GAVIN DOYLE,
Madam, - I would like to congratulate Kevin Myers for his excellent Diary (December 31st). I do so not only as one of the newer members of the political party he attacks in his article, but also as the leading Fine Gael candidate in the constituency of Dublin North East in the last general election.
Mr Myers has every right to ask "What in the name of Christ is Fine Gael? ... Does it stand for anything now?" I asked myself the very same question on December 18th last, when I left the Shelbourne Hotel disgusted by the antics of Derek Warfield and his "Sons of Erin" and by the fact that a Fine Gael TD thought that these apologists for bloody murder and mayhem would provide suitable "entertainment" for a Fine Gael Christmas party.
I joined Fine Gael in late 2001 because I felt that politics in Ireland had become corrupt, that the country was becoming dangerously introspective and that we were meekly waving the white flag in front of the onward march of militant republicans and their merry band of balladeers. I had believed that Fine Gael stood above all else for three core values - economic prudence, a pluralist pro-European outlook, and an unbending will to defend this State, its people, and its institutions from all who would seek to subvert or destroy it through force of arms.
Eighteen months later and I have seen Fine Gael attempt to "out-promise" Fianna Fail through the Eircom and taxi compensation proposals, I have seen us ignore the work of the Forum on Europe and leave it up to Garret FitzGerald - a man of 75 years - to be our most (some might say only) visible campaigner on Nice, and now we have the good old boys from the continuity Wolfe Tones serenading us with sectarian Glasgow Celtic chants and republican anthems that rewrite our history to praise the work of bombers, knee-cappers and widow makers.
There are some in Fine Gael who wish to "nationalise" the party. To give the blue shirts a strong hint of green in order to win votes from Fianna Fail and Sinn Fein. People will not respect that and rightly so. What they will respect is a Fine Gael party that will not pander to what is popular, that will offer an economically sound, progressive, outward-looking alternative, that does exactly what it says on the tin.
Mr Myers, you are not alone in your bewilderment. But there are new members in Fine Gael, young members who want to make this party relevant and unique again and are trying to do so. Principled men and women who, like you, do not want to sanitise terror or to forget the atrocities perpetrated in our name. They were not done in my name. I am a Fine Gael man. And to those who chant "Ooh-ah up the RA?" I say "No, nay, never.. No nay never, no more". Yours etc.,
GAVIN DOYLE, Belmont Square, Raheny, Dublin 9.