Electing 'characters' as MEPs could harm our country

Mick Wallace and Clare Daly have become staples of state-controlled media in the Russian, Chinese, and Arabic language. Photograph: Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images The time has come for Irish voters to take the European elections seriously and pay proper attention to the implications of their choice for the country's wellbeing, and indeed the entire continent, at this dangerous moment in global history. For too long a significant segment of the electorate has regarded the contest as an opportunity to vent their frustrations by voting for mavericks of various hues. Some of them have turned out to be a national…