Madam, - What has been most disappointing about reaction to the recent poll is the tendency of the media to attribute the findings to the combination of a weak Opposition and a hardened, cynical electorate. Your own Editorial last Friday was to the forefront with this line and I suppose we should be grateful that Fintan O'Toole is far away in China.
I have yet to read a single article, or hear a single piece on the air, which considers the possibility that the media were wrong in whipping up this storm in a teacup, wrong in trying to equate the payments involved with the corruption of the Haughey years, and wrong in undermining the Government when important matters were coming to a head in Northern Ireland.
Personally, Madam, I think the electorate has shown great patience and no little sophistication in this matter and your attempts to berate it do you no credit. - Yours, etc,
NATHANIEL HEALY, Newcastle, Co Wicklow.
Madam, - I just want to say I appreciated your Editorial last Friday about the Irish Times/TNSmrbi poll. Without doubt a poor reflection of ourselves. What sort of people are we, indeed? One step away from mob rule. We keep congratulating ourselves about how far we've come but after this poll it seems we have still a lot to learn.
When I think of the fiascos for which this Government is responsible - the state of the the health service, the West Link, the sale of Eircom, etc - and the corruption of Fianna Fáil exemplified in the former leader Charles Haughey, I'm flabbergasted that they are still popular. - Yours, etc,
LEO MORAN, Dunmore Avenue Road, Dundalk, Co Louth.
A Chara, - The opening line of your Editorial last Friday - "What sort of people are we? We know now" - reminded me of a poem by Bertolt Brecht.
The secretary of the writers' union, Kurt Barthel, had leaflets distributed after the "East German Rising" of 1953 stating that the people had lost the confidence of the government by their behaviour. Brecht's poetic response suggested that maybe the government should dissolve the people and elect another!
The attitude of the people to the Ahern controversy, as reflected in the poll, was mature, multi-layered, sophisticated. Your Editorial was pontifical, condescending, sub-Yeatsian. The tone intimated that the writer would happily dissolve the people and elect another - by qualified franchise. - Yours, etc,
PEADAR MAC MAGHNAIS, Bothar Bhinn Eadair, Baile Atha Cliath 5.