Nero to zero: Mayor shops as Galway floods!

If you think things were tough for the ordinary citizens of Galway City, battered by wind and storms and rain and floods the weekend before last, spare a thought for your poor mayor, City Councillor Pádraig Conneely, who had weather problems of his own to contend with while abroad on official business.

Taking a break from his taxpayer-funded trip to the US, where he (and mayor of the county Liam Carroll) represented you as an official guest at the inauguration ceremony of the new Boston mayor, Connemara’s own Marty Walsh, the Bould Conneely did a spot of shopping.

And it was no ordinary shopping, as our photograph shows, with the outspoken Fine Gael City Councillor clutching a bag from the popular designer outlet, Abercrombie and Fitch.

As you waded through the floods, though, it wasn’t all fun and frolics for the city’s first citizen – skipping in and out of designer stores isn’t easy, you know, when Boston’s streets and sidewalks are laden down with snow and ice.

Resilient as ever, the poor divil ploughed on regardless.

What was that you say about Emperor Nero playing the fiddle as Rome burned?

MJ Crowe renames Ballyloughane beach

Still on the subject of storms and windy weather, Michael John Crowe, the Fianna Fáil City Councillor, sent us a press release urging the City Council not to ignore the Ballyloughane Beach area during the clean-up.

So concerned was he about the beach – and so anxious was he to convey his concern ahead of rival area Councillor, Terry O’Flaherty, otherwise known as Polltopper – Michael John couldn’t spell the very area he was meant to be looking out for.

The word Ballyloughnane (with an extra ‘n’) appeared six times in his statement.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Sentinel.