‘That’s enough about me, what do you think of me?’

Bradley Bytes – A sort of political column by Dara Bradley

Politicians’ press releases can be turgid and laced with self-aggrandising nonsense.

They have massive egos and cannot help ‘bigging’ themselves up in their missives to media.

It’s bad enough when the politicians’ own quotes in the releases are waffle.

But Ciaran Cannon, the former junior minister and Progressive Democrats leader, has started to add waffle that’s not his own, too.

The Fine Gael Galway East TD signs-off his releases as, “Ciaran Cannon TD, Founder of Excited – The Digital Learning Movement”.

Then, for some inexplicable reason, he quotes, “David Puttnam, Excited 2014”.

Puttnam said: “I do think we are in the middle of a revolution. I’m a very old man and I don’t think I’ve ever been in a room with more self belief, more sense that we are on the edge of something, more sense that there’s a world out there to be won. I’ve never had this experience before . . . it’s awesome.”

It brings to mind that time when former Taoiseach and Fianna Fáil leader Bertie Ahern once snorted across the Dáil chamber to Blue-shirt Gay Mitchell: “Will you stop waffling . . . You’re a waffler . . . you’ve been years around here waffling”.

Hurleys and Horses

Éamon Ó Cuív gave an interesting analogy in a Dáil committee recently about the issue of Travellers and their equine friends.

The Fianna Fáil Galway West TD’s argument was that confiscating horses from Travellers was not the way to go, given the cultural bond between Travellers and horses.

Legal access to horses in properly supervised conditions was better than sanctions, he said.

He summed up the reasoning for this argument rather succinctly.

Éamo recalled he was having a telephone conversation with a Galway City Council manager while he had a Kilkenny man sitting beside him in the car.

“I said mischievously to the official that taking horses from Travellers was akin to taking hurleys from Kilkenny men.”

Toilet protest

One of Connemara’s most well known protestors, Pádraig A’Tailliura Ó Conghaile, from Glór na Tuaithe, has signalled he’ll soon hang up his marching boots and protest banners.

An earthy voice of the people, Pádraig’s prolific protesting resonated across the country, particularly in rural areas.

He railed against many things – the Government, property tax, sceptic tank inspections, water charges, attacks on rural Ireland and the West of Ireland and more recently the cuts to the Aer Arann plane service to the Aran Islands.

When asked what he’d be remembered for, Pádraig didn’t hesitate.

“I was the first man who was pushed by politicians all the way from O’Connell Street in Dublin to the Dáil while sitting in a toilet.”

In fairness, it’s a record that is unlikely to be beaten.

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