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Bradley Bytes: a kind of political column with Dara Bradley
The first Town Hall meeting since the summer break took place last Monday in Leisureland. There were few voices or high ranks; a quiet affair, it was easier than usual for the start of a new term.
It was as if the city councilors kept their gunpowder dry. Now we know why.
An hour after the Council meeting ended, the ruling covenant mayor agreement disintegrated into a fiery row. And now a new pact has been formed, but not with the combination of councilors everyone expected.
It’s complicated. But the antics that led to the creation of a new rainbow coalition, with a distinctive blue color (shirt), give insight into the fierce nature of local politics and the rat cunning it takes to negotiate a path to power.
The collapse of the existing pact [Noel Larkin, Declan McDonnell, Terry O’Flaherty, Donal Lyons, Mike Cubbard and Colette Connolly (Ind), Niall McNelis (Lab), Martina O’Connor and Niall Murphy (Green)] it has its roots in a dispute over travelers.
After that house near Carnmore, bought by the City and intended for travelers, was razed by fire, Larkin gave an interview on local radio, annoying Niall Murphy, a newbie to politics.
Murphy contacted all members of the pact, denouncing Larkin’s performance at GBFM in a cutting email that sailed close to the wind. Larkin was livid. And the covenant members’ attempts to appease it didn’t work.
So, twelve days after hitting “send” on the explosive email, Murphy met Larkin face-to-face at the covenant meeting Monday night at the Galway Bay Hotel. Fireworks followed. The exact details of the thorny exchanges are sketchy, but what is clear is that when McDonnell and Larkin left, the five who remained in the room (two members of the pact were absent) knew the pact was finished.
Larkin and McDonnell had indicated that they would negotiate with Fine Gael (Frank Fahy, Clodagh Higgins, Eddie Hoare) and Fianna Fáil (Mike Crowe, Imelda Byrne, Peter Keane, John Connolly, Alan Cheevers).
Those tripartite talks continued and, late Monday, members of the Rainbow Pact had admitted that power had slipped from their grasp.
They had not signed it, but the prevailing wisdom, among all parties, was that a new FF / FG / Larkin / McDonnell pact would emerge on Tuesday.
Not so fast, Frankeen Fahy said. Unhappy that FG had only one mayor in that scenario, he contacted the dejected members of the rainbow pact with an offer: they could keep their Strategic Policy Committees (SPC) and the deputy mayor positions already agreed in the previous pact, but give FG two mayors.
The kingmaker was Donal Lyons. The ‘King of Knocknacarra’ lost the right to be mayor in exchange for remaining as chairman of an SPC and instead became deputy mayor.
FG made one last attempt to merge with FF, but the Soldiers of Destiny refused to yield to a second mayor and insisted on one for each of FF / FF / Ind. Meanwhile, proposals were made between FF and the Greens, but Larkin was an obstacle to an alternative pact.
The result of the change and the deal is a new pact (O’Flaherty, Lyons, Cubbard, Connolly, McNelis, O’Connor, Murphy, Hoare, Fahy and Higgins). Fine Gael are the big winners at the expense of Larkin, McDonnell and Fianna Fáil, who once again in the City Council pact negotiations took defeat from the jaws of victory.
(Photo: Cllr Noel Larkin)
For more on Bradley Bytes, check out this week’s Galway City Tribune.
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