I see that legendary Gaelic Games commentator, Micheál Ó Muircheartaigh, has announced that he is retiring.

http://www.rte.ie/sport/gaa/championship/2010/0916/micheal_o_muirchearta...

In his honour and for the amusement of the Massive here are a number of his finest moments.

"Seán Óg Ó’Hailpín…. his father’s from Fermanagh, his mother’s from Fiji, neither one a hurling stronghold"

"… and Brian Dooher is down injured. And while he is, i’ll tell ye a little story. I was in Times’ Square in New York last week, and I was missing the Championship back home. So I approached a newsstand and I said ‘I suppose ye wouldn’t have the Kerryman would ye?’ To which, the Egyptian behind the counter turned to me and he said ‘do you want the North Kerry edition or the South Kerry edition?’… he had both…so I bought both. And Dooher is back on his feet…"

"Anthony Lynch the Cork corner back will be the last person to let you down – his people are undertakers"

"I saw a few Sligo people at Mass in Gardiner street this morning and the omens seem to be good for them, the priest was wearing the same colours as the Sligo jersey! 40 yards out on the Hogan stand side of the field Ciaran Whelan goes on a rampage, its a goal. So much for religion."

"Colin Corkery on the 45 lets go with the right boot. Its over the bar.This man shouldn’t be playing football. He’s made an almost Lazarus-like recovery from a heart condition. Lazarus was a great man but he couldn’t kick points like Colin Corkery."

"1-5 to 0-8.. well from Lapland to the Antarctic, that’s level scores in any man’s language."

"Pat Fox has it on his hurley and is motoring well now … but here comes Joe Rabbitte hot on his tail …… I’ve seen it all now, a Rabbitte chasing a Fox around Croke Park!"

"I see John O Donnell dispensing water on the sideline. Tipperary, sponsored by a water company. Cork Sponsored by a tae company. I wonder will they meet later for afternoon tae."

"Teddy looks at the ball, the ball looks at Teddy"

"Danny 'The Yank' Culloty. He came down from the mountains and hasn’t he done well"

"He grabs the sli­otar, he’s on the 50……he’s on the 40……he’s on the 30……………………..he’s on the ground"

"In the first half they played with the wind. In the second half they played with the ball."

"He kicks the ball ard san aer, could’ve been a goal, could’ve been a point………….it went wide."

"Stephen Byrne with the puck out for Offaly….Stephen, one of 12……all but one are here to-day, the one that’s missing is Mary, she’s at home minding the house…..and the ball is dropping i lár na bpáirce…."

"Pat Fox out to the forty and grabs the sliothar, I bought a dog from his father last week. Fox turns and sprints for goal, the dog ran a great race last Tuesday in Limerick. Fox to the 21 fires a shot, it goes to the left and wide….. and the dog lost as well"

"Teddy McCarthy to John McCarthy, no relation, John McCarthy back to Teddy McCarthy, still no relation"

Tipperary 4-17 Kilkenny 1-18

I know many of you won't grasp the significance of this but Kilkenny who have won 7 All-Ireland Hurling Championships in the last 10 years and were going for a historic 5-in-a-row were comprehensively beaten yesterday by a brilliant Tipperary team in some style. I'll add clips once they come available on youTube. In the meantime thought you might be amused by this.

Missed this when it ran. But the main question for the Massive is who is going to play Messers Hepworth & Ellen?

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2010/0714/breaking27.html?v...

A Happy St. Patricks's Day to all the Massive.

Given the day that's in it a top 5 Irish Rock/Pop songs thingy might be in order. (I'm excluding folk just because I couldn't short list).

In no particular order

* Downmarket - The Blades

* The Boys are back in Town - Thin Lizzy

* Rainy Night in Soho - The Pogues

* A Day Without Me - U2

* After All - The Frank & Walters

I know I've left out loads (sorry Van) but I hope that sets the ball rolling.

Following on from Lulu and the Lampshades

try this for size

This piece on the BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/8294355.stm
highlights a new elctronic instrument which is supposed to be the most reponsive ever and is clearly targetted at trendy types - but is it cool?

I was reminded yesterday of this song by Jimmy McCarthy about the tragic life of boxer Jack Doyle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Doyle).

This never ceases to move me. So suspend your cyncial streak and share the songs that are genuinely poignant without descending into mawkishness.

It appears that poor Jim has finally gone over the edge

http://www.jimcorr.com/

"This becomes evident when one studies 9/11. Indeed that event is the nexus doorway into the bigger picture, being the push towards global governance, the formation of an elite run totalitarian One World Government with the subjugated masses underneath."

Any other examples of pop stars tipping over into Icke-like strangeness?

Over on Slate they carried on an 'experiment' where some of their staff went through the working day drinking as they do on 'Mad men'

http://www.slatev.com/index.html?bcpid=988327350&bclid=29897817001&bctid...

i enjoyed this

Or is there such a thing?

I say yes to both questions?

I've recently developed a theory (over a couple of excellent pints of Guinness) that most of us have a "Movie we just like". i.e. we recognise that its not brilliant, know that it wouldn't make our best movies list and we don't think its been unfairly overlooked by Oscars/BAFTAs/etc, we just simply LIKE it.

For me its 'Heathers', closely followed by 'Grosse Point Blank'.
For my long suffering its 'Jerry Maguire'.
For my pub companion its 'Apollo 13'.

Do you have one? If so what is it?

Anyone seen this?

Thought it was priceless.

Thought this might interest the Massive. Its Roy Keane singing about Ronaldo courtesy of the 'Gift Grub' slot on Irish radio station Today FM (http://www.todayfm.com)

but I know it will appeal to the Massive.

http://www.ft2020.com/

Check it out.

Following in some way from Quentin Cooper's column in this month's mag. I've been reassessing the genre's in my iTunes collection (call me sad..) Up to now I've been more or less going with the defaults that iTunes gives barr correcting the odd blatant error (Planxty as country !!!). I have identified a number of issues

1) the Dylan issue (applies to others as well) is he Folk, Folk-Rock or just Rock or should each album be indiidually categorised (that way madness lies I fear)?

2) Alternative & Punk - iTunes has categorised a large chunk of collection as that or Alternative and is getting unwieldy as it covers everything from Pistols/Clash to Rilo Kiley and Sigur Ros

3) If I have Folk and Latin, World tends to just cover African music should I rename if so what?

There are any number of other issues. has anyone in the Massive come up with a satisfactory scheme or is it a mugs game?