The quality of an argument doesn’t hang from letters

SIR, Mary E. Fitzgibbon is not an infrequent contributor to your letters page. She is clearly an anti-abortionist and proponent of what would be seen as conservative Christian values. I’m flummoxed though as to why in her recent letter (Letters, November 16) that she would sign off with a plethora of academic acronyms after her name.

While I don’t know for sure I’d guess that most of your readers haven’t a clue what CMFCNP L.L.L.L. stands for or what is the difference between CM-FCP and CMFCNP. A cursory search in Google confuses me even further.

I don’t have a problem in Mary E. Fitzgibbon highlighting that she is qualified as a nurse and in midwifery but what is she trying to prove (or show) with all these other academic qualifications acronyms – that- she’s an expert on women’s rights and the rest of us are not and therefore her opinions carry more weight?

In this post-truth world following the Brexit vote in the UK and now the results of the US elections, it’s obvious that very little heed is paid to ‘expert opinion’ in matters of political and social discourse. So unless Ms. Fitzgibbon is speaking on behalf of her academic colleagues in the Institute of Technology Tralee (which I doubt) or academics elsewhere in her chosen fields I don’t see any point in listing her academic prowess. Her arguments, just like any other person should live or die on the merit or substance of what is being said rather than your title or titles. Sincerely, Tom McElligott, Tournageehy, Listowel.