I have Some rare free time on my Hands and as I seen a reference'somewhere to Culchies v City boys' I will relate to a story from my childhood ahead of Sundays games. Forgive the Nostalgia .

We lived and where brought up in a small rural village' and had the school playing fields at our Disposal During the summer holidays.
As a group of young Country ruffians 'we were Hurling/Football mad and most of our time was spent in the School pitch.

Our neighbours Had some Dublin relatives with boys "around our age group" that used to come up visit each summer.

Looking back now we where probably a bit jealous of them' and Kind of looked up to them in a sense.
Immaculately dressed in there Adidas tracksuits and snow white trainers and not a hair out of place' with a cocky arrogance about them' sort of demanding respect from us Scruffy' rednecks with holes in the arse of our trousers.

It wasnt long before the oldest of them' Standing toe to handing a Ball' Challenged us to a game in the School field. Of course We accepted' How could we say no to these Cool Dudes. It would usually be 5 or 6 a side' Should it be Football or soccer.Five of us Country ruffians against 3 Dubs and a couple of their relatives our neighbours. Of Course our neighbours "usually knocked about with us but When the city boys came up we Where usually not good enough to play with.

I can tell you' there was some hardly fought battles during them Summers on that School pitch. Some times we would get togged out in our Shorts and umbro Football boots and bared our milk bottle legs with knobbly kness as opposed to the hairy tanned legs of the Dub boys.

One thing that Stands out and is crystal clear in the memory ' is the Crying the city boys used to Do when we went in for hard tackles.How dare we go in with a sliding tackle in Soccer and dirty their Shorts as they hit the deck or how dare we go in with our big Country shoulders and send them flying. but thats what we did as thats the way we played sport.we played to Win and win we usually Did.They may have been better dressed and looked every part the image of what a Sports man Should look like' but it all meant nothing when the hardy ruffians intent on winning every ball as that is what is in our DNA always doing our best no matter what the task.
I can still see the cocky older boy walking with the ball under his arm "no more cocky toe to handing" marching with his huffy face back down the road. In the end up we used to have to beg them to play a game every time they came up. They did not like losing' especially to Culchies like us. Fond memories indeed.

Come Sunday' the City boys will be Full of Cocky confidence' but hopefully when the Culchie boys hit them hard it may just knock some of the Cockiness out of them' One thing for Sure is they will to do the very best they can as it is in our DNA.



Come on the Culchies/Donegal.

InishowenMan (Donegal) - Posts: 216 - 28/08/2014 22:00:22    1643791

Thats 2 minutes of my life ill never get back. A lovely 31 v 1/us against them story to start the day.

Now im off to start a thread on the time i got an ice cream in bundoran, it dropped to the ground when the van guy gave it to me and he refused to give me a refund/new ice-cream.

HenryHill16 (Dublin) - Posts: 249 - 29/08/2014 08:05:24    1643795

Lantern heart of divine jesus there's more than a touch of the Mayos about that post!

Jackeen (Dublin) - Posts: 4097 - 29/08/2014 08:15:26    1643799

No doubt your story is true , however this team of City Boys are not arrogant nor cocky , like truly great sides they are quietly confident whilst affording opposition total respect .
As for taking a big hit which Im sure they will have to do , sure have you not heard the rumour sure aren't they only gym monkeys , think they will be ok .

Damothedub (Dublin) - Posts: 5193 - 29/08/2014 08:16:30    1643800

oh no

Donegalman (None) - Posts: 3830 - 29/08/2014 08:46:24    1643812

I just found an old copy of Peig :D

realdub (Dublin) - Posts: 8589 - 29/08/2014 09:14:27    1643826

"Culchies v The city boys" sounds like a Broadway musical.

yew_tree (Mayo) - Posts: 11230 - 29/08/2014 09:51:38    1643867

Beautiful story InishowenMan. It was/is probably a novelty for most Counties having the young Dublin Jacks and Jackeens coming to their rural parts to get an insight into the bright lighted, fast moving, crime filled lives that you only seen in Hollywood movies given the lack of large urban areas within a lot of the 32 counties. We were luckier in Antrim as we had the city boys within our own County to marvel at and study and meet on a more regular basis both on the field and up around the Glens come holiday time. They too had that same cocky, streetwise swagger that seems to prevail in large Urban areas but they also realised that there aren't the same street corners or alleys to duke up in the country or if on the field that while they might be better at using their mouths they were second best in the physical stakes and boy did they do some crying.

Really looking forward to the match on Sunday and hope it is a right ding dong battle.

Offside_Rule (Antrim) - Posts: 4058 - 29/08/2014 09:51:57    1643868

Mother of divine jaysus! Have you sought professional help? I know Donegal people who I would gladly trust my life with. I also know Donegal people I would not trust to mind my dogs. Same with Dubs, same with Poles and others I know. There are lots of different people in every part of the country and world. Don't take it so seriously!




Offside rule, I don't think Belfast men and women have anything to prove in the way of physical courage!

hurlingdub (Dublin) - Posts: 6978 - 29/08/2014 10:05:56    1643881

I remember at school we told fanadman jokes -( being the equivalent of kerryman jokes.)
Looks like in choosing the object of our ridicule we were aiming one peninsula too far west.

ruanua (Donegal) - Posts: 4966 - 29/08/2014 10:09:03    1643884

Ha I dont think ye will be the tougher men on Sunday. What a load of BS!

tiobraid (Tipperary) - Posts: 4119 - 29/08/2014 10:17:48    1643886

Cringe

Liamwalkinstown (Dublin) - Posts: 8166 - 29/08/2014 10:20:44    1643888

hurlingdub - it just seemed to diminish the further away from the city they went. Like some sort of Kryptonite effect which was at its strongest in Belfast.

Offside_Rule (Antrim) - Posts: 4058 - 29/08/2014 10:28:01    1643894

After the Dromkeen ambush (Limerick) back in 1920, where the IRA shot up a lorry of British soldiers killing a couple of them, the Tans burnt a number of local houses in retaliation. My grandmother RIP used to tell us stories about her memories of gunshots, smoke from burning houses etc.
I'd guess that particular Culchie / Townie skirmish could at best be called a draw.
Now I'd better go back to suck on my clay pipe and revise my book on great Limerick hurling defeats...Had to add a new chapter after the semi final v Kilkenny.

skillet (Limerick) - Posts: 1062 - 29/08/2014 10:29:10    1643895

Offside similarly i can share many's a story of the big hard country men bottling it and not even travelling to the city!!

We never came out on the wrong side of an argument with any country team!!

bumpernut (Antrim) - Posts: 1852 - 29/08/2014 10:29:24    1643896

Will you hard tough Culchies take it easy on us soft city slickers on Sunday. A lot of the lads are after getting new Boots and dont want them ruined.

AthCliath (Dublin) - Posts: 4347 - 29/08/2014 10:30:54    1643898

NIce to see those creative writing classes are beginning to pay off Inishowen man.You might want to drop the stereotypes though.
We'll see just how big and tough you all are on Sunday.

avonali (Dublin) - Posts: 1974 - 29/08/2014 10:32:23    1643900

Now now bumpernut, you know thats not true and in fact in all my years playing I never was in a situation where we had players who didn't show for the City teams though we did have a few boys who would be unavailable for a couple of the country teams. I could on the other hand recall manys a time when we got the points from games against our city cousins for them not fielding or been in situations where the 15 that turn up to play in the country are unrecognisable to the 15 guys who played against you in the corresponding fixture in Belfast.

Offside_Rule (Antrim) - Posts: 4058 - 29/08/2014 10:40:20    1643905

@ Jackeen Lantern heart of divine jesus there's more than a touch of the Mayos about that post!

LOL, yeah it does sound like something you'd hear from Mayo,it's going to be a great game,I think the bookies have it wrong with the odds though Dublin are rightly favourites,hope it's a good hard sporting match and may the best team win.

City slickers/chelski 0-12 Tir Chonaill 1-10 CMON DONEGAL

TirChonaillabu2 (Donegal) - Posts: 344 - 29/08/2014 10:40:35    1643906

North Men, South Men, Comrades all, Dublin, Belfast, f...

HenryHill16 (Dublin) - Posts: 249 - 29/08/2014 10:47:28    1643911