Madam, – There have been comparisons of the present general election with that of 1918. It is cautionary to also recall what happened in Ireland in the following four or five years. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – While I generally agree with the point that Paul Gallagher makes (February 28th), I don’t think it’s true that Ireland’s PR system played a role in the decimation of Fianna Fáil. On the contrary, what sets PR apart is that parties which get a relatively small proportion of the vote tend to do much better than they would under other electoral systems.
If Ireland had a first-past-the-post, single seat per constituency system, Fianna Fáil might not have won any seats in this election. In other words, Fianna Fáil’s vote has collapsed to such an extent that it has become a beneficiary of PR as a “smaller” party! – Yours, etc,
Madam, – I find it striking that political operatives have treated coalition talks between Fine Gael and Labour as an inevitable consequence of the election. In doing so, they have rejected the possibility of the two most ideologically compatible parties, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, forming a coalition government. Perhaps all of the rhetoric declaring the Civil War politics to be over, and a new political landscape to have been left in its wake, is a tad premature? – Yours, etc,
ENDA McNAMARA,
College Road, Cork.
A chara, – The Labour Party performed brilliantly in the election. It is now in a position to transform the Irish political landscape and finally end Civil War politics.
In the 1960s, Conor Cruise O’Brien noted that the party was dominated by poltroons, on the lines of O’Casey’s Uncle Payther. In the 1970s, John Healy called Labour the Mercs and Perks party, the mudguard of Fine Gael: principles were ignored for Ministerial privilege and pensions. A Labour tánaiste defected to Fine Gael! The position is now changed utterly. For the first time, Labour can choose to be a real party of the left. For the first time, Labour can lead a powerful coalition of the forces of the left – Labour, Sinn Féin, People Before Profit, and like-minded Independents in opposition to the tawdry Five-Point Plan. For the first time, Labour has a leader with real options: he can choose to lead the party of Connolly or a chlorotic version of the Lib Dems.
Coalition with Fine Gael would be the chlorotic option. “Le Cheile” was the party slogan in the election. The dearest wish of hard-core Fine Gael is to be as detached as possible from Labour.
Togetherness with Labour would be regarded as a necessary evil. Eamon Gilmore would really break the mould of Irish politics if he opted to lead a coalition of the left in opposition to Fine Gael. “Le Cheile” would have found it’s true meaning. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Am I alone in feeling outraged at the manner in which Sinn Féin’s candidates and supporters treated our national flag, each time a result in their favour was announced? It belongs to us all and should be shown respect. It is not a party symbol, at least not in this part of Ireland! – Yours, etc,
GERRY NOONAN,
Middle Third,
Killester,
Dublin 5.
A chara, – Did I hear Micheál Martin say that Sinn Féin’s economic policies were “ropey” during his post election interview? Whose economic policies caused this mess? Who lost the election as a result? – Is mise,
VINCENT WOOD,
Beach Avenue,
Salthill,
Galway.
Madam, – One wonders, how do we recycle the Green Party? – Yours, etc,
Madam, – The writing was on the wall for the Green Party since June 5th, 2009 when it lost 15 council seats in the local elections that year.
Now the party is gone from Dáil Éireann. Why? Traditionally the Greens have been divided along two old faultlines within the party. This split is defined as either the “realist” or “fundamentalist” position and was originally expressed within the German Green party in the 1980s and 1990s. In truth it’s a split between left and right. For the past five years the realists have been driving the party.
Yet in their party political broadcast for election 2011 they described themselves as being neither left or right but green. Unfortunately without any clear explanation as to what green politics is, the Irish electorate was left none the wiser.
In my view the Irish Green Party has become a party of the realist perspective, even centre right in its position. Voting for Nama wasn’t green, it was centre right. Even Dan Boyle, the party’s number one realist, admitted as much when he said that support for Nama was “difficult” for many Green supporters as it ran country to the party’s philosophical position.
If the Irish Green party wants to get back on the horse of politics then it urgently needs to examine its political direction. I have always believed the party should have aligned itself clearly with the left.
Unfortunately the realists within the party made the “easy decision” to support the centre- right politics of Fianna Fáil as opposed to building a clear and real political alternative on the left. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – I am viewing the results with an amount of dread. The greatest issue we are facing as a country is climate change. The problems around this, will in time, make our present difficulties seem like a Sunday picnic; yet we have eliminated the Green Party, the very people who would call it as it is, would come up with the policies to protect us and would prepare for this most uncertain future. We are now handing this issue to people who have had little or nothing to say about it throughout the whole election campaign.
We have punished Fianna Fáil but we have eliminated the Greens. Are we crazy? Or have we in the immortal words of Yeats, disgraced ourselves again. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Commenting on his defeat, Conor Lenihan said that the voters in his constituency overlooked all the work he had done on the ground – as they were focused only on the national issues. QED perhaps? – Yours, etc,
Madam, – It was refreshing to read of a new voice of leadership addressing his party’s supporters in the Burlington Hotel on Saturday (Home News, February 28th).
However, I got that familiar sinking feeling when I read Enda Kenny opine that the “chasm opened between people and government has to be re-built”. Surely this chasm has to be bridged or crossed, rather than re-built? Quite apart from the practical difficulties of re-building a chasm, wasn’t it an excess of building that got us here in the first place? – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Would it be fair to say the Fianna Fáil dynasts have been replaced by the likes of Joan Collins (PBP) and the “Ming” dynasty? – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Having spent the weekend watching the TV coverage of the drubbing Fianna Fáil received at the hands of the electorate, I must confess to having spent some time pondering on the way forward for the battered Soldiers of Destiny. Declarations of “renewing and rebuilding” the party from its few remaining TDs appear in stark contrast to their ageing profile. May I suggest a prayer to St Jude, patron of hopeless causes? – Yours, etc,
Madam, – As Ireland celebrates the election results, no doubt Fianna Fáil and the Green Party are likely to be echoing Dick Tuck’s famous post-election comment: “The people have spoken, the b*****ds.” – Yours, etc,
Madam, – The message of the election is: do not mess with Tara. Let the new government heed the warning. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Both Lou Gogan (February 21st) and Conor Faughnan seem to assume that political individuals pay attention to what is written on a spoiled vote. Yet, as far as I know, no elected politician or defeated candidate, no writer, historian or social scientist has ever done the painstaking work of selecting a representative sample and analysing it with a view to determining if these are indeed significant messages from disaffected citizens which ought to be attended to. Such a study might make interesting reading. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Seeing the undignified triumphalism of the elected politicians, I have to conclude they are showing their true colours: self-interest. With the chants of “Olé, Olé”, the parading around on their supporters’ shoulders and the speeches thanking their “team” for “making it all possible”, they’re carrying on like they’ve won an Oscar. Surely that sympathetic ear at the doorstep wasn’t all an act? – Yours, etc,
Madam, – There has been a lot of talk about the demise of Civil War politics in the wake of this election, but the reality is that this began quite a long time ago when Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael pitched equally hard for the floating conservative middle-class voter. As a result, 80 per cent of the electorate voted for what were essentially centre-right parties. The policy content was the same, only the name on the tin differed.
What is significant about this election is that 58 per cent of electorate voted for these parties while 42 per cent voted for centre-left and hard-left parties. Ironically this poses far greater strategic problems for the Labour Party than anyone else. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Éamon Ó Cuív mentioned on TV on Sunday that Fianna Fáil has a “good network round the company, sorry, country ...” Freudian slip, methinks! – Yours, etc,
Madam, – The 2011 general election has proven to be Ireland’s Shamrock revolution. It signals perhaps the first of the new shoots of the recovery which we await. – Yours, etc,
MICHAEL J McCANN,
Crodaun, Celbridge, Co Kildare.