Class prejudice

WE have long comforted ourselves with the pleasing thought that, unlike the English, we do not suffer from class prejudice in Ireland.

I fear that is not the case. I wholeheartedly agree with Paul Doran (Letters, May 29) that class prejudice and contempt for the working poor are at the root of these terrible examples of abuse.

I still think of that magnificent flanker Ger Earls (Thomond and Young Munster). Why, I have thought many times, was he not selected for Ireland and the Lions? Perhaps you can give me a more convincing answer than class prejudice.

How wonderful, then, to see the rise of rugby in Munster since the advent of professionalism, and a Young Munster player as captain of the British and Irish Lions. And Keith Earls there too by right. Perhaps, after all, there is a Christian God.

Gerald Morgan

School of English

Trinity College

Dublin 1