Letters to the Editor: The FAI's begrudging support for the women’s soccer team
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Why are the FAI so begrudging towards the achievement of the Irish women’s soccer team in qualifying for the World Cup and their great performance in that tournament?
Instead of celebrating the huge achievement of the women’s team and using the language of celebration, we have the FAI talking about a full review and using the language of bureaucracy and officialdom.
If the FAI were truly professional and truly respected and wanted success, Vera Pauw’s contract would have been sorted out long before the Women's World Cup began.
Instead, they appear to have waited to see the team’s progress in the tournament itself and especially the media reaction to it.
The media, in turn, has ramped up the begrudgery and turned what is really a minor (and normal) emotional spat between Vera Pauw and one of the players into a major drama.
Team selection is exclusively the preserve of the team manager and should remain so; she is only allowed to take a squad of 23 players, so quite a few good players had to be left out, but those are the rules. Reading some pundits’ articles in the media, however, you get the
impression that the manager was allowed and entitled to take every player who was qualified to play for the Republic of Ireland, had she chosen to do so. Those pundits need to do a refresher course in the rules of international soccer.
While they’re at it, they could also do a course in human emotion in sport; such a course should emphasise the normality of most such emotions.
On Sunday July 30, the State made a long overdue attempt to honour members of the National Army who were killed defending the new state in the Civil War and are buried in Glasnevin Cemetery.
However, what was to be a belated recognition of their sacrifice was diminished by the Commander in Chief of the Irish Defence Forces, President Michael D Higgins, not doing the honours.
Furthermore, the soldiers being honoured were ‘damned with faint praise’ by the Chief of Staff of the Defence Forces, Lieutenant General Seán Clancy when in his speech he referred to members of the National Army committing atrocities during the Civil War. I think the Irish srmy has lost the Civil War history narrative battle.
I must respond to the letter submitted by Edward Horgan (Irish Examiner, August 2) and his remarks re the bombing of Dresden. I was born in London and was 13 when the war started; I had never seen a dead body. After the end of the phoney war Hitler decided he would indiscriminately bomb the civilian population in order to break their morale. We were bombed day and night with a regularity you could put your watch to. It became the norm for us to go to school and find a classmate had not turned up and then find out he had been killed.
Our school was a large one with playing fields and the quadrangle fortunately had a 3ft high brick wall around it. As the war progressed, we learnt to identify the German planes by the sound of their engines. One day we heard the scream of a Messerschmitt fighter. We dived behind the wall as he strafed the school, smashing the windows of our classrooms We cleaned up the glass and went back to our lessons.
We lived three miles from the Great West Road, which was a prime target because of its factories. At around the same time as Dresden was bombed, Packards factory was destroyed by a V2 rocket which gave no warning before it struck. I was by then an aspiring laboratory technician at West Middlesex Hospital, which was damaged by the blast. Grabbing my bike, I went as fast as I could I went to the scene, where I joined the task of rescuing the injured. As our stretchers ran out we found sheets of corrugated iron which we used. One old man who was dead still had his greasy cap on his head. A woman trapped under a girder passed out before the flames engulfed her, the flames being too fierce for us to save her.
The bombing of Dresden was requested by the Russians as it was an essential link in the German radio that was monitoring the Russian advance and was not the innocent city Mr Horgan portrays. If he writes in future he may think of London, Coventry, Liverpool, Plymouth, Portsmouth, Hull, and so many other places in England where the innocent suffered in the insanity of war.
As far as our Taoiseach is concerned, it would seem that the die has been cast in relation to the Sale of Alcohol Bill, with longer opening hours for bars and nightclubs on the way.
He sees it as progress and good for the economy. He’s not alone. Justice Minister Helen McEntee is all in favour of it too. As a parent, my views are very different and are born of fear and grief after losing our 19-year-old son to suicide, with alcohol a contributing factor.
The Public Health Alcohol Act was introduced to help curb the amount of alcohol being consumed in our country but the longer opening hours recommended in the Sale of Alcohol bill will only help to dilute the impact of the PHAA.
The level of damage that will impact on society from the nighttime economy far outweighs the benefits. We’re told it will create more jobs, but where? Definitely more work for paramedics, A&E staff, doctors, nurses, surgeons, not forgetting gardaí and those involved in the legal and prison system.
I find it disappointing to see our Taoiseach, a doctor who knows only too well the damage caused by alcohol in our society, and our Minister for Justice — who cannot deny the pressure put on so many of our services by alcohol abuse — fully supporting these changes.
How much will all this add to the already staggering bill to the exchequer of €2.35bn per annum to deal with alcohol-related illness and harm with no sign of a responsibility levy on the alcohol industry towards these costs in sight?
With alcohol a contributing factor in 50% of all suicides in our country do we really need this?
Following the Barnardos survey showing that the majority of parents are very worried about being able to meet back-to-school expenses this year, questions have to be answered.
The survey found that parents were concerned about the cost of branded uniforms, voluntary contributions, and, at second level, the cost of school books.
Why do we need school uniforms? Schools are learning centres and not military establishments. I think uniforms are just pure snobbery. Why not have tracksuits which are available very cheaply. The school badge could be ironed onto the tracksuit.
Then you have voluntary contributions. Why? Any expenses involved in the running of a school is the responsibility of the Department of Education. That’s what people pay their taxes for.
As for the cost of school books, these should be provided free. Ireland provides over €1,233bn in overseas aid. Charity begins at home so let us get our priorities right and look after our own first.
Parents would not have these worries/burdens if our government did its job in the first place.
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