Political scars: cracked ribs and stitches

Bradley Bytes – A sort of political column by Dara Bradley

Politics is a risky business.  Canvassing during elections makes the profession even riskier.

There isn’t a politician worth his salt who hasn’t been attacked by an aggressive dog on the doorsteps – or even angrier voters. It’s one of the hazards of the job.

And of course, being stabbed in the back by your party colleagues – and stabbed in the front by your foes – is a daily hazard politicians must navigate.

Stabbings, dog bites, and tongue lashings from voters, aren’t the only injuries suffered by election candidates, however.

Some are self-inflicted.

Spare a thought for Frank Fahy, the Fine Gael City Councillor, who is based in Menlo.

Poor Frankeen needed 15 stitches in his shin, after injuring himself taking down his election posters after the May campaign.

He was carrying posters into his garden garage, putting them away until the next election campaign, when he stubbed into a steel ladder.

“It cut me deep, like a butcher’s knife,” he told us.

Ouch!

Worse still, Frankeen, a taxi driver, couldn’t drive for seven weeks. The poor divil is self-employed and so took a big hit financially.

And just when he was on the mend, accident prone Frank went and cracked two ribs.

While out working on his land in Menlo, he fell over backwards on a stone. That put him out of action for another couple of weeks.

“I’ll live to fight another day though,” said Frankeen, the City Council equivalent of Manuel in Fawlty Towers.

Potter’s magicians

Labour Party City Councillor Niall McNelis, or Harry Potter as he is cordially known, lived up to his wizardry nickname when he recently described Galway City Council’s street cleaning crews as “magicians”.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Sentinel.