Replying To GreenandRed:  "That's a very old saying, first time I heard it it was bowsies, not thugs. Depends who's playing. Plenty play both and hurling and gaelic football. Generally anyone playing sports, especially team sports, for any length of time play the games hard and fair and shake their opponent's hands sportingly like ladies and gentlemen when the game finishes."

Replying To AfricanGael:  "They wont get near Djibouti, I can guarantee you that !"]You're a flipping chancer bud. I bet you hardly even know where Djibouti is.
Djibouti's debt to China has reportedly increased to more than 70 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP).
China is all over Djibouti ; it has military bases there for God sake. Do you know what you are talking about at all???

Replying To avonali:  "They wont get near Djibouti, I can guarantee you that !"]You're a flipping chancer bud. I bet you hardly even know where Djibouti is.
Djibouti's debt to China has reportedly increased to more than 70 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP).
China is all over Djibouti ; it has military bases there for God sake. Do you know what you are talking about at all???"]Scarlet for African Gael....

There us surely a constituency here that would elect him :-)

Replying To PoolSturgeon:  "Yeah, just imagine if Katie Taylor had chosen hockey instead of boxing!"

Replying To avonali:  "They wont get near Djibouti, I can guarantee you that !"]You're a flipping chancer bud. I bet you hardly even know where Djibouti is.
Djibouti's debt to China has reportedly increased to more than 70 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP).
China is all over Djibouti ; it has military bases there for God sake. Do you know what you are talking about at all???"]Forgive me for smiling at your clearly ill-informed wiki reply.

If you keep looking it might tell you Ireland is a wealthy country and not a debt ridden shambles under the false veneer, a country that can't even house its people properly, or is even capable of building a hospital on time or on budget.
I'll come back to you about all that at a later date but for now I'm here to educate you, not humiliate or insult you.

Anyways, let's start with the military, I would say Uncle Sam has at least 10 times the amount of military personnel in Djibouti than the Chinese and that will increase in the next three years, the French have more than the Chinese, the Spanish have more, the Japanese have more and the Saudis have probably as many and there are other smaller numbers of European personnel as well and of course the French Foreign Legion.
The Chinese military is totally dwarfed so they won't be getting near the keys of Djibouti and that I can assure you, in any case they are not interested in the place as their main role is protection of their valuable shipping assets and the deep water port and consequently escorting ships as a deterrent to piracy. It's a win win for everyone.

Its neighbouring Ethiopia where the Chinese have a huge presence, the main reason they have a military presence in Djibouti is to protect their sea trade, it has absolutely nothing to do with taking over the country! They are no more than a glorified security company in Djibouti. The roles of the US French military in particular are different in much more ways and in any case classified although anti-piracy would be one small part of it.

China are in Africa for the cheaper labour and materials, simple as that so while the money they are spending may sound huge by Irish standards, the return the Chinese are getting is huge, the made in China will soon be the Made in Ethiopia as well and other African countries.
So before you go panicking like an Irish drama Queen, don't worry Djibouti isn't being invaded. It's business, big business.

So the next item on the agenda is your Wikipedia reference to "Djibouti's debt to China has reportedly increased to more than 70 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP)".
Without diminishing what you say, but forget about measuring anything against GDP alone, because it will totally mislead you.

But as I had no interest in what debt China holds given that many counties are in debt to China the 70% you mention is not something I was shocked about given how poor a country Djibouti is but when I looked at what you said more closely, what you are talking about in monetary terms is literally peanuts.

Just to put it into some kind of context for you, the Irish in Ireland spend more on alcohol in 6 months than what the GDP is of Djibouti.

According to thebalance.com China owns over 1 trillion of US debt, Japan also owns over a trillion in US debt and many more countries own hundreds of billions of US debt, but wait for this, they also say Ireland own over $313 billion of US debt which we all know is untrue, big American tech companies based in Ireland may do, but Ireland doesn't. In fact Ireland is reported to be 248 billion in debt.

So the next time you are shopping down in Penny's for your runners or whatever, it's you my friend who are paying for infrastructure the Chinese are building in Africa, and you are indirectly paying people like me.

How is the Children's hospital coming on by the way, how much over time and budget has it gone now ?

Those are the sort of issues you need to be concerned about.

There's a big world outside the M50 which you are clearly unaware of.

Replying To Ashrules:  "In the context of vastly improved relations England would be most welcome for Athletics ,Horse racing, Rugby ,Golf etc. But they do have a lingering problem with how soccer attracts their low intelligent right wing old empire hooligans ,most likely bred from black and tan trash.
That is why the GAA must stay away from involvement with soccer tournaments that might involve hosting england."

Replying To CC2020:  "The racism and abuse of the 3 coloured players after the penalty shootout is sickening, for me not because it's a minority but a large section of English society. You can gauge this by the comments on any English article relating to the game.

I'm not saying this for congratulations but whenever I walk by a coloured person on the street in provincial Ireland I'm much more likely to smile at them. It's a natural response of mine, and I mean 'it's great you're here' but it probably might come across as patronising. At any rate treating people with kindness and respect brings out the better side in us all.

I think of the Irish history of emigration. How do many Irish, on deaths door fell off famine ships to Liverpool, the US and Canada. Many didn't have English. I think of how we experienced discrimination.

Hate is such a futile, dangerous emotion, nothing any good ever comes of it. We were doing so well threading a path of tolerance and mutual respect on these islands post 1998, probably peeking in 2011, until Brexit unleashed ultra nationalism in Britain over the last 5/6 years."

Replying To Galway9801:  "Not to be too preachy about it but today it's actually considered very racist to describe a black person as 'coloured"."

Replying To AfricanGael:  "They wont get near Djibouti, I can guarantee you that !"]You're a flipping chancer bud. I bet you hardly even know where Djibouti is.
Djibouti's debt to China has reportedly increased to more than 70 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP).
China is all over Djibouti ; it has military bases there for God sake. Do you know what you are talking about at all???"]Forgive me for smiling at your clearly ill-informed wiki reply.

If you keep looking it might tell you Ireland is a wealthy country and not a debt ridden shambles under the false veneer, a country that can't even house its people properly, or is even capable of building a hospital on time or on budget.
I'll come back to you about all that at a later date but for now I'm here to educate you, not humiliate or insult you.

Anyways, let's start with the military, I would say Uncle Sam has at least 10 times the amount of military personnel in Djibouti than the Chinese and that will increase in the next three years, the French have more than the Chinese, the Spanish have more, the Japanese have more and the Saudis have probably as many and there are other smaller numbers of European personnel as well and of course the French Foreign Legion.
The Chinese military is totally dwarfed so they won't be getting near the keys of Djibouti and that I can assure you, in any case they are not interested in the place as their main role is protection of their valuable shipping assets and the deep water port and consequently escorting ships as a deterrent to piracy. It's a win win for everyone.

Its neighbouring Ethiopia where the Chinese have a huge presence, the main reason they have a military presence in Djibouti is to protect their sea trade, it has absolutely nothing to do with taking over the country! They are no more than a glorified security company in Djibouti. The roles of the US French military in particular are different in much more ways and in any case classified although anti-piracy would be one small part of it.

China are in Africa for the cheaper labour and materials, simple as that so while the money they are spending may sound huge by Irish standards, the return the Chinese are getting is huge, the made in China will soon be the Made in Ethiopia as well and other African countries.
So before you go panicking like an Irish drama Queen, don't worry Djibouti isn't being invaded. It's business, big business.

So the next item on the agenda is your Wikipedia reference to "Djibouti's debt to China has reportedly increased to more than 70 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP)".
Without diminishing what you say, but forget about measuring anything against GDP alone, because it will totally mislead you.

But as I had no interest in what debt China holds given that many counties are in debt to China the 70% you mention is not something I was shocked about given how poor a country Djibouti is but when I looked at what you said more closely, what you are talking about in monetary terms is literally peanuts.

Just to put it into some kind of context for you, the Irish in Ireland spend more on alcohol in 6 months than what the GDP is of Djibouti.

According to thebalance.com China owns over 1 trillion of US debt, Japan also owns over a trillion in US debt and many more countries own hundreds of billions of US debt, but wait for this, they also say Ireland own over $313 billion of US debt which we all know is untrue, big American tech companies based in Ireland may do, but Ireland doesn't. In fact Ireland is reported to be 248 billion in debt.

So the next time you are shopping down in Penny's for your runners or whatever, it's you my friend who are paying for infrastructure the Chinese are building in Africa, and you are indirectly paying people like me.

How is the Children's hospital coming on by the way, how much over time and budget has it gone now ?

Those are the sort of issues you need to be concerned about.

There's a big world outside the M50 which you are clearly unaware of."]Do you know something you're an out and out chancer. My facts were not gleaned from wiki. But, you, my friend have definitely been reading it. Your riposte is a virtual cut and paste job with a cursory glance through an "Idiots Guide to Macroeconoics" thrown in. Wiki completely underplays the grip that China has on Djibouti. It's quite remarkable how ill informed you are. Whatever about going beyond the M50, do you ever actually leave your bedroom?
You call us a shambles and make ironic references to the Children's hospital and compare us unfavourably to England after thousands of men demonstrated to the world the benefits of the British educational. system, their virulent racism. More to the point, you do know that Russian property developers now own a huge chunk of real estate in the UK. So it's a case of the kettle calling the pot black.
BUt look ,keep reading away on Djibouti and it's unemployment and you might ind that poor governance and corruption have been responsible for the wastage of lots of investment monies. Djibouti is ranked 142/ 180 by Transparency International. It is a basket case. So "African" Gael , rather than worry about the Children's Hospital shouldn't you leave your bedroom, get yourself down to the Horn of Africa and sort out the shambles down there.
So when you write in here to tell us that you're heading of to Djibouti to leave this "shambles" I ask myself does AG realise. he. is jumping from the frying pan into the fire??? The poor chap. But then I breathe a sigh of relief because I know his African connection is a figment of his imagination.

So you contention that China won't get its hands on Djibouti is utterly wrong.
You claim to reside in a country where poor governance and corruption are rife and you call Ireland a shambles!!
You think the UK is a cut above us here in Ireland...Jesus, do y9u watch the new at all. There is a serious level of dysfunction in English life and toxic masculinity. is rampant there.
And most importantly mon ami......

HOW DARE YOU SUGGEST I"D WEAR PENNY"S RUNNERS!!!!

Replying To avonali:  "They wont get near Djibouti, I can guarantee you that !"]You're a flipping chancer bud. I bet you hardly even know where Djibouti is.
Djibouti's debt to China has reportedly increased to more than 70 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP).
China is all over Djibouti ; it has military bases there for God sake. Do you know what you are talking about at all???"]Forgive me for smiling at your clearly ill-informed wiki reply.

If you keep looking it might tell you Ireland is a wealthy country and not a debt ridden shambles under the false veneer, a country that can't even house its people properly, or is even capable of building a hospital on time or on budget.
I'll come back to you about all that at a later date but for now I'm here to educate you, not humiliate or insult you.

Anyways, let's start with the military, I would say Uncle Sam has at least 10 times the amount of military personnel in Djibouti than the Chinese and that will increase in the next three years, the French have more than the Chinese, the Spanish have more, the Japanese have more and the Saudis have probably as many and there are other smaller numbers of European personnel as well and of course the French Foreign Legion.
The Chinese military is totally dwarfed so they won't be getting near the keys of Djibouti and that I can assure you, in any case they are not interested in the place as their main role is protection of their valuable shipping assets and the deep water port and consequently escorting ships as a deterrent to piracy. It's a win win for everyone.

Its neighbouring Ethiopia where the Chinese have a huge presence, the main reason they have a military presence in Djibouti is to protect their sea trade, it has absolutely nothing to do with taking over the country! They are no more than a glorified security company in Djibouti. The roles of the US French military in particular are different in much more ways and in any case classified although anti-piracy would be one small part of it.

China are in Africa for the cheaper labour and materials, simple as that so while the money they are spending may sound huge by Irish standards, the return the Chinese are getting is huge, the made in China will soon be the Made in Ethiopia as well and other African countries.
So before you go panicking like an Irish drama Queen, don't worry Djibouti isn't being invaded. It's business, big business.

So the next item on the agenda is your Wikipedia reference to "Djibouti's debt to China has reportedly increased to more than 70 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP)".
Without diminishing what you say, but forget about measuring anything against GDP alone, because it will totally mislead you.

But as I had no interest in what debt China holds given that many counties are in debt to China the 70% you mention is not something I was shocked about given how poor a country Djibouti is but when I looked at what you said more closely, what you are talking about in monetary terms is literally peanuts.

Just to put it into some kind of context for you, the Irish in Ireland spend more on alcohol in 6 months than what the GDP is of Djibouti.

According to thebalance.com China owns over 1 trillion of US debt, Japan also owns over a trillion in US debt and many more countries own hundreds of billions of US debt, but wait for this, they also say Ireland own over $313 billion of US debt which we all know is untrue, big American tech companies based in Ireland may do, but Ireland doesn't. In fact Ireland is reported to be 248 billion in debt.

So the next time you are shopping down in Penny's for your runners or whatever, it's you my friend who are paying for infrastructure the Chinese are building in Africa, and you are indirectly paying people like me.

How is the Children's hospital coming on by the way, how much over time and budget has it gone now ?

Those are the sort of issues you need to be concerned about.

There's a big world outside the M50 which you are clearly unaware of."]Do you know something you're an out and out chancer. My facts were not gleaned from wiki. But, you, my friend have definitely been reading it. Your riposte is a virtual cut and paste job with a cursory glance through an "Idiots Guide to Macroeconoics" thrown in. Wiki completely underplays the grip that China has on Djibouti. It's quite remarkable how ill informed you are. Whatever about going beyond the M50, do you ever actually leave your bedroom?
You call us a shambles and make ironic references to the Children's hospital and compare us unfavourably to England after thousands of men demonstrated to the world the benefits of the British educational. system, their virulent racism. More to the point, you do know that Russian property developers now own a huge chunk of real estate in the UK. So it's a case of the kettle calling the pot black.
BUt look ,keep reading away on Djibouti and it's unemployment and you might ind that poor governance and corruption have been responsible for the wastage of lots of investment monies. Djibouti is ranked 142/ 180 by Transparency International. It is a basket case. So "African" Gael , rather than worry about the Children's Hospital shouldn't you leave your bedroom, get yourself down to the Horn of Africa and sort out the shambles down there.
So when you write in here to tell us that you're heading of to Djibouti to leave this "shambles" I ask myself does AG realise. he. is jumping from the frying pan into the fire??? The poor chap. But then I breathe a sigh of relief because I know his African connection is a figment of his imagination.

So you contention that China won't get its hands on Djibouti is utterly wrong.
You claim to reside in a country where poor governance and corruption are rife and you call Ireland a shambles!!
You think the UK is a cut above us here in Ireland...Jesus, do y9u watch the new at all. There is a serious level of dysfunction in English life and toxic masculinity. is rampant there.
And most importantly mon ami......

HOW DARE YOU SUGGEST I"D WEAR PENNY"S RUNNERS!!!!"]I only read you last line, I really think you should emigrate for your own and for your children's sake, unless you want them to have a life in a socialist utopia because that's what it's heading for.

I doubt very much you would be able to get up at 4 am though, but that's your choice.

Replying To avonali:  "They wont get near Djibouti, I can guarantee you that !"]You're a flipping chancer bud. I bet you hardly even know where Djibouti is.
Djibouti's debt to China has reportedly increased to more than 70 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP).
China is all over Djibouti ; it has military bases there for God sake. Do you know what you are talking about at all???"]Forgive me for smiling at your clearly ill-informed wiki reply.

If you keep looking it might tell you Ireland is a wealthy country and not a debt ridden shambles under the false veneer, a country that can't even house its people properly, or is even capable of building a hospital on time or on budget.
I'll come back to you about all that at a later date but for now I'm here to educate you, not humiliate or insult you.

Anyways, let's start with the military, I would say Uncle Sam has at least 10 times the amount of military personnel in Djibouti than the Chinese and that will increase in the next three years, the French have more than the Chinese, the Spanish have more, the Japanese have more and the Saudis have probably as many and there are other smaller numbers of European personnel as well and of course the French Foreign Legion.
The Chinese military is totally dwarfed so they won't be getting near the keys of Djibouti and that I can assure you, in any case they are not interested in the place as their main role is protection of their valuable shipping assets and the deep water port and consequently escorting ships as a deterrent to piracy. It's a win win for everyone.

Its neighbouring Ethiopia where the Chinese have a huge presence, the main reason they have a military presence in Djibouti is to protect their sea trade, it has absolutely nothing to do with taking over the country! They are no more than a glorified security company in Djibouti. The roles of the US French military in particular are different in much more ways and in any case classified although anti-piracy would be one small part of it.

China are in Africa for the cheaper labour and materials, simple as that so while the money they are spending may sound huge by Irish standards, the return the Chinese are getting is huge, the made in China will soon be the Made in Ethiopia as well and other African countries.
So before you go panicking like an Irish drama Queen, don't worry Djibouti isn't being invaded. It's business, big business.

So the next item on the agenda is your Wikipedia reference to "Djibouti's debt to China has reportedly increased to more than 70 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP)".
Without diminishing what you say, but forget about measuring anything against GDP alone, because it will totally mislead you.

But as I had no interest in what debt China holds given that many counties are in debt to China the 70% you mention is not something I was shocked about given how poor a country Djibouti is but when I looked at what you said more closely, what you are talking about in monetary terms is literally peanuts.

Just to put it into some kind of context for you, the Irish in Ireland spend more on alcohol in 6 months than what the GDP is of Djibouti.

According to thebalance.com China owns over 1 trillion of US debt, Japan also owns over a trillion in US debt and many more countries own hundreds of billions of US debt, but wait for this, they also say Ireland own over $313 billion of US debt which we all know is untrue, big American tech companies based in Ireland may do, but Ireland doesn't. In fact Ireland is reported to be 248 billion in debt.

So the next time you are shopping down in Penny's for your runners or whatever, it's you my friend who are paying for infrastructure the Chinese are building in Africa, and you are indirectly paying people like me.

How is the Children's hospital coming on by the way, how much over time and budget has it gone now ?

Those are the sort of issues you need to be concerned about.

There's a big world outside the M50 which you are clearly unaware of."]Do you know something you're an out and out chancer. My facts were not gleaned from wiki. But, you, my friend have definitely been reading it. Your riposte is a virtual cut and paste job with a cursory glance through an "Idiots Guide to Macroeconoics" thrown in. Wiki completely underplays the grip that China has on Djibouti. It's quite remarkable how ill informed you are. Whatever about going beyond the M50, do you ever actually leave your bedroom?
You call us a shambles and make ironic references to the Children's hospital and compare us unfavourably to England after thousands of men demonstrated to the world the benefits of the British educational. system, their virulent racism. More to the point, you do know that Russian property developers now own a huge chunk of real estate in the UK. So it's a case of the kettle calling the pot black.
BUt look ,keep reading away on Djibouti and it's unemployment and you might ind that poor governance and corruption have been responsible for the wastage of lots of investment monies. Djibouti is ranked 142/ 180 by Transparency International. It is a basket case. So "African" Gael , rather than worry about the Children's Hospital shouldn't you leave your bedroom, get yourself down to the Horn of Africa and sort out the shambles down there.
So when you write in here to tell us that you're heading of to Djibouti to leave this "shambles" I ask myself does AG realise. he. is jumping from the frying pan into the fire??? The poor chap. But then I breathe a sigh of relief because I know his African connection is a figment of his imagination.

So you contention that China won't get its hands on Djibouti is utterly wrong.
You claim to reside in a country where poor governance and corruption are rife and you call Ireland a shambles!!
You think the UK is a cut above us here in Ireland...Jesus, do y9u watch the new at all. There is a serious level of dysfunction in English life and toxic masculinity. is rampant there.
And most importantly mon ami......

HOW DARE YOU SUGGEST I"D WEAR PENNY"S RUNNERS!!!!"]My God what kind of moron in this day and age uses the news, THE NEWS, for crying out loud, as evidence to back up his argument (unless you're being ironic, come to think of it you probably were lol).
Please point out the "toxic" characteristics of masculinity to me that women are completely free of (OK men commit way way more suicides, but apart from that).