Proposal to resurrect City Council prayer voted down
Attempts to resurrect the recital of a prayer before every meeting of Galway City Council have failed.
Councillor Donal Lyons (Ind) pushed for a vote on the issue at the latest meeting of the local authority during a discussion on Standing Orders – the rules by which Council meetings are governed.
Cllr Lyons wanted the prayer to be reintroduced at the start of meetings. He said didn’t want the matter to be “divisive”, and he was happy that the matter be voted on, without debate.
In August 2017, councillors voted to replace the recital of a prayer before meetings with a moment of silent reflection.
The new rules came into force at the following September meeting, and silent reflection has replaced the prayer at every meeting since.
The issue of the prayer being reintroduced was discussed at Procedural Committee meetings of the Council again last September.
On Monday, Meetings Administrator Gary McMahon, read into the record the prayer that Cllr Lyons wanted to bring back, which is ‘as Gaeilge’.
The vote was lost by a majority of two to one. Four other councillors (Terry O’Flaherty, Frank Fahy, John Walsh and Declan McDonnell) voted with Cllr Lyons. There were three absent and 10 voted against.
Meanwhile, councillors have agreed to begin their meetings at 3pm for the remainder of this term, which finishes with the local elections in May.
The meetings had been beginning at 4pm for a number of years, but then they fixed them for 2pm to facilitate Council staff, but it has caused difficulties for some elected members.
Cllr Collette Connolly (Ind), a teacher, opposed the earlier starts. She said she couldn’t possibly ask her employer to get time off on Mondays to attend the meetings at 2pm and as such the earlier start times were discriminatory of PAYE workers, and were putting-off certain people from getting involved in local politics. Another Independent, Mike Cubbard, said he too had an issue with the 2pm start. Cllr Maireád Farrell (SF) said it should be left to the incoming Council to decide.
Before a divisive vote on the issue was due to be taken, Cllr Mike Crowe (FF) proposed a compromise start time of 3pm, which was agreed. It was decided that the next City Council, elected in May, can then decide on its own start times.