Madam, – After Wednesday night’s TV coverage of the Ireland-Georgia soccer match we must thank British pundits for raising our happiness levels.
RTÉ pre-match coverage featured the usual moan about Andy Reid not playing. Flick to Sky, where Jeff Stelling is raving about Croke Park. We do have things to be proud of in Ireland! Back to RTÉ, with the usual unsubstantiated criticism of the manager of the Irish team. Flick to Sky, where Jeff is going through Trap’s list of trophies and even Mick McCarthy admits he didn’t realise the man had won so many. We are among the happy few to have this man managing our team.
Post-match commentary: RTÉ is back on the usual whinge on Andy Reid not playing when Graeme Souness interrupts the whinger on €320k to point out that it is easy to be critical in the studio but that Ireland, with players of limited ability but a great spirit of camaraderie, are level in the table with the world champions and that, all going well, we are on our way to South Africa in 2010! His opinion of Croke Park? Couldn’t be more complimentary! Graeme, do bring more chums to RTÉ with you next time: we can never get enough of happy and proud vibes. – Yours, etc,