Letters: If GAA’s goal is to spread the game far and wide, it should spend more time ensuring people can see it

​As many have observed in this paper and elsewhere, people need to be able to watch their heroes in order to be inspired by them.

Look only at Rhasidat Adeleke’s acknowledgement of Katie Taylor as her inspiration, or the American women’s national basketball (WNBA) phenomenon that is Caitlin Clark who was inspired by US star Maya Moore, to recognise that the greats of sport aspire to the greatness of other athletes.

The WNBA is an interesting one to contemplate further. The American (and Irish) public can go to popular streaming platforms and freely watch all manner of 10-minute WNBA game highlights, and all sorts of effusive praise for Caitlin Clark’s prowess. Why? Because the WNBA recognised that to build a valuable and popular brand, it needed to work with broadcast partners who shared its vision to make the game more accessible.​

If the GAA’s goal is to spread interest in its games far and wide, maybe it should spend more time watching what leagues like the WNBA are doing to leverage the talents of athletes and fans towards building popularity for its sport.

Maybe GAAGO should make match-streaming freely available to club members, if not the broader public. Maybe the GAA should be broadcasting more matches on free-to-air television.

The GAA needs to up its video and streaming game by increasing the amount of freely available short player, team and match-highlight videos.

It can do this for zero cost and little effort, by making all of its match video recordings available to video creators to build their own highlight reels.

​Phil Miesle, Ennis, Co Clare

Pity the voters who have to choose united Ireland over free healthcare

​As the words “united Ireland” slip onto the tips of our tongues again, and people dream ahead of themselves, there remain lots of unanswered questions about what form this united Ireland will take.​ For example, what will our health system look like?

​As it stands, those of us living in the Republic who do not qualify for medical cards pay to access a GP. We also pay for prescriptions.

In Northern Ireland, by contrast, everyone is entitled to free GP care and free prescription regardless of their means. ​

Should a voter have to choose unity over free healthcare? I’m not convinced unity would win out.

Before any vote is taken, the electorate – both in the North and in the Republic – will need to be fully informed as to what shape this new united Ireland will take.

Perhaps many different votes will have to take place.

The first might be to agree upon just what a united Ireland would look like in terms of health, education, justice and so on.

​Marie Hanna Curran, Ballinasloe, Co Galway​

Government must end practice of running with hounds on hare coursing

With wildlife under ecological threat across our island, it feels a bit bizarre that animal protection groups and conservationists should have to speak out again against the granting of a coursing licence.

It’s the time of year when the Government will probably sign off on another season of hare coursing by permitting the capture of thousands of hares nationwide.

The licence doesn’t have to be issued. It can be refused if the Government so chooses.

The case against coursing is unanswerable and has been made repeatedly over the past 60 years. But our leaders appear to think only of votes and their own political self-interest.

They pander to the small but well-connected minority who get a thrill from watching a little animal twist and dodge on a field to avoid being mauled, tossed about like a broken toy, or having its bones crushed.

Animal welfare aside, the Irish hare, one of our few truly native mammals, has been in continuous decline for the past half-century, mainly due to habitat loss resulting from urbanisation and the impact of modern agriculture.

This is not just a fashionable “green” issue. Opposition to hare coursing predates the green movement by decades.

It’s about being human and not allowing deliberate cruelty to animals dressed up as “sport”.

I hope that this year the Government will opt to ban this obscene practice, instead of attempting, in typical cute hoor-style, to run with the hare and hunt with the hounds. ​

John Fitzgerald​, Callan, Co Kilkenny

Unmanned airfields lay bare State’s lax approach to our safety and security

There has been much discussion about our weakened Defence Forces and the failure to fill vacancies that have arisen.

This has resulted in our exposure to significant security frailties due to the number of unmanned airstrips, aerodromes and airfields across the country. Ireland has more than 80 of these that are mostly unmanned.

The recent conviction of a managing director who flew from Dieppe aerodrome in France to Abbeyshrule in Co Longford in 2022, with a large consignment of cocaine, exposed the lax security or customs measures at these places.

The judge’s comments that there “should be a significant upgrade in security” at these airfields, with “24-hour checks”, is a piece of advice the Government should heed.

Apart from those who legitimately use these airstrips for pleasure purposes, what do we know about those who use them for nefarious purposes such as human-trafficking, illegal migration, guns and drug importation? Or the criminal, terrorist or intelligence services using them to bypass security at our main airports and ports?

Once again, this Government and those whose jobs are the security and defence of this nation have left us exposed to any number of dangerous outcomes and unwanted activities by those who use our weaknesses against us.

Those in charge, whether it be the Revenue Commissioners, An Garda Síochána, The Defence Forces or the aviation industry itself, should be drawing attention to the lack of security and defence in a country that has been exposed as the soft underbelly of Europe.

Whether it is offshore or on land, this instance of unmanned airfields or aerodromes is a typical example of the lazy and careless approach this and other governments of the day have towards our safety and security.​​

Christy Galligan, Letterkenny, Co Donegal