Madam, - Niall Ginty (November 18th) wonders where Gaelic Games are left in the wake of Tom Humphries's assertion that the world does not care about rugby.
They remain as immensely popular games in their own country, and indeed internationally. Their importance to the Irish sporting year need not be debated. Their importance to the local and national community can never be truly gauged.
Rugby, on the other hand, is a minority, élitist sport. Without South Dublin and Limerick, would rugby survive as a top-level sport in Ireland? The fact that a majority of television and print journalists come from social classes where rugby is cherished is perhaps the only reason it enjoys the coverage it does. In what other sport would a match between two teams of 17-year-old boys (the Leinster Schools final) gain such excessive coverage?
Rugby in all its guises is irrelevant to a large majority of Irish men and women, not something which can be said about Gaelic Games. - Yours etc.,
BEN HEADON, Raheny, Dublin 5.