Dermot Looney
@dlooney
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Leaving this app, run and supported by the worst people in the world - find me on IG/BS - the @HistoryStPats account remains for now.
Joined November 2008
A reminder that, outside of a few RTs, you won’t find me much here anymore. I’m at the same username at the other place.
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Disappointed to see complaints re the RTÉ School Hub today for having 2 male and one female teacher. A. They cobbled something like that together in a week. B. For many pupils, these may be the only male teachers they ever have. Could it inspire some boys to go on and teach?.
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Most of us adored Robbie Keane as a player. His playing contribution was historic. Many of us were appalled by him breaking the sporting boycott of a genocidal regime and don’t want to see him involved in football here. He doesn’t get a free pass because he was a great player.
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Just imagine the phone-in shows if this was Shamrock Rovers in Tallaght.
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Let’s be clear about what happened 4 weeks ago. Govt were advised by NPHET not to try to reopen hospitality plus retail etc as well as allowing family visits. They chose their own course of action, and our health staff and thousands of sick people are reaping what Govt sowed.
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I almost never swear on here so please forgive me for the below. Fuck the Beacon. Fuck for-profit healthcare. Fuck for-profit education. This is about a lot more than vaccines.
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Interesting to see some ex LOI footballers turn into Covid deniers and anti-vaxxers. Lads I wouldn’t trust with a throw-in, never mind public health advice in a pandemic.
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Interesting stat from Gráinne. Now to take a big swig of coffee and read up on what party is in government now, has been in government for most of the state’s history, and has the Minister for Health. Simultaneously shameless and shameful.
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As someone born exactly nine months after the Big Snow of 82, I urge you all to take extra precautions. .
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As someone who, for my sins, dealt with matters such as litter management and public realm issues for 10 years, let me just say that it really is as simple as most of you are making out - DCC are a basket case and the fault does indeed lie with their management.
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This individual has been engaged in a genuinely weird vendetta against teachers throughout the crisis. She has also displayed a startlingly poor knowledge of education for someone so vocal. I can’t wait to go back to the classroom. But it won’t be on her terms.
'The schools must open in September. ' . @ciarakellydoc reacts to new school guidelines and says 'there can be no protected group of workers when everyone else is pulling their weight' . #TonightVMTV
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Just 7 hours until Lee Carsley has the opportunity to do the funniest thing ever by belting out Amhrán na bhFiann pre-game.
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The rehabilitation of this chancer is a stain on Irish politics. He lied to a tribunal about tens of thousands of pounds he mysteriously received.
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In comedy news, a “Daily Mail” political “journalist” who styles himself an “old Blueshirt” and left “journalism” to work for serious political party “Renua” has “awarded” Norma Foley “Minister of the Year” because (checks notes) she opposed unions by letting Covid rip in schools.
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Bad news for James Geoghegan in Dublin Bay South as Renua are tallying at a miserly 0.6%.
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Happy Rod Liddle He’s The Guy Who Ran Away And Left His Wife For A Young One day for all who celebrate (including me). 17 years. I can remember his name.
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This is Trump’s worst day in office since that time he played golf with Rory McIlroy and I tweeted questioning Rory for enabling him and Piers Morgan had a go at me and then Rod Liddle, the guy who ran off on his wife for a young one, slagged my name in the British Sun.
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Won’t be sharing those videos from Coolock but a reminder that those kids will soon return to classrooms, football teams etc with kids from other backgrounds. Huge efforts have gone into integrating kids inside and outside school. Utterly depressing to see this hate take hold.
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I teach about Travellers. I have taught many Travellers. I have welcomed Travellers to my class to teach about their culture. This utter charlatan has nothing to tell me or anyone else about this issue. A blathering nobody being promoted by an unimaginative bubble.
Businessman Peter Casey joins us now to discuss whether children should be educated about travellers in school. Do you think it should be introduced into the curriculum?. #IrlAM
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A gentle reminder that the Government removed public health supports including contact tracing from schools at Halloween, and November and December saw the worst chaos of the pandemic in most schools which spread to the wider public. Now they’ve refused to re-implement it.
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We have rightly focused on Leaving Cert students but there’s another cohort for whom yesterday’s announcement to close school buildings til Sept has huge significance - 6th class pupils. It’s a tough age in the first place, but now they won’t be back to primary school at all.
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BK Hons: LOI Premier Division winner (x2), LSC winner (x3), LFA President’s Cup winner, UEFA U16 Championships winner, UEFA U18 Championships winner, World Youth Championships bronze. JMcA Hons: League Cup and FA Cup runner-up, lots of stories where he’s the butt of the joke.
Jason McAteer talking about his former Ireland manager Brian Kerr on Bein Sports: "I'm looking at this fella thinking, what have you done in the game?!". I wonder what Brian Kerr makes of this .
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I’ve worked with 3 of the 4 TDs being slagged off here. While we had our disagreements, they are decent people who care about Palestinian people and care about peace. I also had the misfortune of being lectured in UCD by the tweeter. I know who I’d rely on for anything.
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Doing the weekly shop tomorrow, so just wanted to check in advance with the journalists on Twitter what foods are appropriate for a leftie to buy. I know seafood is out. I imagine breaded fish is ok? Is it ok to buy something a bit exotic once it’s in Lidl?.
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Teachers are many things but are not here for you to live out your anti-union fantasies. Find yourself another punchbag.
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Another day, another story. Primary school with a positive case in a class. HSE said only the pod needed testing. Teacher insisted that whole class should be. HSE eventually relented. 7 positive cases were found at multiple pods. Listen. To. Teachers.
These are very reasonable demands from the INTO. I am happy to continue working in the classroom at Level 5. My school are doing all they can to protect me, my colleagues and the pupils. But I want assurances that the HSE, Dept of Education & other agencies will do the same.
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Students are not, in any real sense, “glued to their phones during the school day.”. Schools have been dealing with mobile phone policies for 20 years+ and, while there are issues, teachers and school leaders are far more in tune with this than the Pouch Provider in Chief.
My op-ed today in @thejournal_ie about why I am providing funding to secondary schools for mobile phone pouches or other storage solutions so that students are no longer glued to their phones during the school day.
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I was 10 years a public rep and am 20 years an activist, advocating for public housing, struggling to help constituents find housing and demanding real policy responses to the crises. None of these figures popping up at anti-migrant protests have ever lifted a finger to help.
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My folks are 54 years married today. A couple of years back, my brother-in-law managed to get the old cine camera footage of their wedding day restored. The full thing is on YouTube but here are some of the highlights. (They’re still going strong btw!)
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Stop. F**king. RTing. Fine Gaelers. And Fianna Fáilers. They are the ones to blame, not the ones “standing up for you.”. The state of the health service - their fault. The schools mess - their fault. The high levels of Covid now - their fault. Don’t let them away with it!.
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If I was a member of the National Public Health Emergency Team and believed the country needed to go to Level 4, but knew how unpopular that would be in Govt and among much of the public, a strategy to achieve my aim might be to recommend a Level 5 lockdown. #JustSayin.
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It’s very important to keep hammering this home. It needs calling out more. The current Minister has obsessed over the mobile phone issue - an issue for parenting and society, not a schools issue - at the expense of teaching, learning and supporting kids with additional needs.
Instead of spending €9 million on phone pouches, it could be spent on any of the following:.- 273 SNAs.- 180 teachers.- 167 speech and language therapists.- 160 occupational therapists.- 112 educational psychologists.- 26 Dáil bike shed.
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Spent 15 minutes in a Junior Infants classroom earlier today and am still traumatised. Massive shoutout to all the legends who are infant teachers and SNAs!.
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If Paul Reynolds on RTÉ reported that the “far left” were involved in today’s scenes of madness in town because the Garda Commissioner told him, then that doesn’t absolve Paul Reynolds. Both men have a duty to correct the record and identify the real issues which led to today.
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Fair fucks @ThomasPringleTD - calling out the Healy Raes who talk out of both sides of their millionaire mouths on immigration, playing up to the hard chaws with lots of right wing nonsense while pocketing plenty of state money from hosting Ukrainians at the same time.
During this afternoon's debate on Irish foreign policy, neutrality and the Triple Lock, Danny Healy-Rae expressed concerned about unvetted immigration. Donegal's Thomas Pringle was. unimpressed. F bombs ahoy:
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I’ve decided to stop paying any tax and instead donate a portion of my income to causes I like. Look forward to all your plaudits!.
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Many of you will spend the next few weeks at home with your kids and want to ensure they continue their learning outside of school. As a teacher, I've been asked by a few friends and followers here for some ideas. Happy to give a few thoughts - unfortunately, it needs a thread!.
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The Irish Junior Minister for Sport here introducing himself as a Liverpool fan. His constituency base is within 30 mins of at least six League of Ireland clubs. Professional football in this country has been held back by many things. Politicians without a clue is one of them.
As a Liverpool fan myself it is sad to see clubs prioritising profit-making at all costs. The Super League proposal is bad for fans and bad for the game. It needs to be rejected by everyone who cares for the future of the game.
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One of the most horrible things I’ve seen over the past two months is the pitting of those who advocate for children against teachers and other staff in schools. That some continue to engage in personal attacks on teachers and school staff is really regrettable.
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Fascinating stuff from Off the Ball. In my country, the professional football season has been ongoing since February and two clubs are in European competition this week.
🗣️"The tyranny of the football season. I'm just not ready for it.". Are you ready for football to come back or are you suffering with football fatigue like Mick? ⚽
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Interesting to read quite a few people slagging off kids going skiing (related to the Coronavirus) as being posh etc. Loads of secondary schools do it. When I went to school (a DEIS school) they went skiing. If it’s not for you, fine. But it’s hardly the stuff of class warfare.
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All this going on now with nobody Fianna Fáil/Fine Gael Senators and their buddies in the Dáil lining up to have a go at Michael D is to do with him calling out their failures on housing and public policy - little or nothing to do with Ukraine, like it or not.
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A classroom I’m very familiar with dropped down to 11° today. The heating was on full blast but the teacher needed to keep the windows wide open. Any time he went to close one the CO2 monitor started rising. All the kids wore their hats & coats.
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This is our school. Despite all the bluster and blow about supporting kids with additional needs a couple of months ago, when it comes to the crunch, we have to appeal for supports for kids like Lexi on the national news.
The family of a child with autism has been told it will be late 2026 before she is seen by HSE school-age support services
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The tone in this is hilarious. How are we meant to take these people seriously?.
“To think that people might end up going to an organised, ticketed event is just absolutely outrageous.” . @EmerHigginsTD is calling for all social media companies to remove all content related to the illegal St. Patrick’s Day rave.
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Fair dues, this is the biggest “f*ck you” I’ve gotten in years. Keep the schools open at all costs but f*ck the teachers and SNAs. We’ve been frontline workers only when it suited. The @INTOnews promised us we would be in the first third of vaccines. Will they step up?.
🚨 The #covid19ireland vaccine rollout is to get an overhaul - appointments will be issued only on the basis of age, once people with underlying conditions/living in vulnerable settings are done. Means no priority for those in specific jobs, e.g. Gardai/teachers. @VirginMediaNews.
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This is the entirety of the @SocDems national campaign crew - staff & volunteers. Together we produced and launched 18 policy documents, coordinated 20 local campaigns, produced posters & leaflets, ran social media, comms & admin, and put together a 123-page manifesto. (1/2)
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I teach in a Tallaght primary school. The children there would never be this nasty, rude or ignorant. They know that you should either use “e.g.” or “eg” but never “e.g”. They also know that it should follow a comma, not a full stop. They wouldn’t capitalise Public Life either.
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A 2021 request for all of you in Ireland who like football/sport but aren’t much of a League of Ireland fan. Pick your local team or the team from your childhood (or just pick @stpatsfc). Follow them on social media. Resolve to go to a game when it’s safe. Take an interest.
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What's happening in Greece is one of the most open, frightening and profound attacks on democracy Europe has seen in 70 years #ThisIsACoup.
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Listening to a radio host who likes to sound off a lot on education. She just read out a text about an SNA who has worked with LCA students. Her response was “I don’t know what that is.”. If you don’t know what the LCA is, maybe don’t be so free with your educational commentary?.
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Like many people here, I once viewed greyhound racing as a bit of craic, an occasional night out. I wasn’t aware of the huge public money going down the drain to prop up a dying industry with often-abysmal animal welfare standards. Well done to Holly and the @socdems TDs on this.
DEFUND THE GREYHOUND RACING INDUSTRY. On Wed the SDs will put forward a Motion. Calling on the Government to:. 💶Reverse the €2.4 mil increase in funding for the industry in 2021. 🐾Increase funding for the welfare of greyhounds. 🙌Phase out state funding for the industry
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If you are younger than 32, Fine Gael have been in power for all of your adult life. They’ve been in government since early 2011. A few months of this inconsequence of a man in the Taoiseach’s office isn’t going to change years of disastrous housing policies.
New FG leader Simon Harris tells party Ardfheis in Galway that the government “will move mountains to get the children out of the box room and into a home of their own”.
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I understand the issues with Revolut’s lack of customer service and how poor they are around fraud etc. But my Revolut fees since 2020: €0.41. AIB fees in the same period: €814.69. Young ppl will never have traditional bank accounts. And the rest of us will get rid of them.
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Utterly unhinged stuff from the Aontú European candidate for Dublin. All because people are wishing a woman expecting a baby well. The hatred is just off the charts.
This one called me a Bigot then deleted such classy behavior!
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Irish people really need to cop on with the childish love-in for the US Democrats. Whatever about Harris being the lesser of two evils, there’s lots of rubbish extolling the Clintons, the Obamas etc. Make no mistake - this crowd are responsible for the scandal of Gaza. Grow up tf.
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A jaunty reminder that every single person in history who has protested that they are ’a centrist’ has been decidedly right wing.
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Enjoying the pile on by Fine Gael public reps in my mentions right now. Their WhatsApp group must be lit!. But seriously, a reminder to everyone. You are *not allowed* to *ever* criticise Fine Gael online. Anyone who does so is officially a meano.
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My dad played four games for his boyhood club, St Patrick’s Athletic, in 1958/59. By the time the 1959 FAI Cup Final came around, he was in the B team and cheered on that first Pat’s Cup win from the terraces. Today, he got to lift the Cup for the first time alongside my mam.
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I see lots of people on the left giving out about the PRSTV explainers etc - and I get it - but this stuff is genuinely thick. Give me two seats - which FF got in CSC - any day over the ultimately irrelevant honour of topping the poll.
Our new Taoiseach,. and I cannot stress this enough,. got elected on the 6th count.
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Incredible. The @SocDems have just won our second seat of this election in the 3-seat Cork South West constituency. What an incredible campaign from the one and only @HollyLeahCairns. We are bursting with pride! 💜.
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There’s something missing here. I can’t quite put my finger on it.
Waterford City & County Councillors who are calling on a no vote in this month’s referendum
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Michael O’Leary launching a Fine Gael Minister’s campaign by slagging off teachers. Class politics, my friends. (Also - any teacher thinking of voting for this shower and their mates on FF - come on now!).
Last night Fine Gael minister Peter Burke had Michael O’Leary (yes that one) launch his election campaign in Mullingar. The sheer hypocrisy to have him on stage whinging about government wasting money at a government TD’s event. 😂😂😂. Fine Gael don’t care about the working
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Unpopular opinion. If you want local Cllrs available all day & night for meetings; if you want them reading every document, answering every call and replying to mails within hours; if you want them out meeting residents and groups; pay them full-time wages and give them staff.
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Taking off my @SocDems hat. I’ve never seen so many charlatans giving nonsense advice on how to fill out the ballot. You can stop at 1 or any other number. But you *should* go as far down as you possibly can. I’ve seen no. 15’s elect FF over the left. Go as far as you can.
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Inchicore was buzzing last night with another full house in Richmond Park. About 80,000 people came to the 18 home League games. Add in a few thousand more for other matches. You can see the impact Pat’s are having on the local economy, with pubs and restaurants packed.
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No. Families who cannot afford university or any third level should be enabled to attend by policies rooted in equality of access. This applies to housing as much as to education policy. No one should lose out because of geography or class. Outrageous that this nonsense continues.
Families who cannot afford university should consider ‘regional options’ - Minister
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I follow lots of great Shamrock Rovers fans on here. Friendly, caring, funny friends from over many years. I just want to let them know that I hope they get absolutely battered tonight. Forza Milan.
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Apparently this doesn’t matter to people but I’ll say it anyway - a vote for Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil is a vote to allow the USA and Israel set the foreign and humanitarian policies of our country.
A senior US diplomat warned of ‘consequences’ if the Occupied Territories Bill passed, offering to ‘connect’ the attorney general with DC for 'the best outcome’. Less than 90 minutes later Micheál Martin announced the bill would merely undergo a ‘review’.
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No-one in power wants to know, but there is already a crisis re teachers in Dublin and we’re a couple of weeks away from seeing how much worse it’s become. The cause is very simple. A huge number of teachers cannot afford to live here, or near here, any more.
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That’s funny, because I remember someone called Ciara Kelly lambasting teachers time and time again during 2020 on Newstalk. Must be a different Ciara Kelly.
‘Maybe we need to get a little bit creative.’ Ciara and Shane spoke this morning about issues surrounding recruitment and retention of teachers @NTBreakfast
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I’ve heard Bernard give similar speeches in schools and at Council events for years. He was right then, and he’s right now. Sport treated as serious social policy can empower working-class communities. Sport treated as a slush fund for political friends leaves them behind.
Bernard Dunne nailing it. How important sport is for young people and our communities. 🥇🥇☘️☘️💪💪
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Bohs fans all over my mentions who won’t allow any criticism of the horrible sexist chanting throughout today’s game aimed at a Rovers’ player’s partner. Yes, the same person they targeted that flag at. The Great Moralising club might wish to have a word with themselves.
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Delighted to have been asked by the Taoiseach to serve in Seanad Éireann. I will be taking up a post as Junior Minister for Posts and Telegraphs and the League of Ireland.
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Shame on the GAA for refusing the use of Páirc Uí Chaoimh for Liam Miller’s memorial match. The GAA has modernised in many ways but it’s unacceptable to hide behind an antiquated rule book in a situation like this.
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You’d imagine that’s the end of him for Ireland. Our other options at RB/RWB. - Coleman, great bloke, injured, nearly 36.- Festy, 0 appearances in the Championship this season.- Omobamidele, a centre half.- Sam, an 18 year old on loan in League One. I’m going with the latter.
RTÉ soccer analyst Stephen Kelly was highly critical of Matt Doherty's defending for the second Greek goal in Ireland's 2-0 defeat at the Aviva Stadium. #RTEsoccer
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Chancery Grill is a great name for a Fianna Fáil Restaurant.
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This chap presents a radio show with another mouth in which they sound off about every issue under the sun with the standard reactionary ráiméis. But when an elected rep - yes that’s what the President is - raises concerns about genocide or human rights, he throws a wobbler. 🤷
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A huge honour to be welcomed to Áras an Uachtaráin by @PresidentIRL today and to present him with a copy of Saints Rising. Joined by Brian Kerr, @karl_pats and Denise, we had a great chat about all things football.
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As 1st counts come in, it's clear from the tallies that the @SocDems have had a decent day out. The challenge for us was to win more seats than the 2 outgoing, and to hit the 2% nationally. It appears clear we will do both. At this stage, we're in the hunt for at least 6 seats.
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Inexcusable from the FAI that there is no TV coverage of the Presidents’ Cup. Meanwhile on RTÉ2 we have a movie about a US sports agent travelling to India to recruit cricketers for baseball.
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Hahahahahahaha. Just seeing this now. This is my favourite one. This is the best thing anyone has said in the pandemic. The windows are now open too much!. Put it in the National Gallery. Project it onto Leinster House. Paint it on the walls of the Áras. Not. A fucking. Clue.
Schools cautioned on ‘over-ventilating’ classrooms by public health officials
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That’s great. Now, let me check the RTE schedule for the evening. Oh.
A sellout crowd of 7,500 will be on hand to watch Shamrock Rovers welcome Bohemians to Tallaght in the biggest League of Ireland game of the evening. Here's your preview for all tonight's action. #RTESoccer.
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There are a lot of people now facing a bleak January, none more so than our healthcare workers & those who are sick. There is too much focus on personalities in Govt. Instead we need a real focus on decisions they made. They need to be held accountable for this avoidable crisis.
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“Psycho-social experiment.”. What is going on at the Irish Times? 🤯. It is awful that kids in my class and thousands like them have to wear masks. It doesn’t make my job any easier, let me tell you. But yet more of them catching Covid and spreading it will be way, way worse.
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Heimir Hallgrímsson becomes the first Republic of Ireland boss to have lost to St Patrick’s Athletic (managing IBV in the Europa League in 2011) since current St Patrick’s Athletic manager Stephen Kenny (managing Dundalk in the Leinster Senior Cup in 2018).
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I have met David, nice guy, but these are the comments of a charlatan. He should take a break from the graphmanism and talk to some principals & staff near where he lives. No one with any real-life experience of schools here the past 7.5 weeks would make these comments.
That @RTENewsAtOne interview with @NormaFoleyTD1 would make you want to delete twitter. They gave 90,000 antigen tests to schools and only 3% came back positive. PCR tests show 2% positivity. Positivity today in the wider population is *20%*. Schools issue overblown, again. .
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RTÉ have had a lot of sports commitments this summer between the Olympics and the Euros. But to have completely ignored all 16 games so far involving LOI clubs, and seemingly be ignoring the next 4 in playoff rounds for group stages, is quite astonishing.
Shamrock Rovers have released the following statement in regards to the national broadcasters non-coverage of the clubs European run. The club have announced they will now consider not facilitating any national broadcaster requests to show LOI matches from Tallaght Stadium
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Of course, we went on to win Vet and win the election overall. That political maestro, brought in by the right to defeat us, had proven his worth. His name? John McGuirk.
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Watching Longford v Derry on #WatchLOI. ❌ No graphics showing teams and score.❌ No match clock.❌ No replays.❌ No co-commentator.1️⃣ Only one camera, in a low position in the Main Stand, with some poor camerawork at times. Forget the excuses. This is just not good enough.
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Turnout in Tallaght & Rathfarnham not as high as hoped. Together For Yes are asking all Yes supporters in those areas to get in touch with friends & family *now* and ask them to go to the polling station. They have less than 3 hrs. Open Whatsapp/Messenger/etc and get texting!.
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Listening to some lad on Joe Duffy who wrote a book on what we should be proud of in Ireland. In the space of 30 secs he said we should be proud of political centrism, GAA is the most-played sport in Ireland (sic) and the sport we should be proudest of is horse racing. I’m done.
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If the *Chief of Staff, Global Operations, Europe, PayPal*, who tops up that salary with 18K in Cllr remuneration & hefty expenses can’t *afford* a mortgage, what the hell does that tell us about her Govt’s policy for the last eight years?
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I see Niall Collins has referred to the Social Democrats as “frauds” because he didn’t understand what was said about coalition. This is the same Niall Collins who committed actual voting fraud in the Dáil chamber when voting 6 times for his absent buddy.
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Never a dull moment in Irish football. Except during Ireland games.
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On a day where all of Dublin is affected by closures & diversions, it’s entirely inappropriate for public transport to give free travel only to those attending a Catholic mass. It should be free for everyone for a set time. Why won’t @Luas or the NTA respond to questions on this?.
#Luas Red Line trams running Tallaght / Saggart - Blackhorse & The Point - Smithfield only from 7am - 10pm. Connolly stop closed 7am - 10pm. Free Travel with Final Mass ticket. See for info. #WMOF2018
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