreciated until you have lived it. Until you have walked the streets wanting, but not looking like you are wanting. Until you have trundled through Shop Street at Christmastime with an ache in your heart knowing that you cannot have what others have. But it is not envy. It is the feeling of being unnoticed, unwanted, that is the most hurtful and debilitating.

We all make the mistake of thinking that poverty is being without food, without clothes, without shelter, but is so much more than that. It is about how all of these things make people feel.

Pallas Karting Christmas gift voucher - the Christmas present of 2018

Thu, Nov 22, 2018

Christmas is 'the most wonderful time of year'. Everyone is getting into the spirit of festive and cheer, and towns and villages throughout the county are decorated and illuminated by Christmas lights, creating a special atmosphere which only this time of year can generate.

E-paper

Read this weeks E-paper. Past editions also available from within this weeks digital copy.