A chara, – That Fianna Fáil should be running scared of fighting an election in Northern Ireland, despite the overwhelming desire of its membership for it to do so, should be no surprise to anyone observing that party’s pitiful decline.
It ignored the membership’s majority ardfheis vote to oppose the abortion referendum; it abandoned the presidential race, for the second time, supporting a former Labour candidate while leaving Sinn Féin as the only political party represented in the contest; and it is now engaged in talks with the old enemy Fine Gael and scrambling to prevent or defer a general election, the idea of which clearly terrifies it.
Backbone, principle, competence and national interest are words that are impossible to associate with Fianna Fáil any more, with Eamon Ó Cuív and Mark Daly seemingly the only two representatives with any sense of what the party used to stand for and ought now to stand for.
Not so long ago, a former Fianna Fáil leader swaggeringly accused the then Fine Gael leader of being “neither qualified nor capable”.
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How the tables have turned. – Is mise,
DAVID CARROLL,
Dublin 2.