BRENDAN NEWMAN,
Sir, - Your paper has been inundated with letters about the World Cup. Many of the correspondents probably never attended a soccer match. The conversation in supermarkets, pubs, homes and restaurants is about soccer. Foreign names roll off Irish tongues with ease, new-found knowledge about a very old game is eagerly shared but not always accurate. TV cliché terminology - "they closed them down", "they played too deep", "running into space," "up front," "in the box" - echoes where people assemble. On the Sunday evening of the Ireland/Spain clash the canonisation of Padre Pio took second place. The pluralist society dominates.
We have forgotten the narrow nationalist view of the Christian Brothers in the 1950s, when to play soccer or attend Dalymount led to expulsion. The dreaded ban on "foreign" games was designed to protect us and keep the GAA alive. It succeeded only in keeping the small minds active. We must celebrate the change, albeit with some caution. The small minds that dominated Irish public life up to the 1990s are still with us. Freedom of expression and choice can no longer be suppressed in a television age. But we can remain secure in the knowledge that our GAA elders will stand firm against the final capitulation. - Yours, etc.,
BRENDAN NEWMAN, Greenfields, Limerick.