‘Nice guy’ McNelis loses the rag with Our Nuala
Bradley Bytes – A Sort of Political Column with Dara Bradley
Nuala Nolan, the former Labour Party City Councillor, turned unsuccessful Aontú local election candidate, is known for her musings on social media.
Be it ramblings about Galway City Council, what’s on television that day, or maybe just reposting wise old sayings, Our Nuala keeps her Facebook followers informed.
Not everyone is happy with this, including her former Labour colleague, City Councillor Niall McNelis.
On the eve of Christmas Eve, a burst pipe near her home in Bowling Green had flooded the road opposite Sally Long’s. Our Nuala phoned City hall to have it fixed.
And, as she said herself, because a picture paints a thousand words, she posted a photograph of the leaking pipe on her Facebook page, and tagged a few elected members in it . . . probably hoping that they might be able to have the problem rectified sooner rather than later.
McNelis was unimpressed.
“Christ, Nuala,” he replied snottily. “Is your solution to every problem in this city a photo?” he asked. “Call the out-of-hours number,” he thundered. Of course, she had phoned the Council . . . and got nowhere.
In a separate contribution, Niall McNelis told Nuala that they (Council staff), were too busy to be looking at her Facebook posts.
Contrast that with Ollie Crowe’s response. The Fianna Fáil councillor informed Our Nuala that he’d just been off the phone to Irish Water, and City Council staff would be there in 15 minutes. They would be turning off the water to investigate the matter and he’d update her later in the day, said Oliver.
One hour and 39 minutes after Ollie’s response, Niall was back on Facebook essentially relaying the same message. The water was turned off, a major job was being done in the city and the Council team would be in later that evening, he said. “I rang City Hall and got that info,” he added, a dig intimating that she should have done the same.
Maybe he was having an off day, or maybe there’s just no love loss between the two former Labour Comrades.
But McNelis, a former mayor, is the Labour Party spokesperson on tourism – hopefully he’s more patient and polite with visitors to the city than he was with Our Nuala.
*For more Bradley Bytes see this week’s Galway City Tribune