King Colin and his merry men
Inda Kenny could learn a thing or two about harmonious relationships at party political level from the Fine Gael representatives in Gorey.
While Inda is currently flapping around the Dáil bating off attacks on his leadership from left, right and centre; down here in little ole Gorey party relations couldn’t be cosier.
At last week’s Gorey Town Council meeting, of the nine councillors elected a year ago, almost to the day, five showed up for Cathaoirleach Colin Webb’s final meeting as he top man of the council.
Along with Labour’s Robbie Ireton, there was a full complement of Fine Gael councillors all showing up to fawn and praise at the feet of their King.
None of the four elected Fianna Fáil councillors (Lorcan Allen, Jimmy Fleming, Malcolm Byrne and Matt Travers) appeared for the meeting. All had varying reasons for not being present from being abroad to having work commitments.
For 12 months the council has struggled under the yoke of oppressive and bitter infighting which limited the functions of the council to see who could make better insults.
So it was something completely different in store for those of us who were present in the Council Chamber last Tuesday evening. With the sun shining outside and no opposition in sight we hoped that matters would be wound up in a more cordial and timely manner. We were wrong.
For what followed was in some ways more difficult to stomach than the bickering and infighting of the past ten meetings. With no opposition to staunch the sickening outpouring of love and unbridled adoration between the Fine Gaelers, the rest of us present were washed away with a wave of Blueshirt conceit.
Colin Webb, Michael D’Arcy Snr., Angie Dooley and Darren Keegan seized their chance to tell each other how brilliant they all thought they were. King Webb conducted the eulogising – praising each of his party colleagues in turn as they weakly batted off the tributes being thrown at them.
Cllr. D’Arcy’s Enterprise subcommittee was praised for coming up with ideas to reinvigorate business in the time – despite the idea being pooh-poohed by the Chamber of Commerce.
Cllr. Keegan was praised for his chairmanship of the Environment subcommittee and returning the purple and gold colours to prominence throughout the town.
Cllr. Dooley’s work as chairperson of the Education subcommittee was not to go without praise on the night of Big Love in Gorey and she received congratulations for her work with the local schools and raising the awareness of drugs.
Indeed it seemed as if the entire council chamber could have been on some illegal substances such was the felling of peace and love in the room.
Even the presence of a rogue Labour councillor at this Fine Gael love-in was not going to dampen the mood. Cllr. Ireton did challenge King Webb’s assertion that the new metal Hedgehog was fantastic, calling it instead a rust bucket but this was to be the end to Cllr. Ireton’s attempts to bring a downer on proceedings.
Whether it was his true admiration for the work of the Fine Gael party while in charge of the council for the past 12 months or the fact that he will be crowned the new King of Gorey next week, we will never know.
So as Inda struggles to keep the hounds from the door on Kildare Street, he can at least take some comfort that the Fine Gael councillors from Gorey are getting on famously.
Whether the next 12 months brings a similar trend of pitched battles between the two sides of the house or a yearlong love-in, one thing is for sure; Inda could learn a thing or two about party harmony from King Webb and his loyal band of merry men (and women).
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