Sir, - Both Dick Walsh and Garret FitzGerald (Opinion, February 3rd) perpetuate the myth that the Labour Party was punished by the electorate in 1997 for having gone into Government with Fianna Fail in 1992.
There is absolutely no evidence for this claim. Indeed, one might as well argue that the Labour Party was punished for going into the Rainbow Coalition in 1994.
No, the real reason the electorate turned against the Labour Party was the arrogance of its leader, the nepotism of its ministers and the holier-than-thou pontificating of its members towards their partners in government and the public in general. - Yours, etc.,
M. Magill, Howth, Co Dublin.