Sir, - I have just returned from Riccione on Italy's Adriatic coast, where I attended European athletic championships and European swimming championships. Some 27 nations participated, Ireland among them.
These were no ordinary championships - all of the competitors were either blind or otherwise severely visually disabled. Ireland's small athletics team (three men and three women) did this country proud. Between them they won four medals - a silver and three bronze. We had no competitors in swimming.
The swimming championships were held in the Piscina Comunale. A magnificent outdoor, 8-lane, 50-metres municipal facility. It is far inland from Riccione's splendid beaches, the point being that it is for the town's residents, not for the tourists. Adjacent are warm-up, diving, and indoor heated pools. And the swimming pools are cheek by jowl with the town's athletics stadium.
That a small resort town could provide facilities such as these for its residents, while the entire island of Ireland is without a single Olympic-sized pool, underlines the travesty that has been paraded in this country as a sports policy.
Incidentally, Mrs Audrey Strom, a Canadian from Winnipeg who was in Riccione is a technical supervisor of the swimming championships, was incredulous when told that Ireland had no 50-metres pool. In Winnipeg alone, she said, there are five such pools.
I wonder if the new Sports Minister, Dr McDaid, now that he has a seat at the Cabinet table, will use his energy and determination to right a shameful situation. - Yours, etc.,
From Liam Nolan
Shrewsbury Park, Dublin 4.