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Irish Examiner
10 hours ago
- Sport
- Irish Examiner
Letters to the Editor: GAA has lost the hearts and minds of the country
For two years now I have been saying the GAA's 'split season' is an absolute disaster and to tell the truth, I've often felt like I was wasting my time and energy, so I'm glad that at least one former Inter County manager has come around to my way of thinking. Let me repeat again, the split season has been an unmitigated disaster for the GAA. But let's examine the reasons why the split season was introduced in the first place. Undoubtedly, ordinary GAA Club players weren't getting fair play under the old system, where the Inter County Championships ran from May until September. A club championship game was fixed, then the County team were involved on a draw and replay, and the Club game went off. This happened repeatedly — first rounds of Club championships were often played in May and it could be September before the next game. Certainly there was no certainty for the Club players who make up around 92% of all hurlers and footballers — they couldn't plan holidays, weddings, honeymoons or other social occasions. There was a major problem and as a Club Officer for decades, I am well aware of what pertained. The so-called solution — the Utopia, the panacea — the much-lauded split season has solved one problem but caused many others far more serious than the old postponement of fixtures. Has the GAA ever commissioned a cost-benefit analysis of the split season? Maybe secretly, but I never heard of it anyway. I don't simply mean cost-benefit in terms of finance, but in terms of developing our games and promotion. Our promotion in the GAA is woeful. Take the Munster Final next week. After great games in the early round, we now play our top game at 6 o'clock of a Saturday evening — have we a curtain raiser? Have we a band? Have we a price hike for tickets? The club championships in every county are the 'bread and butter', the lifeblood of the GAA in every parish. Our Inter County games then should be our shop window, our Champions League, our premiership, something to attract youngsters to Gaelic Games and foster a love of our native pastimes. Here we are at the end of May and over 60% of all our Inter County Hurling teams are 'wrapped up' for 2025. Promotion — how are ya! Fair play to one of the Munster rugby bosses who lately commented on the 'promotional value' to rugby of big games in Croke Park and Páirc Uí Chaoimh. Fair play to the GAA, we truly are sportingly ecumenical, but it isn't it time we saw after our own? Losing the absolute grasp we had on the minds and hearts of the country every September has been an unmitigated disaster. Is the GAA too proud to admit 'We made a mistake' and admit the same in regards the decoupling of minor and senior inter-county games. Ad nauseam I have proposed a dual 'side-by-side' Club and Inter County games programme running from April until September — like the song says 'When will they ever learn?' John Arnold, Bartlemy, Co Cork Time to honour our Defence Forces heroes Commandant (retired) Ray Cawley once again draws attention (Letters, Irish Examiner) to continuing 'failure' of various Irish governments to ensure the heroic actions of the members of the Irish Defence Forces and the brilliant leadership displayed in the defence of Jadotville are properly acknowledged. Cmdt Cawley, in my opinion, correctly criticises our Government, senior civil servants, and military hierarchy for their continuing failure in this regard. I can confirm that during my time with the United Nations peacekeeping operations, I met several civilian and military personnel who were in the Congo at the time of the siege of Jadotville. All spoke in glowing terms of the performance of Irish military personnel. Several military officers from various nations confirmed to me that the defence of Jadotville is used in their training academies as an example of outstanding defensive actions. Yet successive Irish governments in the past 60 years have failed to properly recognise the actions of those brave men. Shame on them all, government ministers and ministers for defence — beginning with Micheál Martin, former minister for defence, and Simon Harris, current minister for defence. Recently, Fergus Finlay wrote: 'Our leaders are running a 'do-nothing' parliament and it's offensive.' Any wonder that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael between them could not form a government after the last general election? The people of Ireland deserve better. Over to you, Micheál and Simon. Michael Moriarty, Rochestown, Cork Trump deserves praise for keeping cool head The editorial on May 27 adopted a rather belligerent attitude towards US president Donald Trump for, apparently, not plunging Europe, including Ireland, into a devastating world war since his return to the presidential office in the US. Looked at a little more objectively, it would appear that Mr Trump is behaving in a somewhat restrained manner for the sake of the American people, and for all our sakes, by not allowing himself to be dragged or pushed by belligerent people into a world war scenario. The Irish Examiner's editorial attack on Mr Trump is quite personal. The extract reads 'Trump's narcissistic streak' and 'Trump needs to up his game'. Instead of such negative personalised comments, the Irish Examiner should be thanking Mr Trump, profusely, for keeping a cool head — and avoiding, so far, a major world war — unlike certain other European leaders. In the Financial Times, in an editorial under the heading 'Europe needs smart rearmament', on May 15, Ursula von der Leyen, European Commission president, is quoted as follows: 'If Europe wants to avoid war, Europe must get ready for war.' I think this is ill-conceived advice from the European Commission president — it is myopic; it ignores the underlying causes of the two horrific wars in Europe in the last century, namely the First World War and Second World War. Is this lady readying the scene for another world war? For instance, regarding the Second World War, the construction by France in the 1930s of the heavily fortified and armed Maginot Line along its border with Germany didn't avoid that war. It would appear that Ms Von der Leyen, along with others in Europe and elsewhere, are unaware of the dire recent warnings by an eminent US organisation, the Science and Security Board, of the imminent nuclear threat facing the people of Europe, including Ireland. For instance, since the beginning of the year, the Doomsday Clock (Albert Einstein et al) has moved closer than it has ever been to predicting a major global disaster — the clock now stands at 89 seconds to midnight. The Doomsday Clock's Science and Security Board Bulletin of Atomic Scientists warned on January 28, 2025, with regard, for example, to the increasing possibility of nuclear war, that: 'The war in Ukraine, now in its third year, looms over the world; the conflict could become nuclear at any moment because of a rash decision or through accident or miscalculation.' Micheál O'Cathail, Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin We must stand up for victims of Gaza now In the years to come, a global generation of young people will confront their parents with simple questions: What did you do to oppose the catastrophic genocide of innocent civilians in Gaza? What did you do to resist the deliberately induced Israeli famine in Gaza? If that question is met with a variation of, 'What could we do? We were only observers/bystanders with no direct ability to challenge the slaughter,' it will be treated with the same contemptuous response that consumed the first generation of post-Second World War German children in the 1960s, when they demanded of their parents, 'What did you know or not do about the persecution of Jews that culminated in the Holocaust? The overwhelming response to that question was a variation of personal innocence, ignorance, and/or helplessness. This led to the scathing term 'mitläufer', a label depicting an individual, who through a lack of courage, didn't confront the obvious evilness of the evolving Holocaust. What's your view on this issue? You can tell us here We witness in real time on a daily basis the mass starvation and daily bombardment of 2m defenceless Palestinians. Will our children and grandchildren in the years to come not also challenge us with a simple question: What did you demand of your government? The very least we should be able to answer is that we demanded of our TDs an immediate implementation of the occupied territories bill — a piece of legislation which is a totally inadequate resort to the incremental displacement of Palestinians in the West Bank. Yet consecutive Irish governments have found multiple excuses to not apply even this deficient response. If we do not mobilise as a national collective to demand/force our representatives to act on Israeli genocide, we too will have to bare the guilt of the morally outraged yet, at the same time, otherwise engaged citizen. Kevin McCarthy, Clonfadda, Killaloe, Clare Cruel impact of Catholic Church's negative labels The Irish Catholic Catechism of 2014 states homosexual acts are 'intrinsically disordered' and 'contrary to the natural law'. Sadly, this teaching can unfairly put gay people off having any gay friendships, and it can also prevent normal friendships forming between gay people and straight people. In turn, Catholic straight people also get to hear false biology teaching from their own Church — a false type of lesson that is easily apt to mischievously get under their skin and make Catholic straight people feel uncomfortable to be in social settings with gay people. This can cruelly be the case, I feel, no matter how talented and nice gay people may strive to appear to be. The Catholic Church often says gay people should be loved by everyone else in society. But this will, I fear, never fully make up for the harm such an offensive and divisive term as 'unnatural' can cause this significant minority. Many acts committed against the law of our land are not considered unnatural and so may soon enough be forgiven and forgotten. But, I believe, unfortunately, when some people are labelled as being unnatural, then this negative label may unhappily never leave them at all. Seán O'Brien, Carnanes South, Kilrush, Co Clare Read More Irish Examiner view: Trump tariff plan in disarray just as his biggest cheerleader exits
Hamilton Spectator
17 hours ago
- Sport
- Hamilton Spectator
Yellowknife Tennis Club serving up success as season begins
Favourable weather this spring has meant the Yellowknife Tennis Club is already geared up and on the tennis courts while looking forward to a good season ahead. Slavica Jovic, a board member for Tennis NWT, said the first lesson of the year was held on May 20th. 'Typically, we start the first week of June, but because the weather was a bit nicer, the nets are up and everything is ready,' Jovic said. An Instructors course was also held at the Fieldhouse between May 16 to 19, an opportunity that presents itself every few years, she noted. 'We typically run the Instructor course every couple of years, because we don't have that many candidates in Yellowknife that that can take the course. You have to have certain prerequisites, and you have to be able to play at Level 3.' Jovic said seven participants, both juniors and adults, registered this year with course facilitator Uros Budimac, a Tennis Canada High Performance Level 3 Coach from Vancouver, and assisted by local Club Pro Tamara Jovic. During this intensive training, Jovic said instructors are trained to introduce players to the game using Progressive tennis in group lessons (1.0 – 2.5 level) at tennis clubs, community courts, and in school gyms. The course develops the leadership skills of an enthusiastic instructor who organizes practice and play, makes tennis accessible and simple to learn, and promotes friendships that support the growth and retention of starter players. Jovic noted that youth may take the course at 15 years of age, but can only be certified on or after their 16 birthday. After certification, participants are qualified to be a beginning instructor for summer camps and clinics, seasonal clubs, and clinics. To maintain active certified professional status, they must have TPA membership in addition to professional development every four years or enroll in another certification course. Serving up Tennis Month Jovic said as June is Tennis Month in Canada, the Yellowknife Club will host a free open house on Saturday, June 7 at the McNiven Tennis Courts from 11:30 a.m. until 1:30 p.m. 'We'll have a barbecue, and people are welcome to come and try tennis and just meet everybody. We'll also run couple of events for kids,' Jovic said of the introduction to the sport. She said anyone wanting to register and join the Club can do so on the Yellowknife Tennis Club website. Although the Club does not have an indoor facility during the winter months, thereby limiting their activities, Jovic said it is quite a popular sport in the summer and their season is a busy one with tournaments and various clinics for kids and adults, and also summer camps. 'It's an opportunity to socialize and meet, be active, be outside, meet new people, and play with people of different levels and different skills,' she said. 'There is social Saturday and Friday evening rallies and there is lots of tennis for the value of the membership that people pay.' Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply. Want more of the latest from us? Sign up for more at our newsletter page .
CNBC
18 hours ago
- Business
- CNBC
Why Jim Cramer is frustrated by Friday's lower market — plus, good news for 2 of our bank stocks
Every weekday the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer holds a "Morning Meeting" livestream at 10:20 a.m. ET. Here's a recap of Friday's key moments. 1. Wall Street was lower Friday after President Donald Trump said in a Truth Social post that China violated a preliminary trade deal between the two countries, suggesting a tougher stance may be afoot. "We have to literally expect that maybe something happens today, and it just drives me crazy because ... we would have a good market" if not for Trump's threats, Jim Cramer said. Case in point: Stocks temporarily came off their lows after a better-than-expected consumer sentiment survey from the University of Michigan, which showed that respondents' one-year inflation expectations came down from the very high levels seen in prior readings. On top of that, the Federal Reserve's preferred inflation gauge came in mostly aligned with expectations and continued to trend lower. Meanwhile, Jim said he's keeping an eye on headlines out of this weekend's OPEC+ meeting, which could determine where oil prices go next. On Friday, U.S. oil benchmark WTI hovered just above $60 a barrel. 2. Club name Goldman Sachs actually worked on a deal in the oil industry announced Friday — good news for the bank as merger-and-acquisition activity shows further signs of a rebound. The bank is the financial advisor for EOG's $5.6 billion purchase of Encino, while also providing financing. "Deal chatter really, really picked up" after Trump paused his "reciprocal" tariffs in April, Jim said. Shares of fellow Club financial Wells Fargo are slightly lower on Friday after Thursday's 1% gain. On Thursday, the bank confirmed its termination of a 2015 consent order with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. The last remaining enforcement action left against Wells for a series of scandals is the Federal Reserve's asset cap imposed in 2018. Thursday's OCC news is a positive sign that we could see the asset cap removed by year-end, said Jeff Marks, director of portfolio analysis. "If you just joined [the Club], buy it," Jim said of Wells Fargo's stock. 3. CrowdStrike and Broadcom are set to report earnings next week on Tuesday and Thursday, respectively. CrowdStrike shares are up a little over 1% Friday, a reaction that Jim said was driven by cybersecurity peer Zscaler's good quarter. With custom AI chipmaker Broadcom, we're also looking forward to seeing the progress its making with cloud software firm VMWare, particularly on gross margins. "The VMware deal has been awesome for them," Marks said. "The stock is up huge since that deal closed." 4. Stocks covered in Friday's rapid fire at the end of the video were: Dell Technologies , Marvell Technology , Ulta Beauty, Gap Inc. , and Airbnb . (Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust is long AVGO,CRWD, GS, WFC . See here for a full list of the stocks.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust's portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.
CNBC
2 days ago
- Business
- CNBC
Salesforce sellers think CEO Marc Benioff is out of ideas. Cramer says it might be time to buy
It might be time to take another look at Salesforce . Jim Cramer said Thursday he's considering whether to rebuild the Club's small position in the enterprise software giant, following an exaggerated 5% sell-off in the stock despite strong earnings and guidance. "The long knives are out" for Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff on the notion that he's tapped out of ideas, Jim said during Thursday's Morning Meeting. "I totally disagree with that," Jim added, suggesting a possible opportunity in the stock, which has lost more than 20% year to date compared to the S & P 500 's flat 2025 performance. In a note to clients Thursday, RBC Capital analysts said they're concerned that Salesforce is reverting to its old habit of relying on acquisitions versus organic innovation, questioning the necessity of this week's $8 billion offer to buy data management firm Informatica. Meant to accelerate Salesforce's push into artificial intelligence, the integration of Informatica could become a distraction from the company's core customer relationship management (CRM) platform, the analysts added. For those reasons, RBC downgraded Salesforce to a hold-equivalent rating. While also lowering its price target from $420 to $275 per share, it still represents more than 5% upside to where the Club stock traded Thursday afternoon, around $261. CRM YTD mountain Salesforce YTD Salesforce has struggled to get the Street on board with its grand vision of Agentforce — its answer to AI agents that can automate lots of human-like tasks. Last month, D.A. Davidson accused Salesforce of neglecting its core business to bet on AI. In an April interview with Jim on "Mad Money," Benioff defended his strategy: "We have pivoted our company hard and fast to completely absorb Agentforce into all of our products." Following Wednesday evening's earnings , which saw Salesforce deliver a better-than-expected quarter and strong guidance, Benioff told Jim that Agentforce is now a $100 million-plus annual recurring revenue (ARR) product. Additionally, he said nearly 60% of the company's largest 100 deals in the quarter included both Agentforce and Data Cloud, which together account for ARR of more than $1 billion — up from the $900 million provided in February. "Wall Street has decided that Marc Benioff, once again should be counted out," said Jim, especially as Benioff prefers acquisitions over share buybacks. "What he wants to do is become the single greatest place to be able to get agentics, in other words, take advantage of what [Nvidia CEO] Jensen Huang's doing," Jim continued. Nvidia and Salesforce announced a collaboration last year aimed at developing advanced agentic AI innovation. Since its launch, Agentforce has secured 8,000 deals, with major named customers such as PepsiCo . "Now, they're using 11 of clouds, and now led by Agentforce and our data cloud to really transform Pepsi," Benioff also told Jim in Wednesday's "Mad Money" interview. Agentforce has allowed the soft drink and snack chain to unify its businesses under a single customer information system, Benioff said. He added that every company on the Salesforce platform can do so with artificial intelligence. But not everybody on Wall Street has turned its back on Salesforce. Goldman Sachs raised its price target to $385 from $340. The analysts said they view the software enterprise's scaling capacity to pursue data and artificial intelligence opportunities as "strategically sound." KeyBanc also backed Salesforce, reiterating a buy-equivalent rating and price target of $440, stating satisfaction with the company's quarter growth metrics and upside opportunity. Jim said KeyBanc gets it. Bottom line The Club is still confident in Salesforce and its long-term trajectory. "The stock's sell-off on Thursday is surprising given the stock's underperformance this year and low expectations into the print," said Jeff Marks, director of portfolio analysis for the Club. "Although the quarter wasn't enough to silence its critics, we don't think CRM is getting enough credit for its AI ambitions," Jeff said, agreeing with the sentiment conveyed by Goldman and KeyBanc. Following earnings, we reiterated our buy-equivalent 1 rating , while lowering our price target to $350 a share from $400 to account for the skepticism in the marketplace. (Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust is long CRM, NVDA See here for a full list of the stocks.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust's portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.
New York Times
2 days ago
- Business
- New York Times
Manchester City should have been more ‘aggressive' in transfer window says chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak
Manchester City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak says that the club should have been more 'aggressive' in last summer's transfer market as he vowed that they will be back challenging next season. Speaking in his annual end-of-season review, Al Mubarak conceded that City were forced into action in the January window when they spent over £180 million, the second-highest ever winter transfer total. Advertisement Omar Marmoush, Nico Gonzalez, Abdukodir Khusanov, and Vitor Reis all joined with more incomings expected this summer as City look to bounce back from their first season outside of the top two since 2016-17. 'This club has gone through, as always, a regeneration,' he said. 'When I look at the last 16, 17 odd years of being involved in this Club, so many different squads, and we've done it in a structured way over the years. 'This year is another year where when I look back, last summer we probably should have been more aggressive in some of the changes we needed to do. We didn't do that, and that ended up costing us this year. 'We already started the rebuild of this team in January. Normally, we like to do our business in the summer and only in case of emergency. A special need that comes up, do we actually go and do business in January? That's been our MO at least for the last seven or eight years. But this January, we had to act.' Al Mubarak praised how the club did not panic during a difficult four-month spell in which City's form collapsed and were still able to secure Champions League football for the 15th consecutive year. But he intimated that further additions could be arriving soon, with the Club World Cup in the US only three weeks away. 'We feel very good about these four players in January,' he said. 'And that gives you an idea of what's coming this summer because we will continue this summer serving the needs of the Club. 'I can tell you today, we have clearly identified who exactly the targets are, in what positions, and we have our clear number one option, our clear number two option. 'We'll go about our business, and it will be very clear, very swift. Our objective is to try to be ready with the new squad for the Club World Cup.' Al Mubarak also declared that Kevin De Bruyne is the best player in City's history, but says that Erling Haaland is ready to lead the next evolution after signing a ten-year contract during the season. 'We know what we have now in Erling, which is the most prolific striker in the world,' he said. 'We have him completely bought into everything that is Manchester City. He is an incredible talent. He is an incredible person, and he's at the right age. When we look at the next ten years, Erling is at the heart of what we are building, and it was, again, for me, a pretty clear, easy decision. Advertisement 'What you talk about is history. What we are focusing on is the future, always. History is great and it's lovely and we celebrate it, and we enjoy it, but then the page flips and there's a new page to write. 'How many more leagues can we keep winning? How many more Champions Leagues can we go on and win? How many Club World Cups we're going to go and win, FA Cups, Carabao Cups, Community Shields. 'It's writing the next chapter, and Erling is at the heart of it. I think this commitment goes both ways. It's Erling telling the Club and telling us he's betting on us, and it's us telling him we're betting on you, and we're betting for the next 10 years. You're going to take us to the next chapter with more trophies and incredible success.'
