GOAL chief offers an apology to the army

ON Tuesday last, in the course of a Morning Ireland discussion on the Government sending troops to New Orleans, I inadvertently used the term “boy scouts to the Somme” while attempting to make an analogy.

In the context I was referring to the enormity of the disaster as opposed to any lack of effectiveness of the Irish Army whom I hold in the highest regard.

This term was hugely inappropriate, and I realise it could have caused offence to Irish Army personnel. None was intended.