A Chara, - Enda Kenny really needs a sharp dose of reality if he is properly to analyse and emerge from his recent election loss. His attack at the MacGill Summer School on the Fianna Fáil campaign as being "dishonest" and based on "fear and scaremongering" is outrageous, coming from a party whose core message to the media in the closing weeks of the election was to stir up the fear that Fianna Fáil was pursuing a coalition with Sinn Féin ( The Irish Times, July 16th). This blatant lie was trotted out daily as if it were fact, in a frantic final effort to scare off "soft" Fianna Fáil voters.
That Bertie Ahern had that option but chose to keep his word and have no dealings with Sinn Féin, while senior Fine Gaelers instead approached the Shinners in a desperate attempt to cobble together a majority, spoke volumes about the integrity of the two sides.
Moreover, Mr Kenny's subsequent disparaging comments about the "instability" of the "dolly mixture Government", which happens to have a 13-seat majority, is at best illustrative of the political expediency, never mind the utter inconsistency, of a leader who was quite happy to have FF's current two government partners, along with a couple of parties from his own side (and then some), if it put him in the Taoiseach's office by a bare majority of just one.
A poll last weekend showed that of those people who waited until the end of the campaign to make up their minds, 48 per cent chose Fianna Fáil against 18 per cent who opted for FG, a margin of nearly three to one.
The leader who spearheaded this stunning rejection was then rewarded by his party with unanimous re-election and Mr Kenny's speech in Glenties would suggest the selfdelusion may be chronic. Brian Cowen must hardly believe his good luck. - Is mise,
DAVID CARROLL,
Castle Gate,
Dublin 2.
A Chara, - Enda Kenny has committed himself to "fulfilling the mandate" given to him by 600,000 voters in the recent election.
While nobody should dismiss the value of the choice those voters made, the reality is that all that those votes won for Mr Kenny was the race to lead the opposition.
However, since polling day the Fine Gael leader has sought to claim victory, pointing to the gains made by his party. He seems to have forgotten that these gains still didn't claw back all of the seats Fine Gael lost in its 2002 meltdown.
Still, losing your sixth election in a row and getting the same share of the vote as in 1987 (when 27 per cent was considered so bad it contributed to the resignation of Garret FitzGerald as party leader) seems to represent success in Mr Kenny's eyes. If so, I'm sure Fianna Fáil is looking forward to much more Fine Gael success next time around. - Is mise,
DECLAN HARMON,
Whitethorn Crescent,
Palmerstown,
Dublin 20.