Cribbing at Christmas as Colette and Crowe clash

Bradley Bytes – a sort of political column with Dara Bradley – Fianna Fáil City Councillors Mike Crowe, Peter Keane and John Connolly didn’t hang around to hear the Mayor of Galway’s Christmas well wishes.

The trio were out the gap of the Veranda Lounge of the Galmont Hotel near the end of the final City Council meeting of 2021 before Colette Connolly (Ind) could bellow the words “Nollaig Shona . . . and Happy New Year” from the top table.

“Thank you for your patience” during a “very difficult year” and “trying times”, she added, to a near-empty room of councillors scrambling to get out and colleagues online on Zoom who had switched off too.

Earlier, patience had worn thin inside the rather plush replacement Council Chamber as Colette clashed with councillors, in particular MJ Crowe.

Perhaps it was just as well that Covid-19 restrictions put paid to this year’s instalment of the traditional Christmas drinks, hosted annually by the Mayor for officials and elected members.

Because there was little Christmas spirit or collegiality shown during the Council meeting and adding alcohol to that concoction could have been dangerous.

The exchanges during the meeting, sans eggnog, were pricklier than seasonal holly; the tea – as weak as water – that was served during a break in proceedings didn’t help the mood music.

A combative tone was set early on, when discussing the minutes of the previous meeting. Like conversations about religion or politics with family over Christmas dinner, it’s best to keep the minutes short and sweet. But this section dragged on last Monday, as old sores from old meetings were picked at.

The best thing about a barney that occurred between John Connolly and Colette Connolly over who’d said what at the November meeting, was that it was bilingual, as both speakers moved seamlessly between Gaeilge and Béarla. Their more linguistically challenged comrades looked on, confused: Unsure of what the two were arguing about, but knowing it must be serious because of the teacher-tone used by both.

This was a baptism of fire for the new Meetings Administrator, Ailish Rohan. She translated the Gaeilge, giving real-time subtitles, but also had to defend the accuracy of minutes.

Long story short, John Connolly got thick that a motion he’d tabled at the previous meeting about housing had been ruled out of order. Colette managed to sort of keep a lid on it until MJ chimed in. As Mike said, he was at a loss to understand why it was ruled out of order, Colette ploughed on.

“Is this a dictatorship?” Mike asked. “No, it’s not a dictatorship, it’s a democracy” said Colette trying to sound authoritative but not Putin-level authoritative.

If Colette was the dicator that MJ believed her to be, he was still brave enough to begin a sentence with, “If you want to discriminate against us . . .”

Colette barked back: “A little respect!” Mike cried out: “It works both ways!”

Colette ruled – with an iron fist – that she was moving on rather than “spend another hour on the minutes”. Mercifully, they did move on, or they’d have been there ‘til Christmas.

This is a shortened preview version of Bradley Bytes. To read more, see this week’s Galway City Tribune. You can buy a digital edition HERE.