That there is widespread concern abroad about how Gaelic football has been allowed to evolve is an undeniable fact.
Most people with whom I discuss the sport admit that they now attend principally for the tribal reason of showing solidarity with their own club/county and community.
Sadly, it seems that going to a match for enjoyment and healthy social interaction has passed.
Equally sadly, it is patently obvious that the essential historic skills of catching and kicking have been relegated to almost obscurity. On Monday last, I spoke with a former excellent club and college player who stated that, if he had had his own car, he would have left the Kerry vs Derry game at half-time.
There is no point in seeking to remedy the present malaise in the game unless the plague of the almost non-stop hand passing is addressed.
Superbly fit athletes, some of whom are also magnificent ball players — I refrain from saying foot-ballers — can monopolise the play for minutes on end.
Very frequently, this hand passing is lateral or backwards. Trying to encourage high fielding and kicking by introducing such nonsense as the mark, and of having four players always remaining in their own half of the field, are poor sticking-plaster attempted remedies for a very dangerously bleeding wound.
I believe that the hand pass should be totally removed from the game. That will result in the art of kicking — lateral, backwards, or forward — and high or low fetching becoming the defining skills of the game. Revert to giving the goalkeeper immunity from being tackled within their parallelogram.
The time for corrective action is most urgently now. Unless it is taken, the game of Gaelic football will continue to decline and a slow handclap in magnificent Croke Park will become a sad reality.
Micheál Martin is pushing ahead with plans to amend the triple-lock system (‘Plans to change triple- lock system being prepared’, July 3).
The Tánaiste seems to have forgotten de Valera’s words back in the early days of Fianna Fáil: “We who have fought often are ready to fight again, not at the behest of any other nation, but to defend our own freedom and neutrality.”
I believe US vice president Kamala Harris should take over for the ailing president, Joe Biden.
I also believe more attention and coverage should be paid to the outrageous lies of Donald Trump. He’s not fit for office because of his extreme lack of character and behaviour.
His history of contempt for the rule of law, our military, and our institutions should ban and bar him from running for dog catcher much less commander in chief. Donald Trump should be in jail, not the White House.
The CIE Active Retirement Group (ARG) are retired staff of CIE from Capwell Garage, Cork. We understand that there are approximately 16,000 CIE pensioners, spouses, and dependents in both CIE pension schemes.
CIE pensioners have not received an increase in their pensions since 2008, despite wage increases within the CIE group from 2016 on.
To illustrate the real impact of this injustice, one of our colleagues in his 90s — with 46 years service to the State — has a weekly pension of €52, the last increase to this was in 2008.
It would appear that CIE pensioners are the only group of pensioners in the public service/ semi-State sector that have not received a cost-of-living increase in 16 years, as their pension has remained stagnant.
How can this be justified by the organs of the State?
Watching a new TV series on the harrowing story of Anne Frank, people are asking all over again: How could this happen?
They might have a look around at what’s happening right now in Ireland, where “community spirit” in some parts of the country is morphing into xenophobic suspicion or hatred of “others” who arrive on this island in search of refuge from war, oppression, or extreme poverty.
Slogans like “get them out”, and “this town says no”, have become commonplace across our supposedly welcoming nation. Racism is on the rise as far-right groups go out of their way to exacerbate tensions where they can to maximise their political support.
We haven’t got to the stage where a fellow human being needs to be hidden in an attic to evade racists mandated by the State. Not yet.
Let’s hope that racism and fascism are not allowed to take root in our tottering but still intact democracy.
Further to my letter — ‘Nazi bombs in Dublin not an accident’ ( May 27) surrounding the North Strand bombings of May 31, 1941 — correspondence was received which raised the issue of Irish Neutrality during the Emergency.
The following might be of interest: Following the declaration of neutrality by the Irish Government on the September 3, 1939, Irish shipping companies indicated they were having problems/delays in getting their ships degaussed in British shipyards to protect against magnetic mines, which prompted the Department of External Affairs to communicate their concerns to the British.
In October 1940, with the agreement of the Irish Government, a wiping station was set up in the Liffey Dockyard.
However, to enable the degaussing process to be done in Dublin, the admiralty required full control over the process which included the equipment/cables to be used.
Consequently a Royal Navy intelligence officer accompanied by my father — who was an electrician in the Naval Section of the Cammell Laird shipyard, Birkenhead, were seconded to the Liffey Dockyard for the purpose of instructing the dockyard staff on the methods involved.
In this regard, File No MT9 3374 located in the National Archives, Kew, and dated October/November 1941, which refers to “Éire ship-repair facilities at Dublin and other Éire ports”, is of particular interest.
It records: “The Liffey yard has been of substantial assistance to the war effort and the question is whether in return for that assistance, or in order to ensure its continuance, we should place at the disposal of Éire, not only steel for repairing British ships, but also the steel necessary to carry out work on Éire ships.
“There is no source, except the United Kingdom, from which steel can, in practice, be drawn by Éire.”
The writer concludes that “the balance of advantage, the assistance we receive from the Dublin Dockyard facilities, and to be now augmented by the Rushbrook yard, will repay the release of steel for repairs”.
The document ends with a very interesting statistic: “In the period October 1, 1940, to March 30, 1941, seventeen UK ships were repaired in Dublin, and during the twelve months ending September 30, 1941. 34 were repaired at that port. The total cost of repairs is estimated at £50,000 sterling”.
All of these repairs were done at the Liffey dockyard located in the Alexander Basin, Dublin.
Arguably, the Germans would have viewed the repair of British merchant ships in the Liffey Dockyard as a legitimate target which led to the Bombing of the North Strand on the May 31, 1941.
