Sir, - According to Fianna Fail spokespersons, the Taoiseach included, the reason the party lost the by-election in Cork South Central was because its candidate, Ms Sinead Behan, was "ambushed" with a 60-second quiz by RTE.
Oh, really? Nothing to do with the fact that yet another financial scandal has broken over the head of a disinterested Fianna Fail Minister for Finance? Nothing to do with Fianna Fail's friends in the construction industry flouting safety laws on building sites and cheating young couples out of homes they thought had been secured with booking deposits?
Nothing to do with patients dying on ever-lengthening hospital waiting lists? Nothing to do with dilapidated schools? Nothing to do with the growing perception that under a Fianna Fail administration the Garda Siochana has become a state within a state, where the rule of the law does not apply?
As ever, Fianna Fail insults the intelligence of the people. - Yours, etc., Eddie Naughton,
Weavers Street, The Coombe, Dublin 8.