MARTIN O'CONNOR,
Sir, - I have attended almost all Ireland soccer matches at Lansdowne Road for many years. I am also a Rangers supporter and I am beginning to wonder if I am welcome at Lansdowne Road any more. I am fed up with the treatment handed out to any visiting player who plays, or has played, for Rangers. The visits of Scotland, Holland, Denmark and now the US showed that a significant section of Irish fans deserve the title "the most bigoted fans in the world", instead of the best ones.
The phenomenon was largely ignored by the media until the Denmark game, when the crowd booed the "wrong" player. Your own correspondent, Mary Hannigan, even apologised to the Danes ("on behalf of the Irish nation" - do Irish Rangers fans belong?) because the wrong player was booed!
Maybe David Trimble was closer to the truth than even he himself thought. - Yours, etc.,
MARTIN O'CONNOR, Dublin 5.