Views on Fianna Fáil election result ‘mistaken’

Writing from Qatar, Billy McEllligott (Letters, Mar 14) appears to be out of touch with events on the ground in Ireland, particularly in relation to the public mood of the electorate and who they wish to be governed by.

Mr McElligott mistakenly believes that the Fianna Fáil party had a mere bad day at the office at the last election and now all it has to do is sit back and wait for Fine Gael and Labour to continue to make mistakes before its fortunes will be reversed again.

He bases this analysis on the supposition that the Irish electorate are a conservative lot and won’t stray too far from supporting right of centre parties.

He then follows this up by suggesting it is illusory to expect people to turn to Sinn Féin as an alternative, for it would be a sensation for that party to get more than 20% support at the next election.

Does Mr McElligott really believe the situation that Ireland is currently facing is that simple and straight-forward?

Can he not see that we, as a people, just like Fianna Fáil, are in a place that we never were before — and that not only was it Fianna Fáil that brought us here and sold off our sovereignty, but that we now have two other centre-right parties carrying on with its policies of austerity, thereby squeezing the last remnants of conservatism out of us.

I would suggest that Mr McElligott would not count his Fianna Fáil chickens before they are hatched and instead check the public mood before the next election. In short — he should be prepared to be sensationalised.

Kieran McCarthy

Rushbrooke

Cobh

Co Cork