Sir, – I wish to congratulate Gay Byrne on his decision not to stand as a candidate for the office of president of Ireland. It must have been a hard decision for him to make, as this high office brings with it great prestige. Mr Byrne correctly considered himself unsuitable and unqualified to hold the highest public office in the land. Micheál Martin, leader of Fianna Fáil, however, did not show the same respect for this office when he asked Mr Byrne to stand as an independent Fianna Fáil candidate.
He chose Mr Byrne because he would be a vote-catcher and if he won he would somehow return Fianna Fáil and Mr Martin to popularity with both the Irish press and voter. Mr Martin has completely undermined this high office and has treated it and the Irish public with utter contempt and I think that he should, like Mr Byrne, consider himself unsuitable to hold the office and position he does, and resign as leader of Fianna Fáil. – Yours, etc,
A chara, – After a brief moment of feverish speculation it is with regret that I intend to withdraw from the race for the Áras. My copy of Bunreacht na hÉireannis inconclusive on this process, however, as per current practice of other Independents, such as Mr Byrne, could you kindly inform Micheál Martin of this development? – Is mise,
Sir, – May I express may deep disappointment at Gaybo’s Late Late No-Show? – Yours, etc,
Sir, – Forgive me if this is a stupid question, but why is there such an interest in the political views of potential presidential candidates when they are constitutionally prohibited from making any political comments when elected?
What we need, surely, is someone who can deliver a speech without anyone nodding off, be reasonably telegenic, and most importantly speak a few foreign languages for those all important trade delegations? Remember how thrilled we were when Queen Elizabeth trotted out the cupla focal in Dublin Castle? Someone with a smattering of Chinese would be good for starters. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – Following David Norris’s withdrawal from the presidential election, your Letters page has detailed some disappointment about the loss of such a colourful orator from the campaign, a mature candidate whose background shows how much Ireland has moved on in the past 30 years. So, as a possible replacement, how about Ian Paisley? If successful, his first act could be to offer David Cameron the use of Irish troops to help police the streets of Britain, keeping them safe from rioters. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – When cutbacks have to be made in the domestic household, luxuries must be sacrificed first.
Applied to the Irish State, the office of presidency should be abolished. It has no legislative or administrative functions.
The alternative cost of the continuation of such a decorative office is the elimination of emergency health services in several locations.
Here in Youghal we stand to lose our emergency ambulance service from September 1st despite three large angry protests in the past two weeks.
Our leaders need to listen to what ordinary people consider are priorities, before the riots begin. It may be too late afterwards. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – Gay Byrne’s decision not to run for the presidency will, hopefully, dissuade other celebrity broadcasters from throwing their hats into the ring.
It may also teach them a useful lesson, though I’m not holding my breath: it is so much easier to play the role of the scrutineer than that of the scrutinised.
I’m convinced that the Byrne election balloon burst dramatically last Friday when pierced by the arrow that was Martyn Turner’s brilliant lampoon.
Thank you, Mr Turner, keep up the good work. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – The forthcoming presidential election looks like an exercise in mediocrity.
The emergence of a 77-year-old semi-retired broadcaster – for all his popularity in that genre – as a leading candidate even before he declared whether he was running, should make us all shake our heads and wonder about the future of this republic.
To date the list of hopefuls and would-be candidates is less than inspiring and brings to mind those long queues that used to attend auditions for Big Brother.
We, the people, are said to be sick to death of politicians. We have every reason to be. They have proved conclusively their complete inability to run a sweet shop, never mind a country.
All the more reason that we must hope there is somebody out there who can bring some honour and developed diplomatic skills to being our first citizen. To follow our last two presidents is going to be hard, but we need their sort of expertise more than ever now. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – The papers and the radio/TV stations have been full of coverage in support of a celebrity journalist becoming a celebrity politician and thereby becoming president. These are the same media outlets, and in most cases the same journalists, who cheer-led our former celebrity politicians who bankrupted the country. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – It’s official, Gay Byrne has more commonsense, and smarts, than the entire current leadership of the Fianna Fáil party. Well done Gay for deciding to stay pure – can we now go back to calling you Gaybo again? – Yours, etc,