REWIND: Sligo Weekender, May 8th, 2007. Shamrock Rovers v Sligo Rovers

A semi will decide ......everything Published in The Sligo Weekender, October, 3rd, 2012

A semi will decide ......everything

JJ Devaney

 An FAI cup semi-final between fierce rivals Sligo Rovers and Shamrock is as big a fixture as is possible to imagine in Irish domestic soccer. However with Sligo Rovers effectively relinquishing their hold on the Airtricity Premier League trophy with a 0-0 draw at home to Cork City on Monday night, this FAI Cup semi-final takes on even more import for the bit o’ red. With the League trophy heading to Inchicore and the EA Sports cup (the League cup) safely ensconced in Tallaght stadium Sligo Rovers will look to bring the Ford FAI Cup back to the Showgrounds for the third time in 4 years.

Having appeared in 3 FAI Cup finals and winning two between 2009 and 2011 you could be forgiven for thinking that the cup is of lesser importance to a Sligo Rovers team that won its first league championship in 35 years last season. The truth is that with such a large and talented squad it is vital that Sligo Rovers aren’t just competing for silverware but winning silverware each season and this season the FAI Cup remains the only real chance of achieving this. Of course all managers will tell you that the most important game is the next game but when you consider how disappointing the last game was, and the fact it effectively brought down the curtain on the league campaign, then psychologically Sunday’s game becomes massive for both fans and supporters alike. It is a season defining encounter. 

Sunday’s match will help define how supporters view the season past and will set the tone for the forthcoming campaign. There was palpable restlessness amongst the natives in the Showgrounds on Saturday night. Some of it was justified, some of it was hysterical. The league title defence has been a disappointment and the crowds of the last few weeks have reflected this. You can expect there will be a bumper crowd in the Showgrounds for the cup semi final on Sunday yet for Monday nights league game, which would have left Rovers just two points adrift of St Pats had they won, there was a very disappointing turnout of just 1600*. It appears the fans had conceded the league title defence was over prior to the weekend’s double header.

Sligo Rovers fans have been spoiled with success the last few years; of that there is no doubt. With a top domestic trophy being delivered to the Showgrounds every year since 2009 and the assembly of a squad of considerable depth and ability, the hope of success has been replaced by a demand for it by many fans. This is the reality for manager Ian Barraclough and his team on Sunday. A place in the FAI cup final in the Aviva stadum awaits; Sligo expects.

Legend of the Raff. Published in the Sligo Weekender, October 3rd, 2013.

 JJ Devaney pays homage to Raffaele Creatro and a lunchtime soccer league where the Sligo Rovers legend made his first impact

Raffaele Cretaro made his 388^th appearance for Sligo Rovers on Friday night and jumped into second place in the all-time appearance list just behind Tony Fagan. Raff was suitably proud of his achievement in his post match comments but it was the managers thoughts on the Tubbercurry man’s special night that reminded me of days gone by and appearances by Raff that weren’t included in the 388.

Ian Barraclough remarked of Raff as being a ‘true legend’ of Sligo Rovers FC but I first remember Cretaro as a legend in his own lunchtime. It was easy to mention his brilliant brace of goals in the game that clinched the title last year at home to St Pats but it was equally easy to recall our shared triumph on the crumbling gravel of the Marist Secondary school, Tubbercurry in vice-principal Oliver Lannon’s 1^st and 2^nd year boys lunchtime league. Mr Lannon presented the winners prize of 20 pound to us but really our victory was assured in the four v four league when the name Raffaele Cretaro was added to the names JJ Devaney, James Frain and Joseph Corscadden. None of us we were bad players but with Raff you always felt you had the advantage.

Back then you couldn’t have predicted how he would weave his name into the rich tapestry of Sligo Rovers football club but you certainly knew he was different. The way he struck the ball was just better, cleaner and harder than anybody else. Playing for the school one day in Sean Fallon Park he rattled one off the crossbar from 30 yards. The bus driver on the way home couldn’t get his head around the ferocity generated by the diminutive 13 year old. We lost to one of the ‘townie schools’ 2-0 that day but even then Cretaro was the stand out man. His presence and ability reduced the inferiority complex of our country school team when faced against those for whom soccer was the singular sport.

As we stood in the tunnel chatting on Friday night Raf recalled his goal scoring debut for Rovers against Monaghan in September 2000 under then manager Tommy Cassidy. A few months earlier in June Raff turned out for his boyhood club Real Tubber in an end of season south Sligo junior soccer tournament called the ‘Jack Davey Cup’. I played for Chaffpool Rovers when we faced Real Tubber in our second game and we won 4-2. Raff was destined for the Showgrounds and so the victory was all the sweeter over our local rivals. Looking back and thinking about all he has achieved since adds an extra gloss to those memories.

388 appearances seems a smaller number than I expected but then you can’t include the day he briefly interrupted a ritual hammering in the Connacht Minor championship at the hands of Joe Bergin and his Galway teammates by coming off the bench to score two points in 3 minutes for Sligo. You see to those of us who watched his rise from the beginning it’s easy to count many more stories, memories and appearances for Raff.

When Ian Barraclough talks of Raff as ‘a true legend’ he is correct. The word ‘legend’ comes from the Latin ‘things to be read’ and Raff has surely written his name into the annals of Rovers history for future generations to read about. Raff is the heir apparent to the mantle of Johnny Kenny for the rural Sligo Rovers supporter. He is one of our own. We all have a story about the rise of Raf around here. We all take particular pride in his achievement. So here’s to Raf! 388 appearances and counting, 68 goals and a thousand memories. 

Domestic flaws don't cut it at a higher level. Published in The Sligo Weekender online, July 18, 2013.

Domestic flaws don’t cut it at higher level

 July 18, 2013

Champions League Analysis

JJ Devaney

IT is fair to say when you take the step up to the Champions League you really don’t want to concede from a similar long ball to the one that caught you out against your domestic title rivals two days previous.

For the second game running Evan McMilan struggled when turned under a high ball and while Molde striker Daniel Chukwu had much to do from the initial mistake it was a terribly frustrating way to concede.

Sligo Rovers were nervous defensively all night against a team that did not pressurise the Airtricity League Premier Division champions’ back four when in possession.  But for some excellent first-half saves from Gary Rogers, this tie could have been dead before the second leg in Norway next week.

The home side’s midfield was a mixed bag of industry and graft – but little craft. The Rovers’ midfield five certainly stifled Molde’s abilty to pick passes and play, but often the hustle and bustle of Lynch and Connelly came up short when subtler skills were needed.

A lack of width hampered the attack and, with no Alan Keane overlaps as an outlet, it was often all huff and puff in the centre of the park.  Djilali and Keane’s late introductions set the midfield free to stretch Molde but it was too late to redeem the first leg tie.

With his strike partner from Sunday’s Airtricity League Premier Division game, David McMilan, operating in a wide right berth, Anthony Elding cut a lonely figure against a combative Molde back four.

One can scarcely recall even a half-chance for the Boston native and even when Rovers had a brief purple period in the first-half, where Lee Lynch delivered consecutive crosses into the box, Elding was still outnumbered.

Going a goal down didn’t prompt Ian Baraclough to change things up front and so Elding toiled on in the midsummer sun without once causing the Molde defence any problems. 

Rovers must dare to break the mould. Published in the Sligo Weekender online Champions League edition. July 18th, 2013

Rovers must dare to break the mould

Champions League Comment

JJ Devaney

OLE Gunnar Solksjaer arrived for the postmatch press conference after his Molde FK side had beaten Sligo Rovers 1-0 and all I could think about was his stellar performance for Manchester United against Newcastle at Old Trafford in the 2002-03 season.  Molde FK didn’t distract me.

This Molde collection doesn’t bear any of the assassin qualities that their manager possessed as a player.

For a Scandinavian side they didn’t bring huge physicality or power.  Not that they should resemble their Viking forefathers and score three thunderous goals, set fire to The Showgrounds and rampage a trail through the Ox Mountains via Ballisodare.

SUPPORT: Natasha Carty, Lauren Feeney and Stacey Carty were at The Showgrounds for Wednesday’s game.

No, not these fjord-loving Norsemen.  They were really quite ordinary.

Unfortunately, Rovers manager Ian Baraclough picked a team for an imagined foe and not the opposition that presented itself underneath the hot July sun at the splendid Sligo venue.

Despite his assertion that it was ‘very much the right decision’ not to start Alan Keane and Djilali, one could argue that Baraclough missed out on a golden opportunity to bring a goal into next week’s away leg in Norway.

Such was the impact of the wide pairing of Keane and Djilali when introduced that one wonders what may have happened if Baraclough had started the duo.

The manager believed Djilali and Keane may not have had the space to exploit a fresh Molde defence and that, indeed, may have been the case but the real question is what was to be gained by holding them back?

Molde’s goal came not from incisive, flowing football but from a Rovers mistake.  Ditto the volley by Chukwu that was so expertly saved by Rodgers.

Even when Berget inexplicably smashed the ball off the outside of the post it was from Rovers needlessly surrendering possession.

Tactical conservatism meant sacrificing a marauding full-back in Keane for a centre-half out of position (Henderson) and loading the midfield with busy grafters like Conneely but no creative penetration.

As The Showgrounds watched Djilali twist the Molde full-back into knots with 10 minutes left, the gaping, gnawing feeling was of an opportunity missed.  What if we had a REAL go at them?

Baraclough’s selections screamed not of the ability of his own team but rather of what the opposition might offer.

In his postmatch comments Barclough said: “With a little more belief and positivity in our play – the lads know they can go and play at that level against this side – in the second leg you may see a different belief in ourselves.”

For the next leg the belief must come from the manager and it must be reflected in his team selection.

How will the Rovers script end? Published in The Sligo Weekender, June 20, 2013.

JJ Devaney goes to the movies as he reflects on Sligo Rovers' efforts to retain their crown.

Saturday night’s comprehensive 5-2 win over UCD at the Showground brought the curtain down on act one of Sligo Rovers defence of their title. As Rovers players and fans alike enter into the mid season interval they will both be considering the same thing: In what shape is our main protagonist, Sligo Rovers FC as the curtain is drawn for the intermission.

Sligo Rover’s season so far has resembled one of the summer’s Hollywood blockbusters in many respects. There has been something of an Oscar winning formula to it: We begin with our hero at the top of his game. With most of his enemies vanquished from early on the seeds of self doubt are sown as dark forces contrive to take him down. Defeat at St Pat’s sees our hero lurch into a spiral of bad form and the kind of mid-film crisis of confidence that is the hallmark of almost all of Tom Cruise’s films. Our hero clings onto hope in the shape of the home win against Derry and finishes the opening salvo with a morale boosting win against UCD. The scene is set for a comeback in the second half where our main protagonist draws on old inspirations and reminded by familiar friends (Danny North, perhaps) of the glory days he strives for one more dramatic stab at victory.

 Our plot even has a flawed character that Martin Scorsese would struggle to write. Anthony Elding, the early season all-action hero has to face his disciplinary demons. Can he find redemption and play a leading role in a second half comeback? Can he slay the red demon that has dogged his early season exploits? 

With a body count to rival any of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s films can Manager Ian Barraclough achieve Total Recall for North, Cretaro, Ventre and Lynch? Will the return of the four ‘Rovers-oir Dogs’ jump start the season and cause carnage to the rest of the league?

 There are so many questions to ponder as we munch on our mid season break popcorn. Even more questions appear on screen with the rise of Stephen Kenny’s Dundalk from plucky upstarts to title contenders. St. Pats, Derry City, the Rovers and now Dundalk are coming together to create a title race as complicated and convoluted as Christopher Nolan's  ‘Inception’.

 Hopefully Rovers can maintain the excellent attendances at the Showgrounds that we saw in the first half of the season. With a 5 goals on Saturday night maybe the boss’s mantra is ‘If you score goals, they will come’. Without the fans, Rovers have no chance of making sure that the Showgrounds remains the ‘Field of Dreams’ that it was last season.

Price of Ros Loss. Published in The Sligo Weekender, July 2013

JJ Devaney says that Kevin Walsh's tenure began to fade following the Connacht Final loss to Roscommon in 2010

Kevin Walsh’s 5 year reign as Sligo manager ended on Saturday evening just outside Dungiven, Co. Derry. There were no tactical moves left for Kevin Walsh except to deny the media assembled in the corridors of Derry’s magnificent centre of excellence first word of his departure. When the ‘Sunday Game’ Twitter account released that Walsh had stepped down few were very surprised. Kevin Walsh told the media he would ‘see what happens’ regarding his future and then resigned minutes later. It was a final dummy, one last drop of the shoulder to sidestep a question he has somehow avoided for the last three years.

 Losing to London in Ruislip should not be the defining memory of the Walsh era. That late, late goal chance for Pat Hughes that hit the crossbar was not the turning point. The London defeat was the logical end of the downward spiral that had begun at the Connacht Championship on the 18^th of July, 2010. From the moment Neil Ewing fouled Roscommon’s Johnathan Duggan under the stand in McHale Park to set up Donie Shine for the Connacht title winning free this Sligo team under Kevin Walsh has been in free-fall. Rising to Division 2 with back to back league promotions in 09 and 10 and a heartening fight against Kerry in the 2009 All-Ireland qualifiers were the stimulus for historic defeats of Galway and Mayo in the Connacht championship in 2010. Since then it has been a litany of poor results and heavy defeats for Sligo under Kevin Walsh. Losing that Connacht championship final was traumatic and represents the single biggest missed opportunity for silverware in Sligo football history. To beat Mayo and Galway in one Connacht championship campaign and then lose to Roscommon in the final was a blow from which Walsh and his dressing room never recovered.

 It took a defeat to London to bring into sharp focus the decline of the Sligo team but really the results of the last three years speak for themselves and make one wonder how the Sligo County board allowed Kevin Walsh to make it to Ruislip as manager. The axe could have fallen after the decimation of his team against Down in the qualifiers in 2010 or after only scoring 4 points against Kildare in last years qualifiers or defeat to Wicklow in Aughrim in 2011 after being eliminated from the Connacht championship by a Leitrim team that hadn’t won a championship game in 3 years. Sligo also nearly returned to division 4 football after a wretched league campaign this year. 2012’s defeat of Galway in the Connacht semi-final was but a brief respite.

London may have been the lowest point but that was a defeat three years in the making. Kevin Walsh’s last 3 years as manager have been an exercise in postponing what should have been inevitable as his team sleep-walked through a mire of terrible performances. Defeat to London and surrender to Derry were only the final chapter in what has been Kevin Walsh’s long goodbye.

Cool Head on a Hot Night. Published in The Sligo Weekender. April, 2013

After a fractious but thoroughly absorbing night in the Showgrounds the first question that springs to mind is ‘where to begin?’ Firstly it may be no harm to debunk a myth that floated around for a time in the press box immediately after the game. The idea that Drogheda United deserved anything from the game. They really didn’t. Drogheda took the lead and created little after that and created even less after Ross Gaynor’s ridiculous sending off.  Rovers considering their numerical disadvantage dominated the game and thoroughly deserved their lead when Aaron Greene slotted home on 90 minutes.

This was a Rovers we haven’t seen terribly often this year in the Airtricity league. Apart from the listless defeat to St Patrick’s Athletic we haven’t witnessed Rovers v Adversity. 1-0 down at the break with their top scorer misfiring and a decent away team not allowing them to get into a rhythm Rovers really rose to each and every challenge in the second half. Joey Ndo may have been a little bit rusty at times but he certainly seemed to liberate Cawley and Lynch in the midfield, an area which Rovers totally dominated. His ability to keep the ball and release wide players was crucial in particular when Rovers went down to 10 men.

Ross Gaynor’s sending off clearly incensed both manager and player but neither were forthcoming in the post match interviews about what exactly happened. All we can deduce is that Gaynor may have made some gesture toward the away fans in the Jinks avenue stand and was sent off by referee Anthony Buttimer for said interaction. While no player should get involved with the fans in such a manner the Drogheda fans were clearly looking for a more ‘active’ part in proceedings all night long. It may be logistically awkward but if there was a way to house the away fans somewhere else it should be investigated as in their current home they are too close to the pitch and players, leaving the way open for the more troublesome elements of the away support to wreak havoc.

Rovers work very hard after the sending off and at long last we saw some indication as to why Kieran Djilali was brought to the club. His slaloming late burst set up what we all thought would be Rovers equalizer from Aaron Greene and he certainly gave Drogs more to think about than the ineffective Millien. Drogs equalizer was disappointing considering the graft and endeavor Rovers had shown. The manager noted this fight as a positive in his post match comments: ‘At 10 men we could have downed tools, given ourselves excuses and said ‘it’s not our night’ but we didn’t and that’s a great quality to have’.

Rovers showed much quality on Saturday night, much more than their opponents but in the final third you get the feeling that they long for the return of Raf Cretaro and Danny North. Anthony Elding’s goalscoring has been superb but he needs a partner that can offer something different to the Rovers creative forces of Ndo, Lynch, Cawley and Cretaro. North fits that bill perfectly.

Tempers were frayed all around the Showgrounds on Saturday night but it was refreshing to see that Ian Barraclough kept the coolest of heads in the heat of battle. Experience has thought him no doubt that Saturday night was only one of many battles to be faced in what is fast becoming a very engaging season. 

Rovers v Cork City. TV View (Published in The Sligo Weekender, April 2013

Rovers v Cork City. TV View.

JJ Devaney

There were few surprises from Saturday’s Airtricity League showdown between Sligo Rovers and Cork City. Rovers won, again. Anthony Elding scored again. And in TV land Eoin Hand was miserable. The only real surprise was the line up for RTE’s coverage of the game. Aidan Power was in the hot seat usually frequented by Peter Collins or on occasion Dara Maloney. Power, more usually associated in the past with children’s TV and light entertainment has been struggling to get work and to be fair he didn’t do a terrible job ably abetted by former UCD player and MNS regular, Tony McDonnell.

You just got the feeling that Power, despite his smooth delivery, was reading from a template: ‘Sligo Rovers are doing really well and Elding is amazing’. It was hard to shake the idea that that was the sum total of his League of Ireland knowledge and at any moment he was going to invite the viewers to text in the Sligo Rovers player they thought looked most like a member of Westlife. Apart from that it was pretty plain sailing for the studio duo with McDonnell only once losing the run of himself by describing Elding and Cretaro’s partnership as ‘subliminal’.

There is nothing ‘subliminal’ about Anthony Elding for Sligo Rovers fans. His impact on the club’s early season good fortune has been clear. It’s fair to say that he may not have had his best game on Saturday in front of the TV cameras but he scored again in another Rovers win. RTE may have given Elding the big build-up in the pre-match analysis but resident soccer grump Eoin Hand wasn’t in the generous mood and had some choice words for the former Leeds striker particularly in the second half. Hand’s first salvo against Elding came mid-way thru the second half: ‘He is quite a lazy player really’ Hand opined. It was interesting that Eoin Hand finished that sentence with the word ‘really’ because ‘really?’ is how most Rovers fans would have greeted that opinion of our new striker.

Eoin Hand wasn’t finished there in his diatribe against Elding. ‘He really is the quintessential journey-man’. At a rough count Eoin Hand had 13 clubs in his playing career so I suppose he is well qualified to make such an assertion. Finally, after Elding rolled home the penalty, his 9^th of the season, Hand delivered the coup de grace describing Elding as ‘ineffectual’. If doubling his sides lead against a good side in the league is ‘ineffectual’ then Rovers manager Ian Barraclough will take ‘ineffectual’ all season long.

Hand has always struck me as particularly miserable pundit. Adrian Eames explained the drop in Rovers attendance was down to the miserable blustery weather. Those Rovers fans who watched from their couches might as well have been outside in the Showgrounds because on Saturday, via television, Eoin Hand brought the misery indoors. 

TIME FOR CHANGE. TIME TO GO, KEVIN.

TIME FOR CHANGE. TIME TO GO, KEVIN.

London have beaten Sligo in the Connacht Championship and it really isn’t a shock. RTE might call it the ‘first shock of the summer’ but if you’ve seen the 2013 version of Sligo you will know different. Kevin Walsh knew it last week as he got the excuses in early declaring how Sligo struggled against ‘lower ranked teams’. Ross Donovan gave an angst ridden, confidence sapping interview to Newstalk about the perils of playing London in Ruislip. Some pitfalls included airport security, the plane landing and staying in a hotel. This wasn’t a pair of rookies talking; this was the manager and the team captain. It appeared the only white flags that Sligo would be raising against the exiles would be flags of surrender.

Sligo’s one point Connacht Championship defeat to London may be the most significant loss of Kevin Walsh’s tenure but in truth somewhere between the FBD league final and the Divison 3 hammering by Monaghan in Clones Kevin Walsh lost the dressing room. His players lost faith in the training, in the team selections but most of all in the manager himself. Kevin Walsh asked for more of a commitment from the players in the Autumn. No player who did not give a full winter time and spring time commitment would be considered for selection for Sligo. In discarding Eamonn O’Hara based on this diktat, Kevin Walsh alienated many in the squad with a massive u-turn when drafting in Mayo-man James Kilcullen in the midst of a relegation campaign. Sligo’s need for a midfielder was acute but at what risk including Kilcullen?

On Saturday night, while Sligo were settling into their hotel in London, James Killcullen was playing for Ballaghaderreen against Aghamore in the Mayo Senior championship. He would be a second half substitute against London as things got desperate. He made an impact at midfield were Gilmartin and Taylor had singularly failed to control a rampant London engine room. Had Killcullen started maybe Sligo would have fared better at midfield and therefore controlled the flow of play. He didn’t start because ultimately his commitment lay with his club side in his own county championship. In spurning 20 years of commitment from Eamonn O’Hara for 20 minutes of commitment from James Killcullen Kevin Walsh made a huge mistake. On Sunday he compounded that mistake further by sitting James Killcullen on the bench until it was too late. The manager had lost faith in his convictions. 

The players can’t be held blameless for the embarrassment of the London defeat. They represent the paucity of talent in the county in general but you must wonder about all those called into the squad for the FBD Connacht league. When the pre-league cull was over not too many new faces remained and the National League squad had a grimly predictable quality about it. With only two recognized scorers taking the field on Sunday the worst case scenario emerged: a game where both Adrian Marren and Mark Brehony struggled to score. Could Walsh really have countenanced the exclusion of Stephen Coen in the face of so few alternatives up front?

The biggest error in this sorry mess was the Sligo county board waiting for Kevin Walsh to make a decision last autumn about his return. Walsh allegedly interviewed for the vacant Roscommon managers job. Kevin Wash wasn’t waiting around for Sligo at that time. Now in the wake of the worst result in our football history Sligo should not wait for him. 

Hurricane Sandy. Sligo Weekender, November 8th, 2012.

Letter from America

‘It looks like a bomb has hit the place’. That was the opening text last Tuesday week from my friend Ross Fales on the New Jersey Shore. Superstorm Sandy had spent its terrible wrath on New York and New Jersey’s coast line from mid-afternoon on Monday right through the night. Ross lives in Avon on Sea a town over from Belmar, the town I called home for 3 years. I asked Ross what he knew about the damage in Belmar. What Ross knew was not good news. 

Text messaging was the easiest and most effective way of keeping touch with my friends in New Jersey as the scale of hurricane Sandy became clear in the hours before and after the storm made landfall. With phone lines and WIFI services soon to be knocked out the written word of the text message was my connection with what was unfolding in my home away from home. The words of destruction, damage and panic were so alien to me it was easy to slip away in my minds eye and think of ravaged countries like Haiti or sub-Saharan Africa. There was a disconnect between what I was being told via text and the images of the places I had left just weeks before. Even the picture Ross sent of the sea literally taking to the streets and cascading down the road had a surreal, unbelievable quality. Tuesday brought pictures of a town called Belmar in ruins. Piles of sand encroaching on the streets. Flood waters engulfing the buildings and timber strewn around like in the aftermath of an explosion. It was hard to see where the land began and the sea ended. I have always said that there is much more to New Jersey than meets the eye but what has met the eye in the days after Hurricane Sandy is a New Jersey Shore that is now hardly recognizable from the place I left in mid August.

The Jersey Shore is iconic. I have been lucky enough to spend much of the last few years in its environs and ‘summers spent on the Shore’ are the treasured memories of New Jerseyeans and New Yorkers who vacation there and, in some cases eventually retire there. It is 217 miles of small beach towns and boardwalks and beautiful seafront. This summer I spent time in Belmar, Avon on Sea and further south in Cape May. Idyllic is a word that gets used all too often but there isn’t a better one to describe this place. Now, large parts of the Jersey Shore’s trademark boardwalks, towns, homes, businesses and beaches have been completely destroyed. The tranquility of Shore life has been attacked in a brutal fashion. Locals have spent the last few days rallying together to help the worst afflicted but the magnitude of the rebuilding ahead is often overwhelming. In the space of  a few short days the landscape of the Shore region has been utterly transformed. In large areas an affluent, picturesque symbol of the American dream has been destroyed. My friend Ross Fales, assistant vice principal at the Christian Brothers Academy high school in Lincroft, New Jersey has spent the last few days volunteering to help those in plight in Belmar. ‘I’m clearing out people’s entire lives because the water was higher than the first floor of most people’s homes’. Even in the midst of this devastation Ross recognizes how personally it could have been much worse. ‘Im just trying to help out but believe me its only a little in the grand scheme of things. I feel almost guilty that I made it out okay, I just lost power. Some people have lost their homes’.

This part of NJ has known tragedy before. Monmouth and Ocean counties encompass many of the Shore towns I’ve mentioned and lost many residents in the terror attacks of 9-11 with Monmouth alone losing 147 citizens on that day. The loss of life in NJ has been much less in this current disaster and the strength to rebuild the Shore is strong. Having heard the stories of resolve these people have shown in this trying week I am sure they will rebuild the region again. 

Almost as soon as I left the Shore for home a few months back I began to think about the next time I would see the place again and, for a few horrible days last week, I almost thought I never would.

12

Intriguing mix of Aussie Soap and LOI Fare! JJ Devaney (Published in the Sligo Weekender, April 17th, 2012)

Intriguing mix of Aussie Soap and LOI Fare!


JJ Devaney 

Wow. What a start to the game! Liam is worried because he has gotten someone pregnant and during a robbery some guy has been knocked unconscious. Then before you know it BOOM! we go live to Pat Dolan! Its amazing how ‘Home and Away’ and RTE’s coverage of the Airtricty league seamlessly came together. No time for pre-match analysis when some Australian lad has just been bashed over the head. I wasn’t sure where ‘Home and Away’ ended and Sligo Rovers v Derry started. RTE didn’t give me any time.

Neither it seems did Pat Dolan. Clearly imbued by some conspiracy brewing in the antipodean town of Summer Bay Dolan decided to write his own narrative for the Sligo v Derry game. According to Pat a mysterious ‘everyone’ had written Derry off. With the smile of a man who had just composed a plot that would do Martin Scorcese proud Dolan told us ‘I think Derry could cause an upset tonight’. Dolan clearly didn’t realize that when it comes to the league Rovers fans are more used to Shakespearean tragedy rather than Scorsese-esque intrigue. What Rovers fan has ever ‘’expected’’ to beat Derry City?

Inappropriate sun also sneaked in from the ‘Home and Away’ set as the Showground’s was bathed in a light that left RTE’s cameras flailing around like an over eager Aunty with a camcorder at a First Communion. The setting sun impaired ones vision for Romuald Boco’s inexplicable miss after Danny North’s sublime flick. The replay showed the full horror. ‘Crikey’ as Alf Stewart might say.

Co-commentator Liam Coyle regaled us with analysis that was almost as formulaic as an Aussie soap. ‘If you don’t take your chances……blah blah blah’. Boco’s miss was punished by McDaid’s penalty but that didn’t stop the bias fest from Mister Coyle. The former Derry City striker couldn’t be kept in check by the mild mannered and salient Adrian Eames. ‘North hasn’t had a look in’ opined the Coyle. Your right Liam, Danny North hasn’t had a look in. Apart from his goal. Which in the pantheon of ‘’look ins’ is pretty big. Not to mention the gilt edged goal chance he orchestrated for Boco.

Pat Dolan looked suitably smug at full time with the 1-1 draw. While down under the Showground’s main stand Joey Ndo brought down the end credits and music as he told Tony O’Donoghue how close Rovers feel they are getting to the League title. ‘We finished third one year, second last year and this year we want 1st’.  Closer each day, Home and Away.

Don't doubt the Americans love their sport

By JJ Devaney

Published in the Sligo Weekender on January 24, 2012

It’s a cold, cold night in Green Bay, Wisconsin. I like Green Bay. They play on real grass in Green Bay even though temperatures plummet to as low as -26 degrees in January. I like the way the steam rises from the collective breath of 70’000 people.

Right now my team, the New York Giants are leading last year’s Superbowl Champions the Green Bay Packers, 37-20 on what resembles frozen tundra. It’s close to 1am and its time for bed.

Next weekend’s NFC East Championship game in San Francisco will mean I don’t get to be bed until at least 3am due to the time difference but that’s been the norm since my return from the US. What was once a Sunday night institution has now become an early morning addiction. I am hooked.

I’ve always encountered a snobbish, almost sneering attitude to American sports in Ireland. It seems to be the view on this side of the pond that American Sports are just like many other pieces of American culture: brash, over hyped, over commercialized and with out the real depth of feeling that our ‘native’ sports evoke.

It stems from a belief that our American cousins just don’t care about their sport the way we do about ours. Its complete nonsense. The idea that their sport is somehow an extension of a ‘fast food’ style American culture is simply not the case. They care about their sport in America. Big time.

In my early days in the US I too fell into the same arrogant belief that US sport - and specifically the US sports fan - is much less committed than there European counterparts.

While watching one of baseball’s truly historic match ups – the New York Yankees v The Boston Red Sox- I jokingly suggested to my then girlfriend’s family that to make things interesting next time I would don the garb of a Red Sox fan.

Her father, a quiet sort of chap, briefly retired to the garden shed only to return with a garden shears and a terse but graphic depiction of what would happen should I return to his home dressed as a Red Sox fan.

Delve deeper into that rivalry and one will find stories and tales to rival any of Europe’s storied soccer teams. The Red Sox and Yankees have been ‘at it’ longer than Manchester United and Liverpool. And the scars run deep.

Baseball was the first major sporting event to return to a changed New York City in the days after 9-11. The New York Mets Mike Piazza hit a home run and Liza Minnelli sang ‘New York, New York’ at the 7^th inning stretch in Shea Stadium, Queens. ‘America’s Past time’ provided a cathartic moment that night in keeping with its long and fabled history.

That same Yankee ex-girlfriend left me with a love for the New York Football Giants as my team after our parting of the ways. God bless her.

It’s the gift that keeps on giving. Not only have they one of the most obsessive fan bases in American sport they are a team with a great history going back to the 1920’s when they were founded by the Irish American family the Maras.

The Giants v Philadelphia Eagles is a rivalry to match any derby on these Shores. The close proximity of the two cities has engendered a jealously and bitterness that is nothing short of delicious. Try telling those fans that they don’t care about their teams.

Its easy to disparage the NFL with its regular stoppages in play and its TV breaks for adverts during the play, but for me the game has everything. High drama, an athleticism that is both majestic and brutal and edge of the seat excitement.

I know there are many educated NFL fans in Ireland but for those of you who cast a cynical eye on all things American I urge you to stop and embrace your inner, beer drinking, tailgating, foam-hand wearing American sports fan and give it a go.

As Lisa Simpson famously said: “enjoy the excitement of the savage ballet that is pro-football”. Add it to your list of late night pursuits; you’ll be glad you did. 

Getting to know the real New Jersey

By JJ Devaney

Published in the Sligo Weekender on February 28, 2012

I’ve been writing this column about my experiences in America for some months now with one glaring omission. I haven’t written about New Jersey, the place that has been my home for the best part of the last four years.

Lately I’ve been giving New Jersey a lot of thought. Quite apart from the fact I miss the ‘Garden State’ immensely I’ve also been listening to Bruce Springsteen.

Bruce is without doubt New Jersey’s favourite son and to me he represents all that’s good about New Jersey. Often when Americans talk about New Jersey the conversation is far from complimentary.

Firstly because of its geographical location (wedged underneath NY and Connecticut and hanging out over the Delaware estuary) New Jersey has been given the moniker ‘the Armpit of America’.

It doesn’t get much worse than being compared to an armpit. Secondly industrial North Jersey is a sprawling mass of factories, refineries, breweries and power plants. If you want an idea of its ugliness take a quick look at the opening credits of HBO’sThe Sopranos as mob boss Tony Soprano drives down the NJ Turnpike accompanied by flashes of its uncomplimentary industry.

Finally the abominable MTV’s Jersey Shore. The less said about that the better. Suffice to say our erstwhile Governor Chris Christie refused MTV a tax rebate due to the producers based on shooting in NJ because he felt it painted such an uncomplimentary view of Jersey.

None of the above is the Real New Jersey. It’s not the Jersey I know and love. Granted I was a bit taken aback when I first landed at Newark airport in the aforementioned North Jersey. (It has since taken on a postmodern grandeur for me but at first sight I wasn’t overly enthused).

But New Jersey is a State of treasures rarely alluded to by the media. The jewel in its crown is it long Atlantic coastline of beautiful beaches and idyllic little towns.

I was lucky enough to live in two of those towns: Belmar and Point Pleasant. Almost every exit on from Springsteen’s home town of Long Branch along the Garden State Parkway is dotted with these beach towns.

When the summer comes an east coast migration occurs every weekend as the main thoroughfare of NJ, the Parkway, is jammed with New Yorkers and North Jerseyans as they look to escape the rat race for a couple of days.

To the west are the verdant and green hills of the Delaware valley. That famous and historic river demarcates the state line between NJ and PA (Pennsylvania).

Further North are the mountains and lakes that seems to pill over from the Poconos mountains of PA and NY State.  In the Fall the colour change of leaves in New Jersey rivals that of Massachusetts and Connecticut.

The New Jersey sky has always been a fascination of mine. Sunrise or sun-set the colours that streak across the sky have an unreal beauty. It’s a cliché to say they look like someone painted them but I never fail to ask that question.

And then there is the people and their often shiny sun kissed faces. They can be loud and they are in your face just as much as New Yorkers but they are warm and kind and generous and they love to party. They even built their own version of Las Vegas in Atlantic City.

I’ve spent some fantastic times in Jersey. I’ve lived my own Springsteen soundtrack and I can even say that I’ve penned my own version of ‘’Jersey Girl’’ many times and with many different muses.

Now I am aware that many of Bruce Springsteen’s songs are thematically about escape from New Jersey; running from many of the paces I’ve just mentioned. But these themes are about the universal struggle of the ordinary man.

Bruce may appear to have some underlying issues with good old ‘’Jerz’’ but in his songs he always returns there. And in my own heart I’ve never left there.

Tactics, displays and chalkboards

Sligo Rovers FAI Ford Cup Final

Published in the Sligo Weekender on November 8, 2011.

Soccer coach JJ Devaney looks at how the three areas of the Sligo Rovers team functioned last Sunday

DEFENCE

ANYdefensive analysis of Sligo Rover’s must begin and end with the Shelbourne goal. An accomplished centre-half part- nership of Gavin Peers and Jason McGuinness certainly would not have been pleased with the manner in which Philip Hughes’ goal was created. The ball should have been cleared by McGuinness in the first instance and even when his clearance was returned, Peers would be expected to deal with what was far from a penetrating pass to Hughes. Barry Clancy’s dismissal all but ended any attacking threat from the Dublin side and allowed Rovers full-backs Davoren and Keane to become almost exclusively attacking threats as Shelbourne looked to contain Rovers rather than take them on. The sight of Davoren and Keane aug- menting the Rovers attack from wide po- sitions was symptomatic of Shels’ lack of an offensive threat after Clancy’s red card. JJ  Says: Job done by the Rovers defence. The uncer- tainty surrounding Shels’ goal will be washed away in the euphoria of victory.

ATTACK

A DIFFICULT 120 minutes for Rovers’ attack in this FAI Ford Cup final. Eoin Doyle looked isolated and out of form in what appeared to be a 4-4-1-1 formation. Blinkhorn and Cretaro were introduced to liven up Rovers’ forward line, but time and again they were thwarted by a combi- nation of excellent Shels defending and laboured approach play. The combination play between forwards that is quintessentially Rovers was absent. Most joy for Rovers was to be found from good crosses by John Russell – when he was moved wide – and Cretaro when he occupied a wide right position in ex- tra-time. A well-worked free-kick almost paid div- idends but Blinkhorn’s effort was saved by Shelbourne goalkeeper Delaney as Rovers increased the pressure on an in- creasingly embattled Shelbourne defense.

JJ SAYS: SNot a vintage Rovers performance in attack but a fighting one.  They kept going to the end.  The four perfect penalties shouldn’t be discounted either!

MIDFIELD

ANYONEwho may have doubted the im- portance of Joseph Ndo to this Sligo Rovers team had a very clear and almost disastrous riposte on Sunday at the Aviva Stadium. Shorn of Ndo’s guile, Rovers’ midfield looked one-paced and sluggish. This is by no means a one-man band, but Ndo’s abil- ity to create, cajole with skill and link midfield and attack with penetrating combinations was tangible by his ab- sence. Rovers needed that little bit of inspira- tion to prize open a solid and well-organ- ised Shelbourne defence and Ndo has so often been the man to supply it in tight affairs. Richie Ryan worked hard to be that cre- ative force, but it was the wide play of Aaron Greene and John Russell in the second-half that looked most likely to lift Rovers’ offensive malaise.

JJ SAYS: Rovers strength is their passing ability and creativity in midfield.  The fact that the free-flowing football associated with Cook’s team rarely appeared in the midfield zone meant that Shelbourne survived and were able to take the game to extra-time.

SHELBOURNE

ALAN Mathews’ team were set up to be difficult to beat. Any time Rovers had the ball they faced two perfectly in-sync banks of four designed to stifle. Clancy’s dismissal merely strengthened Shels defensive mindset. Had Clancy stayed on a more open game would surely have ensued. This was not to be and Shels clung on grimly to the bitter end, marshalled by ‘Player of the Match’ Stephen Paisley at centre- half.

Bay Ridge Remembers 9-11 in true New York fashion

JJ Devaney. Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. NYC. Sept 10, 2011.

Published in the Sligo Weekender, September 27, 2011.

Ten years on from the terror and loss of September 11^th 2001 the people of New York are still coming to terms with the darkest day in their history. This weekend New Yorkers have attempted to honor those who died in a solemn and thoughtful way while still showing the resilience and hope that was so evident in the lives of those that perished that day.

On Saturday night 74^th street in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn honored Officer Moira Smith of the NYPD. Moira Smith perished in the World Trade center while evacuating people from the burning and soon to collapse towers. Smith, a daughter of Irish parents, is credited with saving hundreds before the collapsing towers took her own life.  I was invited to join in this celebration of an exceptional life by Tony Conaghan, a great friend of mine, an Irish American and a 74^th street native. Tony is married to Mary whose people, the Tuffys, are from Castleconnor in Sligo. Officer Moira Smith was a dear friend to all on 74^th street and especially the Conaghans.

I had never been to a block party before. Block parties were the stuff of movies and events that only the Beastie Boys could rap about with any credibility.  The fact that my first block party was a commemorative event added to my sense of wonder. While I grew up with the cathartic idea of the Irish wake (almost a party for the deceased) I was fascinated by the thought of this block party which was being held with such a tragic back drop.

At the intersection of 74^th and 5^th avenue a wreath hangs above a sign ‘MOIRA SMITH WAY’. This wreath is the only visible sign of bereavement or loss on 74^th street. With the street closed to traffic at both ends there is a big party underway. The street is bedecked with star spangled banners and the smell of food cooking. Music fills the air. At the lower end of the street the Conaghans sit outside their family home place drinking, eating and cracking wise with neighbors and friends alike. At the other end the Latino kids are competing for space to play soccer with a large inflatable slide and some Italian kids who are throwing a football around. An impromptu game of volley ball has broken out with a tree and a NO PARKING sign being utilized to suspend a net. An older gentleman has decided to sing ‘Bad Bad Leroy Brown’ on a speaker system much to the joy of his daughter who gleefully asks her kids in the stroller ‘wanna hear grandpa sing?’ as if they had a choice in the matter. A Greek mother and daughter skillfully negotiate the crowded sidewalk with huge desserts and, thankfully, just before the Irish kids decide now is the time to unleash the cans of silly string. The Algerian family adjacent to me are barbequing something and that something smells very good.

So on that most somber of evenings a little part of Brooklyn is celebrating life. This is not just a celebration of the lives of heroes like Officer Moira Smith. In its own beautifully subtle way this block party is an act of defiance. 9-11 took the lives of almost 3000 innocents. It broke families and destroyed lives. But the fundamental idea that is at the core of this Big Apple and central to American life has not been extinguished. Brooklyn celebrates life. All of it. As Bono sung so prophetically on U2’s ‘’New York’’: ‘Irish/ Italians/ Jews and Hispanics/ Religious nuts/ Political fanatics in the stew/ Living happily not like me and you’. New York is epitome of E PLURBIS UNUM- ‘Out of many we are one’. And tonight, in honor of Moira Smith, my neighbor Kieran Gorman (from Lavagh in Sligo) and all those who perished on that awful Tuesday there are many. Many, colors races and faces. All celebrating as one. All New Yorkers. Those who tried to dim the brightest of cities with hijacked planes and twisted ideology wanted to create a New York as grey and mournful as the cloud that blocked out the sun over Manhattan on that day in early fall 2001. Ten years on the cloud has lifted but the memories remain. Memories of great people celebrated on 74^th street with a unity of shared belief that will always remain free of any cloud.

Days after 9-11 New York chat show host David Letterman proclaimed on TV ‘If you didn’t believe it before, and it’s easy to understand how you might have been skeptical on this point, you can absolutely believe it now; New York city is the greatest city in the world’.  Ten years later on 74^thstreet, Brooklyn, written on the faces of everyone in their smiles of resilience and hope were the words: Still the Greatest.

You think you know snow?

Letter from America: J.J. Devaney (Published in the Sligo Weekender, December 13th, 2011

You know you should get off the road when snowploughs begin to overtake you. At first the journey down from my cousins place in Buffalo was a pleasant trip. The dark clouds of foreboding weather had been with me from early morning but I had just figured ‘this is December on the east coast of the US’ and I would surely make Yonkers, NYC with little hassle.

And then came the snow, a little at first. A dusting. Irish snow you could call it. It made the landscape along the motorway look festive.

An hour later and things are far from festive. Following dogmatically to the pronouncements of my Satellite Navigation I am now on Interstate 84 in the mountains between Pennsylvania and New York State with the snow falling fast and heavy.

The snowploughs pass me out and appear to be making no headway. There is now only one other car on I-84 with me. I had past many signs saying ‘Motel: Next Exit’ in the previous hour but I stubbornly resisted such a compromise with the elements. Now there was just one witness on the road to my folly.

I decided if the car in front of me slid off then I would find shelter at the next exit. Almost in slow motion the car in front of me braked hard for some reason and slowly drifted toward a large bank of snow on the side of the road.

The next exit would be my last. At 545pm I took the ‘Promised Land’ exit off Interstate 84 and hoped the place would live up to its name.

‘Promised Land’ was nothing more than a tiny gas station surrounded by trees and mountains. A snowbound desolate place. I parked my car just outside the forecourt and watched as snow engulfed my vehicle inside 10 minutes.

The Pakistani lad who was manning this 24 hour station took a brief break from watching cars slide down the hill outside to inform me that the nearest motel was 20 minutes up-hill from the gas station.

With the phone lines down and my mobile phone refusing to work I was literally stranded. I had no means of contacting my relations in Yonkers to explain my delay.

I decided then to take advice from the next local that pulled into the station. I may have been away from the hazardous highway but the thought of a night in a petrol station in the freezing snow was far from edifying.

That’s when Carol Jackson and her daughter Lana came suddenly into my life and to my rescue. Assuming they were local I explained my situation to them when they pulled in to the gas station.

I couldn’t have imagined the reaction I was about to get. Carol told me to come with them and that they would look after me for the night. I couldn’t believe it. They were en route to a friend’s child’s birthday and told me to come with them. Me? A complete stranger? A foreigner, no less.

Carol simply replied ‘Well we gotta trust that you aren’t an axe murderer now are you?’ I replied quickly to confirm my lack of interest in both axes and murder. And so, up in the snowy mountains of Pennsylvania I made my way with my new found saviours to a party.

Rarely have I had such sudden and unexpected hospitality. At the party I was introduced to everyone. I was given as much food as I could possibly eat and naturally a nice cold beer cooled from the first heavy snow just outside the door.

Some being native New Yorkers, took a sceptical, if funny look at my predicament. ‘Who picks up an Irishman on the side of the road in America who says he is stranded? Said one sage Italian native of Queens New York.  Who indeed?

Not only was I fed and watered for the night but I was given a couch to sleep on by a fire and a wonderful breakfast in the morning before I set out on the now snow free I-84.

I had never met these people before yet they treated me with the hospitality that would be extended to any member of their families. There is a view that American ‘exceptionalism’ is in crisis. That America isn’t the nation it once was.

And perhaps financial woes and costly wars have drained the American spirit but whenever I hear of American exceptionalism I think of Carol and Lana Jackson and the way in which they treated me that cold December night.

It’s the people of America who make it exceptional. I can confirm that high in the snow capped mountains of Pennsylvania exceptionalism is alive and well.

3 Do's and Don'ts for Election 2011

1. Do not vote along familial traditional civil war lines or on the basis that one candidate is offering more to your locality than the other ones. This election is about electing a government charged with the biggest responsibility of any administration since the foundation of the state. It's not overly dramatic to say that this is about saving the country from ruin. Well, perhaps ''further ruin'' is a more accurate term in this context. You will be electing those you feel can guide and direct us, as a country, out of this mess. Vote for the candidate you believe can contribute something constructive to this end. Even then this may not be enough such are the problems that beset the nation but if you feel that giving your support to a local Fine Gael candidate on the basis that Fine Gael have the best chance of securing the nations future then that is clearly the choice to make. If, however, you are voting based on the ''promises'' of those who have recently knocked on your doorstep then please first remove your head from your ass before casting a vote.

2. It may be too late for this one but its a salient point nonetheless. It may be just some kind of local, west of Ireland custom but almost every doorstep canvass is finished by the verbal agreement encapsulated in the phrase: ''you'll look after me, wont you?'' Remarkably, given the context, its the would-be parliamentarian that is asking to be looked after. Its a tiny snapshot of Irish life for the past 15 years. ''You''ll look after me'' is almost whispered, its almost like looking for some sort of illicit favour. Its the verbal version of a back hander. Its a creeping, slimy phrase. You feel as if it should be accompanied by an envelope full of cash and a Tony Soprano like look of acknowledgment of a under handed deed. Let this election be different. Let your door step retort to ''Youll look after me?'' be driven home with a firm ''And when have you lot ever looked after us?'' That is after all their job; public servants serving the nation. And while Michael Martin may talk about ''systems failure'' its the political classes who have failed this country. Don't let them forget it.

3. DO VOTE. I have wrestled with this one myself. But the question ''what is the point in voting?'' is not a profound enough political stance to take. Not this time. Things are too serious. Even if you go and end up spoiling your vote due to a spasm of rage at the lack of any decent candidate you simply must vote. The act of getting up and going to your polling station alone shows you care at least in this most important of elections. By the standards of Governance we have allowed in the last few decades its is clear we havent cared very much at all.

Ask the Audience

''You put it to the people. The new government should put to a referendum the question of making any further payments from the citizens to the bank creditors. This would give the new government a clear democratic mandate with which to negotiate. There is no democrat in Europe who would oppose the will of the people and it would get straight to the point where the political economy bulldozes the financial economy. It would also give the Government huge authority on the biggest issue facing us all''.-David McWilliams

It seems so simple yet it has been the elephant in the room throughout this current election campaign. Almost every single broadcaster, journalist and politcal presenter has asked the same question but rarely has it been engaged with in such a straightforward manner as David McWilliams has in the week just past. ''Why should the Irish people pay for debts that they have not incurred?'' Typically it has been Vincent Browne that has consistently posed that question, in a number of different ways, to those who are the perspective new administrators of the republic. And largely it has been the same stock answers from all. ''The wheels are in motion, the previous administrations has signed up to an IMF/EU bail out and everyone must take the pain that that commitment will bring although we will do our best to soften the blow''.

Yet McWilliam's suggestion is the most blindingly obvious. Lets ask the people and thus enfranchise the people in a process which they have had no say in. Voting in a new political elite, who have no clue how to solve the fiscal nightmare facing the country, solves nothing. It sides steps the biggest issue facing the country. McWilliam's idea is to face the issue head on and get the people to invoke the crisis measure article 27 of the Irish constitution and allow the people a say in their future that IS NOT going to be given by ticking the box for Deputy Paddy Bogger TD in Westmeath south central who is promising to ''get jobs back to this region, so I am''. Article 27 allows this provision for consulting the people in times where a crisis of such magnitude requires it.

''Yes, article 27 of the Constitution governs the circumstances where a decision which is of “such national importance that the will of the people thereon ought to be ascertained”. Article 27 has never been used for this purpose but there is provision in the Constitution for a referendum on something which is simply so important that the people should be able to vote on it.''

The party that offers this alternative, in the most steadfast terms, should be given the mandate to exceute it. Surely in this moment of reckoning for the country the Irish people deserve to have a real voice in the future of their country. So much damage has been done in their name, and without their consent, that anything less than McWilliam's proposed ''popular plebiscite'' is nothing more than further treachery.

(read David McWillia's proposal at http://www.davidmcwilliams.ie/2011/02/16/before-we-sell-the-country-we-should-ask-the-people )