Sir, – I am a lifelong member of the Democratic Party. Curiously, I have a few things in common with Meghan Kelly ("Why don't you Irish get Donald Trump?", Opinion & Analysis, June 16th). I am not only an American but an Irish citizen. I, like your guest columnist, am married to an Irishman, and lived in Ireland for over 20 years. I also have higher education and a great love for both countries. I too, am outraged, but for different reasons.
During his campaign, the putative head of the Republican Party has trashed the American judicial system, mocked and displayed disdain for women, Native Americans, Muslim Americans, Mexican Americans, the American free press, physically challenged Americans and the president of the United States. He has summarily dismissed the press credentials for the Washington Post because it dared to criticise him. He is a hot-headed, boorish, ignorant blowhard. He has shown no ability to lead in times of crisis, or form a coherent sentence, or engage in cogent thought process, let alone lead a nation to be "great again". On the contrary, he has incited paranoia, intolerance and hatred with his overblown rhetoric and made the United States the object of worldwide derision. Even the Republican Party has resisted full-throated endorsement of this despicable man.
My daughter, Kate Fitzgerald, who died five years ago in Dublin this August, would have been 30 years old this month. She was the head of the Democrats Abroad in Ireland, and worked very hard to elect a president who restored the reputation of America after it endured the disastrously misguided foreign and domestic policies of George W Bush and the Republican Party.
We now have a chance to rebuild that reputation and become greater than we ever were.
I am not in a position to answer Meghan Kelly as to why the Irish question her choice to be a Republican. But I do know what my daughter would ask – why on earth would you, and the leaders of your party, want such a narcissistic, uninformed, unqualified fascist to be commander in chief of the United States?
If America is to be, as Meghan Kelly intones, “a broker for freedom around the world”, should not the world, including Ireland, expect better than the current Republican nominee? – Yours, etc,
SALLY ANN FITZGERALD,
Sea Ranch,
California.