A chara, - In his letter of July 31st, A Leavy correctly notes that I wrote a recent letter to your newspaper regarding Fine Gael's electoral performance. He takes umbrage at my correspondence, in particular my pointing out that Fine Gael had now lost six general elections in a row.
I am accused of "taunting the losers" of the recent poll and undermining the "credibility of the opposition leaders".
At the same time Mr Leavy makes points about the state of democracy and grumbles that, as he sees it, "one political party is continuously in power". Is it not the essence of democracy that I should be able to make the factually correct statement that I did, even if Mr Leavy finds those facts unfortunate? Also, I do not quite understand his worry that Fianna Fáil's democratic election to government on the past six occasions somehow represents a "conversion . . . into a one-party State". Surely Fianna Fáil's political longevity shows that our democracy is in good shape.
Furthermore, it also shows that, not only are the Irish people satisfied with their Government, they remain totally unconvinced about the credibility of the Opposition. Pointing that out is not taunting; it's just clear fact borne out by successive election results. - Is mise,
DECLAN HARMON, Whitethorn Crescent, Palmerstown, Dublin 20.