Left wrestles conscience over Larkin mayoral vote

Bradley Bytes – A sort of political column with Dara Bradley 

Lefties in the Galway City Council Mayoral Pact are between a rock and a hard place.

How do they keep their left-wing credentials intact while lending support to a right-wing councillor with questionable opinions on Travellers, immigrants and social housing tenants?

Noel Larkin (Ind) is next in line in the annual mayoral chain merry-go-round. He will become First Citizen next Friday, June 26, so long as the mayoral pact stays intact.

The ‘rainbow’ pact consists of 10 councillors, from different positions on the political spectrum.

A chain here, a deputy-mayor there, and a sprinkling of committee chairs . . . it all helped to paper over the differences last year so that an alliance could be cobbled together. . . but this may unravel in the Larkin Mayoral vote.

The former PDs – Terry O’Flaherty, Donal Lyons and Declan McDonnell – have no issue with Larkin. Outgoing Mayor, Mike Cubbard, will back him too.

Labour has abandoned any credible claim to the Left. Niall McNelis and Larkin are like peas in a pod; sure, didn’t they turn their backs on the Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael pact that fell apart last June? That’s five votes to Larkin.

He needs four more, but four Lefties (Martina O’Connor, Colette Connolly, Niall Murphy and Owen Hanley) face moral dilemmas. The rock is voting for Noel Larkin, whose political views they abhor; the hard place is keeping their word, and honouring the agreement they made when the pact was signed. And of course, they don’t want to lose any positions of power they negotiated as part of that pact.

Green Party duo, Martina O’Connor and recently co-opted Niall Murphy, are politically left-of-centre, but so long as the Local Authority makes environmental improvements, they can stomach Mayor Larkin.

Colette Connolly (Ind) could hold her nose and vote for Larkin, while simultaneously berating him, and still get away with it. Expect an “I’m shocked and appalled at the mayor I am now voting for” speech before an inevitable ‘Tá’ vote.

Owen Hanley (Soc Dem) is in more of a bind. The Social Democrats are still a young, idealistic party, untainted by responsibility of Government. They actually have lefty (and other) principles still intact. The party grew from the Marriage Equality referendum, and gained momentum from the success of the Pro-Choice movement that repealed the Eighth Amendment.

The Soc Dems are sugar and spice and all things nice to Travellers, people in Direct Provision, and other vulnerable minorities.

Owen Hanley wobbling is the biggest threat to Larkin’s ascent, and the pact unravelling. Expect posturing and much wrestling of conscience before realpolitik sinks his idealism and Owen gives Noel ‘The Drone’ Larkin his second term as mayor.

*For more Bradley Bytes see this week’s Galway City Tribune