Lick-lick, Patsy – the man who would be king-maker

Bradley Bytes – A sort of political column by Dara Bradley

Most of you have never heard of Patsy O’Brien.  Most of you don’t care who Patsy O’Brien is.  Most of you, when we tell you who he is, still won’t know who he is and certainly won’t care less or more about him.

But Patsy O’Brien, ladies and gentleman, could be kingmaker in the Galway West constituency after the next General Election.

The bould Patsy, a farmer and Irish Rail worker, also happens to be a County Councillor in Mayo. And he’s a formidable vote-getter, by all accounts.

He’s a Fine Gaeler based in the Ballinrobe electoral area, in South Mayo, which just happens to be transferring to the expanded Galway West constituency in the next election.

Rumour is that Patsy may run for a seat in the Dáil elections due to take place within 18 months.

And with that in mind, one of the sitting Fine Gael TDs in Galway West, Brian Walsh, is doing a bit of ‘sucking up’ to Patsy.

You see, Patsy hasn’t a hope of winning a seat.

He’ll gobble up a fair bulk of the Mayo votes but is unlikely to garner many the further across the border on the Galway side when the ballot boxes are opened.

But if he does run, and gets a scatter of votes, say 3,000, that’s a lot of transfers to distribute when he’s eliminated.

And even if he doesn’t run in the election, an endorsement from Patsy would carry great weight, and would be as good, if not better, than his ‘number twos’.

No wonder Brianeen is licking.

Of course what will throw a spanner in the works is if sitting Fine Gael TD in Mayo John O’Mahony, switches constituencies and runs in Galway.

Then Patsy won’t run, and no amount of plámasing O’Mahony will garner Mayo votes for Brianeen.

Baywatch Polltopper-style

We all live in hope but the chances of seeing Terry ‘Polltopper’ O’Flaherty in a skimpy bikini, frolicking round her beloved Ballyloughane Beach this year are slim.

Despite Polltopper’s best efforts, a bathing ban will be in place at the popular beach for the entire summer of 2015.

This is because of EU rules about water quality and because the beach failed to meet certain standards of water quality over the past four years.

The Independent councillor is beavering away on this issue, however, and won’t stop until Irish Water and Galway City Council have sorted the problem, and fixed the source of the water contamination.

And when that happens, probably in time for next year, Polltopper will be first to get her kit off and jump into the water at Ballyloughane.

Bet you can’t wait.

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