John Ó’Ríordáns Blog

There is a great website called British Pathe which has a huge amount of old newsreels from Ireland up from the late 1800’s up to 1970. There is great stuff there from the War of Independence including this shot of IRA members being arrested in Dublin. You can even seem some of the British Tanks in the shot.

It contains some other fantastic movies as well.

thesraid Ireland, Opinion history, ira, Ireland, republicanism, uk

One of the coolest knockouts in a long time. I was watching this over the weekend. A great finish. You have to watch it from start to finish to fully appreciate it. It’s very short though it’s over in the first round. Well worth watching it through.

Those front kicks look sore!

thesraid Sport knockout, mma, strikeforce, ufc

Here is a list of the top 10 dirtiest hotels in Europe to be avoided from TripAdvisor. 8 out of 10 of which are from the United Kingdom. I know I won’t be going there on my holidays.Not that I would ever stay in Hotles with the names Cromwell Crown or the Victoria etc.

• 1. Grosvenor Hotel, Blackpool, United Kingdom
• 2. Villaggio Club Porto Ainu, Budoni, Italy
• 3. Park Hotel, London, United Kingdom
• 4. Boston Court Hotel, London, United Kingdom
• 5. Cromwell Crown, London, United Kingdom
• 6. Dam Hotel, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
• 7. Corbigoe Hotel, London, United Kingdom
• 8. Earls Court Gardens Hotel, London, United Kingdom
• 9. Blair Victoria & Tudor Inn Hotel, London, United Kingdom
• 10. Minster Hotel, York, United Kingdom

thesraid Opinion, Travel hotels, Travel, tripadvisor, uk

I am glad I held off on buying a house when everyone was putting pressure on me to do so. I was telling everyone that there was no way prices could stay that high. If you looked at other countries houses prices were not as high as ours compared to GDP. Well today in the Independent I saw an article saying they are €100,000 less on average than 2007. I hear they are back to early 2000 levels now.

I’ll have to figure out how much money I’ve paid on rent since 2000 and now and see if it equals €100,000. I’m sure it would.

Lets see, lets assume I paid around €400 a month, I paid less in early 2000 but let’s go with that. So in 10 years x 12 months I would have paid rent for 120 months. That’s 120×400 = 48,000. So if I bought a house now I would have saved €52,000 over someone who bought one in early 2000. Cool!

thesraid Ireland, Opinion house prices, money

Hi hear a rumour that the man with the moustache, Don Frye, might be returning to the UFC. For one fight only. Probably to fight Toney I guess. Here’s the first 2 minutes of one of his fights. One of the best starts to a fight ever.

thesraid Sport don frye, fight, mma, ufc, youtube

thesraid Funny, lolcats hamster, kissing, lolcat

An old video about the Hurling Strike but I’ve only come across it today.

thesraid Cork, Funny, Ireland, Sport county board, frank murphy, gaa, hurling, strike

thesraid Funny, lolcats cat, Funny, lolcat, vet

A lot of websites are doing there best knockout of 2009 lists. But I want to go one better. Below you’ll find two (UPDATE: four) great videos of the best K-1 knockouts ever!

thesraid Sport best of, K-1, kickboxing, knockout, muay thai

Read this in the Hogan Stand today.

Cork boss Denis Walsh has confirmed Timmy McCarthy’s retirement from inter-county hurling.

The Castlelyons farmer was one of the most decorated hurlers in the modern game, winning All-Ireland titles at senior, under 21, minor and intermediate level. He also won a National League medal in his debut season of 1998 and an Inter-provincial medal with Munster in 2007.

McCarthy, who represented the Rebels in both hurling and football up to under 21 level, first came to prominence with the famed hurling nursery St. Colman’s, Fermoy before going on to win an All-Ireland minor medal in 1995 with Donal Og Cusack and Sean Og O hAilpin among his team-mates.

The flying half forward, who often came in for unfair criticism from Cork fans, won back-to-back All-Ireland under 21 titles in 1997 and ‘98 before helping the Rebels to Liam McCarthy Cup glory in 1999.

McCarthy garnered two more All-Ireland senior medals in 2004 and 2005. In all, he won five Munster SHC medals and was a key player for divisional side Imokilly in their 1997 and ‘98 Cork SHC successes.

“Timmy has been a fantastic servant to Cork over 10 years or so,” fellow East Corkman Walsh said.

“I was always a big fan of his and his style of play and he’s a player that owes Cork hurling nothing.”

thesraid Cork, Sport Cork, hurling, retire, Sport