Madam, - Congratulations and thanks for "losing the rag" and expressing, in your Editorial, (June 26th), the incandescent rage which some of us out here are feeling.
But you do not go far enough towards the nub of the matter.
Firstly: the Taoiseach himself has never demonstrated that he understood the enormity of what happened with the Fianna Fáil leader's account under CJ Haughey.
Last autumn, (an accountant by profession and a former minister for finance), he explained to us how joint accounts work. In so many words, he told us that precisely because of the need for joint signatures, "his own" money was not available to him.
Uncomfortable for him but the correct procedure.
The monies in the leader's account, (also a "joint" account), came from ordinary party members' subs and legitimate donations, from public money voted by the Oireachtas - and the appeal to provide medical aid to the late Brian Lenihan snr. Only half of the money given for the latter objective was used for related purposes. The rest went into the general kitty - and, (unlike the case with Mr Ahern's personal accounts), the unsupervised and unaudited spending of that kitty by Mr Haughey was facilitated by the signature of large numbers of blank cheques by: Bertie Ahern.
However, to use Willie O'Dea's dispensation pronounced in relation to the Flynn matters, (and the Taoiseach's own excuse): "Everybody was doing it." Not out here in most small businesses, trusts, sports clubs, community-based initiatives and charitable funds in which most ordinary people try to operate by the rules.
Secondly: tens of thousands of decent people, (who know that there are "questions"), vote for Fianna Fáil. Possibly because they believe, (unlike Brian Cowen - who is without sin), that the party can be "cleaned up from within". Possibly because they fear the Celtic Tiger will collapse without Fianna Fáil in charge. A few warts and peccadilloes are a small price to pay.
The Greens ignored their own Ciarán Cuffe's warning and have locked themselves into a nightmare. But surely somewhere in Fianna Fáil there are one or two people who realise that Planet Bertie operates to a different value-system from the rest of us - and that the consequence must eventually be disaster.
Mr Ahern, (a lamb among wolves?), rose through the very competitive ranks of a less than wimpish Northside Fianna Fáil and was chief whip during that very robust Haughey era, (and so, to use his own phrase, had, by definition, "to know exactly where everybody was sleeping"). But, although he was a party trustee, he says "he did not know what was going on" with the leader's account.
As Bertie and Beverley perform their political prenuptial waltz, nobody with normal vision in Fianna Fáil can believe in June 2007 that their Imperial Party is fully clothed. But is there even one just man or woman who will say so? - Yours, etc,
MAURICE O'CONNELL,
Oakpark,
Tralee.
Madam, - Given the deal between Beverley Flynn and RTÉ, worthy of Berlusconi's Italy, I would be grateful if you would withhold my name and address as I intend never to pay my licence fee again. - Yours, etc
EOIN DILLON,
Ceannt Fort,
Mount Brown,
Dublin 8.
Madam, - CJH may be no more, but his spirit lives on in Beverley "je ne regrette rien" Flynn. Charlie would be proud of her skilful, cunning brass neck. - Yours, etc,
PATRICK O'BYRNE,
Shandon Crescent,
Phibsborough,
Dublin 7.
Madam, - If Beverley Flynn has to pay 50 per cent, NIB should pay 25 per cent and Bertie should have a whip-round for the remaining 25 per cent. - Yours, etc
KEVIN DEVITTE,
Westport,
Co Mayo.
Madam, - With regard to Beverley Flynn's rejoining of the Fianna Fáil fold and her possible ministerial future, the Minister for Defence, Willie O'Dea, declared on Monday night's Questions & Answers: "Every saint has a past and I like to think every sinner has a future." A canny observation which declared Ms Flynn neither saint nor sinner but perhaps spoke volumes about the means of progression to the front benches of Bertie's Kingdom. - Yours, etc,
DON McCARTHY,
Drimnagh,
Dublin 12.