Men’s team could do with a little of the Pauw factor

WELL done to Vera Pauw and the Ireland women’s soccer team who qualified for next year’s World Cup.

Any chance Vera could take over the management of the men’s team, because they are going nowhere fast under the insipid direction of Stephen Kenny and company?

Ooh, ah, up Vera!

Vincent O’Connell, New Ross, Co. Wexford.

Disgrace to the game

FOOTAGE of the Irish women’s international soccer team singing ‘Up the RA’ when they played Scotland at Hampden Park recently is a disgrace and shows enormous brazenness and immaturity.

An active, illegal, terrorist organisation which took the lives of large numbers of people during the Troubles is something everybody should condemn..

Soccer is supposed to be a sport. It should not be used as a platform for an extremely controversial political agenda. It was not enough for the ladies team who won against Scotland, they had to rub it in with an innuendo of the IRA beating part of the UK.

Clearly, those of you who have not condemned the team’s actions still have affectionate feelings for the IRA. Are such people indifferent to those killed during the Troubles at the hands of those who killed at will?

It is time to give the Irish women’s soccer team the red card and send them off the field for outrageous conduct.

All funding and government support should be immediately withdrawn from any sporting organisation that engages in IRA chanting or any other illegal organisation.

Maurice Fitzgerald, Shanbally, Co. Cork.

…WELL done to the Irish Women’s soccer team on qualifying for the World Cup. It’s a terrible shame their achievement has been overshadowed by their unedifying performance

in the dressing room. However, they appeared dignified and genuine in their apology and I suspect many of them were merely swept up in the moment when someone foolishly started a rousing but idiotic chant in the dressing room.

To suggest, as some have, that their singing was a demonstration of sectarian views is a step too far. They made a stupid mistake and have learned a hard lesson.

Let’s hope they can put it behind them now and focus on what they are best at, their performance on the pitch.

In light of the events of the past few years, between the pandemic, the energy, housing and homelessness crises and the ongoing war in Ukraine, we could all do with a little Italia ’90-type distraction.

S. Kelly, Naas, Co. Kildare.

Ear-cropping cruelty

CROPPING the ears of dogs is an offence in Ireland. However, at present there is no law in place against owning a dog with cropped ears.

It seems that an Oireachtas committee has recommended a ban be implemented on owning dogs with cropped ears.

It’s shocking to learn that there are untrained people carrying out illegal procedures of ear cropping on dogs in order to meet market demands for a certain cosmetic aesthetic of a dog breed.

Ear cropping is extremely painful for a dog and it’s completely unnecessary.

Despite what some breeders say, cropping a dog’s ears does not benefit them in any way.

It can be detrimental to the dog’s health, behaviour and welfare in the short-term and in the long-term.

As an animal lover, my blood boils when I hear of such unwarranted cruelty, I would now like to see the most punitive criminal sanctions being imposed on individuals who engage in such an egregious practice.

I would love to ask some of these individuals how they would feel if their ears were cropped.

The question I would like to now ask is: If a ban is to be placed on people owning dogs with cropped ears, what will happen to all the dogs that have had their ears cropped as well as all those poor souls that have been rescued and rehomed?

We must never forget that these dogs are the innocent victims here and should not be discriminated against on the basis of cropped ears. Maybe it’s time we treated animals not as animals. Rather, it would be much more respectful if we treated them as living, sentient beings.

I will conclude by saying that’s what they are.

John O’Brien, Clonmel, Co. Tipperary.