A sporting chance for Shane Ross to show off
A RECENT picture in the Irish Daily Mail of Shane Ross at the Six Nations Championship victory homecoming with Irish rugby captain Rory Best was a timely reminder of the significant part played by the Minister in the triumph.
It was not unlike 1987 when our then Taoiseach, Charlie Haughey, doubled as a domestique for Stephen Roche’s famous Tour de France win. Or did Charlie actually win the great cycle race?
Anyway, I’m sure Mr Ross is looking forward to Dublin’s bid for a fourth All-Ireland football title triumph in succession, and manager Jim Gavin might consider adding him to his backroom team. The addition of such a versatile sportsman could be the final piece of the jigsaw in the next search for Sam. LEON COOGAN, Drumcondra, Dublin 9.
The great TV rip-off
RECENTLY it was revealed that the new Garda Commissioner and the new chief executive officer at HSE will receive salaries in the region of €250.000.
Fine salaries indeed, and it is hoped they will attract people of the highest calibre. But just look at our national broadcaster, where salaries of anything up to twice that amount are paid to people for part-time hours.
The fine old broadcasters of the past would be flabbergasted to find that RTÉ has returned to sponsored programmes (back to the future, you could say) to supplement income. So if this combined input from sponsorship, TV licence fees and advertisement fees is not enough, they will have to downsize to zone in on realistic broadcasting.
The TV licence is already too much and people have enough commitments and should not be expected to subsidise unwanted programming. HARRY MULHERN,
Dublin.
Wise words, Eoin
EOIN Murphy’s essay (Mail, Saturday) on what seemed to be the Trial Of The Century was wonderful, loving, and truthful.
He wrote about what he teaches his young lads: decency, dignity, respect for girls and boys.
He said that they might play rugby, or not play. Whatever Eoin Murphy’s sons do in this world, they will contribute, not destroy; give, and not always take. They will ask their dad for advice, not a solicitor. Their value system has already been installed by example. Good luck to Eoin and his wife in May when their ‘surprise’ arrives. They will always give their hearts to every part.
PHYL KENNEDY, Galway.
Our soccer obsession
IT MUST be difficult for some Irish people to understand why there is such an obsession with cross-channel soccer, particularly the English Premier League.
The fact that there are so few players from this country involved makes the addiction all the more baffling. Take last Saturday for example. On the RTÉ Radio afternoon sports coverage, despite Gaelic games and rugby being the main features of the day, former Irish soccer international Kenny Cunningham was in the studio to offer his opinion on the games in the wonderful English Premier League.
Seeing that this came at a time when important GAA games were starting, I decided to switch elsewhere. However, some local radio stations are also addicted to the British game with updates from across the water considered more important than scores from GAA games.
Therefore, it is hardly any wonder that some of us sometimes wonder which country we actually live in. JIM WILLIAMS, Dundalk, Co. Louth.
Shame of the Church
IT IS stated by Martin Daly (Letters, Friday) that Pope Paul VI, presumably a celibate yet considered an expert, argued that ‘the man’ will lose respect for ‘the woman’ and no longer (care) for her physical and psychological equilibrium’ and will come ‘to the point of considering her as a mere instrument of selfish enjoyment and no longer as his respected and beloved companion’.
What a joke! What about the myriads of women who before the availability of contraception and where the Catholic Church ruled in matters of marriage had no say but were treated as receptacles for drunken men and had huge numbers of children. They had no lives to call their own – only drudgery.
Mrs Brown in Mrs Brown’s Boys describes the plight of these women perfectly! It is a comedy but deadly accurate in its descriptions. ELAINE ELLIOTT, Navan, Co. Meath.
Russian to judgment
THAT lethal ‘nerve agent’ that saw a rake of Russians being expelled from many countries, including little Ireland, is not showing itself to be very effective, is it? And there we were fearing folk would be falling down all over the place, such was the hype.
If this is the best deadly ‘nerve agent’ alleged culprit Russia can produce, then it’s back to the drawing board and a rapid revision of ideas from those who perceive Russia as some type of convenient enemy. ROBERT SULLIVAN,
Bantry, Co. Cork.