Madam, – The National Museum of American History, the Polish Poster Museum (a division of the Polish National Museum in Warsaw) and the Leopold Museum in Vienna (home of the famous Klimt collection) along with our own National Library are all currently showing collections of political posters. Rather than being merely “defacing” or “showing disregard for the environment” as many of your recent correspondents have complained,political posters form a part of our cultural heritage worthy of a place in such august institutions, albeit some being more so than others. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Marie Kelly (May 11th) complains that the Fine Gael posters contain neither Asian nor African people. According to the latest census figures the combined Irish population of Asians and Africans is about 2 per cent. In a representative crowd of, say, 20 people, there should be 18 Irish, one British and one Pole. Including non-white faces really would have been diversity for the sake of diversity. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – As I drove towards Dublin on the N11 on Monday morning I passed four heavy cardboard election posters flat on the road, presumably dislodged from their roadside perches by the gusting northerly wind. When I saw one airborne and heading my way I was not surprised and maintained my course. Luckily it struck the wing and not the windscreen of the car.
Later when I read Breda Gahan’s letter (May 11th) describing how she, while cycling, was almost decapitated in similar circumstances I considered myself fortunate that I was in a car and not on a bike as I often am.
The practice of placing these posters on the roadside is unsafe, unnecessary and wasteful of resources and should be discontinued. We, the public, should take this into consideration when casting our votes – more votes for candidates with no posters? – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Perhaps I might be so bold as to propose Specsavers’ next sponsorship deal to coincide with the upcoming elections? Studying the latest vintage of varied election campaign posters with my four-year-old daughter in an effort to see which of these notables we would choose to work for us for the next few years (her choice of verb, not mine), I found myself squinting painfully in an attempt to see which of the parties was represented by certain candidates.
Upon more detailed examination of the guilty posters, the shy, demure, reticent mothership of these apparent independents turned out to be none other than Fianna Fáil, which must have perplexed its graphic designers with the request to have the party name reduced to almost microscopic levels on the posters.
Is this minuscule font size the latest example of the downsizing of everything in our economy? Or could it be de-rigueur ink-saving, the result of spending several months in bed with those of a greener agenda? Or is it simply that I am mistaken and everything just seemed bigger and brighter during the boom years, now so sadly passed? Perhaps I need my eyes examined . . . Yours, etc,