Sir, - Yet again the GAA has failed to deliver. For several weeks hint after hint was dropped by the mandarins at GAA headquarters that Croke Park would be opened to other sports. This, they said, was to help raise the revenue to cover the remaining costs of the redeveloping of Croke Park and to help maintain it. They pleaded poverty to anyone who would listen, and succeeded in extracting £60 million from the Government on top of the £20 million already provided. This means that the Irish taxpayer will have paid for almost half the cost of rebuilding the stadium with nothing in return from the GAA. Delegates at the GAA congress last weekend obviously realised that the Government loot was in the bag, so why vote to repeal Rule 42? It was a disappointing but typical GAA manoeuvre. If this Government has any respect for the taxpayers of Ireland, it should withdraw the funding until the GAA sees beyond its selfish and outdated prejudice. After all, it's not as if the GAA is being asked to sell the family silver; merely rent it at the going rate. - Yours, etc.,
Seamus M. Scanlon, 10th Avenue, San Francisco, USA.