Sir, – Justine McCarthy states that rugby is an “elitist sport in Ireland, if less so in Limerick” (“Reverse snobbery about rugby is every bit as nauseating as plain old snobbery”, Opinion & Analysis, September 15th).
What is the basis for this statement? That people are turned away from rugby clubs on the basis of social status or finances – but less so in Limerick?
She states that private schools are “lamentable in a country that calls itself a republic”. Is that a republic where people do not have a free choice where to educate their children or spend their own money? Did Plato rant against the concept of private education or was he in fact paid by his pupils at the Academy?
My non-fee paying school only promoted hurling and Gaelic football with any enthusiasm (even athletics were poor relations) and I reckon very few pupils participated who would not have been playing the same sports with GAA clubs anyway.
It was later on at university that I discovered a wider variety of sports, including rugby, and it might interest your columnist to note that I was invited to play with an “elite” club in the heart of Dublin 4 despite my “plebeian” background.
My observation is that long-standing rugby fans particularly those of the D4 variety do not need journalists protecting them from begrudgers’ brickbats – they simply don’t care what some barstool bore or online troll says about them or their sport – and this is what really winds the begrudgers up! – Yours, etc,
MATTHEW GLOVER,
Lucan,
Co Dublin.