The Sinn Fein genie is out of the bottle in the Republic and it will be hard to put back

I don’t think so. They have achieved great things, but these have often been economic.

I wouldn’t mind their high income per head, for our own people, but even here all is not as it should be.

Elites, the middle class, and farmers have been enriched, those with less influence ignored. A certain kind of investment has always been prioritised over a certain kind of consumption.

The price is increased support for Sinn Fein in the Dail. It’s a protest vote, but dangerous nonetheless.

Leo Varadkar, instead of making smug interventions on Brexit, should have concentrated on key issues like universal healthcare. He took his eye off the ball, as he increasingly deluded himself that he was the EU’s favourite son.

Once the Sinn Fein genie is out of the bottle, in the Republic, it may be difficult to put it back. Its sometimes malign influence can be contained in a large, complex political system like the UK. It may not seem so, when we look at the NIO and the weak secretary of state, but it’s true.

But how does the small body politic of the Irish Republic cope with what may be the remorseless rise of Sinn Fein there?

Perhaps some within their political and chattering classes should stop interfering in our affairs, indeed sovereignty, and put their own house in order, before they eventually find themselves in a twilight world of dodgy politics, and dubious coalitions, with a party that is just not normal.

John Gemmell, Wem, Shropshire