Madam, – Regarding the calls for a replay of Ireland vs France, should such an event come to pass, can anyone imagine how long Manchester United’s season would be if unhappiness with the referee resulted in replays? – Yours, etc,

Madam, – I am looking forward to watching a World Cup match in my local pub next summer, specifically the match featuring England vs France. I’m quite excited by the prospect of a totally silent pub full of football supporters. – Yours, etc,

Madam, – Proctor Gamble chose Thierry Henry to promote Gillette because of his “true sporting values”. Perhaps it’s time for them to review their commercial arrangement with Monsieur Henry, or do they believe this is the best a man can get? – Yours, etc,

Madam, – My English is too poor to be able to write an entire letter in English, so I continue in French.

Je voudrais simplement vous dire que des centaines de milliers de Français ont honte aujourd’hui d’une équipe qui prétend porter leur drapeau.

La tricherie, l’hypocrisie, la malhonnêteté ne sont pas les valeurs que nos parents nous ont enseignées.

Cette année au mois de Mai, j’ai fait pendant 12 jours le tour de votre beau pays, et partout j’ai été merveilleusement accueilli.

Tous les Irlandais que j’ai pu rencontrer étaient toujours très attentifs à la manière dont nous étions reçus, et me demandaient, à chaque conversation, “Are Irish people friendly with you?” Je regrette profondément qu’ils puissent aujourd’hui croire que notre pays soutient quelques voyous trop cher payés pour n’être même pas capables d’honorer le sport qu’ils prétendent représenter.

Vous êtes certainement terriblement frustrés, mais croyez bien qu’il est encore plus difficile pour nous de supporter la honte que cette équipe a déversé sur nous.

Vous pouvez, si vous le souhaitez, publier ce commentaire. – Avec mes meilleurs sentiments,

DIDIER SCHMIDT,

Rue des Cottages,

75018 Paris.

Madam, – Please, enough already. Having had my country’s reputation dragged down into the European economic gutter, must I now see the Taoiseach demean the country further by getting involved in a football result?

What would have been the response from the Irish officials and team if France demanded a replay in similar circumstances?

Get over it, and show the world we at least act in good sportsmanship. – Yours, etc,

Madam, – Brendan McMahon (November 20th) suggests petitioning “Dublin City Council to change the name of the main shopping street in the capital from Henry Street to something less likely to cause offence”. May I suggest Sráid Anraí. – Yours, etc,

Madam, – I don’t mean to spoil anyone’s whinge-fest, but Thierry Henry’s handball is only one of many reasons we’re not going to the World Cup and most of the others are our own responsibility. We let slip leads against Bulgaria (home and away) and Italy (home) due to defensive errors; we played lowly Montenegro twice and failed to score in either game; we were overly cautious against France in Croke Park; and, although we played magnificently in Paris, we nevertheless failed to take several chances to add to Robbie Keane’s goal.

As for video refereeing, I’m all in favour, but it cuts both ways. If the referee had seen a video replay, would Italy have had a man sent off against us in Bari?

Would we have been awarded a vital penalty at home against Georgia?

Would France have had a penalty against us in Croke Park?

All these doubtful decisions went our way, so be careful what you wish for. – Yours, etc,

Madam, – I believe Brian Cowen and Dermot Ahern have joined the bandwagon in calling for a replay of the travesty of justice that was the Ireland vs France World Cup play-off in Paris.

What about giving the Irish people another kind of replay – a general election? – Yours, etc,

Madam, – The first politician I saw commenting on the match was Dermot Ahern, noted soccer enthusiast, who kept his remarks polite but firm.

Thereafter, wave after wave of press releases came from both the Government TDs and the Opposition, each trying to “out-outrage” the other.

Then, I was surprised to read that Brian Cowen had brought the matter of the errant goal up with French president Nicolas Sarkozy, and had ordered his Minister for Sport to support the FAI’s application for a rematch.

My belief that the matter had got out of hand was strengthened when I discovered that the French prime minister has taken the unusual step of warning Mr Cowen not to become involved.

Somehow, the cheating of a sports player has generated an international incident.

We might be better served if politicians stuck to fixing potholes for votes, rather than trying to ride the crest of public anger. – Yours, etc,

Madam, – I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere thanks to David Adams for his excellent piece on the taboo that is depression (Opinion and Analysis, November 19th). Mr Adams has done a great many people a real service by highlighting not only the true nature of depression, but also the fear on the part of sufferers to openly admit the difficulties they are experiencing. His comments in relation to the choice made by many sufferers to battle through rather than to survive in a semi-comatose state are particularly welcome. His piece was a welcome respite from the standard and often sterile anti-medication debate, which, to my view, does more harm than good to those who suffer and who, as Mr Adams has quite accurately pointed out, tend not to have a voice in relation to their difficulties. – Yours, etc,

Madam, – Your Editorial on prescriptions (November 20th, 2009) rightly states that “Irish doctors have a poor record of prescribing generics”.

Switching entirely to generics could, in theory, result in significant savings. However, reality differs from theory. Prescribing generically simply results in a generic prescription being written. It does not necessarily result in a generic drug being dispensed.

So long as the dispensing pharmacist has the discretion to choose which brand of drug to stock, they retain the power to dispense whichever brand has the highest margin for them. Doctors have a role to play, but pharmacy reform must come first. – Yours, etc,

A chara, – It is quite ironic that before the second Lisbon Treaty referendum, we were being told that the passing of that treaty would bring more democracy to Europe.

The appointment of Baroness Ashton as the foreign policy chief shows how hollow those promises were. – Yours, etc,

Madam, – With reference to your headline “Government calls for replay of match ” (Home News November 20th), hopefully we will soon see a headline “Government calls for replay with banks”. The past week has shown that when it comes to appointments at the banks, the culture of insider appointments still prevails, despite the massive injection of billions of taxpayers’ euro.

Madam, – So people of the right calibre can’t be found to replace the directors of AIB. The real question is, have the directors of AIB the right calibre for the job?

It is worth remembering that this is the second time this bank has been bailed out over a relatively short period of time.

I buy this paper most days, but I seem to have missed the advertisements posted for the above-mentioned positions. – Yours, etc,

A chara, – Given the current weather-related events in Cork, would it be impertinent to ask whether the city has a climate change adaptation plan, or indeed any ambitions to formulate one? – Is mise,

Madam, – I must express my disappointment with the letter published under the heading “Theological Report” in last Thursday’s editions (November 19th) and to which I would have appended a comment had I been aware of it beforehand.

Signed by Fr Enda McDonagh, former professor of moral theology at St Patrick’s College Maynooth, and Fr James Keenan, founder professor of theology at Boston College in the US, it concerned a report I had written about a pamphlet of theirs prepared for the Catholic Progressio group and titled Instability, Structural Violence and Vulnerability: A Christian Response to the HIV Epidemic.

My report on the pamphlet was published in this newspaper on November 2nd last and is available in our archives for that date. Their account of that report in the letter referred to above was unfair, inaccurate and not a little disingenuous.

I would invite those interested to read the pamphlet at www.progressio.org.uk and the article referred to.

They can then arrive at their own judgement on the matter. – Yours, etc,

Madam, – I got a letter from the Revenue Commissioners last week saying that €215 would be credited to my bank account due to my medication expenses for 2008, which had been supplied to them by the HSE. Very efficient service, I remarked. Until I thought, how could it possibly have taken 11 months to get this information from one branch of the government to the other? Is it that, despite the worldwide communications revolution, the information is lost in a bubble of bureaucracy for 11 whole months? Or is it just that the Government is trying to hang on to the cash for as long as they can these days? – Yours, etc,

A chara, – Doesn’t it seem ironic that Fianna Fáil is becoming very interested in fair play all of a sudden? – Is mise,