Sir, – Fintan O’Toole’s article recycles the clichéd definition of stupidity as doing the same thing and expecting different results (”Irish voters keep doing the same things and expecting different results, Opinion & Analysis, December 2nd).
Perhaps a more apt description of the weekend’s results would be to borrow a phrase from the political satirist HL Mencken – democracy is where the people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard. – Yours, etc,
JAMES MULCAHY,
London.
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Sir, – Many commentators are saying that Ireland’s leftist candidates and parties erred by failing to make a pre-election pact.
Such analysis is disingenuous or simply daft. Irish politics is left of centre. So in any general election the electorate merely decides what degree of left takes power: slightly left or more full-on left?
And it’s the former that wins out, the pernicious, elite left, those who condescendingly tell us plebs how we should live our lives while they fatten themselves on the cream of the endeavours of others. – Yours, etc,
BRENDAN CORRIGAN,
Granada,
Colombia.
Sir, – Fintan O’Toole contends that Irish voters keep doing the same things, expecting different results. As your columnist points out, however, over 40 per cent of the electorate didn’t vote. So maybe it is a case of Irish non-voters doing the same thing and expecting different results. – Yours, etc,
JOHN GANNON,
Dublin 3.
Sir, – I’d like to challenge Fintan O’Toole’s assertion that “Irish voters keep doing the same things and expecting different results”.
When you look at events around the world and stare into the hellish abyss of Putin’s Russia bringing war to Europe, Netanyahu’s Israel bringing annihilation to the Palestinians, a snarling Trump returning to the White House to serve retribution on others, a weakened post-Brexit United Kingdom left in the wake of Boris Johnson and then, closer to home, the sight of burning and looting on the streets of Dublin fuelled by extremists, it should come as no great surprise that a significant proportion of the Irish electorate who voted have chosen the relative safety of the central political ground.
When the storm clouds are circling and threatening, we take shelter wherever we feel most comfortable and safe, we don’t stray far from home. At the end of the day, most of us want to live in peace and quiet. – Yours, etc,
PAUL OSBORNE,
Blackrock,
Co Dublin.
Sir, – Much will be written about the electorate punishing the Green Party, as the small party, for the perceived sins of the outgoing Government.
But less will be said about the extent to which Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael may have been punished by the electorate for going into government with the Green Party.
If Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael want to increase their vote share in the next election, what sense is there in going into government with one or two other parties who are just as ideologically driven as the Greens?
The Labour Party, the Social Democrats and the Green Party are as one on their desire to embed critical race theory and queer theory (in the form of gender ideology) in our laws and policies and to curtail the speech of anyone who dares to object.
Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael can decide to give us another five years of what we have just had, or they can actually deliver change. It’s in their hands. – Yours, etc,
E BOLGER,
Dublin 9.
Sir, – I understand, as a former reporter, the basic requirements of interviewing and the fact that sometimes, in searching for direct quotes, we must ask questions the answers to which we already know. Like Lieut Columbo, we feign naivety. There is a limit, however.
Repeatedly asking, as RTÉ presenters did all the day long on Sunday, whether or not freshly elected Fine Gael representatives would consider stepping out of Government (thereby losing out on Mercs, perks, increased pensions, etc) to spend time on the Opposition benches and to “regroup” is beyond naivety and is akin to asking a dog would it like a bone. Or, in its stead, a trip to the vet to be neutered.
It is simply not in the nature of Fine Gael, or any of the establishment parties for that matter, to let go of power. Or to repent, rethink, recalibrate, etc, as was suggested repeatedly.
It is in the nature of Fine Gael, and their partners, to rinse and repeat. To promise and to fail to deliver. To “try harder” and to not achieve lasting change. Sadly, it seems it is in the nature of the electorate to let them at it time and time again. – Yours, etc,
LORCAN ROCHE,
Dublin 6.
Sir, – As the election results are counted, one thing is quite clear. The percentage of people who didn’t vote is greater than the percentage of people who voted for any one party. A victory for “none of the above” perhaps? Worrying times indeed. – Yours, etc,
JOE McKEOWN,
Kilkenny.
Sir, – Observing the lifting of victorious general election candidates over the weekend, a few of those lifters should be pressed into service to remedy the line-out performance of the national rugby team. – Yours, etc,
DAVE O’SULLIVAN,
Athgarvan,
Co Kildare.
A chara, – In “The Irish Times view on the election result: the people vote out the opposition” (December 1st), your advice is for a junior coalition partner to be wary of entering into coalition as a mudguard to a Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael bloc. Might they improve their chances of re-election in 2029 if they offered to be the quick-release front wheel of the new government? – Is mise,
DERMOT O’ROURKE,
Lucan,
Co Dublin.
Sir, – For consecutive elections, it is now clear that around 60 per cent of voters do not have confidence in the government parties and yet Ministers from those parties will continue to govern.
While this can be explained by the vagaries of our electoral system, the parliamentary arithmetic and the myriad policies promoted by the opposition parties, it is hardly an ideal form of democracy.
As this scenario is unlikely to change anytime soon, all we can look forward to with certainty is the continued unpopularity of the government and the demise of the next political party or parties to take up the poisoned chalice of coalition. – Yours, etc,
MARTIN McDONALD,
Terenure,
Dublin 12.
Sir, – The Dáil seats achieved by various voting proportions are fascinating in how small numerical trends become large differences in outcomes. In 2011, following our economic collapse, Fianna Fail had a historically catastrophic general election, receiving a little over one in six first-preference votes (17.5 per cent). Now in 2024 they’ve had an astonishing success as just over one in five votes came their way (about 21.8 per cent). Seats delivered on these totals will jump from 20 to over double that. The difference between abject failure and triumph looks to be about one voter in 25. Well done to Micheál Martin for sticking to the task, and maximising the yield from this support base. – Yours, etc,
BRIAN O’BRIEN,
Kinsale,
Co Cork.
Sir, – Liam Geary proposes mandatory voting, or the imposition of substantial fines on those who elect not to vote (Letters, December 2nd). The decision of large swathes of the electorate not to vote needs to be understood before such draconian and undemocratic solutions are imposed. Given the obvious lack of a credible alternative to the Fianna Fáil/Fine Gael led option prior to the election, the decision of many not to vote is not necessarily unreasonable. Opting not to vote is also a democratic choice. – Yours, etc,
JOHN NAUGHTON
Leopardstown,
Dublin 18.
Sir, – Isn’t the fact that Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns was unable to vote for herself, having given birth on polling day, a call to examine postal voting in Ireland?
Permanent postal voting is the norm in England. Facilitating postal voting will boost turnout and facilitate democratic engagement. – Is mise,
KENNETH HARPER,
Burtonport,
Co Donegal.
Sir, – We are all familiar with the plea not to shoot the messenger. The Irish electorate was unmerciful when it came to the Greens and climate change. – Yours, etc,
PÁDRAIG KIERNAN,
Dublin 16.
Sir, – In May 2020, following the last general election in a letter published in the Irish Times I wrote: “The Greens should note that it was voters for change that got them over the threshold in the latest election. Propping up the two establishment parties in pursuit of a Green agenda at the expense of the social and economic reform that is required in this country will not only damage that agenda, to which most left-leaning voters subscribe, but consign the Greens to another electoral disaster when the next election comes around”. QED. – Yours, etc,
SEÁN LEAKE,
Dublin 6W.
Sir, – On Saturday morning, when euphorically celebrating the general election exit poll results, Sinn Féin appears to have had its “Gilmore for Taoiseach” moment. – Yours, etc,
BRIAN CULLEN,
Rathfarnham,
Dublin 16.
Sir, – All over bar the posturing. – Yours, etc,
MICHAEL GANNON,
Kilkenny.
Sir, – You know it’s a momentous occasion when Sunday Miscellany is bumped from the Radio 1 schedule. – Yours, etc,
DAVID M O’SHEA,
Dublin 6.
Sir, – With reference to Justine McCarthy’s article “Even Lazarus couldn’t have pulled off the Martin miracle” (Opinion & Analysis, December 1st), Micheál Martin has dragged his party, almost single-handed, from near-oblivion to obtaining the highest vote in this election.
Micheál Martin is a teacher.
Michael O’Leary, please note. – Yours, etc,
DESMOND SWAN,
Blackrock,
Co Dublin.
Sir, – Justine McCarthy writes: “Even Lazarus could not match the miracle Micheál Martin has pulled off by managing to drag himself out of the political grave and his entire party along with him.” Hardly surprising since Lazarus, famously, did not perform any miracle – he was the beneficiary of one performed by Jesus (John 11:43).
Unless Justine means to cast Fianna Fáil as Lazarus and Micheál Martin as Jesus? In which case her description of the man as “decent” must be to damn with faint praise! – Yours, etc,
ALAN EUSTACE,
Dublin 9.
Sir, – Looking at the footage from the various count centres, it looks like there must have been very little basketball played in the country this weekend. – Yours, etc,
DAVID HACKETT,
Ballina,
Co Mayo.