Humphries article in the times

**Fergie's Son** · 14/10/2009, 1:42 AM

For what it is worth I met him when he was in Chicago for a year and I found him to be a very decent guy. Went to Joeys as well so that's a positive for me!

Good article. Like how he rips on Stephen Manchester. And Kilbane's response to being called up the the English youths "but I'm Irish". Legend.

**youngirish** · 14/10/2009, 9:17 AM

Originally Posted by Stuttgart88

He wrote one time about how he and his mates used to bunk into Sutton Golf Club to play in the evenings.

How very middleclass.

**gspain** · 14/10/2009, 10:17 AM

Originally Posted by Stuttgart88

Both Malone & Humphries were in UCD around the same time as me. He ran for Student Union President. I think he was beaten by a last minute joke candidate from Wexford - Ulick. Not sure if that was his year or not.

Useless info.

He does write well but I agree with gspain & Kingdom, he's too much of a gah man for me. This costs him credibility on football matters.

When he does write about football it's often about Leeds.

He knew full well what his Roy Keane interview would do for morale in the 2002 WC camp, though maybe not the 7 years of civil war that'd follow! The way the two of them use each other for publicity annoys me.

He wrote one time about how he and his mates used to bunk into Sutton Golf Club to play in the evenings. As far as I can recall his description of the course hardly resembled the actual course, suggesting more porky pies.

Emmet Malone is certainly one of the best football writers in the country. Only complaint here is that he seems to get less and less space for LoI coverage.

Uselss bit of info but the UCD president was Ulick Stafford. Elected as a joke but turned out decent enough if I recall correctly. I was on the UCC union at the time. No idea if TH was the defeated candidate,

**paul_oshea** · 14/10/2009, 10:39 AM

I thought ye were on about the well known UCD GAY, BI and LYBIAN campaigner and president - Ulick McGee.

**Den Perry** · 14/10/2009, 1:14 PM

Originally Posted by blobbyblob

You were an only child, werent you and/or work in the public sector.

wrong on both assumptions

Now, you probably still live at home and have posters of Bibi Baskin stuck t your walls

**Den Perry** · 14/10/2009, 1:15 PM

Originally Posted by gspain

Kevin Kilbane is a legend.

Most Humphries articles are based on wishing he was watching some gah game or other well so do we Tom. Told a pack of lies about a song sung on the FAI flight back from Belfast in 93 (he was on the flight so knows it wasn't true). Took him 15 years to tell the lie too.

got a link to that? never knew about it

**Den Perry** · 14/10/2009, 1:18 PM

Originally Posted by Jicked

Horrendous writer. Has a decent turn of phrase, but every single article relates back to gaa. Ireland could win a world cup final and he'd write up the article talking about how Kevin Doyle comes from good GAA stock and how his great-aunt won an all-ireland minor camogie medal. Considering he talked about hoping an Irish football club died and wanting to run over children he saw playing in a soccer jersey in a "gaa neighbourhood" I don't really have a lot of time for him.

any links to wishing the club died and re running over the kids?

Why does he write about football when he seems to have so much disregard for it?

**blobbyblob** · 14/10/2009, 1:30 PM

Originally Posted by Den Perry

wrong on both assumptions

Now, you probably still live at home and have posters of Bibi Baskin stuck t your walls

BB Baskin and Thelma Mansfield are fine looking women

**OneRedArmy** · 14/10/2009, 1:43 PM

Add me to the Like Kilbane, Don't Like Humphries camp.

I found the article a bit schmaltzy, like a lot of Humphries drivel over the past 5 years, but that was more the way its written, rather than Kilbane's history. Kilbane is in a rare breed of grounded, decent working-class lads who never lost his roots when he became a professional. Not many left in the current game.

In comparison, Humphries head disappeared up his handball alley a long time ago when he started believing the hype about how good a journalist he was. At one stage, he was a good journalist, writing interesting challenging pieces on a variety of sports.

Vanity got the better of him and having secured his pulpit on the back page of the Times, he forgot that his job is to write articles that interest people, not to preach as a single issue candidate and convert non-believers to his narrow view of the sporting world.

Keith Duggan is one hundred times the general sports writer Humphries is IMO.

**paul_oshea** · 14/10/2009, 1:47 PM

Haha, its funny how people with an anti-gaa stance have formed this opinion of humphries and then form an opinion of how he writes his articles and then even the ones that are "good" they still "cant" like them.

**OneRedArmy** · 14/10/2009, 1:58 PM

Originally Posted by paul_oshea

Haha, its funny how people with an anti-gaa stance have formed this opinion of humphries and then form an opinion of how he writes his articles and then even the ones that are "good" they still "cant" like them.

In fairness, Paul, I don't think I'm that shallow. My dislike is a bit wider than just the Gah.

His stuff falls into two camps. Its either too narrow and opionated and comes across as preachy
OR like the Kilbane article is sugar-coated-sentimental-Hollywood-blockbuster-Jerry-Maguire-pass-me-a-hankie hyperbole.
Sometimes its both.

Basically I find reading his articles as pleasurable as standing in a turd. In a pair of new shoes. And a particularly viscous turd at that.

Each to their own though!

**gspain** · 14/10/2009, 2:14 PM

Originally Posted by Den Perry

got a link to that? never knew about it

Claimed last year the FAI sang "you can stick your GAA up your ar$e" or something like that on the flight back from Belfast in 1993.

I'm partly responsible for the story.

Actually song was sung by fans on a fans charter back from Vilnius (might have been Riga but definitely June 1993 GAA did something dodgy at the time can't recall exactly). I mentioned it on usenet at the time and a gah head took offence. The same user was subsequently claiming it was on the FAI flight and then it was Belfast rather than Vilnius within a year or so.

Now Humphries was on the flight and wrote about the flight at the time but never mentioned the song. Strange not claiming such a great scoop. A good friend who is heavily involved in the GAA was also on the flight and confirms that no anti GAA songs were sung. In any event some of the main FAI officials at the time are keen GAA fans.

He probably picked it up from some gah forum and was happy to peddle the lie.

**paul_oshea** · 14/10/2009, 2:23 PM

what usenet gspain?

When people use the term "gah" it makes me think of "RA" so gah head to me sounds like "RA head", it sort of makes me think people use it on purpose to make those particular people sound as raw/rare as ra heads.

**OneRedArmy** · 14/10/2009, 2:40 PM

Originally Posted by paul_oshea

what usenet gspain?

When people use the term "gah" it makes me think of "RA" so gah head to me sounds like "RA head", it sort of makes me think people use it on purpose to make those particular people sound as raw/rare as ra heads.

Aren't they one and the same?

**blobbyblob** · 14/10/2009, 2:45 PM

Feel like Im tripping with some of the statements here

**Jicked** · 14/10/2009, 2:48 PM

Originally Posted by Den Perry

any links to wishing the club died and re running over the kids?

Don't have a link to it as you need an Irish Times account which I don't have. As far as I remember the article was called "Minister, its about resources, not cash" which is even more laughable now looking back when it's clear just how little interest the GAA actually had in Tallaght stadium, and what a sucess the stadium has been without the GAA succeeding in having the project cancelled. His comments about the kids were in the same article I believe, mentioned seeing kids playing in soccer jerseys in a traditionally staunch GAA area and joked about how he had to stop the urge of steering the car towards them.

**Jinxy** · 14/10/2009, 3:08 PM

Originally Posted by Jicked

Don't have a link to it as you need an Irish Times account which I don't have. As far as I remember the article was called "Minister, its about resources, not cash" which is even more laughable now looking back when it's clear just how little interest the GAA actually had in Tallaght stadium, and what a sucess the stadium has been without the GAA succeeding in having the project cancelled. His comments about the kids were in the same article I believe, mentioned seeing kids playing in soccer jerseys in a traditionally staunch GAA area and joked about how he had to stop the urge of steering the car towards them.

I've read most of his stuff and I never saw anything like this.
Why would he write something like that when he has no problem with soccer?
He hates rugby though.
Are you sure it wasn't kids in rugby jersies?

**Jicked** · 14/10/2009, 3:21 PM

Originally Posted by Jinxy

I've read most of his stuff and I never saw anything like this.
Why would he write something like that when he has no problem with soccer?
He hates rugby though.
Are you sure it wasn't kids in rugby jersies?

I'm pretty sure it was soccer jerseys, though could be wrong. He had a big problem with soccer at the time of Tallaght stadium being built, the GAA clearly had asked him to write some pieces on their efforts to stop the stadium being built for the good of the people of Tallaght. It was very embarassing at the time, more so now when it's even more obvious just what his/the gaa's agenda was.

**geysir** · 14/10/2009, 3:48 PM

Maybe contrary to some opinions here, much of Humphries's stuff goes down like a lead balloon in the GAA world.
The journalists with cred in GAA circles would be Keith Duggan (ORA already mentioned) capable of some brilliant articles and a few of the Nordies - Paddy Heaney and Joe Brolly

Probably the last article I willingly read from Humphries was the Roy Keane Saipan one.
It was one hell of a scoop but even as I read it I could not have imagined the fall out.
Was it really any different to Paul Kimmage's one?

**OneRedArmy** · 14/10/2009, 3:53 PM

Who writes multiple columns every year on their kids sporting exploits?

Seriously Tom, get off the stage or put it on Google Blogs. He gets the most column inches in the sporting supplement of country's leading* serious newspaper** and writes about how his son/daughter is getting on in the U14s in some feile down the country. Repeatedly. Thanks Tom, if I wanted to subscribe to the Hogan Stand I would.

He simultaneously supports one garrison game (English football only mind, none of your local stuff) and derides all the followers of another.

*don't sweat the small stuff, its either it or the Indo. Don't get me started on Cathal Dervan...

**a newspaper with more pictures than words isn't a newspaper. Its a comic.