The Nolans: Nuala the cougar, Derek the toy-boy?

Bradley Bytes – A sort of political column by Dara Bradley

City Councillor Nuala Nolan was co-opted onto Galway City Council in 2011, taking over from the Labour Party representative, Derek Nolan.

Derek left the local authority after winning a Galway West seat in Dáil Éireann in that year’s General Election, following in the footsteps of Michael D Higgins, who stepped aside and went on to successfully contest the presidential election.

That much we know.

But the question our Nuala is asked most often by the electorate she serves in Galway since replacing her namesake, Derek, at City Hall is: “Are you Derek’s mother?”

That’s closely followed by, “Are you Derek’s aunt?”

“Are you Derek’s sister?” is the other query she hears regularly on the doorsteps, she tells us.

We wondered if any of them asked was she Derek’s other half; his better half?

“Are you suggesting I’m a cougar,” laughed Nuala, “and that he’s my toy-boy?” We wouldn’t dare!

Other than soldiering together for working people, we in Bradley Bytes can confirm there is no such amorous link between Derek and Nuala and that there’s no familial relationship between the two Nolan Comrades either.

Déjà vu on SQR revamp

The Seamus Quirke Road re-vamp, which was delayed by months and months and was way over-budget, was one of the most controversial capital investment projects to be undertaken in the city in recent years.

Not quite in the same league as the Eyre Square redevelopment, but a debacle worthy of infamy nonetheless. We won’t forget it in a hurry, that’s for sure, and its legacy lives on, with St Michael’s GAA  club still without a pitch.

The work dragged on for longer than we care to remember, causing tailbacks through Westside and driving business away from the area, and all for a couple of bus lanes and a few fancy cycle lanes. But it’s done and dusted now and we’ve all moved on, as you can tell.

Imagine the horror then when we spotted a City Council advert inviting tenders to carry out works including “a pavement overlay of 246 metres of the Seamus Quirke Road in Westside”.

Are they for real?

“They’ve only just finished it and now they’re going repaving it again,” was the general gist of what we thought, with expletives removed.

We should have given the roads section at City Hall some credit . . . they’re not that bad. We made enquiries, and, phew, they’re not re-doing the SQR that they’ve just finished. Apparently they’ve tendered for works to be carried out on a different part of SQR, which stretches from Browne roundabout towards the university. Panic over.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Sentinel.