Diarmaid Ferriter<\/a> cites a number of historical instances of government intervention, justified by what the Department of Foreign Affairs termed \u201cour fundamental attitude\u201d to the South African apartheid regime\u2019s \u201cdegrading system\u201d. <\/p>\nIn 1979, our government conceded that while it valued the independence of sporting organisations, it would take action in \u201cthe most exceptional circumstances\u201d. <\/p>\n
If what 86 per cent of the Irish public regard as a genocide in Gaza, compounded by the Israeli state\u2019s invasion and ethnic cleansing of Lebanon, do not qualify as \u201cthe most exceptional circumstances\u201d, I do not know what does. The Government must take action, and cancel both home and away fixtures against Israel. <\/p>\n
Facing an unprecedented wave of public outrage against playing ball with genocide, the Government might just find that stepping on to the right side of history is easier than coming up with excuses not to. \u2013 Yours, etc. <\/p>\n
BRIAN \u00d3 \u00c9IGEARTAIGH<\/p>\n
Donnybrook, <\/p>\n
Dublin 4.<\/p>\n
Sir, \u2013 Along with Diarmaid Ferriter\u2019s piece on choices for the upcoming Ireland-Israel game we should not forget the words of the joint Fifa and Uefa statement on February 28th, 2022, when they banned Russia from playing football due to the invasion of Ukraine: \u201cFootball is fully united here and in full solidarity with all the people affected in Ukraine\u201d, and that \u201cwe hope that football can again be a vector for unity and peace among people\u201d.<\/p>\n
Where are Fifa and Uefa\u2019s \u201cunity\u201d and \u201cpeace\u201d stance when it comes to the Palestinian people? \u2013 Yours, etc,<\/p>\n
TOM HARPER,<\/p>\n
Blackrock, <\/p>\n
Co Dublin.<\/p>\n
Sir, \u2013 I presume having boycotted the Eurovision over the participation of Israel, RT\u00c9 do not intend broadcasting either of the games the senior men\u2019s Ireland team play against Israel? \u2013 Yours, etc,<\/p>\n
STEPHEN O\u2019HARA,<\/p>\n
Carrowmore, <\/p>\n
Sligo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sir, \u2013 There comes a point when the workload of concocting specious arguments against a course of action…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4377,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[33],"tags":[47537,49988,2982,37,4003,2576,4005],"class_list":["post-157912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-charlie-mcconalogue","tag-diarmaid-ferriter","tag-fifa","tag-israel","tag-republic-of-ireland-mnt","tag-soccer","tag-uefa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116741104036463850","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157912\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}