Conneely bares teeth at ‘vicious’ cyclists

In another case of the pot calling the kettle black, Galway City Councillor Pádraig Conneely has labelled cyclists as “vicious”.

Bradley Bytes – a sort of political column with Dara Bradley 

The former city mayor has a reputation among political rivals as having a bite that matches his bark, if necessary. He certainly doesn’t spare his foes.

And Pádraig showed teeth again at the Joint Policing Committee (JPC) when he attacked the behaviour of some cyclists.

The Fine Gaeler recalled an incident where he was driving his Passat along Market Street, and encountered a cyclist coming towards him, the ‘wrong’ way down a one-way street.

He rolled down the window to remind the biker that cycling contra-flow was a no-no. And what did he get for his troubles?

The cyclist “threw a kick at my car and told me to ‘F-off!”

For good measure, after his boot connected with the tyre, the cyclist told the elected member to “go ‘F’ myself!’.”

This led Pádraig to declare of cyclists: “They’re quite vicious”.

The sentiment of the cyclist towards Cllr Conneely may be unrelated to his penchant for two-wheeled vehicles – after all, there are quite a lot of non-cyclists who might like to tell Pádraig to ‘F-off’ while kicking his car.

But at least he’s consistent: back in 2014, Pádraig described some city cyclists as “cowboys”. “They cycle on footpaths, crash traffic lights, cycle the wrong way on one-way streets and are a danger to pedestrians and cars. And if you stop to say anything to them about their behaviour, they abuse you using foul and filthy language,” he said at the time.

Was this the second time Pádraig was verbally abused by a biker, or is he still traumatised, five years later, from the same tongue-lashing?

It took Joe Loughnane – of all people – to bring some balance to the debate at the JPC.

Councillors, he said, should be encouraging more cycling to tackle the city’s chronic traffic congestion by introducing more cycle lanes, and “not just bashing cyclists”.

It was, perhaps, just a coincidence, but Joe made his comments while Pádraig was out of the chamber . . . probably for the best to avoid bringing out his cross streak!
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