Sir, – Noise pollution is destroying so many of our places of entertainment. It is part of the myth of this country that we are supposed to be wonderful talkers, and many people come to Ireland expecting to find pubs full of lively conversation. Instead they find most of our pubs are now full of people staring blankly ahead because they are not able to make themselves heard by their companions sitting a few feet from them.
I recently spent a Saturday night in Cashel where a large part of the evening was devoted to an unsuccessful search for a pub where music was not being pumped out at a level which might make one’s ears bleed; it certainly would not be permitted on a factory floor.
Cashel is not unique in this but rather absolutely typical of our towns.
This pollution reached new heights for me in September when I attended the All-Ireland football and hurling finals. While waiting for the games to begin we were subjected at intervals to very loud and very irritating R&B music, which was repeated during half time. At the end of the games, within seconds of the final whistle blowing, the county songs of the winners were played through the public address system at a very high volume.
It would seem that the people now running the GAA have no grasp of the power of tradition, think that everyone in Croke Park on those days is terrified of silence, and that the supporters of the winning teams in each game are so emotionally illiterate as to be incapable of celebrating their team’s victory without external assistance.
It would seem that the entertainment and hospitality industry throughout this country believes that people are incapable of entertaining themselves or of creating an enjoyable atmosphere in a pub or restaurant elsewhere without having their elbows very forcibly nudged.
It is long past time that we started to fight against this condescension and started insisting upon our right to have a drink or a meal without having to bellow at the person we are trying to speak to.
From now on we should make a practice of demanding from staff that they turn down music that is offensively loud. – Yours, etc,
FRANK McCARTAN,
Banbridge,
Co Down.