Open Letter to David Kelly

[Stuttgart88]

Cheers, I have my disagreements with McDonnell also but not on the level that I'd feel compelled to take action against anything he's written.

Stutts, have you blogged or made the letter available anywhere outside the forum, or is it ok to link directly to this thread?

I'm an old-fashioned bloke. I sent it to the letters page. This is actually what I wrote:

Dear Sirs,

If David Kelly doesn't have anything positive to say about the Irish football team, please don't let him bore us with his continuous attempts to undermine it. International match week guarantees two things these days: I get excited about flying home, and Mr. Kelly takes a needless snipe at our team in your newspaper.

There was nothing "lily-livered" about not playing a football match in Tbilisi when Russian tanks were firing on the streets only three weeks previously.

Nobody cares about Robbie Keane's popularity relative to Brian O'Driscoll's. Has anyone in Spain, Germany or Japan ever even heard of Brian O'Driscoll? If Brian could earn Robbie's income by playing rugby in England, he'd do it in a heartbeat.

I support my country in sport regardless of whether we are successful or entertaining, well-paid or amateur, media-friendly or aloof. I grew up watching a perennially unsuccessful Irish football team and kept coming back. I went to the rugby throughout the 90s, a particularly grim time for us. I gave fair criticism where it was due, and took the rough with the smooth. In 35 years I never once developed an agenda and stuck to it whether the facts fitted it or not.

Mr. Kelly's constant digs are tiresome and subjective, and make him sound like a bitter man.

Yours etc.

[paul_oshea]

....Or like a man who has nothing to write about and just uses the same old easy angle to write a piece. Regurgitating the same old gruff everytime.

Anyway very well written. I don't think its because he is bitter per se, just that he actually has nothing to write about, his articles are few and far between and they are never dense with facts or details, just the same old crap.

I'm surprised that he still has a job there to be honest.

[geysir]

I'd say Stutts had a fierce struggle with the boundaries of restraint.

[Noelys Guitar]

Has anyone ever had the displeasure of bumping into Kelly? I have. Laughable character. Don't take this moron seriously. Give him no oxygen. As he is already a serious thief of O.

[gastric]

Going against the tide here, but are we becoming a bit precious? Let's be honest there are many quiet days in sports journalism and while the article is crap the level of venom displayed here is a bit ott. The other issue I have here is those who give other sports a hard time. Very myopic IMO and when you insult other sports, expect it to come back at you.

[Crosby87]

Its great how this website comes alive before a big match. People come out of the woodwork, people are aggressive. Really well thought out, clearly vetted, long posts. I love it.
I don't know what the hell people are talking about half the time but I still think it's great.

[Fixer82]

Who's gonna write the letter to Roy Curtis telling him he's not funny?

[AlaskaFox]

Who's gonna write the letter to Roy Curtis telling him he's not funny?

I would but I wasted all my ink comparing Keane's "declining" career to Sean Quinn's recent business endeavours.

[Sullivinho]

Its great how this website comes alive before a big match. People come out of the woodwork, people are aggressive. Really well thought out, clearly vetted, long posts. I love it.
I don't know what the hell people are talking about half the time but I still think it's great.

Nervous tension is the business.

I was just thinking how the confine recovers the equal ice while an icon pumps in the opera! But the numeral onion fiddles. 442. How can the intense consent bank the beer? Withdrawn striker.