Yet More Glory For The Eastern Seaboard, Leinster and Wexford

Current Affairs
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I’ll see your ONE brothel and raise you…

Exposed: the seedy sex life of our dirty old towns

By Laois Nationalist Reporter

Last Updated Aug 2009

OVER 20 brothels have been closed down in Portlaoise in the past six weeks. Garda sources confi rmed that rented apartments and houses have been operating around the town as brothels with ‘escorts’ offering their services from them. When the landlords and letting agents of the premises were notifi ed of what was taking place, they moved to evict the tenants and closed down the businesses.

Garda sources said they were fi rst alerted to the brothels last September when an apartment occupied by two women was broken into, robbed and ransacked along the Stradbally Road by a man with alleged links to the international sex trade. The perpetrator of that break-in is currently in a British jail awaiting trial on charges of human trafficking, controlling prostitution and money laundering. He is believed to be behind a multi million-euro sex empire.

It is believed that the break-in was part of a ‘turf war’ among rival pimps from known criminal gangs vying for a stake and overall control of the lucrative sex trade in Portlaoise.

Following the man’s incarceration, it is believed that organised sex trade in the town split, with two factions emerging: escort agencies and independent agencies. Garda sources said escort agencies are operated by “shady elements with known criminal backgrounds”, while the independent agencies are operated by “small groups of women who come together” to form co-operative-type businesses.

The escorts, both men and women, scour the internet for vacant apartments for rent in the town. Couples posing as interested parties looking for rented accommodation approach local property letting agencies and auctioneers and normally pay a month’s rent in advance and sign a six-month leasing contract.

Two weeks later, two escorts would then set up business from the rented premises. They then advertise their business via escort websites, with a mobile phone number attached where their ‘clients’ can ring them to arrange a meeting. When contacted, the escorts specify a date, time and the house’s location where the men (and in some instances women) meet them.

It is believed the escorts operated from premises in such areas around the town as Rossvale, Mountrath Road, Fairgreen, the town centre, Rossdarragh and other newer housing estates. Their most preferred properties tend to be oneand two-bedroom apartments, but occasionally have been known to rent threebedroom houses.

Garda sources said they moved on the sex trade in the town over six weeks ago, after local residents in some areas expressed their suspicions about unusual activities at houses and apartments, normally under the cover of darkness. At that time, there were 25 escorts advertising their businesses online operating from 22 premises around the town. This week there are 13 escorts again offering their services online.

One local property letting agency proprietor, Tony Brown from Property Properly, said his company had been duped on more than one occasion by these operators. He told the Laois Nationalist: “A man who has his own respectable plumbing business in Co Kildare came in to me and leased an apartment in his own name for his girlfriend. When I heard what she was up to, I went to a guard I know and told him what was going on. He questioned the plumber and the man genuinely did not know what she was doing or had been up to. She didn’t last long in the apartment after I heard that.

“On another occasion, two women came into my offices wanting to rent an apartment. One of them posed as the other woman’s mother and produced past references. They were at it, too.

“They normally send in close relations, such as a boyfriend or their brothers or sisters, to sign up, before they move in themselves. It’s hard to beat them. All property letting agents in the town have been scammed in the same way. If they tell you they’ve never been caught, they wouldn’t be telling you the truth. We’ve all been caught. It’s going on all the time. It’s hard to counteract them.”

Superintendent Philip Lyons said that in the past few months there has been an explosion of these types of escort activities in provisional towns. He said garda in Portlaoise had been monitoring the escort websites and had been successful in closing down some of them.

He said when they receive a call about suspected activities at an address they visit the premises. “When we show interest in an address they inevitably close down and move their operations to another town. We have closed down a large number of these in the past few months.

“It is an on-going problem that appears to be mushrooming in the past year or so and is spreading out to most of the provisional towns,” said the superintendent.

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For any of you homesick Wexford Townies

http://www.viewwexford.com/live/bigwindow.html

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[quote=“Mac”]For any of you homesick Wexford Townies

http://www.viewwexford.com/live/bigwindow.html[/quote]

That’s magical. :clap:

I got goosebumps there.

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In keeping with trying to maintain the high standard of cleanliness in the town, Bandages mother found this:

An area in Wexford town known as The Faythe will remain sealed off until after 6pm this evening due to the discovery of an unexploded shell.

The shell, which is around 30cms long and 8cms in diameter, is believed to be at least 40 years old. It was found during a clean up of a garage behind a house.

A few houses have been evacuated pending the arrival of the Army bomb disposal unit.

The location is around 250 metres from the local polling station.

GardaĂ­ say nobody has been prevented from polling and voting is continuing as normal.

Further parking restrictions have been put in place because of the alert

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Clonard hoodlums I bet

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She found it in her gee

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:lol: :lol:

Brilliant.

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It has been brought to my attention that a young Wexford representative won the world renowned and highly prestigious All Ireland Talent Show last night. A momentous and magnificent moment for Wexford.

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and coming days after the extravagent fireworks display that brought tens of thousands to the town, it has been a good week for the Eastern Seaboard again.

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The Great Granddaddy of all lighthouses :clap: :clap:

http://www.rte.ie/news/av/2011/0621/media-2983616.html#

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Good series this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-1OJb03SPI

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http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/features/2011/0809/1224302081251.html

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Sensational article. :clap:

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http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/features/2011/0815/1224302447947.html

World record holders…

55

Fairly sure that Billy Colfer the fella bringing that Scot up Hook lighthouse is the uncle of Eoin Colfer of Artemis Fowl fame

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Speaking of Wexford connections Jem Roche the Irish heavyweight who lost to world champion Tommy Burns in 1908 is the grandfather of Wexford playwright Billy Roche.

Jem Roche also coached the Wexford 4 in a row team of 1914 -1918. He was portly in stature.

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I believe, ‘Your are correct Sir!’

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Ramsay de Give for The Wall Street Journal

The referee drew the first half of Kerry’s match against Cavan to a close and made his way out of the rain. Dripping wet, he took a seat in a small green cabin among the resident experts of the New York Gaelic Athletic Association, men who have watched Gaelic football there for decades. They welcomed him in, staring out at the sprawling field and the unforgiving sky.
“That rain,” said the referee, Sean Jones, “that’s just like at home, boys.”

The downpour wasn’t the only thing that was just like home. Except for the parked cars of the No. 1 train on elevated rails, the whole scene might have passed for Ireland instead of the Bronx. Clusters of fans huddled in the stands. Every accent around Gaelic Park was a brogue from some corner of the Emerald Isle. Even the advertising on the fences was for Irish companies.
But it is hardly surprising that the Irish community has made the park its own. Irish immigrants have been playing Gaelic football in New York for more than 100 years, first at Celtic Park in Queens and, longer than anyone can remember, at its current home at 240th and Broadway in the Bronx. Every Sunday from April to October, teams named for Irish counties duke it out for bragging rights and hometown pride—albeit 3,000 miles from home, where Gaelic football is king.

“It’s probably hard for people to understand how important Gaelic football is if you haven’t been born and reared in Ireland,” said Rory Stafford, who moved to New York in 2009 and plays for Cork :mad: . “It’s the biggest thing in your life. It runs so deep in your blood that no matter where you go in the world, you just have to be involved in it.”

The sport is yet another one with a claim to the name “football.” Based on how much feet actually meet the ball in this game, it falls somewhere in between soccer and its distant American cousin.
Gaelic football players advance the ball, which is a heavier version of a soccer ball, predominantly with their hands up the 150-yard field—they can carry it for four steps at a time, punch it to each other, or punt it. There are goalposts at each end, much like in rugby, except that the area under the crossbar is an eight-foot high, soccer-style goal, complete with a goalkeeper.
Similar to rugby, players can kick it through the posts above the crossbar—worth a point in Gaelic football—but unlike rugby, they can also knock it in the goal past the goalkeeper, which is worth three points.
Officially, the only sanctioned contact in this game without pads is the shoulder-to-shoulder check. And players are pretty good about hitting that target— most of the time. Do it right and your opponent will cough up the ball and maybe look twice for your number next time. Do it wrong and you may be left to defend for yourself.
At least three fights broke out in the match between Kerry and Cavan alone.

“It’s just natural for the sport,” said Jones, the referee whose job it is to keep players from knocking each other senseless outside the laws of the game. “It’s the way you’re brought up with the game back home in Ireland. It’s always on the boil.”
The homegrown rivalries only fuel the fire. Cork, for instance, does not get along with Kerry. There is no love lost between Tyrone and Leitram either. And Ireland’s divisive history also adds some spice to any game involving a team from the northern counties, like the orange-clad men of Armagh.

Of course, with only six teams in the league, they cannot entirely be made up of players from those counties. But they are entirely Irish or Irish-American, with the majority coming over from Ireland to find work. Those without any Irish heritage on a team can be counted on one hand. During the summer, the league’s numbers are also bolstered by students coming over from Ireland on J-1 visas and a handful of players who have appeared at county level in Ireland.
All of them know about the league long before they cross the Atlantic.

“The fortunes of the New York GAA seem to ebb and flow with the Irish economy,” said Laurence McCarthy, a professor of management at Seton Hall and chairman of the New York Gaelic Athletic Association. “When the Irish economy is doing badly, the New York GAA will do well and vice-versa.”
The Irish economy was doing particularly badly in the 1950s and early 1960s, which is why that period is regarded as the finest in the New York GAA’s history. The quality of the game was at its peak—teams were even going back to Ireland and successfully challenging sides there—the stands were full, and Gaelic Park was woven into the fabric of the Irish experience in New York. Its reputation as a hub for New York’s Irish population was so deeply rooted that Robert Kennedy made it a campaign stop when he ran for United States Senate in 1964.

On Sundays, a visit to Gaelic Park was nearly as important as a visit to church. And one would usually follow the other. After morning mass, thousands would flock to the stadium and the small restaurant and bar at the corner of 240th Street known to everyone as “the shed.”
“People would come to the games, go to the bar, have their dinner, and then there’d be a dance in the place,” McCarthy said. “So many marriages have been made in Gaelic Park— many people will tell you they met whoever they’re married to there on a Sunday.”
Though the social importance of Gaelic Park has since faded, hundreds, sometimes thousands of fans still fill the bleachers on a regular basis. But more importantly for the long-term health of the sport, more and more kids are turning to Gaelic football, according to the GAA’s Youth Officer, Denis Twomey.
New clubs are cropping up in Queens and Rockland County with enough players to fill age groups from under-8s to under-21s. In the Bronx, 18 teams compete below the senior division. Twomey said he thought Gaelic football might very well be the fastest growing sport in New York that no one has ever heard of. He only has to look as far as his American-born sons to recognize the game’s potential here.

“They would take Gaelic football over anything. Soccer, basketball, anything,” Twomey said. “Gaelic football is their love and they’re keeping the tradition alive. They want that culture to be with them.”
That isn’t to say the Bronx’s Gaelic football players haven’t changed with the times or refused to adopt anything American. As they emerged from the showers on Sunday, the proud Irishmen in their home away from home were living proof.

They drank Coors Light.

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How twee

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Good to see Rory has advanced his career after embarrassing Ciaran Whelan in Croke Park a few years back