Fine Gael – A family at war (over oysters)
Bradley Bytes – A sort of political column by Dara Bradley
The Blueshirts love nothing more than taking lumps out of each other.
That television documentary series from a while back, Fine Gael: A Family At War, came to mind recently, when the party’s two City Councillors in the Galway City Central Ward, got into a bit of a barney.
Frank Fahy had ‘a right go’ at Pádraig Conneely.
Conneely is no shrinking violet, to say the least, and the public scolding of him by Fahy hasn’t gone down too well, we hear.
The gist of the spat is as follows:
Conneely publicly gave out about the length of stay the Oyster Festival tent took over Spanish Arch.
Fahy, in the Galway City Tribune, basically suggested Conneely wouldn’t be mouthing-off half as much if he had been given a free ticket to the festival.
Conneely takes great umbrage at the suggestion he’s a sponger who likes free food, and demands an apology and retraction.
In a letter to Cllr Fahy, and copied to the Tribune, Cllr Conneely, presumably with a straight face, said: “I am requesting that you publicly and fully withdraw and further issue a public apology to me for the words, remarks and comments as published . . .”
He added: “I will reserve my position on the issue until the next publication of the City Tribune”.
Fahy, to our knowledge, has yet to respond.
And you thought oysters were an aphrodisiac – but instead of love they’ve caused war.
Who knows what the repercussions could be. But suffice to say Frankeen, at a minimum, has probably been struck off Conneely’s Christmas card list.
Ah don’t worry Frank, he’ll get over it eventually, sure Conneely isn’t the sort to hold a grudge . . .
For more, read this week’s Connacht Sentinel.