Sir, – I’m not on a working group with responsibility for commemorations of past military struggles, but if I were on such a group, I would think that a coalition government of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael would be a profound way to acknowledge where we’ve been and how far we’ve come. – Yours, etc,
ANGELA KEOGH,
Royal Oak,
Co Carlow.
Sir, – As Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael begin discussions on forming an historic coalition government, surely the negotiations will inevitably boil down to the real make-or-break point – whose portrait should hang above the fireplace in the Taoiseach’s office, Dev or Mick?
Both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have a far stronger moral claim to be the legitimate political heirs of the original Sinn Féin than do the modern pretenders to that party’s title, who have done much to besmirch its honourable legacy.
Might I suggest that the belatedly reconciled Civil War parties place a portrait of Sinn Féin founder Arthur Griffith above the fireplace, thus reclaiming the memory of the man Collins called “the father of us all”. – Yours, etc,
HENRY CRUISE,
Celbridge,
Co Kildare.
Sir, – Our 160 TDs should be locked into a room with tap water and plain sandwiches – and told they’ll be released when they form a government with a stable majority. Otherwise it won’t be long until Rockall is the only place in Europe free of Covid-19. – Yours, etc,
RONAN SCANLAN,
Leopardstown,
Dublin 18.
Sir, – There is something ironic in the fact that many of the people who bemoan Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael taking more than a month to form a government voted for Sinn Féin, a party that with its mirror image, the DUP, left Northern Ireland without a government for three years. – Yours, etc,
Cllr DERMOT LACEY,
(Labour),
Donnybrook,
Dublin 4.