Sir, – Pat Rabbitte in his Irish Times interview (News Agenda, January 4th) accused the media of denigrating politics, being negative and said the media in Ireland was cranky. This is a typical tactic of politicians when they are losing public support. He seems to have forgotten that in a recent RTÉ interview, when it was pointed out to him that Labour had broken virtually all of its core pre-election promises, that his response was “that is what one does in elections”. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – Vincent Browne’s article (“Gilmore and Rabbitte built their careers on cynicism”, Opinion Analysis, January 9th) is itself a cynical exercise in political vilification.
It is amazing that in his entire column on Mr Rabbitte and Mr Gilmore, he does not find one redeeming touch.
However their entry into politics and regardless of the number of directions their careers took, they both have developed parliamentary skills of a high order. How many twists and turns did Vincent Browne’s journalistic career take in a lifetime?
“Men may rise on stepping stones of their dead selves to higher things”, as Tennyson said. – Yours, etc,