MICHAEL BRENNAN,
Sir, - Now that the matter of Roy Keane's expulsion from the Irish team in June has reared its head again, perhaps The Irish Times would allow to be aired publicly four questions which have been begging to be asked all through the sorry affair.
1. Why did Tom Humphries file an interview with Roy Keane, for publication by The Irish Times on that fateful Thursday, when on his own admission (in a later Irish Times column) he was worried about the effect of its contents on Mick McCarthy and anxiously asked Roy Keane that day if Mick had reacted to it yet?
2. Why did The Irish Times publish the potentially explosive interview at that time? Where was the good editorial judgment that would have postponed publication and saved the county from the ensuing trauma?
3. Who was the journalist who underlined certain parts of the interview on the day of publication and went out of his way to show them to Mick McCarthy?
4. Why did Tommy O'Gorman conduct a half-hour interview with Roy Keane at a most delicate time in the drama when the danger existed that Keane would let drop some words that would make the situation worse - as indeed transpired?
In time, these questions will be answered if not by the media people involved, then by the judgment of history. Meanwhile, the issue is once more in the public mind. This provides a chance for the journalists and editors concerned to set the record straight. - Yours, etc.,
MICHAEL BRENNAN, Earls Court, Waterford