Madam, - I was interested by the thinly veiled anti-rugby sentiment in Mr Humphries's Locker Room piece on Monday. Surely a journalist of his experience and talent does himself no favours by showing such little tolerance for a game he clearly does not respect.
Unfortunately, this transcends his antipathy towards rugby and betrays an indifference to supporters, players and administrators of all codes in this country. For it is those people who allow a nation as small as ours to excel in so many disciplines, be it GAA, soccer, rugby, hockey, rowing or boxing.
It is entirely understandable to be steeped in a given tradition but is it fair to resent another so blatantly? His facile understanding of Munster rugby would be amusing were it not for the column inches it enjoys. - Yours, etc,
ROSSA O'DONNELL, Curragh Camp, Co Kildare.
A chara, - Now that Tom Humphries has tried to expose the miracle of our recent infatuation with rugby, I feel I too can almost safely emerge from the hype and hysteria that has followed Munster this past few weeks. And so I write in the hope that this relationship with a sport which enjoys the following of so few at grass roots level will be a brief romance (try counting the patrons at AIL matches)!
I particularly enjoyed his point that the openly aggressive marketing campaign glorifying the drink culture would not be tolerated in the case of the GAA.
The pages of coverage and hours of air-time given to a sport which excites the masses for a mere five or six days a year is a mystery to me. But then, when did the middle-class hierarchy of this sport ever struggle to attract big business, media coverage and wealthy sponsors?
The Celtic Tiger has a lot to answer for - timber decking and the bandwagon of Bulgarian property-buying to name but two. But this euphoria over the supposed "holy grail" of a competition run and branded by a lager company is perhaps one of the most ugly excesses of our nation.
Thank goodness the summer has arrived and we can savour days in Thurles, Limerick, Killarney and Croke Park where our local heroes dream of glory in competitions with so much history and folklore. - Yours, etc,
AUSTIN STACK, Midleton, Co Cork.