“CHRISTMAS is for all the people of Limerick. Not just for the Mayor and his friends up at the Crescent.”
This was the catty view of Fianna Fáil councillor Catherine Slattery at this Monday’s monthly meeting of the Metropolitan District.
During a debate with Limerick City Centre Traders’ Association, Mayor Moran’s pet project up the top of the town came under heavy fire. Forget about being the season of goodwill, this turned out to be a double-fingered salute to our first citizen that just screamed ‘bah humbug’.
The clear message being sent back to the head honcho at City Hall was that “the vast majority of councillors do not want the Crescent closed off during the Christmas period”.
However, Independent councillor Maria Donoghue, President of the John Moran Fan Club at Merchant’s Quay, was not one of this vast majority. No, siree Bob!
“Only a very short number of years ago ,some of the city councillors in this room brought me personally to task on the closure of O’Connell Street. When we proposed the Part 8, it was to be closed for special events, there was war that we weren’t going to close it fully, to pedestrianise it wholesale,” she shot across the bow.
“I was given a lot of abuse online from my now elected colleagues. I’m very surprised the turnabout of events and how quickly we flip-flop,” the former Council architect fumed.
But Maria, flip-flopping is what councillors do best, as I’m sure you will soon learn. And local politics is a dirty game – it’s a real waterpark in that Council chamber full of all kinds of bacteria, fungi, and viruses, so go handy on the auld flip-flops!
Fianna Fáil man Kieran O’Hanlon is a seasoned veteran at this traditional political craft. He is local politics’ equivalent to The Man From Atlantis, he’s such a dab hand at it.
“I see absolutely no benefit in closing the Crescent other than to inconvenience people, not alone the shops in the city centre, but people who have to go out to the hospital and schools and everything else,” Cllr O’Hanlon opined.
His party colleague Cllr Catherine Slattery, who could not be likened to Ebenezer Scrooge for her love of all things festive, was not filled with cheer when Mayor Moran was brought up in the discussion at this week’s meeting.
“Personally, at this time of year, the lights and the festivities, it makes me happy. I’m sure it makes other people happy,” she started off, as sentence structure would suggest, building up to something positive.
“The road closure at the Crescent is a complete joke. Christmas is for everybody in Limerick, not just for the Mayor and his friends up at the Crescent.”
Fine Gael man Daniel Butler was not enamoured either with the Mayor’s notion of giant litter trays and festivals in vans up in Moran’s own stomping ground over the holidays.
“There’s nobody that can tell me that this makes sense at any level,” Cllr Butler told the Council executive. “There’s an obsession with the Crescent and I don’t know what that’s about.”
A Christmas stocking filled with right sugary goodness this meeting turned out to be. Bah Humbug, indeed!
