Sir, - "There's a latent violence in Irish society, but what can we do about it?" stated Jack Booth man, with a shrug of his shoulders, on RTE television last Sunday, hours after the appalling scenes during the GAA football final. This reaction is even more chilling than the actual spectacle of that senseless brawling, relayed live on television and reproduced in damning stills on the national newspapers.
How, in the face of this, can we teach children that all violence is unacceptable, and speak in solemn tones of the rights and responsibilities of people towards each other? We are hypocrites if we can tut tut over rape, paedophilia and the abuse of the weak by the strong, yet condone adult men viciously attacking each other on a playing field. - Yours, etc.,
Manor Kilbride,
Blessington,
Co Wicklow.