Men of letters!

Negotiations over the mayoral pact have turned nasty, with caustic accusations and counter-accusations of skulduggery and back-stabbing.

Fianna Fáil, which has been ‘frozen out’ of the mayoralty for the next five years, has lambasted its former colleagues in the outgoing pact for reneging on an agreement to share the spoils of power on Galway City Council.

The FF whip, City Councillor Mike Crowe blasted Fine Gael and former Progressive Democrat independents with both barrels claiming they were “underhand” in shafting them out of a new pact.

Cllr Crowe said he was “disgusted” by the behaviour of the FG whip, Mayor Pádraig Conneely, and the Independents’ whip, Cllr Declan McDonnell.

In over a decade in local politics, Cllr Crowe said he had “never experienced anything as underhand, sneaky and morally corrupt as we have through this experience”. He claims to have reached agreement last Friday on the mayors, deputy mayors and positions on boards and committees with the outgoing pact members. It was to be rubberstamped Monday.

But following jockeying for position over the weekend, four Fine Gael members (Cllrs Conneely, Frank Fahy, John Walsh and Pearce Flannery) and three former PD Independents (Cllrs McDonnell, Donal Lyons, Terry O’Flaherty) struck a separate deal with two newcomer Independents (Noel Larkin and Mike Cubbard) and the Labour Party (Billy Cameron and Niall McNelis) to form a ‘rainbow coalition’ style mayoral pact.

Mayor Conneely and Cllr McDonnell have rejected the accusations levelled by Fianna Fáil. The duo said it was Fianna Fáil who ‘strayed’ over the weekend, and went talking to Independents and Sinn Féin in an attempt to form an alternative pact.

“I am disappointed the way you negotiated with others behind our backs,” Cllr McDonnell said to Fianna Fáil.

Cllr Conneely, shocked at Fianna Fáil’s “hypocrisy”, said: “The cosmetic indignation of (Crowe’s) comments is all the more surprising given that it was Fianna Fáil’s own moves to form a pact with another group that prompted Fine Gael to pursue alternative arrangements.”

The bitter exchanges between all sides are contained in emails, which the Galway City Tribune publishes today in full.

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