Sir, – Hugo MacNeill is being selective in his homage to the inclusivity of the Irish Rugby Football Union (February 3rd). "Rugby has always played an invaluable role in bringing all parts of the island of Ireland together while other forces were tearing them apart", he writes. Really? I recall joining thousands of fellow citizens protesting against the appearance of an apartheid South African rugby team at Lansdowne Road at one time. This is the same IRFU that blithely ignored the wishes of the people of Ireland as they accepted invitations to tour apartheid South Africa. On another infamous occasion in 1987, it proceeded to present a James Last version of the Rose of Tralee as our national anthem to the bemused people of New Zealand. – Yours, etc,
JAMES CONNOLLY
HERON,
Ranelagh,
Dublin 6.