A chara, – When one emigrates, one tends to spend quite a bit of time defending Ireland against particular stereotypes. To be honest, I’m not sure I can even do that anymore.
The upholding of a planning decision based on the original agreement between the GAA and local Croke Park residents is not damaging our reputation abroad. The reports I’m reading online of the Taoiseach getting involved, the president of the United States being contacted and, for some bizarre reason that I don’t understand, the Mexican ambassador to Ireland offering assistance, are causing a lot more damage and embarrassment.
I can sympathise with ticket holders who will not get to see an artist they clearly care about a great deal. What I cannot sympathise with is an artist and his fans holding a nation to ransom for the sake of five gigs. What’s more, the behaviour of “the powers that be”, as Garth Brooks likes to refer to them, as well as the media hyping this up beyond belief, has been utterly grotesque. – Is mise,
RÓISÍN O’DONOVAN,
Culammnstrasse,
Zurich, Switzerland.
Sir, – The fiasco over the Garth Brooks concert highlights the insanity of allowing event tickets to be sold “subject to licence”. In order to prevent this happening again, the Government should bring in legislation that would ensure that tickets are not offered for sale until seven days after the granting of a licence. The seven-day delay would allow for any legal challenge to the granting of the licence and challenges would only be entertained if made within that period. In the event of a legal challenge to an event, tickets should not be offered for sale until that challenge was dealt with in the courts.
It should be remembered that tours by major acts are planned well in advance and there is no good reason for the failure of promoters to obtain full licences clear of legal challenges before offering tickets for sale. – Yours, etc,
TIM O’SULLIVAN,
Maywood Avenue,
Dublin 5.
Sir, – The recent events regarding the Croke Park concerts look more and more like an outbreak of the Celtic Tiger disease. It seems that had there been a demand for seven Garth Brooks concerts, such was the toxic scent of a massive windfall for many concerned, that the natural order, the normal rules and regulations governing the number of consecutive concerts and so on would have been cast aside – as indeed they were for the proposed five events. Apart from the artist and his entourage, the GAA stood to reap a huge unexpected harvest, and the hoteliers, publicans and others a similar bounty.
For every occasion of concert excitement within Croke Park there is an opposite reaction outside it among the local residents, who in this case were pushed past reasonable limits of endurance and had to make a stand.
Now, like the housing market and the economy some years ago, all has collapsed and the country is again full of victims. – Yours, etc,
PETER MAKEM,
Armagh Road,
Newry.
Sir, – May I suggest that in the next edition of Irish Monopoly, the “Get out of jail free” card is replaced by a “For the good of the country” card? – Yours, etc,
DAVE ROBBIE,
Seafield Crescent,
Booterstown,
Co Dublin.
Sir, – I can't locate Big Tom's Four Country Roads (to Glenamaddy) on iTunes. Surely this is a greater scandal than the Garth Brooks carry-on? Should I contact Ban Ki-moon, Binyamin Netanyahu or the Mexican ambassador for help? – Yours, etc,
KARL MARTIN,
Bayside Walk,
Bayside,
Dublin 13.
Sir, – I never imagined that politicians would descend to the level of jumping on the bandwagon of popular opinion by calling for emergency legislation to allow music concerts at a particular venue. Where were the calls for emergency legislation to reverse cuts in the health service which result in the cancellation of medical procedures, in the absence of which persons might die? Have they no shame? – Yours, etc,
GERARD CLARKE,
Castlebrook,
Dundrum,
Dublin 16.
Sir, – It is hard to believe that this time last year, when Barack Obama visited our nation, everybody in Ireland had one saying on their minds, “Is féidir linn”. It is a sad state of affairs, that although we should be welcoming Garth Brooks to Ireland with open arms, ní feidir linn. Will this be our new motto? – Yours, etc,
MELANIE HUNTER,
Cliff Road,
Greystones, Co Wicklow.
Sir, – Whatever about the merits of the decision of the Dublin City Council to limit the number of shows to three, the logic of Garth Brooks’s decision to opt out of those three shows boggles the mind. He says that telling the 160,000 people who would have attended those extra two gigs would be a nightmare for him. However, he has no problem telling the other 240,000 who would have attended the three shows to get lost. Nice one, Garth. – Yours, etc,
JOE BOYLE,
Edgewood Avenue,
San Francisco, California.
Sir, – Enda Kenny? The Mexican ambassador? Barack Obama? It’s all clearly a conspiracy to put Oliver Callan out of business. – Yours, etc,
FIONNUALA WALSH,
Saint Mary’s Terrace,
Galway.
Sir, – The Taoiseach is close to announcing a Cabinet reshuffle during an important time for this country, yet more people are concerned as to whether he should be getting a country singer to come and play his guitar.
And we wonder why we are where we are. – Yours, etc,
CATHAL O’DONNELL,
Leopardstown Drive,
Blackrock, Co Dublin.
Sir, – All that remains in this drama is the Tommie Gorman interview. – Yours, etc,
FERGAL OLWILL,
Dalcassian Downs,
Glasnevin, Dublin 11.