Mála Poist

O'Donoghue's waiting Games

A Chairde,

I am sure most people are, like myself, fuming after Minister for Sport John O'Donoghue's comments on the front page of the Star on Tuesday. He claimed it will take 16 years before an Irish athlete will win an Olympic medal and that our children are more interested in playing computer games than participating in sport.

What a load of rubbish. The attitude to sport in this country absolutely stinks. All through these games, TV polls have been inundated with people calling for more money to be invested in our athletes, but we all know that when budget time comes around, people will want that money redirected to the services that need it most, like health and education.

The problem is that those services aren't benefiting because sport is missing out. The money is actually going to the most ridiculous of places.

For example, €30,000 was spent to fly 12 TDs business class on a recent junket to Australia. Their trip appeared to consist of sipping wine at a Jacob's Creek vineyard. Or what about that money that will have to be spent cleaning the self-cleaning waste of metal on O'Connell Street that is the Spire?

And then there's the attitude to sport in schools. When I was there, we went to the local leisureplex and played bowling every week. That was our PE.

It should not take 16 years to produce a medal for this country. There are 12-year-old kids out there now who have just had their athletic careers written off by that gobshite O'Donoghue. Instead of making idiotic statements he should get the finger out and start lobbying for funding for his department. Local sporting clubs should not have to rely on the Lotto for handouts. They should be subsidised at all times by the government. And unless my experience was a one-off, school PE teachers should be under strict instructions to encourage sports among teenagers. Who wants to be a nation of bowlers?

Josephine Carney,

Clontarf,

Dublin 3.

Stop slagging Greaves

A Chairde,

Is it mischievousness, ignorance or begrudgery that prompted Matt Treacy's letter in An Phoblacht on 12 August?

Of Desmond Greaves, it is often said that he ran a tight ship with the Connolly Association and in editing the Irish Democrat. He always asserted that the role of the Irish in Britain and those of radical persuasion was to work for an end to Britain's control, management and interference in Ireland. Those within the Irish community in Britain, and in the Connolly Association, who were fortunate enough to return and dwell in Ireland, were free to join and be active in whatever political party or organisation they chose. As free agents, in no way were they under the control of the Connolly Association.

Conversely, it believed that the Irish in Britain should not be part and parcel of political parties in Ireland, where divisions weakened the progress that could be made in Britain.

The advantage that the Connolly Association perceived was that they had both an elevation and bird's eye view of events in Ireland. They also had a more realistic perception of the imperialist nature of British politicians. Conceiving that the denial of democratic rights in the Six Counties was the weakness in Westminster's control, the CA campaigns were copied, bringing the gravest challenge to Unionist and Tory rule.

The wildfire speed in uptake of the demands of the civil rights group, NICRA, was not for the Irish in Britain to control.

Desmond Greaves always blamed the procrastination of the North's Labour Party for the lack of success. I can remember him saying often that if opposition alone were the measure of progress, the Six-County question would have been solved long ago.

A third of a century onward, the Irish community in Britain is not as influential as it was, but there remains a goodwill and desire to see progress. Hardline unionist and red-necked Tory opinion is there to be opposed. Does Mr Treacy deny the right of independence of action?

Could I advise the reading and study of two Englishmen's writings on this past 30 years - Richard English's Armed Struggle, Macmillan 2003, and the pamphlet by Ken Keable, The Missing piece of the Peace Process.

There is much work to be done, so let's avoid useless slagging.

Charlie Cunningham,

London.

Where are RTÉ's subtitles?

A Chairde,

The recent article from Chris Rowland and Jim Nolan's letter last week regarding RTÉ's licence fee is very interesting.

I would like to bring to the attention of readers that RTÉ makes no reduction in the licence fee for deaf or hard of hearing people.

I am representing a deaf mother of four who has received numerous warnings etc to pay the bill or face the courts.

Subtitling on RTÉ is extremely poor compared to the English channels.

A recent example is that all Olympics activities was subtitled on BBC but not on RTÉ.

This family is forced to watch foreign channels to receive information that we take for granted.

A small percentage of RTÉ's screenings are subtitled, like Fair City and the Six One News, but this is nowhere good enough compared to standards in Britain and all other European countries.

Can you imagine if RTÉ gave no "sound" to us for the majority of Irish programmes and then expected us to pay for this!

If a Director of RTÉ was deaf, do you think they would pay for the lack of service? This family has no problem in paying for a TV Licence on condition they get the service.

Sinn Féin Cllr Shane O'Connor,

Clondalkin,

Dublin 24.