Sir, – It is astonishing that the Fine Gael leadership fails to recognise the ugliness of its presidential campaign.

While Catherine Connolly has continued campaigning on a range of topics, it would seem that Heather Humphreys has been told to adhere to the Fine Gael whip, which in turn seems to believe doubling down on the contrived hypocrisy between Connolly’s Dáil statements and her work as a barrister will win the day.

Whatever the truth of that, for a non-aligned but keenly interested voter Heather Humphreys appears increasingly as a Fine Gael hack, while the former leas ceann comhairle Connolly increasingly represents the independence of thought so characteristic of Michael D Higgins and his predecessors.

We have enough of the political hackery, name-calling and trolling in the ineffectual Dáil without that “go-low” political chicanery seeping into the Áras. – Yours, etc,

JOHN MULCAHY,

Portsalon,

Co Donegal

Sir, – How could Catherine Connolly have adequately represented banker clients in the courts, given the strength of her distaste for their behaviour as expressed on record in the Dáil?

Or did she only come to those views when she was no longer acting as a barrister on their behalf?

And why, when she and her political supporters such as Labour’s Ivana Bacik and Sinn Féin’s Matt Carthy believe that she is fit to be president, do they also appear to believe that her record should be above scrutiny or question? – Yours, etc,

DAVID McKENNA,

Dublin 8.

Sir, – Fintan O’Toole’s Opinion piece in today’s Irish Times states that “Connolly has many questions to answer and she dodges most of them”.

In his final paragraph he states that “Connolly is going to be our next president and it is in the interest of all our citizens that she be allowed to ascend into that office with grace and dignity.” There is still time f