TOMMY MORRIS,
Sir, - John Bruton's assertions that Fine Gael's problems stem from its last change of leadership, which he has repeated on two radio programmes and two TV programmes, do not , in my opinion, reflect the truth.
The facts are that the "loss of nerve" started on his watch and he did nothing about it, so he had to be removed.
If John had applied himself to the party then the way he is trying to now, perhaps - and only perhaps - we would not find ourselves in the mess we are in today. It was he and he alone who brought Fine Gael to its knees.
To say that the party has "lost its backbone" in the last two years is misleading. The polls and the problems that those polls reflected started after the 1992 election when he paraded into the Shelbourne Hotel to form a government and expected the Labour Party to jump to his call.
At that time he surrounded himself with "his team" and sat in his bunker and refused to listen to the core membership. Now, like St Paul, he is suddenly converted.
If he wants to know what went wrong in this election, he should take his own advice and listen to the "grass roots". We need somebody new, fresh, exciting, with energy, ethos and ability - above all, somebody who will listen.
Mr Bruton is and was out of tune, singing the wrong tune, and demanding to be heard. The voters have spoken and Micheal Ring is correct: there are too many deaf people in the upper circle of our party.
But Mr Bruton is correct on one point: there is more fight left in the party.What we need is a good manager. - Yours, etc.,
TOMMY MORRIS,
Former Fine Gael
Special Adviser,
Leixlip,
Co Kildare.
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A chara, - I am dismayed by John Bruton's tantrum in his article "Dancing on FG's grave a miscalculated step" (Opinion, May 21st). It further validates for me the conservative tones and idea-less culture which that party's leadership has constantly espoused.
Mr Bruton, please desist in being so upper-class and narrow-minded with your puerile and provincial attitudes to an opinion writer's views.
This bull-in-a-china-shop-behaviour will not attract young, fresh, intellectual blood to the party. - Yours, etc.,
JIM LYONS,
Beeston,
Nottingham,
England.
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Sir, - I wish the Bruton brothers would stop moaning. As someone who worked long and hard for Fine Gael during the 1980s, I believe the rot set in when Alan Dukes was removed as leader after only three years.
Subsequently, John Bruton (who had the honour of being Taoiseach) was afforded a decade to improve the party's fortunes - longer than the (hugely successful) term of Garret FitzGerald! - Yours, etc.,
OLIVER McGRANE,
Marley Avenue,
Rathfarnham,
Dublin 16.
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Sir, - As a Fine Gael voter since casting my first vote many years ago, I am saddened by the disastrous result for the party.
The "feel-good" factor played a big part in the success of the outgoing coalition. It also helped the smaller parties and the independents to notch up gains at the expense of Fine Gael and Labour. Gun-running, intimidation, bank raids, sleaze and corruption were not a concern for most of the electorate, because such anti-social activities did not impinge directly on them.
And sure, isn't it all behind us now as we gallop towards the new dawn? Lest anyone believe I am envious of Fianna Fáil's success, I shall look forward with schadenfreude, watching how the new Government reacts to the storm clouds gathering on the economic front. They cannot then blame the Opposition for a mess of their own making. The people who put them in will be the first to savage them when the honeymoon is over, and it won't take five years.
Mao Tse-Tung promised the Chinese peasants a chicken in every pot. Fianna Fáil has promised not only a chicken but a leaking pot to go with it. And chickens have that habit of coming home to roost! - Yours, etc.,
BRENDAN M. REDMOND,
Hazelbook Road,
Terenure,
Dublin 6W.
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Sir, - In my column of yesterday, May 22nd, I was wrong in stating that Fine Gael had lost 5.4 per cent of its vote since 1997. The drop in the Fine Gael vote was, in fact, 16.5 per cent, from 499,936 to 417,653 votes. Contrary to what I wrote, the drop in the Fine Gael vote was larger than the drop in the "new" Labour (Labour-Democratic Left), vote which was 13.3 per cent.
I thank those who e-mailed me to draw this error to my attention and I apologise for it.
This error does not detract from my point that the election outcome also represented a significant failure for the Labour Party. And one further point about Labour, which I should have mentioned, is that the party failed to have a single new TD elected to the Dáil. - Yours, etc.,
VINCENT BROWNE,
Dalkey,
Co Dublin.
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Sir, - As well as being the launching pad for Daniel O'Connell to Westminster and two presidents to the Arus, Clare also sent Thomas Burke, the only candidate in an Irish General election to describe himself as a bonesetter, and a South African psychiatrist called Moosajee Bhamjee to Dáil Éireann.
That constituency has once again baffled the pundits by putting an unknown Independent called Breen at the top of the poll. I am really baffled that this poll-topper did not even get a mention in your constituency notebook. - Yours, etc.,
FINBARR SLATTERY,
Orchard Close,
Killarney,
Co Kerry.
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Sir, - I wonder if anyone else objected to the way Sinn Féin threw our national flag around each time they won a seat in the recent election.
Surely the flag of our country deserves more respect. - Yours, etc.,
Mrs VIVIENNE FLINN,
Erskine Avenue,
Greystones,
Co Wicklow.
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Sir, - On the eve of the election we received automated phone calls from Fianna Fáil's Sean Ardagh, urging us to give our number one to him. We wish to express our deep concern, distress and disgust at this invasion of our privacy. Our phone numbers are unlisted and always have been.
We have a number of queries which we feel must be answered:
1. How can any local politician gain access to our unlisted numbers?
2. Have Eircom customers no rights regarding unlisted numbers?
3. Who paid for the calls?
4. Are invasion of privacy laws suspended during a general election?
We believe Fianna Fail, Sean Ardagh and Eircom must answer these questions to our satisfaction. These calls came late in the evening and caused considerable distress to people living alone. - Yours, etc.,
BETTY MURPHY,
HETTY MOORE,
TONY DENNAN,
SIOBHAIN KENNEDY,
Orchard Community Centre,
Cherry Orchard Grove,
Dublin 10.
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Sir, - Following so many unexpected results in the general election, one feels that had electronic voting been used nationally it would have come under such suspicion that there would by now be a campaign never to use it again. - Yours, etc.,
JOHN LEAMY,
Bunnanadden,
Co Sligo.
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Sir, - Now that Civil War politics is dead, can we have a little more civility in the Dáil? - Yours, etc.,
JOHN O'BYRNE,
Mount Argus Court,
Harold's Cross,
Dublin 6W.