PDs died because of their association with FF

I THINK the impending demise of the PDs is to be welcomed.

Having largely come from within Fianna Fáil, and with their main agenda being the removal of Charles Haughey and the ethos which he represented within that party, there no longer seemed to be any particular reason for their continuation once Mr Haughey was removed from power.

It is difficult to judge the extent of their influence on Haughey’s fate, but they probably had some positive effect.

They might have reinvented themselves as a genuine right-of-centre party if they had kept their distance from FF and sought coalition elsewhere, but they were always likely to suffer by close association with the source of their genesis. Credibility was also lost by supinely backing Bertie Ahern during his antics at Dublin Castle.

Voters seem to have judged that a vote for the PDs was effectively a vote for FF and they have decided gradually to cut out the middlemen.

The PDs’ main attraction initially was that they were not FF and that they did “what it said on the tin”.

However, that has long ceased to be the case and they are paying a thoroughly deserved price.

David Roberts

‘Gloundine’

Castlegrove

Mallow

Co Cork