Sir, - For the past 30 years a group of us have stood on the terraces at the Havelock Square end of Lansdowne Road on international rugby days.
We arrive at least an hour before kick-off, mostly to enjoy the good fellowship and banter. But lately the IRFU (the last two initials rather appropriate), for reasons I know not, have set out to deafen true followers like us by bombarding us with a cacophony of heavy-metal noise.
Our pre-match chat is swallowed up as we stand with wads of cotton wool sticking out of our ears. Please, please, mandarins of the IRFU, switch off this thunder of misbegotten noise and instead let the roar of rapture as Keith Wood sets off on one of his trademark runs or Brian O'Driscoll jinks through for a try to assure God in His heaven that all's right with the rugby world. -Yours, etc.,
Tom Moran, Hollywood Park, Naas.