Diarmuid Doyle's attack on Gerry Adams in last week's Sunday Tribune was lame. As the leader of a political party, Adams is fair game for criticism, but surely your readers have a right to expect something more than the regurgitated and unsubstantiated allegations (with a suitably tabloid headline) contained in this article.

What a misplaced apostrophe on a sign outside a Sinn Féin office in Navan has to do with whether or not people should support Gerry Adams and his party is beyond me.

This particular grammatical mistake is regularly made by signwriters all over the country, so it hardly merits the smug and superior tone adopted by Doyle. In fact, it probably says more about the poor standard of grammatical instruction in our schools than it does about those who staff this particular office.

Indeed, Doyle may be a product of the same sub-standard education given some of the grammatical screamers in his own article, or as he puts it himself, "is inability to get even the simple things right".

Let me illustrate my point with a few quotes from Doyle:

"Instead, it's déjà vu all over again."

"Which brings us to Wikileaks."

"… one important question they will have to ask themselves is: if I vote for Gerry Adams, I'm voting for a liar?"

Yes, indeed, the only déjà vu (all over again) evident from this article is the inability of some journalists to accept that, whatever his flaws, Gerry Adams is a very capable and articulate political leader, with a track record as a negotiator that is second-to-none.

In my view those are reasons enough for the people of Louth to at least consider electing him to Dáil Éireann.

Deirdre MacDonald

Rockcorry

Co Monaghan