• Dear Editor,
• ppiol
• ukui
  

Your well-meaning and well-put argument on the place of sport in the wider world (April 2005) was for me soured by your uncharitable paragraph linking Pope John Paul II’s words on “effacing intolerance” in sport, exclusively to Rangers-Celtic and the Gaelic Athletic Association.

Many points spring to mind, a few will suffice. Rangers and Celtic have to deal with centuries of conflict still not resolved (maybe even insoluble), but God knows they are trying as best they can.

When did the GAA lack “magnanimity” for the needs of fraternity and solidarity both at home and in the wider world. For more than a century it has held communities and parishes together in spite of dungeons, fire and sword providing facilities for common people without a hint of meanness or mercenary approach – all its resources directed at one purpose – community needs.

Regarding the aborted second stadium, it was not the Gaelic Athletic Association that spurned the hand of friendship on the proposal to build a stadium suitable for rugby, soccer and Gaelic games.

By the time you publish this letter, a decision may have been made to provide a limited facility – a decision made within the rules of the GAA’s decision-making structure.

Yours,
Gerry Murphy,
Co Down.