ARTHUR BOLAND,
Sir, - I'm all in favour of the World Cup but I wonder what it says about the psyche of the nation when half the country feels it obligatory to spend all day Tuesday getting drunk because the team won a game. No such thing as a celebratory drink these days - it's not a proper celebration unless it involves getting well and truly blasted. Loud and obstreperous public drunkenness seems to be condoned by all and sundry.
On Tuesday night several television channels had special news segments consisting mostly of cliché-ridden sound-bites from drunk people. There was no rush hour in Dublin on Wednesday morning - I wonder what absenteeism and productivity rates were. Apart from helping to create a few hundred drink problems, actually winning the World Cup would probably knock a couple of points off this year's growth rate. - Yours, etc.,
ARTHUR BOLAND,
Cecilia Street,
Dublin 2.
... ... * ... * ... * ... ...
Sir, - About once a month, you publish a column by a member of your staff who has the job of listening to your readers' complaints. In a recent column she referred to people who pester busy Irish Times staff with complaints about minor grammatical errors - or "inelegance", to use Pádraigín Riggs's term in her letter (June 12th) criticising one of Mary Hannigan's articles.
Even for readers whose eyes glaze over at one more mention of football, the Roy Keane/Mick McCarthy/FAI debate has been interesting in the way it has revealed the straitened thinking of so many po-faced letter writers to The Irish Times - revealed, for instance, in the deep resentment voiced by holders of unremarkable academic degrees that a working-class football player should be given access to their hallowed halls. Maybe they're afraid that his excellence might reveal them as the pedestrian beings they are.
Mary Hannigan has amazed and amused for as long as she has been writing for the Irish Times. She hides her extensive knowledge of sport in general and soccer in particular under the bushel of her wit and humour. It is Ms Riggs's loss that in her quest for the negative it all goes over her head, but she's in good company on your Letters page. - Yours, etc.,
PAMELA MURPHY,
Clontarf Road,
Dublin 3.
... ... * ... * ... * ... ...
Sir, - What is the difference between a state-of-the-art sports stadium in Japan and a state-of-the-art sports stadium in Ireland? The Japanese get a retractable pitch; the Irish get a retractable stadium. - Yours, etc.,
TOMMY CAMPBELL,
Graiguepottle,
Donadea,
Co Kildare.
... ... * ... * ... * ... ...
Sir, - If Roy Keane had been injured before the team set out for this tournament, I would still have expected Ireland to reach the second round. With him in the team, we'd have a chance against Spain; without him, not a hope. - Yours, etc.,
RICHARD COOK,
Upper Patrick Street,
Kilkenny.