‘Protest’ was a direct attack on our democracy

I WAS horrified to learn that a gathering of a masked anti-migration group recently congregated in protest outside Minister for Equality Roderic O’Gorman’s family home. It was even more shocking that this cohort were displaying banners featuring antimigration slogans associated with conspiracy theories.

I am the first to recognise the right to protest in a democracy but when one learns that you have people in masks gathering outside somebody’s family home, one can only conclude that this is extraordinarily disquieting and frightening. I personally found this conduct to be utterly and profoundly egregious.

Politicians’ private lives should not be some tabloid teaser like a free CD. It’s incumbent on the public to allow politicians to have private lives. I believe that when the private lives of politicians are viewed as fair game for public consumption, it harms the quality of journalistic media.

I believe that this is down to the simple fact that salacious gossip sells better than heavy and confusing jargon. When one’s personal life is up for scrutiny, one focuses less on public policy and more on the personal lives of our public representatives.

These gatherings outside the homes of politicians do diddlysquat to improve voters’ ability to distinguish politicians on the basis of their public policy but instead misdirects public sentiment towards what’s happening in the personal lives of our public representatives, which at the end of the day is irrelevant to the policies they support or reject.

In the final analysis, Minister O’Gorman was subjected to a level of abuse that was beyond the pale. This masked gathering outside his home is a direct attack on our democracy.

JOHN O’BRIEN, Clonmel, Co. Tipperary.

...THUGS wearing black masks ‘protested’ outside Minister Roderic O’Gorman’s home.

Our new Taoiseach Simon Harris found this ‘quite frankly disgusting’. It was also frightening and outrageous.

PHYL KENNEDY-BRUEN, Galway.

Don’t blame WFH

NIKE CEO John Donahoe is blaming the working-from-home culture for the company’s inability to be creative and innovative. Utter nonsense – you don’t need to sit around a table to bounce ideas off each other.

It really comes down to Donahoe not trusting his staff to fully engage while working from home.

DAVID L. PRYOR, by email.

Up for the Cup?

HOW long will it be before the English FA and the Premier League make it compulsory for Premier League teams to be awarded home ties in the third round of the FA Cup, so they don’t have to travel to smaller grounds and maybe suffer the indignity of losing the game?

ALBERT SOUTHGATE, by email.

Giving it socks

I SEE there is a trend among some top footballers for tearing holes in the back of their socks to ‘alleviate pressure on the calf muscles’. It looks awfully untidy and cheap to me.

With all the money swilling around in the modern game, surely socks for footballers could be manufactured with mesh panels in these areas.

ANDREW JAMES, by email.

Greedy companies

THE energy companies made billions during the past three years in clear profits. This Government was throwing taxpayers’ money at problems instead of telling the energy companies to ride the storm and use their profits for the common good.

PAT O’CALLAGHAN, Mallow, Co. Cork.