Sir, – Fintan O’Toole makes some interesting points in his analysis of the Fianna Fáil vote collapse in Dublin Central and the state of the party overall given it’s ageing support going forward (“A party that cannot get a tenth of the vote in Dublin or Galway retains power. This is dangerous”, May 26th). It does indeed bode ill for both Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin that their vote shrunk; if that result was replicated at a general election, it would have huge implications for winning seats.
However, I would argue that for all the hullabaloo concerning the Social Democrats’ win in Dublin Central, when it comes to a general election they will be chasing the same middle class votes as all other parties (bar the anti-immigrant fringe).
It appears that we are heading for increasingly fragmented politics and unstable coalitions unless Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil bury the Civil War hatchet and merge. – Yours, etc,
MICHAEL FLYNN
RM Block
Bayside,
Dublin 13.
Sir, – I was rather taken aback by Fintan O’Toole’s article in which he says a party that cannot get a 10th of the vote in Dublin or Galway retains power. “This is dangerous,” he says. It’s called democracy, Fintan. – Yours, etc,
DR PADRAIG McGARTY
Mohill,
Co Leitrim.
