Sir, – I would have thought that film director Danny Boyle would have added public hangings, child labour, keelhauling, gunboats, slavery, inner city squalor and a few colonial and world wars combined with a massed military parade to add authenticity to his bucolic Olympic paradise opening ceremony. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – I would like to make a correction to your otherwise excellent London 2012 magazine (July 19th). It is stated in Kieran Behan's biography that he is the first Irish gymnast to qualify for the Olympic games. I believe that Barry McDonald was the first Irish gymnast as he competed in the 1996 games in Atlanta and seems to have done reasonably well. See www.sports-reference.com/ olympics/athletes/mc/barry-mcdonald-1.html. – Yours, etc,