Sir, – In reply to Jim Redmond's rhetorical question, "is this the same Labour Party" (Letters, January 30th), it's the same Labour Party that learned the truth of Eamon Gilmore's prediction that the price of entering government in 2011, allowing the formation of a government so as to drag the country out of its economic black hole, would be that its canvassers would wade through a sea of protests and placards at the next election.
It is also the same Labour, that alone among our parties, opposed and campaigned against the insertion into our Constitution of the Eighth Amendment, an issue around which other parties, including so-called radical Sinn Féin, nervously equivocated for decades afterwards. And yes, it is the party that raised and pursued the marriage equality agenda, their leader pressing for the issue to be included in the first Constitutional Convention, describing it as “the civil rights issue of this generation”.
It is the party that held to its commitment to make hard choices, when Sinn Féin did the fastest about-turn in political history on water charges, from the “responsible support” announced by Mary Lou McDonald and Gerry Adams to outright opposition within two weeks, “in solidarity with the people we represent” following the election of Paul Murphy on that single issue. Indeed, Fianna Fáil, who had planned the charges before leaving office, followed Sinn Féin on their handbrake turn.
The Labour Party can hold its head high, leading on progressive social policies and taking the flak that would inevitably come its way when it stepped up to the demands of harsh but unavoidable economic decisions to solve the problems caused by others. The inflated rhetoric and emotive, unchecked solo-runs by the self-styled radical left may boost the studio clapometer, but they depend on highly selective memories. I hope that media presenters will be more vigilant in the remaining days of the election campaign. – Yours, etc,
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PADDY McGOVERN,
Dublin 8.