Madam, - I wish I could agree with Vincent Browne's assertion (Opinion, October 22nd) that the Progressive Democrat ideology has triumphed in this country. It would be wonderful to believe that the Irish people had decided their interests were best served by the reduction of the State.
One has first to presume, however, the existence of an ideology or ideologies to attest to a victory. One would have to believe that the PD philosophy was of the centre-right, informed by a very toned-down version of libertarianism. One would also have to believe that the Labour Party shared a similar relationship with socialism.
This would, of course, be as naïve as it is inaccurate - for there is no political ideology in Ireland. There has never been the opportunity for it to develop. We exist in an intellectual and spiritual desert caused by the suffocating conservatism of nationalism and Catholicism. Many people date our independence from 1921, when it would be more accurate to date it from the day Bishop Casey was found out.
As a consequence we have enjoyed only a very limited period of liberty. We have emerged from centuries of imposed ideas and circumstance to discover that our destinies are in the hands of small, petty, venal men who have been busy aggrandising themselves and their cronies at our expense. But worse, they are men of limited ability.
Thus the Irish electorate has the misfortune of having to decide at every election what constitutes the lesser evil. Do we choose those who will to get fat on and misspend a certain portion of our income - or those who will to get fat on and misspend a slightly lower portion of our income? Is it any wonder that the electorate opt for those who will allow us to keep more of our own money? It is only a perverted version of enlightened self-interest that keeps the present administration in power.
Eventually a generation of politicians untainted by religiosity and unsophisticated nationalism will appear, politicians not immersed in mediocrity and rank dishonesty.
And we will recognise them on their arrival, as they will be seeking to serve, not to lead. - Yours, etc.,
PAUL BOWLER, Charvey Court, Rathnew, Co Wicklow.