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Thierry Henry's handball, sex abuse by Irish priests, RFI in Kenya

by Tony Cross

Article published on the 2009-11-27 Latest update 2009-11-27 15:56 TU

Regrets? Thierry Henry feels the pressure
(Photo: Reuters)

A bumper feedback article this week looks back at a fortnight’s comments, including the war of Thierry Henry’s hand.

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But first, another Ireland-related topic, the report on child abuse by Catholic priests.

“Enough! The church should voluntarily abolish itself. There is no forgiveness when children were made to suffer for so long,” is American Joan Sutton’s comment.

There is almost as much indignation over – and a lot more emails about - Thierry Henry’s handball in the Ireland-France World Cup qualifier match. Some branded the French “a nation of cheats” and called for Henry to be banned from the World Cup finals, before descending into even more immoderate language.

“I am writing from an Ireland of Tears,” says John F Higgins of Tubbercurry, County Sligo. “We too love our football. Our nation is a football minnow. But we have dreams.”

“I would like to say regarding the France V Ireland match which i attended how sad i was to see a man of Theirry Henrys reputation allow this to happen and expect no backlash,” writes Lorraine Taylor of County Kildare. “He will be destroyed when the domino effect starts and it will. The people of Ireland are very proud people and are not known to complain about looseing as you may well know we generally celebrate whether we win or loose but fair is fair it was downright cheating.May i say and i think i speak for all the 15000 Irish fans in Stade de France we really enjoyed our stay in your beautiful city of Paris.”

While “lifetime football supporter” Patrick Breslin is “disgusted at the manner in which France progressed to the World Cup finals”.

“The hand-ball by Henry, makes a mockery of the FIFA "fair play" policy,” he comments. “The game must be re-played. The whole world has witnessed the injustice in Paris. Now FIFA must stand up and show it will not tolerate this.”

“I understand that the French nation is embarrassed about the situation,” writes Sean Clancy of Dublin. “Believe me we are not enjoying it either!

“The Irish people are naturally very disappointed that FIFA has ruled out the possibility of a replay, in fact we are imagining Sepp Blatter having a nice glass of champagne to celebrate that France qualified instead of a small team like us. They also changed the draw seeding system so that the large teams could get an easier opposition. The whole thing makes me angry, and sad.”

And musicians the Corrigan Brothers and Peter Creighton have sent us a Youtube link to their musical comments on the affair.

But there are some satisfied customers this week.

“I have been listening to Radio France International for quite a long time,” writes Juan Villasoto of Quezon City, the Philippines. “I find it very good to hear news and information about France and the rest of the world. Your news programs are good example of how a worldwide network like RFI creatively widen its perspectives about the events while upholding the interests of France and the role it plays to the world politics, society and economy.”

And Kiranga Gatimu is pleased that RFI can now be heard in Kenya.

“I teach at Kenyatta University and I am keen on keeping up to date with world news,” he writes. “Your entry in Kenya via KBC has given us an added dimension and different perspective of News coverage in comparison with you other global news broadcasters. Keep up the Good work.”

News about RFI

Rosslyn Hyams is reporting from Taiwan ahead of the Copenhagen climate conference, which she will cover. Watch out for our special dossier on the conference with special articles, including Billie O’Kademeri’s already popular report from Ethiopia.

Alison Hird takes over World Tracks for six weeks, while Daniel Brown works on a radio documentary in west Africa.

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