Sir, - May I take issue with Kevin Myers' recent homage to the motorcycle ace Joey Dunlop, and to the "religion" of Irish motorcycling, in which, according to Myers, he was a godlike figure (An Irishman's Diary, July 5th).
Of course, it is sad to see the premature death of such a skilled and decent-hearted sportsman. It is also true that the motorcycling fraternity in Northern Ireland possesses an admirable indifference to sectarian loyalties.
However, Kevin Myers should remember that the cult of motorised speed claims many young lives. I well recall working as a nurse in a Co Antrim hospital and encountering numerous ordinary victims of motorcycling, whose bodies had been shattered by high-speed road accidents. I remember one young man who was on his third visit to hospital to have a broken limb repaired: he was too "addicted to speed" to stop what was, for him, a self-destructive and highly dangerous pursuit. He intended to return to "biking" when he was discharged.
I am not suggesting that all motorcyclists are dangerous risk-takers, or that Joey Dunlop was other than a disciplined, professional rider, but the fact remains that his chosen sport of road-racing, with its culture of risk and speed, provides very dubious role-models to the young men whom car and bike manufacturers in today's affluent Ireland can all too readily target. For too many such young men, disposable income, testosterone and adrenalin combine to make a deadly cocktail.
I have, in my more recent role as a teacher, known several families torn apart by the death of a much-loved teenage son or daughter in a horrendous road accident - and I cannot ignore the fact that more people died due to the carnage on Ulster's roads than in "The Troubles" during the past three decades.
The tears of the victims of speed are as hard to dry as the tears of the murdered and the disappeared. - Yours, etc.,
Philip Orr, Hillsborough, Co Down.
Second Chance
Sir, - I fail to understand why corrupt individuals in high office should be given a "second chance". Clearly, their ethical standards should be impeccable.
Failure to observe high standards, especially after years of experience, amounts to a betrayal of trust, and should therefore warrant a permanent resignation (as is normal in other countries). - Yours, etc.,
Drostan Grant, Morehampton Road, Donnybrook, Dublin 4.