Madam, - I read the other day that Dubai is to create a sports city covering 1,500 acres. It will include an international stadium for football, rugby, track and field, a multi-purpose indoor stadium for all hard-court games including ice-hockey and concerts, a hockey stadium, an international cricket academy, a Manchester United football school, a David Lloyd tennis academy and an Ernie Els golf course.
There will be a country club, health club, shopping mall, restaurants, cafes, cinemas and a medical centre.
Is my memory failing me, or did I read a press release about a similar Irish project in the past 10 years? As night follows day I know in my bones that this sports metropolis will appear in the tiny state of Dubai. Sadly, despite the single largest philanthropic gift in the history of this State to back him to create an international sports campus, our Taoiseach's vision was met on the whole by derision and ridicule.
What is it in our character that blinds us to the merits of a "grand projet"? - Yours, etc.,
JONATHAN IRWIN, Ballitore, Co Kildare.