Sir, – Should Dublin and Donegal play out a draw in next Sunday’s second All-Ireland football semi-final, can the GAA confirm that the replay will be held in St Tiarnach’s Park, Clones, or Breffni Park, Cavan?
Answers on the back of an unused Garth Brooks ticket, please. – Yours, etc,
DOM GRADWELL,
Trinity Gardens,
Drogheda, Co Louth.
Sir, – I imagine that the Taoiseach must be inspired and frustrated in equal measure by Mayo’s brilliant comeback in the second half of the All-Ireland semi-final against Kerry at Croke Park.
But what an anti-climax to schedule the replay in Limerick and with so brief a respite for the exhausted players. This is an amateur game after all.
But those running affairs at Croke Park have surely taken their eye off the ball and deserve a yellow if not a red card for the extraordinary decision not to reschedule the replay in Croke Park itself, especially when the capacity at the Gaelic Grounds in Limerick is only 49,866, over 2,000 short of the attendance for the drawn match.
In my view this situation is much worse than the Garth Brooks fiasco, for the All-Ireland championship is the very raison d’être of Croke Park.
No commercial arrangement can be allowed to downgrade the national importance of the All-Ireland championship. – Yours, etc,
Dr GERALD
MORGAN, FTCD
The Chaucer Hub,
Trinity College, Dublin 2.