IT has been colder than a witch’s proverbial out round County Limerick in recent days. And while the brave outdoor staff working for Limerick City and County Council were out slogging away in all conditions, most of us were toasting the last of the sliced pans and finally putting manners on those undesirable orange and pink Roses.
Where would we be without the weather, eh? We love talking about it, but are less inclined to do anything about it.
Still, the Baltic conditions last week gave us an opportunity to yank the foot off the brakes, take stock of our lives, and binge watch all our favourite TV shows.
And with councillors only starting to stir from their cosy lairs, the cut and thrust of local politics is yet to get into full swing in 2025. Our jaded local reps are still only thawing out and it could be St Patrick’s Day, with the prospect of foreign junkets, before most of them totally defrost.
They don’t all move at John Moran’s pace down in City Hall. It usually takes an auld jaunt across the pond to wet the shamrock to get councillors’ motors fully fired up after the Christmas. (Oh if only we could have elections every year!)
Alas, with local and general elections out of the way (weren’t we only spoiled for excitement last year?), it will be back to pothole politics at its very finest in 2025.
Councillors in Adare Rathkeale and Newcastle West districts groaned back into life this week, while those in Metropolitan District will hold their first monthly meeting of the new year in Merchants Quay next Monday.
With many selection boxes polished off and season two of Squid Game watched in one sitting, don’t expect anything too lively. Though, they are full of surprises this lot. There’s certainly more people than usual tuning in online to Council meetings since the election of our directly-elected mayor, that’s for sure – for all the clip-clopping of our political pantomime ponies.
The mayoral position brings a very colourful new dimension to local government, but, truth be told, there’s no pleasing us anyhow. Politics is like the football and weather, really. It’s a distraction to vent all our grievances and life’s disappointments and has little to do with Man United, freezing fog, or John Moran.
Maybe the Brennan’s bread has gone straight to my head, or I’m getting philosophical in my old age, but our new mayor, councillors, Council staff, and management all do their best, so let’s be kind in 2025.
As they used to say on Hill Street Blues, “Let’s be careful out there”. Or as Sergeant Stan Jablonski also used to say, “Let’s do it to them before they do it to us!”.
