Madam, - The Fianna Fáil spin doctors and their fellow travellers are at it again. The late Sean Doherty is being eulogised and as a consequence recent historical facts are being grossly distorted with lies, half-truths and innuendo.
Congratulations to The Irish Times. Your Editorial and news feature article last Saturday introduced some balance into the reporting of the events of 1982 in which Sean Doherty was a major player. It is sickening to witness present-day Fianna Fáil efforts to elevate the memory of one late member and at the same time demean the memory of another,George Colley.
It is reported that Sean Doherty produced a transcript of a telephone conversation between you, Madam, and Colley which allegedly showed, inter alia, that Colley wished to bring down the government.
I was pleased to note that you put the record straight when you told your readers that there was no such conversation between yourself and Colley. You also stated that the High Court ordered the return to you and Bruce Arnold of all transcripts of conversations recorded on your telephone lines. You say that the so called Colley transcript was not returned to you.
I now challenge the Fianna Fáil spin doctors to produce this "missing" transcript. - Yours, etc,
PAUL MACKAY, Orwell Park, Dublin 6.
Madam, - It was with a sense of sadness and dismay that I read your Editorial on the late Sean Doherty last Saturday. It was as vicious a piece of revisionist history as I have read in a long time.
Nowhere was there a mention of Sean Doherty's tireless work, not just for the people of Roscommon but for the entire west of Ireland; nowhere was there a mention of his sterling work on the public accounts committee.
To use terms such as "venal" about the public representative elected and re-elected time and time again by the people of Roscommon, Longford and Leitrim was a slur on them and should be retracted with haste.
It was all the more extraordinary to read such an Editorial considering the colossal conflict of interest that you have when it comes to your dealings with the man.
You talk of threats to democracy but fail to see the threat that so many of us recognise - that the cabinet of the country, in trying to do its job of running the State at that time, was subjected to a continuous undermining of its work through leaks to, among others, your good self.
There used to be a saying in Ireland, "If you have nothing nice to say, say nothing"; perhaps if good judgment had been used you would have taken heed of that. - Is mise,
Cllr TIERNAN BRADY (Fianna Fail), Main Street, Bundoran, Co Donegal.