Sir, – Kathy Sheridan ("Society is rigged to reflect the perspective of men", Opinion & Analysis, November 11th), writes, "Look at the current Fianna Fáil line-up. Not a single TD from the majority gender".
Fianna Fáil had the same proportion (15 per cent) of female candidates in the 2011 general election as Fine Gael. The voters chose to elect 11 of the 16 female Fine Gael candidates, but none of the 11 female Fianna Fáil candidates. Fianna Fáil might be faulted for many things, but surely it cannot be faulted on an outcome beyond its effective control.
She writes that “the rage at some selection conventions has been barely contained, as the parties on occasion chose to nominate women who hadn’t won the room”. Such rage is not because women have been added to tickets already selected at convention, it’s because these candidates have been imposed on particular constituencies by preventing male candidates from going before convention and depriving ordinary party members of their right to select at least one candidate of their choosing. And it should be noted that this fundamentally undemocratic practice is not unique to Fianna Fáil; other parties indulge in it too, albeit with less media attention.
That’s why I as an ordinary member of Fianna Fáil support Brian Mohan. He didn’t even get the chance to try and win the room.
That’s not right and that’s not fair. – Yours, etc,
DJ MOORE,
Naas,
Co Kildare.