Sir, – Peter Cully (May 16th) notes that "more than 42,000 people crowded into a Dublin stadium wearing the colours of . . . an English provincial city, to cheer them on against a local football club" and asks "in what other country of the world could this happen?" Using Liverpool's 2013 pre-season tour to answer his question, those countries would be Thailand (34,000 people in Bangkok), Indonesia (80,000 people in Jakarta) and Australia (95,000 people in Melbourne).
With regard to Mr Cully’s question of “Do we laugh or cry?”, I would say it would depend on what the score was. – Yours, etc,
ANDREW ABBOTT
Auburn Drive,
Killiney,
Co Dublin.
Sir, – I wonder about the accuracy of Peter Cully’s description of Liverpool as a “provincial English city”. It reminded me of the old joke about the English being prepared to give us back Belfast if we were prepared to give them back Liverpool in return. – Yours, etc,
FRANK E BANNISTER,
Morehampton Terrace,
Dublin 4.