Sir, - Terry Moylan (March 16th) objects to the invitation to "bounce up and down" at the Monster Céilí last Sunday.
He surely has a point in asserting that the great pleasure to be derived from any skill lies in doing it to the closest degree of perfection. But could he not also allow that, on a day when Ireland is celebrated around the world, the rank amateur, the chancer or the unfortunate gifted with two left feet might not participate, however fleetingly, in Ireland's cultural wealth?
Could he not, to paraphrase de Valera entirely out of context, acknowledge the wallflower who stood alone not for one dance, or two, but 800 dances? It may be my imagination, but I also detect a subtle subtext in Mr Moylan's comments that "bouncing" per se is a foreign import to these parts along the lines of hipsters or grey squirrels.
In your own paper, many years ago, Myles na Gopaleen asserted that the one great skill the Irishman possessed, one that would always stand to him, was that he could jump. What is bouncing except a ritualised form of jumping anyway? - Is mise,
DONAL NUGENT,
Editor, St Patrick's
Festival Programme,
IFP Media,
Blackrock,
Co Dublin.
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Sir, - I am wondering what is happening to Irish society when, on Ireland's "national" day, when All-Ireland finals for both club football and hurling are major events on the GAA calendar, one can enter a pub to find the English Premiership on all three TV sets. When questioned about this, the owner of the pub replied with: "What all-Ireland finals?"
I can see Pádraig Pearse turning in his grave saying "Why did I bother?" - Yours, etc.,
ALLEN CONLAN,
Ashbourne,
Co Meath.