Fantasy Football round thirteen preview

Tue, Nov 20, 2018

After another depressing round of internationals for Ireland where Martin O'Neill's men played out an uninspiring 0-0 draw with Northern Ireland on Thursday night followed by another 0-0 snoozefest against Denmark in Aarhus on Monday evening, the good news for Ireland fans is that there are no more international rounds until March and it is back to the Premier League.

Reaping the benefits of a culture of nurturing

Thu, Nov 15, 2018

Gardeners are good at nurturing. I suppose it comes with having a great patience, a desire to believe in the capacity of the fruit and plants they tend, a gut feeling that with the proper conditions, they will deliver. The right amount of photosynthesis, the right amount of care, the right amount of gut feeling.

I have visited the Portershed in Galway on many occasions over the past few years, and it is full of gardeners. Not wellied-up green-fingered types, but people who stand there watching over their patches, waiting to see if they turn to the sun or turn away. If they absorb the rain, or let it destabilize them.

Fantasy Football November review

Tue, Nov 13, 2018

Round 12 of the Premier League ended with Man City proving that sky blue is the colour in Manchester as they defeated Man United 3-1 at the Eastlands on Sunday evening.

Connacht coach Andy Friend believes his team have what it takes to make the Champions Cup

Mon, Nov 12, 2018

Connacht coach Andy Friend believes his team have what it takes to make the Champions Cup after watching them destroy a hapless Dragons side on Saturday. James Cannon and Colby Fainga’a scored their first tries for the province in a 33-12 bonus point win that carried them up to fifth in the Pro14 Conference A table. Seven Pro14 teams qualify for the Champions Cup and Friend reckons his squad can kick on and grab one of the spots. They are certainly benefiting from the impact of Australian imports David Horwitz and Fainga’a and optimism currently abounds.

The international break, which has seen Bundee Aki, Kieran Marmion, Finlay Bealham and Quinn Roux called up to the Ireland set-up, gives fans, players and Friend the opportunity to reflect on a rollercoaster start to the season. According to a Sportsbetting.ag review a top bookie at SBR and a look at the best odds available, Connacht are given a decent chance of success in the Pro14 and the Challenge Cup. They are sixth in the betting for the Pro14, behind only Leinster, Glasgow, Munster, Scarlets and Ulster. In the Challenge Cup, they are sixth in the list, with only Clermont, La Rochelle, Harlequins, Sale and Northampton ahead of them.

Fantasy Football round 12 preview

Fri, Nov 09, 2018

After the rollercoaster week that was the Champions League and Europa League, it is back to the normality of domestic matters.

The laundry walls find a new purpose

Thu, Nov 08, 2018

Walls are powerful things. Some are built to keep something or someone out; others to keep people in.

Tried and tested - Michael D wins the race

Thu, Nov 01, 2018

It is reassuring the people of Ireland have elected Michael D Higgins as our President for another seven years.

The result was an overwhelming mandate for the Michael D and ageism, reinforcing that this election was one in favour of the incumbent President, and not one against the other candidates.

Fantasy Football round 11 preview

Thu, Nov 01, 2018

November has arrived and we are nearly a third way through the Premier League season.

Justice at last for lives unlived

Thu, Oct 25, 2018

What strikes us is the ordinariness of the forenames. The Patricks, the Julias, the Marys, the Peters, the Johns, the Mauds.

Fantasy Football round nine preview

Thu, Oct 18, 2018

After another depressing round of internationals for Ireland where Martin O'Neill's men played out an uninspiring 0-0 draw with Denmark on Saturday followed by a disappointing 1-0 home defeat to Wales on Tuesday evening, it is back to the Premier League.

A stadium to admire and inspire

Thu, Oct 11, 2018

In times of old, our ancestors built places of worship, soaring churches, round towers pointing at the skies. Around the world, most civilisations did likewise, digging amphitheatres into undulating hills; surrounding places of conquest with walls to form an arena for entertainment or persecution, to where the hordes thronged to fill their thoughts with admiration and revulsion at gladiators and beleaguered prophets.

Fantasy Football October review

Wed, Oct 10, 2018

Round eight of the Premier League ended with a whimper as Liverpool and Man City played out a dour 0-0 draw at Anfield on Sunday evening.

Let’s not let the next crucial decade slip by

Thu, Oct 04, 2018

I’m due to retire sometime late in the spring of 2030. Around four o clock on that day, there’ll be be a soft shuffle of footsteps at the office door, the smell of cheap birthday candles from the pound shop, and the loud ticking of an engraved timepiece to somehow none too subtly remind me of the time that I’m supposed to be at work, and just how many of those hours were devoted to keeping the coffee industry alive in local hostelries. There’ll be a few hoary auld speeches that will all begin with ‘d’ya remember the craic we had when....” and then after a few awkward silences, there’ll be a card with a voucher for an afternoon tea, and the kind offer of helping me with the few cardboard boxes out to the car, because after all the new person will be starting on Monday and.....

Thoughts of 2030 come to my mind this week at a crucial juncture in the timeline of some major projects in this city. I wonder on that day as I sit there with my few cardboard boxes, looking out on Eyre Square, just how much of the city will have changed. Will I look across and see the sun reflecting in from the coast, bouncing off the glass windows of Bonham Quay; will I see thousands of excited young visitors and workers make their way up through and into the Ceannt Quarter where lie beyond delights of retail and cultural experience?

Fantasy Football round eight preview

Thu, Oct 04, 2018

With European business done and dusted for another week, it is time for Fantasy managers to refocus their minds and look towards the Premier League.

Greenway farce shows our politicians can always hold us back

Thu, Sep 27, 2018

Sometimes, we get the politicians we deserve. Sometimes, we don’t deserve the politicians that we get...

I didn’t think it was possible for the county councillors to mess this one up. It wasn’t as if it was going to cost them anything. It was being five points up with a minute left in added time. It seemed they were going to have to come up with something ingenious to grasp defeat from the jaws of victory. It was if they were going to adopt that old maxim “always look a gift horse in the arse.”

Fantasy Football round six preview

Fri, Sep 21, 2018

So the first week of European action has concluded. It is always a nervous time for Fantasy managers as their stars travel around the continent looking to test themselves against the crème de la crème of European football.

Miraculous that more were not hurt as Ali shook west

Thu, Sep 20, 2018

Is there a townland or a village that didn’t have trees uprooted yesterday by the ferocity of Storm Ali? With schools and offices opened, with tens of thousands of people on the roads, it is mind boggling that none of those trees that fell, did so on top of a car, or a schoolbus, a pedestrian, or a cyclist.

For all audio visual needs, go to O'Connors Audio Visual

Mon, Sep 17, 2018

There have been many changes to the way of life in Galway city over the last 50 years but one constant that has remained is the first class quality and customer service provided by O'Connors Audio Visual.

Greenways will not shut the door on our rail history

Thu, Sep 13, 2018

Every generation is afraid to lose what was gained before. And so it is with the trains. There is a great sentimentality about the fear of losing the rail services. When one thinks of what was lost when the Galway to Clifden service was discontinued, you have to cringe. Imagine the cultural and economic possibilities of that service were it there today. Imagine that train puffing its way through the valleys, past the lakes, over the rivers and arriving in that town in the foothills of Connemara.

Fantasy Football round five preview

Wed, Sep 12, 2018

It is back to porridge for Fantasy managers this weekend after a week of internationals and the new UEFA Nations League.

E-paper

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