The race for the Áras

Sir – So Fintan O’Toole (Opinion Analysis, September 19th) has set the ne plus ultra for Sinn Féin at the presidency

Sir – So Fintan O’Toole (Opinion Analysis, September 19th) has set the ne plus ultra for Sinn Féin at the presidency. He must be pleased at the likely inclusion of Independent candidates on the ballot considering the dearth of Irish political parties that do not have their roots in political violence.

Acts such as the summary execution of opponents and the torture and killing of suspected civilian informers carried out by de Valera’s associates are temporally, but not morally, removed from more recent events across the Border.

Mr O’Toole’s piece is representative of the double standards and patronising attitude of those who nod approvingly at the normalisation of the political scene in Belfast but baulk when politicians such as Mr McGuinness seek elected office in Dublin. – Yours, etc,

PATRICK MAGUIRE,

Emmet Road,

Inchicore, Dublin 8.

Sir, – I welcome the entry of Martin McGuinness into a presidential race dominated by media goons and political shills. At the very least he provides a radical alternative to the predictable views of the Labour and Fine Gael candidates.

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Fintan O’Toole joins the predictable establishment assault on Mr McGuinness and certainly scores a point with his assertion about civilian casualties in the North. This may give pause to those who would point to War of Independence parallels and see McGuinness as a modern version of Michael Collins. But we must not forget the murky civil rights landscape in the North that was transformed following the activities of Mr McGuinness and the IRA and the subsequent peace process he did so much to facilitate.

He may not win the prize but I suspect he will make it a far more interesting contest. – Yours, etc,

JOHN P O’SULLIVAN,

Saval Park Crescent,

Dalkey,

Co Dublin.

Sir, – I have a simple question for Fintan O’Toole. When for years he urged Martin McGuinness and the IRA to renounce violence and pursue their objectives by political means, did he really mean it? – Yours, etc,

EUGENE McELDOWNEY,

Abbey Terrace,

Howth,

Co Dublin.

Sir, – It might be good economics putting Martin McGuinness into the Phoenix Park.With his talents, he could help out with the yearly cull of the deer population, thus saving money for taxpayers. – Yours, etc,

DEREK TYRRELL,

Cromwellsfort Road,

Walkinstown,

Dublin 12.

Sir, – Jim McCrohan’s pot shot at Martin McGuinness being Sinn Féin’s best shot is a cheap shot more suited to the Beano than The Irish Times (September 19th). This is not to suggest that Mr McGuinness should be treated differently from the other presidential candidates.

The credentials of each candidate should be open to scrutiny, questioning and probing, but not in such a facetious manner. – Yours, etc,

TOM COOPER,

Delaford Lawn,

Knocklyon,

Dublin 16.

Sir, – Now Dana is running for president? Dana? Again? Who is next? Trinity’s esteemed Prof Conan T Barbarian? Jedward? At this point, I might as well announce my own candidacy. And yours. And everyone else’s. Let’s all run for president, all 4,670,976 of us. –Yours, etc,

VAL NOLAN,

Pointe Boise,

Lower Salthill,

Galway City.

Sir, – Notwithstanding recent additions to the ever-growing list of presidential hopefuls I find myself, with one of two exceptions, uninspired with the current options. The words of Jean-Paul Sartre are ringing in my ears: “We are condemned to choose.” – Yours, etc,

GEOFF SCARGILL,

Loreto Grange,

Bray,

Co Wicklow.

Sir, – Instead of the traditional ceremonial role, Mr McGuinness could be given responsibility for dealing with Ireland’s debt problem. If we have learned anything over the past three years, it is that dealing with “bond market vigilantes” requires a man who knows a thing or two about vigilantes. – Yours, etc,

STEPHEN JOYCE,

Holycross,

Thurles,

Co Tipperary.

Sir, – I note Martin McGuinness has committed himself, if elected, to drawing only the average industrial wage and to donating the bulk of the presidential salary to the Irish people.

I trust the people of Northern Ireland are the beneficiaries of a similar arrangement in respect of his role as Deputy First Minister. – Yours, etc,

JOHN KANE,

Old Cratloe Road,

Limerick.

Sir, – Several weeks ago a correspondent to your letters page opined that it would be possible to “scour a pot” with the look on Éamon Ó Cuív’s face as he stood next to Micheál Martin in a photograph. In the light of subsequent machinations over the presidential race, I imagine you could strip the paint off Áras an Uachtaráin by now with Mr Ó Cuív’s face. – Yours, etc,

BRIAN AHERN,

Meadow Copse,

Clonsilla, Dublin 15.

Sir, – The BBC documentary on John Hume broadcast on Monday night illuminated the significant differences between the choices of Mr Hume and Mr McGuinness in the past. Courage, nobility and dedication to peace on the one hand versus a dark and shadowy pursuit of violence for decades on the other. The Provisional IRA operated at a time when all citizens, including nationalists, had the vote and there was an alternative non-violent approach possible, as Mr Hume clearly demonstrated.

In the final analysis, human beings are the sum of all our choices throughout our lives; we cannot fully erase the ones that no longer suit our agenda. To my mind, Mr McGuinness can be a TD, an MP or a Minister, but he should never hold the highest office in the land, because such a position deserves a higher standard of integrity and behaviour, and whether he likes it or not, one’s past does matter. – Yours, etc,

ANNA McCABE,

Beaumont Woods,

Dublin 9.

Sir, – In making her case against Martin McGuinness’s suitability for the presidency, Emer Colleran (September 20th) has chosen her past presidents with great care. Had she cast her mind back a little further than the 1990s, she would have had to acknowledge an uncomfortable truth: both Seán T O’Kelly and Éamon de Valera, with a combined tenancy in the Áras of no less than 28 years, were imprisoned in Britain and in Ireland for their involvement with sedition. Whatever one’s view of Mr McGuinness, to play the “prison card” is to yield to a very blinkered view of Irish history. Conflicts are more likely to be resolved, it seems to me, when we are mindful of our past but not chained to it. – Yours, etc,

CORMAC McMAHON,

Tweed Street,

Melbourne,

Australia.

Sir, – Just a thought regarding the upcoming presidential election and my idea for who should be president – John Hume.

Acceptable to all shades of political opinion throughout the whole of Ireland and regarded globally as a person of integrity, Mr Hume would be a wonderful embodiment of an Ireland that on the one hand respects political and historic diversity and on the other celebrates our uniqueness as being Irish from the whole island of Ireland. – Yours, etc,

WILLIAM MURPHY,

Merton Drive,

Ranelagh,

Dublin 6.

Sir, – Given the very close scrutiny that has been applied to the past behaviour of other presidential candidates, Mr Guinness’s campaign should surely be shortlived. Martyn Turner’s cartoon (September 20th) certainly highlights the fact that Mr McGuinness will hardly be caught out on anything as simple as being found to have written an ill-judged letter.

Senator Norris had to withdraw when his attempts to influence the judicial system of a foreign state came to light. Gay Mitchell has been quizzed on his letters seeking to influence the policy of US states regarding their implementation of the death penalty.

Do we need to be reminded that Mr McGuinness was an active member of an organisation that sought to influence the judiciary of our neighbouring foreign state in the most direct manner – by murdering magistrates as they walked to Mass and by blasting judges to death with high explosives? – Yours, etc,

PAUL CARROLL,

The Cloisters,

Clane,

Co Kildare.

Sir, – According to his official website, Finian McGrath TD withdrew his support from Senator Norris as “the protection of children and the integrity of the president’s office have got to come first”. Instead, he is now nominating Martin McGuinness, who was both a member of the IRA and a prominent apologist for an organisation which killed, maimed and orphaned children on this island. As for integrity of office, Mr McGuinness has robustly defended the “second home” expense claims of Sinn Féin abstentionist MPs.

Let’s hope the financial bankruptcy of the State is not compounded by the moral bankruptcy of the State with Mr McGuinness as president. – Yours, etc,

ALAN FINNERTY,

Susanville Road,

Dublin 3.