Sir, – I noted with sadness but also with warmth the obituary, under the heading “Trinity College accountant and rugby official who touched many lives” (July 30th, 2011), to Harry Booker, who died at the age of 92 on July 21st, 2011, deservedly surrounded by the love of his family and many friends.
There was no one in Trinity in the 1970s who did not know Harry Booker, and I do not know of anyone who did not like him. He belonged to an age in which many people were motivated by love rather than the love of money, and Irish rugby was certainly for many years the beneficiary of that love.
We need to recover some of the values that were enshrined in the life of Harry Booker. His example makes me happy to think of him even today after the passage of so many years.
Perhaps Ireland can go to New Zealand and win the rugby world cup this autumn. Nothing indeed would be more fitting than that to the memory of this lovely man. – Yours, etc,