Madam, - Are we not being a little too self-congratulatory with regards to the respect paid to the English national anthem last Saturday? Does anyone think that if the sport had been soccer, things would have passed off quite so smoothly? - Yours, etc,
GARY FITZGERALD,
Foley Street,
Dublin 1.
*****
Madam, - I was one of the lucky people present in Croke Park last Saturday for what was a wonderful sporting occasion on and off the field. I was in the lower deck of the Cusack Stand. One of the stewards who worked with humour and grace, walking constantly up and down the steps showing people to their seats and collecting litter, was Jack Boothman, a former president of the GAA. I was privileged to shake his hand. - Yours, etc,
JOHN DEMERY,
Castlegregory,
Co Kerry.
*****
Madam, - Before the tumult and the shouting dies after the extraordinary events in Croke Park last weekend, let us not forget to give credit to the man who could be said to have started it all - Tom Woulfe of the Civil Service Football Club.
His campaign to remove Rule 27 from the GAA rule book (the ban on so-called foreign games), which he launched in 1959 with only minimal support, had by 1971 garnered the support of 30 of the 32 counties when the ban was finally removed at congress in Belfast.
His enlightened planning and dogged persistence against all the odds over a period of 12 years was truly remarkable. I'm sure he derived great satisfaction in watching one of the greatest demonstrations of national pride and national fervour last weekend - which, inter alia, brought enormous credit to the GAA. - Yours, etc,
EAMONN G. MONGEY,
Carrickbrennan Road,
Monkstown,
Co Dublin.
Madam, - I have been following the correspondence about national Anthems at Croke Park with interest. May I suggest that a solution would be to have a joint anthem to be used by Great Britain and ourselves at mutual and particularly sporting functions - such as the following, sung to the tune of God Save the Queen:
Hail to our motherland
From which all strife we've
banned
Síocháin go deo.
Fíor Gaedhal 'gus Prentice Boy
Ó Doire go Fermoy
Lamh in lamh we'll all enjoy
Common heritage.
Outlawed the pléasc and gun
Saor cáint for everyone
Flannbhuí 'gus glas as one
Forward for our land.
It may not be great poetry but it does express my feelings as to what our national anthem should be all about. - Yours, etc,
JOHN FLEETWOOD Snr,
Blackrock,
Co Dublin.