IT’S all over now bar the shouting. And ask yourself this; are you better off than you were four years ago? In politics, it is said, stupidity is not a handicap. This would certainly seem true of the Irish electorate. And most of us are too busy watching Netflix to even go and cast our vote.
“The government you elect is the government you deserve”, as Thomas Jefferson so eloquently put it. Remember that, won’t you, when you have a gripe with the powers that be over the next term of office.
And back in the world of local government, it’s business as usual. And of late that’s been all bus lanes, Christmas lights, and rural graveyards working them up into a tizzy.
And poor auld Mayor John Moran is like a red rag to a bull to most of them. He can’t do right for them no matter what kind of a bash he throws up on The Crescent.
They can have their moments though. At last week’s full meeting of Limerick City and County Council, one rural councillor was quick to drop his guard and bare his soul to show his human failings in glorious technicolour.
Fine Gael councillor Adam Teskey isn’t a bad old skin. Any man that shows love and compassion for animals is not so bad at all in my book.
Newly-crowned Council High Queen of the panto dames, Cllr Teskey took a break from his much subscribed huffing and puffing last week when the conversation turned to man’s best friend. His over the top histrionics melted ever so slightly as he cooed over his own beloved pooch and even found a rare kind word for our first citizen.
During a debate on the ban on XL Bully dogs, the Adare-Rathkeale man lit up as his thoughts went to his own very special doggy. The XL Bully breed, however, he was not a fan of, and called for them to be culled.
“I have a Golden Retriever,” Cllr Teskey told his council colleagues with great glee. “It would lick you to death, it’s a lovely dog.”
“Why can’t people have Golden Retrievers, and like your own dog Mayor Moran, that would go out there and get you elected mayor.”
In a touching moment between the Mayor and Teskey, Moran realised he might actually have missed a trick and could have rented his Irish Setter, Limerick’s first dog Henri, out to Brian Leddin for the week that was in it.
But Teskey wasn’t done yet. Later in the same meeting, Social Democrats councillor Shane Hickey-O’Mara made a proposal around men’s mental health where local supporters of the cause got an honourable mention – including one half of the famed Rubberbandits.
A well-received proposal, but the mention of the be-bagged ‘Bandit in particular left Fine Gael’s answer to Twink looking like a dog chasing its own tail.
“Who is Blindboy?” he balked.
“I’m being serious. I find it fascinating at times that people come in here and reference these people. Like these Blindboys and these other ones that are going around the place,” he opined.
Cllr Dan McSweeney suggested his party colleague take out his phone and “Google it”.
Feck your Honda Civic indeed!
