Larkin mayoral U-Turn – Travellers have last laugh

Bradley Bytes – a sort of political column by Dara Bradley

Don’t let anyone ever tell you that political protest is futile. Just ask City Councillor Noel Larkin; he’d know.

Instead of basking in the glory of being elected Mayor of Galway by a majority of his peers last Friday, the Independent politician was this week licking his wounds wondering where it all went wrong.

On Friday, at the Council AGM, instead of taking the mayoral chain from the incumbent, Noel ‘the drone’ Larkin found himself in the strange position of nominating fellow Independent, Mike Cubbard, to remain on for a second term as First Citizen.

Cubbard was duly elected, without a vote, and without any dissenting voices from Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil. He is the first mayor to serve back-to-back terms since Brendan Holland, who was mayor from 1965-1967.

That’s not how it was supposed to pan out, though. Under the ruling Rainbow pact, Noel Larkin was due to be elected mayor, with the backing of Independents Donal Lyons, Declan McDonnell, Terry O’Flaherty, Colette Connolly and Mike Cubbard; Labour’s Niall McNelis; Social Democrat Owen Hanley; and Greens Martina O’Connor and Niall Murphy. That was the agreement. So what went wrong? Noel Larkin’s past comments about Travellers, immigrants and social housing tenants came back to haunt him.

On Wednesday, Larkin was still insisting publicly he ‘had the numbers’, and backing of his pact colleagues to become mayor.

Thursday night, he informed the pact he would not be letting his name go forward as mayor. Friday, he publicly dismissed the suggestion that his decision had anything to do with protests – in consultation with family, he decided to focus on his business, which like most, was facing challenges due to Covid-19.

Several things fed into the U-turn. Mike Crowe’s tweet, indicating Fianna Fáil would support Cubbard remaining on as mayor, was a game-changer; so, too, was Owen Hanley’s wobble, and statement ahead of the vote that he was not prepared to support Larkin, despite agreeing to when the pact deal was negotiated 12 months ago.

But the real pressure came from people power. Galway Traveller Movement, Galway Anti-Racism Network, and People Before Profit ratcheted-up the pressure.

They lobbied each councillor in the pact, bombarding them with calls and messages, telling them exactly what they thought of Larkin, and divisive comments he has made.

An online petition, set up by Adrian Curran (PBP) garnered 1,300 signatures against Larkin’s proposed mayoralty. A crowd with placards protested at Leisureland before the AGM – a glimpse, perhaps, of what might have happened at every official mayoral engagement had he not stepped aside.

The events of last week confirm that ordinary citizens taking a stand can change outcomes. And they prove that in public life, there are consequences for unsavoury public utterances.

For more Bradley Bytes, see this week’s Galway City Tribune. You can buy a digital edition HERE.