Madam, – Noel Whelan (Opinion, October 9th) takes pains to highlight Eamon Gilmore’s membership, in his student days, of the Official Sinn Féin party, which became Sinn Féin the Workers’ Party, which in turn became the Workers’ Party. If this is “not of itself a very significant issue”, as Mr Whelan avers, why then does he devote an entire opinion piece in the weekend edition of Ireland’s paper of record to the topic?
Attempts to taint by association the leader of the one political party which has benefited most from Fianna Fáil’s decline in the polls couldn’t have anything to do with the political allegiances Mr Whelan formed in his own student days, could they? As much as Fianna Fáil may lament the alleged loss of his activism “almost a decade” ago, I am sure that party nonetheless takes solace in the fact that it has partisan standard- bearers opining – or, rather, taking ad hominem potshots – in the pages of national newspapers on its behalf. – Yours, etc,