Last-ditch talks secure Mayoral chain for Naughton

Date Published: 30-Jun-2011

BY FRANK FARRAGHER

THE long standing dispute that threatened to scuttle the election of Cllr. Hildegarde Naughton as Mayor of Galway was only resolved an hour before Wednesday’s City Council meeting just at the gong of the Angelus bell.

Up until 6pm on Wednesday, the fate of the mayorship hung in the balance with Independent councillor, Donal Lyons, and Fianna Fáil’s Peter Keane, threatening to withdraw from the FF, FG and Independents alliance, needed to elect Cllr. Naughton.

The dispute had its roots in a City Council planning meeting last January at which Cllr. Naughton referred to the actions of some councillors as akin to sheep going out a gap, saying that ‘if one went out they all went out’.

Cllr. Lyons and Cllr. Keane took particular umbrage at the remarks and since March 17 last, and it had been made clear to Cllr. Naughton (FG) that the duo would not be voting for her unless she unreservedly withdrew her comments.

If both councillors ‘switched camps’ and sided with the Labour Party nominee, Cllr. Colette Connolly, this would have swung the vote 8-7 in favour of Cllr. Connolly.

However, the ‘Angelus meeting’ – involving Cllr. Naughton, Mayor Michael Crowe, Cllr. Peter Keane and Cllr. Donal Lyons – resulted in a statement being drafted and being signed by the three parties involved, that Cllr. Naughton read out at the start of Wednesday’s meeting.

After that was done, the pact held, with Cllr. Naughton defeating Cllr. Connolly for the position of mayor by nine votes to 6 at the meeting which began at 7pm. She became the city’s 43rd Mayor and the seventh female ‘First Citizen’.

The FF, FG and Independents pact now looks set to ‘stay the course’ with Cllr. Terry O’Flaherty in line for the office in 2012 followed by Cllr. Padraig Conneely in 2013.

For more on this story, see the Galway City Tribune.