Mayor’s busy Christmas schedule keeps him away from family

Date Published: 23-Dec-2008

THIS will be the first time in years that Pádraig Conneely won’t be joining his family in Clifden on Christmas Day but it’s the price he pays for being Galway City’s First Citizen, its Mayor.

Councillor Pádraig Conneely, who became Mayor of the the city in June has, on average, attended up to five functions a day, almost every day since he took up office.

Cllr. Conneely, who has made the city his home for over the past thirty years, has always enjoyed going home to Clifden for the festive fare being surrounded by his family. But this year the Mayor kicks off the big day with Mass at the Poor Clares on Nun’s Island before heading to Dangan, Newcastle to officiate at the annual fundraiser GOAL mile and then taking a dip with a group of swimmers at Blackrock, Salthill to help raise money for COPE who run services for the homeless and a refuge for women.

He also intends dropping into A&E at University Hospital Galway, where the number of patients on trolleys has been escalating in recent weeks and which is a subject close to Cllr. Conneely’s heart as a member of the HSE Regional Health Forum.

He says he will also …