Madam, - Surprise, surprise: a photograph of three of Ireland's top international sports women on the front page of your edition of October 5th. However, I found nothing new in the reports on the Women in Sport conference: I have been aware for some time that there is inequality in media coverage of women in sport.
This ranges from the reporting of major school competitions to international events. For example, boys' junior and senior rugby cup tournaments enjoy full coverage from pre-tournament to the finals while girls' hockey gets media coverage only of the semi-finals and final. For the boys' school cricket final there was an extensive article in your paper yet for the senior girls' competition, held on the previous day, there was no report at all.
During the summer months Irish men's cricket matches both here and abroad were widely reported. The women's international between Ireland and New Zealand didn't even get a mention in the "What's On" column of the day, even though the game was played in College Park, Trinity College. Perhaps this lack of recognition explains why there is a serious lack of participation by women in sport.
There are many advantages to playing sport. I feel it is important for general life skills as it helps people learn to work as teams, to co-operate and also to enjoy a healthy level of competition. This can be a very important skill when entering the workforce today.
I look forward to reading more articles about women's achievements in many different sports. The Women's Cricket World Cup will be held next year. The Irish team won the European Championships in 2003 and in so doing qualified for the World Cup. This was a wonderful achievement but went unreported in the media. There was a letter on this page at the time to that effect. Perhaps now I can look forward to substantial coverage leading up to and throughout this prestigious event to show our own team that we recognise their achievements and support them.- Yours, etc.,
EIMEAR RICHARDSON, Ballinteer, Dublin 16.