Madam, - One great aspect of supporting Munster rugby is that we are required to travel to France every year. I'm sure it's fixed, but by whom? Losing hurts, but the spectacle nearly makes up for it. What certainly helps is spending time in France's wonderful cities.
Toulouse is another great example of urban living. It has a wonderful city centre, numerous buildings of note, a number of fine squares. These were all established over many centuries and we cannot expect to compete.
Also, the city also has great modern infrastructure. A fine airport, good motorway system, many bridges to cross their rivers, an elaborate bus network, a metro line with another in progress, tree-lined canals, pedestrian squares, numerous parks and an all-seater municipal stadium in the city centre. Toulouse has 400,000 inhabitants but this also has been our experience in Bordeaux, Lille, Paris and Montpellier before.
What is wrong with Ireland? We have none of the above. Returning from Toulouse, we arrived in Shannon: no taxis (we had to wait 30 minutes for one to come out from Limerick), no buses to anywhere, and a road system that has been under construction for more years than I care to remember. To cap it all, the taxi driver unsuccessfully tried to get us to pay €60 for the pleasure of his dirty minicab to Limerick.
This is not just a problem in Shannon; it is a problem throughout our country. We have a pathetic rail network, our only well-serviced airport (Dublin) is an administrative joke and our roads are a fiasco.
Every city needs some major investment: Waterford - a bridge; Limerick - a tunnel; Cork - a motorway. The list goes on. These are not recent problems, they were identified many years ago, but nothing has been done. Then when we do do something, we make a mess of it; Luas and the M50 are cases in point. We can make excuses - 800 years of occupation, etc. - but unfortunately that is not good enough.
Who is to blame? We are. We put up with low standards of service. We allow mediocre people to administer our country and we elect mediocre people to run it. We are all to blame.
We should take our lead from the Munster team: no excuses; just go out and do it to the best of our ability.
I'm sure some people are reading this and thinking, "We're fine, we're getting there. Sure isn't it a great country?" The stock Irish answer: we're great people!
Well, we have met wonderful people in Toulouse, Bordeaux and Montpellier but they also live in an organised country! - Yours, etc.,
PETER KEOGH,
Ennis Road,
Limerick