Kyne takes hump over Leo’s Gaeltacht snub

Bradley Bytes – A sort of political column by Dara Bradley

There was very little celebrating in the Seán Kyne camp, following the reshuffle by new Taoiseach Leo Varadkar.

“Sore” was how one supporter summed up Seán’s mood, after the ministerial spoils were divvied up.

The Galway West Fine Gael TD had done such a good job as junior minister with responsibility for Gaeltacht Affairs, his allies were expecting a promotion to a full minister.

Instead, that went to Joe McHugh in Donegal. But what rankled Seán even more, was the manner in which the appointments were handled.

There are two variations of the story.

One version is that Seán was sitting in the Dáil chamber, on the day Leo announced his new cabinet, and was scrolling through Twitter on his smartphone when he happened upon a tweet from RTÉ’s political correspondent Martina Fitzgerald that announced to her followers that McHugh was the new Gaeltacht Minister – a tweet which effectively informed Seán he no longer had his dream job.

Another version is that Seán was in the Dáil, waiting patiently to get the call from Leo, when Joe McHugh himself came in and told Seán that he was the new Gaeltacht Minister.

Either way, Seanín was pissed off with the messenger as much as the message.

And though it’s difficult to imagine, affable, laid-back Seán to get too exercised about anything, sources say he had a cut at Leo for “not having the courtesy and decency to pick up the phone to tell him before everyone else”.

It wasn’t the first time he was betrayed in politics, and it won’t be the last.

No wonder there were no bonfires in Moycullen when it was subsequently announced some days later that Seán had been moved sideways to a new role.

Though his new title sounds impressive – Minister of State at the Department of Rural and Community Development and the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment with responsibility for Natural Resources, Community Affairs, and Digital Development – Seán knows that his boss, the senior minister, is a hound for publicity.

And Mayo’s Michael Ring will take responsibility for announcing any grants that are going, thus stealing his underling’s thunder.

Sore, indeed.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.