Football fans must give Trump's World Cup a wide berth after chilling threat – Apple Pie is poisoned after 94 golden era
THE World Cup takes place in the United States next year, 32 years after they last hosted the greatest football show on earth.
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Trump met with the Fifa president this week ahead of next year's World Cup
Credit: Francis Chung / Pool via CNP
Tens of thousands of die-hard Green army men and women made their way by hook or by crook to
To this day, I can still see the bouillon of lobster-red tans. If you close your eyes and think, 'Steve Staunton', you'll be with me too.
Where were you when Ray Houghton brought the ball down on his chest and lobbed Gianluca Pagliuca from 24 yards in our first outing to beat Italy 1-0 in Giants Stadium?
Jammed into a boozer somewhere, no doubt, hot under the collar, warm
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How in the name of god did we keep Baggio and co at bay for 80 minutes? Like dancing on the edge of a razor blade.
Well, one word,
Can you still recall angsty
The confrontation wound him up so much he stormed onto the pitch, us 2-0 down to the majestic
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Then a few days later, did you lose the will to live while watching the mind-numbing sterility of the nil-nil draw with
John Sheridan pinging the crossbar, the only light amid the New York gloom.
Donald Trump claims letting Russia qualify for World Cup 2026 could be 'incentive' to end Ukraine war
What about the battle with the Dutch? Were you there in that Orlando sweat box?
Remember the burst water bags littering the pitch? The red cheeks, Packie's parry, the goals that sent us home?
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All of those golden moments are banked as proper live-forever memories among those who were around back then.
America in 1994 was our ancient friend, our ally in freedom, our home from home, our refuge throughout all the tough times of our history.
And so it continued to be, even in the aftermath of the Twin Tower attacks on 9/11, 2001.
'IT'S NOT LIKE THAT ANYMORE'
America always looked out, embraced the world, saw itself as its leader, morally obliged to be the protector of freedom, of individual liberty.
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Yes, it made mistakes in the wars that were fought, but at heart,
It's not like that any more. The Apple Pie is poisoned.
When we look upon America under
'A DISRUPTIVE ANARCHY'
In his first 100 days in power Trump and his team have swept aside the old established order and replaced it with a disruptive anarchy, where everything is for the chopping block.
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Chaos is the order of the day. America, under Trump has become unrecognisable, an alien place.
So he announces tariffs on world trade in the concocted belief America had been taken for a ride.
He unleashes his stormtroopers in ICE to detain every illegal and legal immigrant deemed unworthy to remain in the US, including several Irish people who've lived legally in America for decades.
He's defunded universities; kids libraries have been raided to bin books seen to promote decent human values, including diversity, inclusion and equality; overseas aid programmes that kept the poorest people in the world fed and watered, are being dismantled; climate change is being vociferously denied, as the 'drill baby, drill' mantra drowns out the notion of responsibility to the planet; drug pricing reforms that would have capped costs for the poorest Americans reliant on Medicaid are being axed too; vaccines undermined . . . the miserable list goes on and on.
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MOST BEAUTIFUL GAME CLAIM
Trump sat down with
His
JD Vance's
He said: 'We want them to come, we want them to celebrate, we want them to watch the games. But when the time is up, we want them to go home, otherwise they will have to talk to Secretary (Kristi) Noem.'
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She is Trump's Homeland Security Secretary and has been christened 'ICE Barbie' after getting glammed up for immigration raids which she streams live on social media.
If you're in possession of a modicum of self respect, give U.S. 2026 a wide berth.
The only excuse for going next year is if you've had a lobotomy.
UNFIT FOR PURPOSE
PEOPLE don't just get sick Monday to Friday 9 to 5, do they?
So it's crazy that in 2025 the HSE still operates a five-day week roster with weekends largely unworked.
The HSE's chief executive Bernard Gloster has been pushing to introduce an extended 8am to 8pm working day, where employees would work five days over a seven-day roster.
It's eminently reasonable and how the real world works.
The move would improve hospital overcrowding and ensure people are treated in a timely manner.
But guess what? The unions are dragging their heels.
Meetings were due yesterday but clashed with annual conferences, so have peen postponed. More delays are unacceptable.
CAUGHT SKORT NO LONGER
IT'S utterly bonkers that girls and women are forced to wear skorts while
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A skort is a pair of shorts made to look like a skirt. Whoever invented the skort obviously never had to wear one. Probably because he was a bloke.
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Players are fighting back against the mandatory kit
Credit: David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile
Apparently, if you talk to Camogie players, a majority say they're extremely uncomfortable with buttons, that if they burst, leave nothing to the imagination.
The girls who play the game are fed up with inaction from those in charge of Camogie and have taken matters into their own hands.
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This weekend Cork and Waterford ladies square off in the Munster Final and they'll all be wearing shorts, not skorts.
Cork ace Ashling Thompson urged the Camogie Association to listen to players' concerns, saying they want 'a choice in what we wear'.
Well, it seems the Camogie Association
A Special Congress has been convened for May 22 next to vote on allowing girls/women to wear shorts if they like. Common sense prevails.
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EASY DAIL AT WORK
THEY'RE as quiet as mice. Hasn't been a peep out of them for a good while. Of course, I'm talking about our government.
Ah, give them time. They're only back from a long Bank Holiday weekend (they got an extra day off on Tuesday).
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Nicole Ryan of Sinn Fein wore shorts in solidarity with the camogie players' fight
Credit: Social Media Collect
They started back to work in the
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You see they get Fridays off too. Won't be back till next Wednesday.
Well for them, isn't it. They mustn't have much work to do.
The only thing they seemed to be concerned about on Wednesday was women wearing skorts in Camogie matches.
Several
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The government blathered on about being 'aware of the issue' and the importance of 'engagement'.
Christ. And that was their day's work done.
Off home again to gaze at their navels while Ireland burns on a bonfire of their ineptitude and listlessness.
PAINFUL PRICE POINT
HOW does a small bread roll, the size of a baby's fist, cost €1?
An egg sandwich €5? A bottle of own brand water €2.50? Prices have gone Doolally.
Someone is making a killing, and it isn't the poor saps who must grin and bear being fleeced.
DUBLIN CITY TASK FORCE
IT'S been 200 days since the government appointed
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1,000 more cops, an 'agile' public transport plan, and 'dedicated waste management system' were just three of the practical proposals that are easily implemented.
Have they been? Not on your life. The report is gathering dust on Tanaiste
And it died a death, it seems. Who'd have thought it would? Hands up. Betcha every single one of ye have the lamh suas.
The CEO of the Licensed Vintners' Federation, Donall O'Keeffe said: 'It's almost 500 days since the day before the riots took place in the city centre.
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What practical changes have taken place since? I think if anyone looked at Dublin the day before the riots and Dublin today, they wouldn't see any difference.'
In other words, it's still a kip.
MET GALA CLASS
NOW, when it comes to
Don't care for the luvvies, the canapes, the outrages clobber, the glitz, the glamour, the champagne, the inanities.
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Nicole Kidman stunned at the famous fundraiser
Credit: Angela WEISS / AFP
All that nonsense, flush it down the jacks and be gone.
But when it comes to certain stars such as
The Aussie actor, 57, is versatile, captivating and talented.
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When she arrived at the Met Gala last week she was alone in exuding class, thrilling in a simple black dress that had jaws on the floor.
Including mine.
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RTÉ News
a minute ago
- RTÉ News
Preview: Lions stand on the verge of famous Wallabies whitewash
All week the Lions have insisted that their celebrations are behind them, having secured the Test series with a game to spare last week, and it's easy to believe them. Just 80 minutes separate them from being, statistically, one of the greatest sides in the 137-year history of the tour. It's not to say they are officially the greatest. The 1971 tourists stand alone as the only Lions group to ever win a series down in New Zealand, while the 1974 'Invincibles' will be forever remembered after their destruction of South Africa, going unbeaten across a 22-game tour, drawing their final Test against the Springboks in controversial circumstances. The numbers that this Lions group are chasing against Australia on Saturday are hard to ignore. To start with, they're only the third Lions group to win a series in the professional era and the first in 28 years to do so with a game to spare. It's just short of 100 years since they have won every Test match on tour, that coming on their 1927 tour of Argentina. You have to go all the way back to 1904 for the last time they whitewashed the Wallabies in a three-Test series. Saturday's game may be a dead-rubber in terms of the winning and losing of the series, but the manner of the Lions' win last week, and the fallout from Hugo Keenan's controversial try has ensured that interest in the series hasn't waned. If anything, the Australian public have got more behind their team in recent days. On Thursday, Rugby Australia confirmed that the 82,000 Accor Stadium was officially sold out. While it's only been idle talk, Australia's position among the Lions touring rotation had come under scrutiny this year, with the Wallabies holding a far weaker record against the Lions than the All Blacks and Springboks. But last week's second Test was a reminder if it was needed that Australia remains one of the world's great sporting nations. 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The issue for the Wallabies last week, and again this week, will be their depth. While Langi Gleeson came on for Valetini and impressed, Jeremy Williams was no replacement for Skelton, and you could see the power balance shift as the second half wore on last week, to the point that they were hanging on by their fingernails before Hugo Keenan's try. Gleeson remains on the bench with Tom Hooper jettisoned into the starting blindside flanker spot, and Taniela Tupou comes in for the injured Ala'alatoa. A far more destructive presence than Ala'alatoa, the worry around Tupou is how many minutes he has in his legs. At hooker, they have been further depleted. David Porecki had been due to start but an injury to both he and Matt Faessler in training sees Billy Pollard start, and Brandon Paenga-Amosa step up onto the bench, having only joined up with the squad on Thursday. 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Irish Examiner
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