Terry Prone’s article (Opinion, July 7) on ageism is right on the mark. There is no substitute for experience and knowledge which, very often, comes with age.

So there it is. All five Garth Brooks concerts cancelled, the economy out an estimated €50 million, hundreds of thousands of disappointed fans and Ireland is left looking like a laughing stock. It is embarrassing and disappointing.

So the diva, Garth Brooks, doesn’t get his way, throws a tantrum and storms off the stage before it’s even built. Perhaps he should eat a Snickers when he is hungry.

I’m feeling ashamed of us Irish. I’ve just come back from Maastricht in The Netherlands where I attended one of eight concerts given in the city centre by Andre Rieu over a period of two weeks.

In the light of the debacle relating to the staging of concerts at Croke Park, much to the detriment of local residents, it beggars belief that the GAA knowingly tried to foist not three but five concerts on the Croke Park residents.

Before the May elections the Government promised 104 litres of water free to each child per day. The Commission for Energy Regulation informed the Committee on Environment recently that Irish Water now want to reduce that allowance (Irish Examiner, July 2).

Garth Brooks originally planned only two concerts, so why did he cancel when three were only allowed? If anyone is to blame, It’s the man himself. He could have had three now, then two next year at end of his world tour and on his way home.

Recently, I went to see a midlands fur farm, which was situated in a scenic area beside a canal. The first thing that met me was the noxious smell of effluent, and then from a bridge on the canal I could look down and see the extent of the operation, row upon row of sheds, with the confined mink throwing themselves desperately against the cages — a very distressing and depressing sight, knowing that there was nothing one could do to alleviate their torture.

I am deeply dismayed that Steve McGarry (Letters, July 3), is concerned about the subjective religious belief of someone, even if that person is the Taoiseach. Have we not learned anything?

I am deeply concerned by a report in your paper on Friday, July 4, concerning the redeveloped Sky Garden in Fitzgerald Park.