THERE was a briny air in County Hall this week as noses were evidently out of joint and backs rubbed up the wrong way.
And while big gun Mayor John Moran had bigger fish to fry that kept him from attending Monday’s Metropolitan District meeting, his Council crew took the opportunity to dabble in the dark arts and get in a few well-meaning digs.
For the most part, proceedings were pretty sedate without him. But it was clear that, despite talk of playing ball with our new directly-elected Mayor, all is not at all well on the good ship lollipop.
It was certainly not paradise this local authority bucket was voyaging towards. In fact, it felt more like councillors were quickly taking onboard water and harbouring thoughts of jumping overboard.
Obviously the mild spanking they recently received from the new skipper irked them somewhat, but they really have no alternative now but to follow him into the great unknown or be left looking like lily-livered landlubbers.
But that didn’t stop the smell of mutiny hanging heavy in the air like the putrid scent of grizzled shark bait.
Monday’s meeting gave an opportunity for the mayor’s horn-swaggling hearties to let off a bit of steam and cry sea monster to the second in command on the top table while Captain Moran was off elsewhere, probably busy drinking rum with Ministers in Dublin and shooting the breeze about the great bailout of 2010.
Rather than face whatever tempestuous seas might lie ahead with their fearless swashbuckling Mayor, you got the sense that here in Limerick, our insurgent local representatives would sooner make him walk the plank or dance the hempen jig.
When talk grew in the chamber of finding the buried coffers to fix up the old tourist office at Arthur’s Quay, councillors knew exactly where X marked the spot when the Council executive didn’t know where to look.
“I don’t think we should have any issue with the budget,” Cllr Dan McSweeney (FG) opined.
“Maybe we should contact the mayor. And may I just take this opportunity to remind you also that councillors’ jobs are important as well. The community or the city centre response team shouldn’t be focusing all the time on the mayor’s tasks. There is some jobs to be done for the councillors as well,” he informed Council official Kieran Lehane.
Cllr McSweeney urged the executive to inform the response team that councillors have plenty of work for them and it can’t all be all one-way traffic with Moran’s “pet projects”.
“I would expect that they will treat our work equally. Money shouldn’t be an issue either. We were well able to go up and waste money on the Crescent over the summer,” he hit out.
Well, blow me down and call me Genevieve, if that didn’t smack of insubordination. McSweeney will surely be swabbing the decks when the skipper gets word of his cackling ways – after all, he has made them well aware that he reads the papers.
Sink me if the Patrickswell scallywag wasn’t the only one trying to scuttle the grand mayoral vision for the future. But no, there was more fire in the hole.
Fianna Fáil councillor Kieran O’Hanlon, coxswain of the Metropolitan District, was not happy with what the Mayor’s office were telling all and sundry over social media about the scuppering of his plans.
“I just want to say, from my point of view, that I tried every way to facilitate meetings where possible to actually progress that report. I was disappointed as I seemed to be targeted as Cathaoirleach,” he claimed.
Mark my words, barnacles will be crushed before our new Council and their dogged skipper weigh anchor! Rough seas ahead, for sure.
