Madam, - Just when I thought that we might be witnessing the demise of sporting bigotry in the North with the mighty success of the tremendous Setanta Cup and a real possibility of an all-Ireland soccer league, just when I thought we might never again witness the vicious naked sectarianism endured by true Irish football fans during that infamous "night in November" in Windsor Park, along come the dinosaurs that are the Irish Football Association to announce that henceforth all prospective Northern Ireland players must hold a British passport.
This decision is so crass, so blatantly partisan it has set the beautiful game in the North back generations. Footballers who rightly have kept their private politics and sports separated will now be asked to state publicly whether they are de facto nationalist or unionist, Protestant or Catholic, British or Irish.
From one passport holder who received his footballing baptism in the hallowed grounds of Derry City's Brandywell, a club which has since its inception never allowed sectarianism or bigotry to taint its great sporting tradition, I unequivocally condemn the IFA for this truly awful imposition. - Yours, etc,
DONAL CARLIN, Main Street, Ballyconnell, Co Cavan.