Colm McInerney, Gonzaga College, Dublin
The League of Ireland has long been highlighted as a ridiculous amateur association in need of a renaissance by most Irish soccer fans. People look to the English Premier League and European soccer as a model the FAI should adopt.
I agree a stronger "professional" league would improve the Irish soccer team. Yet let's face some facts here: England is 15 times the size in population of Ireland; it is impossible to compete with England in those terms. Instead, we should follow the lead of small European countries like Belgium, Portugal and Switzerland. They have small professional leagues with a couple of highly rated clubs.
Ireland has an outstanding group of under-aged players for such a small country. We should follow the fine example of Ajax Amsterdam by setting up a Youth School of Excellence in Dublin and train these players there instead of forcing them to go abroad to fulfil their potential.
Sarah Murphy, St Andrew's College, Booterstown, Co Dublin
As stated in the Declaration of Human Rights, every single human being is born with the right to asylum, regardless of status, race, colour or religion. While Irish people begrudge these people, many of whom are fleeing from war-torn or famine-stricken countries, the right to enter this country, we ourselves emigrated in our thousands in recent decades, not to save our own lives, or those of our families, but simply to earn more money.
From the days of the Famine right up to the 1980s, we have immensely enjoyed the western policy of openness and tolerance. In the 1980s, when the English economy was booming, the young Irish people who hesitated before claiming a share of that prosperity were few and far between.
The refugees, many of whom have nothing - not even sufficient knowledge of our language - are forbidden to work by the State and forced to go on the dole. Many of these supposed "scroungers" are not at all familiar with the social-welfare system, since it is non-existent in many of their native countries.
It's time for Ireland to stand on her own two feet and exercise some of this idea of the "global economy", which has saved us so many times in the past.
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