May 22nd update

Boyle Celtic Edge Closer to Title

Wednesday’s  team v Carrick Suffin/Purcell/McGowan/Connolly/McCrann/Carlos/Conboy/Carty/Calpin/McKilleen/Brennan with Roddy/Harrington and Brennan. 

The end of soccer seasons everywhere can throw up tense and sometime dramatic final fixtures. Boyle Celtic are facing a pretty critical period as they head into their remaining four games in the Sligo-Leitrim Super League.  The games are coming thick and fast as the season comes to a close. Boyle have done very well under the pressure of these fixtures.  On  Wednesday evening they defeated Carrick-on-Shannon in Carrick’s ground 5 to nil. Next up is Real Tubber in Boyle @ 7 on Friday and away on May 30th. On Wednesday the 28th their opponents are Calry Bohs also at home. The only other contenders and current table toppers at this stage are City Utd. (At  the week-end City 5 Calry 4. City were awarded 3 penalties in that game!) Celtic’s final game is v Cartron Utd. on Sunday June the first. 

In summary City Utd now at 53 points could achieve 59 points with two wins from their remaining two games v Aughanagh Celtic on Friday and Ballymote on Wednesday 

Boyle Celtic now on 51 points could reach 63 points if they win all four remaining games. They could lose one and still be winners. 

Celtic’s Niall Brennan is the league top scorer as of now with 18 goals followed by Paul McTiernan of Aughanagh on 17. Lee McKilleen of Boyle has 13.

Boyle Celtic has a fine defensive record with just 17 goals conceded which also gives them a goal difference edge over City if continued.     

So if you get a chance perhaps you might drop down to support them for these end games. (Dates as listed above are liable to change).   

‘D’ Day.

Friday the 23rd  will be the culmination of a lot of hoopla over the last month or so. The terribly unwieldy electoral divisions which now obtain will prompt some soul searching and head scratching. Because of this restructuring those who get elected this time will see themselves in pole position for other elections to come in the future. In many constituencies or electoral areas there are very prominent front runners but after nominating two perhaps three as very likely it gets very problematic. Then one is influenced by one’s own perception of the person locally with which he or she is most familiar.  In the Boyle District there are 6 seats with 14 candidates with 8 existing and one former councillor. So obviously two of the existing councillors will lose out. Oddly fine Gael does not have a Boyle town contender. Of course the person rather than the party is very important in local elections. While I thought that I might nominate a prediction for possible winners  in the Boyle area I just had to give up. So a little like the Eurovision where it’s not the songs that give the entertainment but the actual count Saturday promises to be a very interesting day on that front.

Independents Day.

The European constituencies are just huge and name profile is the first requirement. There are 4 seats in the Midlands-North-West.  According to the polls Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan looks to have a great chance of going all the way to Europe and will certainly present a very different figure there to the traditional suited and booted. According to the polls Matt Cathy of Sinn Fein is also a very real possibility. Mairead McGuinness of Fine Gael has broad recognition profile leaving the fourth seat between sitting M.E.P. Marian Harkin who is strong in our area whether this carries to the wider zone I do not know. Fiona Fail as they aficionados say has a ‘quota’ so one would imagine that Marian Harkin will do well to stave off Gallagher or Byrne with sitting M.E.P. Jim Higgins bidding adieu. So it looks very much like Ming, Cathy, McGuinness and Gallagher or Harkin. 

The Growing Tragedy of Homelessness

Apart from the election the big topic of the moment is homelessness and house prices through the country. The rising prices in Dublin is very reminiscent of the worst of the ‘Bubble’ in 2006/2007. On the R.T.E. programme on Monday ‘Desperate House Buys’ we saw the dilemma of young couples seeking house in various locations in Dublin. Apparently there is a huge disparity between the supply of houses and the current demand. Guide prices are now being outstripped. While this is fine for a number of sections such as the vendors and the auctioneers and also for those who bought at the height of the previous stampede in ’06 and ’07 as they see the value of their houses, which had dipped dramatically from ’08 to 2012, now recover from their deep negative equity. One auctioneer did not do  the image of his profession much of a favour as he smugly announced after a house viewing which had  a considerable interest ‘That’s as good as it gets’ . Local auctioneer Michael Smith had a more down to earth story with no blowing of bubbles as he relayed the reality of Boyle’s property story. It was an interesting view of the status of that industry allied to a previous programme on homelessness and the incredible stories there with rising rent and the alarm bells being rung by David McWilliams on 'The Late Late Show'.