Sir, – John Power wonders why liberals question why Senator Rónán Mullen "could have significant support among the public" ("How can 'people like us' vote for Ronan Mullen?", Opinion & Analysis, April 28th).
The analysis, while superficially plausible, does not survive strict scrutiny. The last time Rónán Mullen ran before a general electorate, in the European Parliament in the Midlands North West constituency, he secured only 5.62 per cent of the vote.
That a closed and elite electorate, where the liberal vote was split between a plethora of relatively unknown candidates, would favour someone with an established brand, and a ground game where he was able to send canvassers to my door, should not be surprising.
I oppose Mr Mullen and his policies, which included a mean-spirited filibuster attempt of civil partnership legislation. I do not, however, make the mistake of calling his views unsophisticated. His side exerts a very high degree of control over our health and education spheres and helps maintain a criminalisation of reproductive healthcare that is, in substance if not in form, Victorian. Let us not pretend that the conservative agenda does not continue to exert considerable control over Irish society or that critics of this status quo are automatically a braying liberal mob. – Yours, etc,
BRIAN DINEEN,
Clontarf, Dublin 3.
Sir, – John Power writes about “disbelief, no doubt exacerbated by the echo chamber tendencies of social media, that Mullen could have significant support among the public”.
With all due respect, Mr Mullen’s receiving a fifth of the votes in a Seanad Éireann election from a group of voters that amount to a tiny fraction of the population is hardly evidence that he has “significant support among the public”, especially bearing in mind he appears to have been the only known socially conservative candidate on the paper.
Yes, it is probably true that many people of a diverse range of backgrounds hold similar views to Mr Mullen on a large number of issues. However, to say that Mr Mullen himself commands “significant support” outside a pocket borough is unfounded.
Both the “smug outraged” lefties and John Power’s cohort would do well to remember that. – Yours, etc,
EÓGAN HICKEY,
Cork.