Sir, – Labour announced on Monday that its parliamentary party had agreed to a voting transfer pact with Fine Gael. Many will agree that this is a sensible arrangement for both parties, having regard to the fragmented political landscape in Ireland at present and the need for a continuation of stable government.
However, within a matter of hours of this announcement Ruairí Quinn TD launched what has been described in the media as "a rallying cry" to Labour colleagues at a meeting in Wicklow in which he claimed that his party had defeated, amongst others, "the Fine Gaelers and the Free Staters"!
Many might think that Mr Quinn’s somewhat pejorative reference to Labour’s coalition partners is a rather peculiar way of cementing the pact! Kinder souls would probably dismiss his (throwaway) remarks as the product of wounded feelings in a man who served his country with honour only to have to endure his own party’s decline in its political fortunes. – Yours, etc,
JOHN V O’DWYER,
Blessington,
Co Wicklow.