Madam, – After what must go down in history as the most callous campaign of personal vilification against our Taoiseach Brian Cowen, I, as a rank and file member appeal to all Fianna Fáil’s membership to close ranks, to bury our animosities with the bones of our ancestors and encompass our Fianna Fáil heritage.
Let us co-ordinate and stimulate ourselves and to reach for new dimensions and horizons in national and social outlook. Let us show one and other to be brave and mature enough to rid ourselves of internal divisions, to maintain our basic objectives intact.
And, let the members of the parliamentary party show us in the rearguard of the party that they can take their courage in their hands and move forward with a combination of tolerance and magnanimity, to ensure the future of this great organisation which is Fianna Fáil.
It is with such an outlook that the country awaits, and it is beholden to us to show by example a spirit of comradeship which can subjugate all our differences – indeed it is with such a spirit that wins even in the teeth of the most dreadful setbacks. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Let me assuage Niall Ginty’s concerns (January 25th), regarding Micheál Martin’s lack of experience and lack of economic expertise. Since Mr Martin, nor indeed his leadership rival, Mr Lenihan, will be members of the next government, he has nothing to worry about! – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Come Thursday Micheál Martin will pick up the now poisoned chalice of the Fianna Fáil leadership and make the usual tired clichés about a new beginning. We know that his nominator and seconder come from “big Fianna Fáil families” so you can see little has changed in the cosy world of Fianna Fáil cronyism
What Mr Martin and the rest of his supporters and party would conveniently like us all to forget is that he, like Ms Hanafin, Ms Lenihan and Mr Ó Cuív, the other three horseman of this country’s apocalypse, has on his hands through the convention of collective responsibility the stains of the loss of thousands of jobs, thousands of futures, hundreds of home repossessions, the closure of thousands of businesses and the terrible financial plight faced by the citizens of this State. He would now stand before them without any hint of irony and entreat them to trust him and his failed party again.
This country may have lost its sovereignty to the IMF/ECB, but the citizens still have sovereignty over their vote. This should be used in the forthcoming general election to sweep the old guard from office and in particular to take away the seat of the newly elected Fianna Fáil leader who is a pretender in every sense of the word. – Yours, etc,