Election letter: Don’t tell me that Fianna Fáil has a deep respect for the individual

“Fianna Fáil...... has a core ideology and credo which has guided the party since its foundation, which includes a deep respect for the individual, a commitment to community responsibility and ...the party exists to make contributions for the advancement and welfare of all the Irish people” (Letters, February 23).

Surely Michael Shields is winding us all up as he sets about his party political ‘typecast’ on behalf of ‘Finished & Failed’, his birthright political party of choice, it seems. Perhaps he’s in training for an audition with some satirical slot such as Callan’s Kicks?

We should be concerned, that anyone could be so in thrall to the fallacies and fabrications of any party, of whatever persuasion. Considering the decades of Mr. Shields anointed’ party-of-choice and the brazen self-serving power dynamics, economic terrorism and reckless arrogance it espoused and enacted, one wonders where “the deep respect for the individual, commitment to community responsibility...[and].. advancement and welfare of all the Irish people” all evaporated to? Suspension of reality is certainly a pre- requisite for sustaining party allegiance. Mr. Shields swallows such stodgy suspension in tablespoonfuls...nay, spades.