Respect for our National Anthem

Tuesday, 29 March 2011 10:08

Sir,

Our soccer, rugby, athletic, boxing, cricket, and all of our other national teams have no problem and take great pride in respecting our National Anthem.

Why is it then that our inter-county GAA teams (Mayo in particular) have a problem in standing still for the duration of Amhrán na bhFiann? Is it pure ignorance or plain apathy?
Many Irish men and women fought and died so we could raise our country's flag and sing our own anthem.
Yet here we have yahoos representing the GAA, the epitome of Irish nationalism and Irish games, and representing their counties, who openly show blatant disrespect for their flag and country.
Unfortunately it's a nationwide problem and confined mainly to GAA teams.
Shame on them.

The exceptions are Derry, Antrim, Down, Armagh, Tyrone and Fermanagh, who all show total respect for their flag and anthem. They have trained, played, worked and lived through 30 years of war and oppression and an extra 90 years under foreign rule.
Yet they understand and have pride in who they are, where they come from and what they represent.

And all we can do down here is deride them for displaying their sense of Irishness when we should be holding them up as role models.
Then again, the GAA have always treated our six counties (in)differently and as for our national press.... what would you expect from a paper who demanded our 1916 leaders be hanged ?

Le meas,

Mícheál MacNally,
Westport.

( 2 Votes )