Irish clubs would gain six-figure fees from UEC plan on player development
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Irish Times
6 hours ago
- Irish Times
‘We are sleeping in cars and serial couch-surfing': Dublin students appeal to homeowners to rent out rooms
On a busy summer morning, Dublin commuters were being approached by eager students' union officers in a 'last-ditch effort to get some rooms' for incoming college goers. 'We have people who sleep in cars and serial couch surfers,' said University College Dublin (UCD) students' union president Michael Roche, who was on the canvass at St Stephen's Green. – In recent weeks, he said, there has been an influx of queries from concerned students and parents about housing for the year ahead. 'For international students and first years who are quite new to Dublin's rental market, there can also be exploitative situations or scams where people just don't have the knowledge of the market that returning students do,' Mr Roche said. READ MORE Recent figures showed UCD has the State's most expensive on-campus rooms . Mr Roche said that situation has left 'a lot of people locked out' in their search for accommodation. An en-suite room in village three on the college's Belfield campus costs €11,888 for the academic year. The cheapest on-campus option at UCD is a shared bedroom in village one at €5,722. UCD students' union has joined forces with the Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art Design and Technology (IADT) for a digs drive aimed at addressing the 'chronic shortage of rental accommodation' in the capital. Emilia O'Hagan, UCD welfare officer, was among the students' union officers urging people to consider accommodation tax-breaks. Photograph: Tommy Clancy [ Where will vital student housing come from? Opens in new window ] Commuters passing St Stephen's Green Luas station from 7am on Tuesday were handed flyers encouraging them to avail of the Revenue Commissioners' rent-a-room relief scheme that allows homeowners earn up to €14,000 tax-free for letting out a spare room in their home. The student representatives were due to gather again on Tuesday evening at bus and Luas stops around the city to push their appeal. UCD students' union campaign and engagement officer Hazen E Griffin has experience of the challenges of finding accommodation as an international student in Dublin. Arriving from the US, Mr Griffin said he was shocked at the housing crisis in Ireland and spent the summer couch-surfing while struggling to find a place to live for the upcoming academic year. It had taken a 'serious' toll on his mental health, he said. 'This is the experience of countless students,' Mr Griffin said. 'This is a last-ditch effort to get some rooms for students who are coming in the next two weeks to study at Irish universities.' Welfare officer Emilia O'Hagan, from Co Down, lived and worked 'upwards of 50 hours a week' in a Dublin boarding school during second year when no other accommodation options were available. 'Looking back, that was a really messed up situation for someone in their second year of college,' she said. 'I was only 19 and basically mothering over 30 children. I was on call all night ... any social life was out the window.' The digs drive 'is quite personal to me', she said, describing how she failed exams due to the demands of her work and living arrangement. Shreyansh Jagtap from Mumbai, India, said living in digs has positively transformed his college experience. Mr Jagtap lives with a family in Ongar, west Dublin, who have rented a room to him for €600 a month for the last year. 'They have kids, so it's like a family for me here. It's giving mental support plus a good space,' he said. One 'perk' of the digs arrangement, he said, has been the home-cooked meals included in the rent. Now the students' union's graduate officer, Mr Jagtap said he has seen how renting in Dublin was '10 times harder' than in Mumbai. 'Mumbai is also expensive, but not this much,' he said.
Irish Examiner
a day ago
- Irish Examiner
Front row move proved to be Niamh O'Dowd's 'golden ticket' to World Cup
It's not much more than two years since Niamh O'Dowd was a flanker struggling for game time with Old Belvedere. Now she's on the brink of her first World Cup with Ireland where, when push comes to shove, she will be the starting loosehead prop. O'Dowd thinks now of the back rows that Ireland fielded at the time. There were giants of the women's game like Claire Molloy and Ciara Griffin. Brittany Hogan, now the team's No.8, was starting to embed herself, too. 'Like, I wouldn't have even put myself in the same hemisphere." That's now. She wasn't even thinking about Ireland back then. How could she with the strength in depth at Old Belvo where Jenny Murphy and Jennie Finlay, both former internationals, were before her in the queue. Hogan was another of them on those weekends where she wasn't busy with the Irish sevens. Same with talents like Erin King, world XVs breakthrough player of the year in 2024, and Deirbhile Nic a Bhaird who just missed out on the latest tournament squad. 'It was actually almost as competitive as the Irish back row.' O'Dowd had never played rugby until she followed her older sister into the UCD club in college. That led to 'Belvo' just up the road in Ballsbridge and a slow but steady progression as a flanker that eventually took her as far as the interpros. Then everything changed. 'I remember very clearly. It was a Thursday down in Belvo. It was actually [former Ireland player] Ailis Egan and Tania [Rosser, Leinster head coach] came up to me, and they just said, 'you're gonna be a loosehead'. 'Now, before that they had been playing around with the idea of hooker, but they said, 'no, no, you can't throw'. So they eventually decided I'd be a loosehead and I went down to Ballincollig for my first game, starting front row, and I absolutely hated it. 'I'd gone from being so carefree, just running around the place, doing whatever I wanted, absolutely no responsibility. Every knock on, I was like, 'Oh my God, here we go again'. You know what I really realised? I have to get so much fitter now.' There was no more catching her breath come scrum time, but fitness was just one missing piece of this puzzle. O'Dowd didn't know how to bind, or where her feet went, or what height she should hold. None of it. The education process started at the club and Ireland scrum coach Denis Fogarty pitched in once she made the Celtic Challenge level. Cue endless technical work, video analysis and pointers from teammates. Linda Djougang was an invaluable resource as the Ireland tighthead packed down opposite her in training sessions. So too Christy Haney, the loosehead who will miss this World Cup with injury, and hookers like Neve Jones. 'Every single session, every single rep, you're learning something.' Now a career that was inching forward was making big, galloping strides. It was at the WXV1s in Canada late last year where O'Dowd worked a groove for herself in the starting front row and she hasn't been budged since. Small in stature, she had all the right answers when giving 12 and six kilos respectively to France's Rose Bernadou and Clara Joyeux in the opening round of the Six Nations in Belfast earlier this year. O'Dowd was rock solid at the setpiece despite being asked to put in a 77-minute shift, and she decorated that with more successful tackles (14) than anyone in green and with only Aoife Wafer carrying more ball. Three rounds later and that picture was skewed when England's Maud Muir had her in all sorts of trouble at the scrum and referee Aurelie Groizeleau made her pay with ten minutes in the sinbin just after half-time. One of the Irish coaches put it into perspective afterwards when reminding her that pretty much every prop in the history of rugby has had those days, and O'Dowd herself is first to say that her learning curve hasn't flattened out just yet. She's ready for the work still to come, and immensely grateful for that curveball of a switch that will see her play in a World Cup when she was struggling to get off the bench for Belvo when the last one was contested in 2022. 'The front row was my golden ticket, and still is, to be honest. Like, it's always a position that's going to be needed.'
The Irish Sun
a day ago
- The Irish Sun
‘We fancy ourselves against anyone there' – Joey O'Brien more confident with Linfield game being played in Tolka Park
Joey O'Brien also spoke about Shelbourne's recent exit from the FAI Cup SHELS SPOT 'We fancy ourselves against anyone there' – Joey O'Brien more confident with Linfield game being played in Tolka Park JOEY O'Brien hopes keeping the play-off at Tolka Park can pay-off for Shelbourne. The Reds host Linfield in Thursday's Conference League first leg play-off before the trip north next week in a tie worth a minimum of €3.8 million to the winners. 2 The 39-year-old took over as head coach after Damien Duff stepped away from the role 2 Shelbourne hadn't lost a European game in Tolka Park since 2003 before losing to Qarabag But O'Brien believes the first hurdle to victory was achieved last week when UEFA gave Shels the green light to continue using Tolka Park for European games. The club invested in ground improvements over the winter and it was believed that its 3,655 capacity for Europe would mean it could only be used in the first and second rounds. But UEFA gave approval for it to be used for the Rijeka game last week, and again for this week's rematch of the Champions League first-round with Linfield. And boss O'Brien insisted that staying in Tolka, rather than moving to Tallaght, is a big deal for his side. He said: 'It's huge. It's great work by everyone in the background. We didn't really get involved with all that sort of stuff and how it happens. 'I think there was a shout that maybe it was after two rounds, then we might have to move and stuff like that. 'Whatever way they've done it, it's great. There's a hell of a lot of work going into Tolka over the last year, 18 months to make the improvements. 'It's great that it's at home. We fancy ourselves against anyone there.' But while the play-off is a repeat of the early July Champions League clash where Shelbourne won 2-1 on aggregate, O'Brien insisted little can be read into it. Since then, Linfield have progressed through the Conference League beating Lithuanians Zalgiris and Faroe Islands champions Vikingur. Republic of Ireland star shares heartwarming moment from his wedding as Jack Grealish is a groomsman By contrast, Shels' win over Linfield secured them the 'champions path' as they lost to Azeris Qarabag in the Champions League and narrowly to Croatians Rijeka in the Europa League. And O'Brien believes that both sides will feel they are in a better position now, than in early July. NEW FACES ON BOTH SIDES He said: 'They're obviously slightly changed. They're playing two centre-forwards. They're a very experienced team, a very experienced team in Europe. 'Their manager (David Healy) is very, very experienced. They obviously won 2-0, they had a lot of chances and it could have been probably more (against Vikingur). 'I think we've been good. We've brought in a few players into our squad so I'd like to think we have a stronger squad now as well. They've made a few new signings and stuff like that. So, there's probably a couple of changes on both squads. 'I think our overall performances has been good, especially in Europe. Tolka will be rocking. Great atmosphere, as it has been in all the games, really. 'It's going to be a tight game but a special occasion, special to be involved in it. Hopefully, we put in a great performance and we'll attack the game on Thursday.' FAI CUP WOES But O'Brien acknowledged his side will have to be much better than they were in Sunday's FAI Cup exit to St Patrick's Athletic. The Saints were comfortable 2-0 winners as a Shels side that included six changes from the side that played Rijeka last Tuesday were second-best for much of the game. O'Brien insisted that the loss of one path to European football next season was not a worry, but missing out on the chance of a FAI Cup final in November hurt him. He said: 'We're disappointed to be out of the Cup. I spoke to the lads, for me, it's the best day in Irish football, to be involved in it. 'I was lucky enough to play in them and spoke to the lads about that. It's a real special occasion. 'It's one you want to be involved in as a player. We're very disappointed that we're not in the hat.'
