Madam, - On November 21st, 1920, the players of Tipperary lined up for a team photograph before their match against Dublin at Croke Park. At the rear three good friends from the village of Grangemokler stood side by side: Jerry Shelly, my grandfather Richard (Dick) Lanigan, and Mick Hogan. Minutes later Hogan was dead, shot by British paramilitaries along with 13 other people, the youngest a 14-year-old boy.
In recent weeks much has been written about men like my grandfather. Some say they will be "turning in their graves" when England plays Ireland at Croke Park. My grandfather is buried in the village cemetery where Mike Hogan is. Nevertheless the fact is that he accepted the partition of Ireland in 1922 and got on with his life. Most likely he would be proud that a team representing Ireland is playing in the stadium where he won his All-Ireland medal in 1922. Perhaps he would even want to thank the British officer who came into the changing-room on Bloody Sunday, preventing more players being shot.
It is Irish people who will raise the England flag in Croke Park today, not a Queen, and if one is to refuse the British national anthem, what about the Danes and Norwegians who also raped and pillaged Ireland in the past? All these people who claim to be indignant about Bloody Sunday - where were they on the 50th anniversary when a plaque was unveiled in the Hogan Stand? I attended with my father and grandad; there were only a handful of others at the commemoration.
On Saturday Grandad would also recall that England gave his son and many other Irish people a living when the Irish Republic could not provide work for them in the 1950s and 1960s. I spent many happy times with Grandad when my parents broke up in the 1960s and he never commented that his grandson considered himself to be English back then. Today his great grandchildren have an English mother and a "plastic Paddy" for a father.
If he were alive, I am sure he would be cheering on the Irish with the rest of the family, hoping sportsmen can set an example where politicians have failed. - Yours, etc,
Dr RICHARD LANIGAN, Kingston upon Thames, Surrey, England.
A Chara, - The most sensible comments I have heard about the flying of the English flag and the singing of God Save the Queen at Croke Park came in a recent RTÉ television programme from Liam Griffin, former manager of the Wexford All-Ireland winning hurling team of 1996.
As Mr Griffin so rightly pointed out, when the Cross of St George is raised over Croke Park, it will be raised by us, the free people of Ireland and not by an invading army. He also reminded us that in the darkest days of the Troubles, when the rugby teams of Scotland and Wales - our fellow Celts - refused to travel, the English rugby team did so.
That is something we should remember and as a supporter of both Gaelic games and rugby I will be glad to offer our visitors a respectful silence during the playing of their national anthem. - Is mise,
LIAM BYRNE, Donnybrook, Dublin 4.
Madam, - For some GAA members, the plethora of opinions on your Letters page concerning Croke Park is recent days has oscillated from the comic to the offensive as the promised "goodwill" associated with the opening of the stadium continues to pour forth.
However, there is a sinister twist in the view of Liam Meehan (February 22nd) that the acceptance of taxpayers' money impinges on the GAA's claim to be the sole proprietor of Croke Park. Does this mean that all of those who have in the past accepted at face value the first-time home-buyer's grant have inadvertently compromised ownership of their property? - Yours, etc,
MARTIN RYAN, Blanchardstown, Dublin 15.
Madam, - Growing up as a Falls Road, Belfast Catholic there were occasions in youth when we could not escape references to "the Queen". My mother advised us to think of "the Queen" as "Mary, Queen of Heaven" . Surely even Dev would have approved of this as a way out, for some of those with a problem, at Croke Park. - Is mise,
DÓNALL Ó MURCHÚ, Bóthar Theach Mealóg, Baile Átha Cliath 6W.