{"id":474265,"date":"2026-05-30T05:58:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T05:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/474265\/"},"modified":"2026-05-30T05:58:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T05:58:08","slug":"israel-ireland-matches-offer-each-of-us-an-opportunity-and-a-simple-personal-choice-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/474265\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel-Ireland matches offer each of us an opportunity and a simple, personal choice \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sir, \u2013 For two years, the vast majority of Irish<\/a> people have watched the destruction of Gaza<\/a> and the relentless persecution of the Palestinian<\/a> people with a mixture of horror and helplessness. We have despaired as our leaders chose to look away and our voices of condemnation were lost in the complicit silence of the West.<\/p>\n

We have silently watched the indiscriminate killing of civilians, the destruction of homes, schools and hospitals, the starvation of a population and the targeting of those trying to heal the wounded and report the truth.<\/p>\n

The forthcoming Nations League fixtures against Israel<\/a> are an opportunity for us to be heard.<\/p>\n

On the question of playing these fixtures, none of us \u2013 players, management, officials, supporters or casual followers \u2013 can hide behind the decisions of governments or football authorities. The question is personal and it is simple: are we willing to participate in the normalisation of these actions, or are we not?<\/p>\n

If we are, then let the games proceed and let us stop pretending to be outraged.<\/p>\n

If we are not, then the fact that the Government has chosen its course is beside the point. Yes, for some this decision may come at a significant personal cost. But morality is not measured in euros, and conscience is not something we outsource to politicians. \u2013 Yours, etc,<\/p>\n

DES MAY,<\/p>\n

Ballinrobe,<\/p>\n

Co Mayo.<\/p>\n

Sir, \u2013 It is one of the pleasures of your paper that sometimes one letter will supply material for another on a different topic. Thus, when, in a letter on the possibility of a soccer game between Ireland and Israel, I read (May 29th) that \u201csport and politics should not be mixed\u201d \u2013 a sentiment with which the letter writer thankfully did not agree \u2013 he had still done enough to make me recall that the notion of sport and politics having no interaction is one of the stupidest remarks ever to have been made. <\/p>\n

So, I submit that as a contender the most aggravating remarks one never wishes to hear. \u2013 Yours, etc, <\/p>\n

BRIAN COSGROVE,<\/p>\n

Cornelscourt, <\/p>\n

Dublin 18.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sir, \u2013 For two years, the vast majority of Irish people have watched the destruction of Gaza and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17772,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-474265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=474265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474265\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=474265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=474265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=474265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}