Sir, - In June 1994, six men were murdered in a pub in Loughinisland, Co Down, while watching the Republic of Ireland soccer team play a World Cup match against Italy. The Football Association of Ireland decided not to mark the event at the team's next match.
This same organisation has now chosen to mark the death of a foreign aristocrat with a display of black armbands. The fuss over the death of this celebrity is absurd enough in England itself. It is doubly absurd to reproduce the nonsense in another country.
I have attended all of the Republic's home matches for many years and I am beginning to wonder if the top echelons of the FAI are not somehow ashamed to be Irish. While flag-waving nationalism is irrational, so too is this kind of apologising for one's nationality.
The relation of ordinary people to Diana Spencer was not real. It existed only in the fantasy celebrity world created by Murdoch TV and papers. The men murdered by the UVF were real people, supporting their team. They were deserving of a show of respect and because of the circumstances and reason for their deaths, it should have been on a football field and by their team . - Yours, etc.,
Ferndale Road, Dublin 11.