Madam, - Tom Humphries (LockerRoom, January 5th) is spot-on in his comment on the National Stadium mess. GAA people are more tuned-in and quicker off the mark than all of the other sports bodies put together.
The entire organisation, from club members to the president, proudly work almost as a unit to achieve their successes, and they are many, culminating in the building of their own massive stadium. And yes, it is their own property, and well deserved.
I know what it is like to try and engender an interest in international standard facilities with people who are simply too thick, smugly arrogant, or just plain lazy.
Some years ago I addressed a Republic of Ireland supporters' meeting on the very subject of a national stadium, and it became obvious that if I wasn't offering free drink or cheap flights to Manchester or London, I might just as well shut up.
On another occasion outside Lansdowne Road, as I distributed leaflets to punters at a Ireland-Russia friendly condemning the bedraggled state of the stadium, I was heckled by groups of drunks for "letting our city down" and subjected to cries of "Lansdowne is the best venue in Europe."
Our supporters, when abroad, are said to be the best behaved. I sometimes wonder: would that be because they are unable to stay on their feet for long enough to misbehave?
The unpalatable truth for supporters of world-class facilities in this country is painfully obvious. The majority of fans are so wedded to their almost daily dose of Premiership football and staying on-side with the ever rising cost of Sky sports and of course the "few" pints, that they don't have sufficient time to lobby their local representatives on the less important issue of a national stadium.
Even Bertie has come to realise they just don't deserve it. - Yours, etc.,
NIALL GINTY,
The Demesne,
Howth Road,
Killester,
Dublin 5.