keeper wrote: FAI cup final last and just the bare details at that, and, NO mention of the Women's FAI cup final

I agree with you Keeper, the LoI games are never given a good spot in the news.... but they only have themselves to blame. Soccer here is and always has been poorly run and allowed to limp along so long as the top brass got looked after. All you have to do is look at the way its structured ... the Premier Division is dropping from 12 to 10 teams next year and no imagination is used to develop the game and broaden its fanbase.
I remember talking to a LoI man at a Rovers game in the 90s and I suggested that the game needed a complete restructuring as there were too many teams in Dublin and none in some counties. I suggested that the GAA inter county model could be used as it would attract bigger crowds and they could look at shared grounds in the future ... he laughed and basically told me that the top brass woud never go down that road for fear of losing indentity and power. These myopic leaders of the game have driven it down a cul de sac and missed a great opportunity to see an Irish county team develop into a compeditive unit that would attract bigger crowds and in doing so, would almost certainly attract bigger sponsorship as it grew. Can you imagine an Irish county team making it to the Champions League, imagine the extra support a county team attracts .... fans would have inter county Soccer in the winter and GAA in summer.
As an example, I would suggest Bray Wanderers would not be in their current malaise if they were to have become Wicklow FC and moved to say Arklow and attracted supporters from all over the county as opposed to sitting on the outskirts of Dublin struggling to get by. Alas nobody at the top table is willing to look beyond their own self importance and do something that would bring the LoI football to the forefront, it needs major changes to enable it continue or we will be looking at a 6 team league in ten years.