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I AGREE fully with the excellent letter (7 October) of Tom Cooper re: the failure of the Irish Rugby Union to respect our national flag and anthem, and also praise to you for printing it. As the rest of the world is now aware that 'Ireland's Call' is not our national anthem, Irish people abroad are being subjected to ridicule and contempt, especially in Britain and France, while groups of Argentinians jeered supporters on the streets in France. The sight of players, officials, supporters and, above all, the Taoiseach not only standing to attention for 'Ireland's Call' but singing it was, to say the least, embarrassing.
Yet not even one member of Dail Eireann has made any protest.
I note also that when a rugby team of Great Britain and Ireland called the Lions play, they do not play the Irish national anthem but do play 'God Save the Queen', and the Irish Rugby Union accept it. It should be pointed out that the Irish taxpayers are funding a stadium for these rugby people at a cost of 350m (everyone knows of course that it will be 550m).
We have lost our pride in our Irishness in so many ways, with many of our people turning their backs on our own native sports, language and other forms of our culture. Even last week, not one member of our Dail attended the funeral of the last surviving veteran of the Anglo-Irish War, or even passed a vote of sympathy to the family of the late Dan Keating of Kerry.
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YOU ARE HERE: 11 November 2007 / tribune.ie / 2007 / 10 / 14
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