This article is from page 10 of the 2006-09-26 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 10 JPG
THE Mayor of Kilrush this week threatened to vacate his office if councillors did not conduct the monthly meeting in an orderly fashion.
In a highly charged meeting, after which one councillor claimed there was “a ploy” to remove the female members from the authority, Mayor Stephen O’ Gorman (FF) told councillors, “If ye don’t follow standards, we won’t have a council or you certainly won’t have me as mayor.”
The mayor made the threat after he refused to allow any further discussion on a proposed amendment to the minutes of the July meeting.
Cllr Marian McMahon Jones (FG) had asked that a heated exchange between herself and Cllr Tom Prendeville (FF) in July be included.
“Cllr Prendeville referred to matters on traffic management that were not even on the agenda. He also made numerous comments which I felt were personal and, on requesting that he return to the agenda, he continued with his badgering,” Cllr McMahon Jones said.
The Fine Gael councillor was also critical
of the mayor’s handing of that meeting, say ing she requested that he would, “not allow such badgering again, and instead of taking control of the situation he actually added his own views.”
Cllr O’Gorman refused to allow other councillors to comment on the minutes, which were proposed and seconded by Cllr Prendeville and Cllr Tom Clyne (Ind).
In a statement afterwards, Cllr Deirdre Culligan (Ind) said “if the badgering that went on at the July meeting is a ploy to get me or Cllr McMahon Jones out of here, you (Cllr Prendeville) are sadly disillusioned.”
“The day of women being full time in the kitchen is gone and, if you can’t take the heat, I recommend that maybe it should be you that gets out of the kitchen, because I am here for the long haul.”
The councillor, who was not at the July meeting, said she made her apologies in advance.
“That was the time for Cllr Prendeville to state if he had a problem with me, but he decided to wait and speak about me in my absence,” she said.
Cllr Prendeville reacted by saying, “This is typical of the negative attitude adopted by Cllr Culligan since she came into the council. In my opinion, she has contributed little or nothing to the positive development in Kilrush Town Council in the last two years.”