Madam, - Some of your readers feel the results of the recent Northern elections have been disappointing. Jim O'Leary (December 2nd) goes further, saying the management of the Good Friday Agreement by the present Government has been mistaken.
It appears that other readers are sulking at the results, and in a patronising tone they almost admonish those silly people in Northern Ireland for not having voted for that nice Mr Durkan, or the acceptable Mr Trimble.
But elections are all about democracy, and when the people have voted you accept their verdict and work with it.
There are far too many people in Ireland who cannot seem to accept the outcome of these elections. However, I think they will soon be deemed to be the most positive results we have witnessed in the North.
I suggest that within six months we will have a First Minister from the DUP sitting alongside a Deputy First Minister from Sinn Féin. The Belfast City Council offers a template for this scenario.
Meanwhile the happy citizens of this part of the island can concentrate again on the tribunals investigating our own brand of disgraced elected representatives. Now that is something worth getting upset about. - Yours, etc.,
PAUL BROPHY, Asgard Park, Howth, Co Dublin.
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A chara, - Having failed (along with their colleagues in Fianna Fáil, the PDs and Labour) to prevent the rise of Sinn Féin in the Six Counties, it seems that Fine Gael representatives are becoming more desperate than ever.
John Bruton has again urged people not to vote for Sinn Féin. Now candidate Jim O'Leary obviously believes that bashing Sinn Féin will serve him where it failed many of his fellow Fine Gael members in the general election.
The politics that Fine Gael represents are being dismissed by an increasing number of voters. The policies of Sinn Féin are being endorsed at an unprecedented level by the electorate on both sides of the Border.
Do these "democrats" not believe it is the opinion of the electorate that matters? - Is mise,
Cllr MATT CARTHY, Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan.