Fianna Fail: Defending democracy and fighting corruption

From the attic archives.

Letter to the Editor, Irish Times dated May 10th 2000.

Sir,

Some years ago, when the television soap opera Dallas was at the height of its popularity, it was decided to kill off one of the main characters, Bobby Ewing.

It was subsequently felt that this was a mistake and Bobby should return from the dead.

This was achieved by asking the viewing public to believe that Bobby did not die but had merely dreamt all the events of the previous several episodes.

While this required some stretching of the imagination, it is nothing compared with what Dr. Rory O’Hanlon (May 8th) is asking the Irish public to believe about the recent history of Fianna Fail.

In Dr. O’Hanlon’s soap opera world, Fianna Fail are knights in shining armour, rushing to defend the proud tradition of democracy and the good of the Irish people against an evil tide of corruption.

I would suggest that the only difference between the two scripts is that Dallas had an awful lot more credibility.

Yours etc.,

Anthony Sheridan