Sir, - Eibhlin Ni Allurain's call for a merger between the two main political parties (October 26th) has both a challenging and timely note. It is not, as she admits, a novel suggestion. Apart from Mr John Kelly, the Labour Party in its socialist days often advocated a realignment of politics along the right/left, conservative/socialist lines which are the norm in British and European politics. A former TD in my own area was wont to compare the difference between the two parties to that between Tweedledum and Tweedledee.
At the end of the century that has witnessed the evolution of two parties based on Civil War differences and continued adversaries across the floor most rational thinking will agree with your correspondent that it is past time that party politics was restored to its proper condition of a healthy organism. Both parties, especially Fianna Fail, have shown remarkable staying power. One remembers the rise of various new parties down the decades which offered the promise of a new beginning, only to become extinct before the overwhelming force of traditional loyalties. How to detach the old guard from the younger generation - that is the problem.
With the recent scandals the need for a new alignment becomes more urgent still. This will demand sacrifice and surrender of old loyalties and most importantly a deeper commitment from young voters than the one in which the only response to both corruption and family voting allegiance is simply not to vote at all. - Yours, etc., John F. Fallon,
Boyle, Co Roscommon.