Sinn Féin not wrong to oppose austerity option, Mr Cooper

I’ve followed and read the works of your columnist Matt Cooper for years, through newspaper articles and books, and have done so for nearly as long as I have participated in the development and growth of the Sinn Féin party.

I am currently reading one of Mr Cooper’s books on the events which led to our current economic crisis — a very good, informative and worthy read.

Mr Cooper is a prolific writer, but suffers from an obvious black spot when he comes to the subject of Sinn Féin.

He has written about this party for decades, as it developed and evolved north and south — always in a negative way.

Last year he wrote and told people not to vote for the Sinn Féin presidential candidate and based his argument around reasons that had little to do with the present or future, but the past.

Now he writes in the Irish Examiner again (Opinion, Mar 2) while musing over Sinn Féin’s rise in the polls and dismissing its position around the current EU fiscal treaty as opportunist and says it should know better from its experiences in the North not to hold absolutist positions.

Does Matt Cooper therefore believe that Sinn Féin should perhaps not offer a leadership position in opposition — and that they should dither like Fianna Fáil, not sure if it’s in government or opposition?

Does Mr Cooper, as someone who has written extensively on the policies that led to this crisis both at home and in Europe, feel that Sinn Féin is wrong to oppose austerity as being the only game in town?

Would he not agree that people expect leaders to lead — or does he feel that aspiration should apply to every other party but Sinn Féin?

Kieran McCarthy

Rushbrooke

Cobh

Co Cork