A FRIEND of mine pointed out to me the other day that blame is all a byproduct of avoidance.
This came up in context of a conversation around the constant hoopla between councillors and our directly-elected Mayor. Shur, the dogs on the street are talking about it, and flabbergasted at the carrying on of them the poor pooches are too.
In fairness to John Moran though, most of the constant roaring and shouting over the past 18 months has come from the floor seats in the Council chamber. And even some in Fine Gael quarters now have turned a new leaf in pointing out where a good deal of the ruckus is coming from.
So, this then, is why, rather than solving the issues they have with Ireland’s first, and probably last, DEM, Limerick councillors have instead opted to throw toy from pram and baby with bathwater since day one.
Cllr Stephen Keary boldly pointed out last week that it’s not the Mayor but Limerick’s ‘baby’ councillors, some even from his own Fine Gael party, who are acting out because they can’t play with the mayoral chain at the opening of a snack box on O’Connell Street.
A straight-talking, no-nonsense kind of guy, I’m sure Cllr Keary has had an earful over his remark, but no better man to call it as he sees it.
With an estimated €8million deficit on the cards at this Friday’s Budget 2026 meeting, Keary was far from impressed with his council colleagues over the course of three deferred mayoral funding briefings.
“They’re acting like children at the moment. There’s been deferrals, deferrals, deferrals, and interruptions. Until such a time as the councillors that are acting like babies put their toys back into the cot and act like adults, we’re not going to have proper workings of the Council,” he warned.
Cllr Keary has had his own rows with Mayor Moran, so it’s not only Fine Gael that would have been caught off guard by his statement.
Only last month, himself and Cllr Adam Teskey had their proverbials in a right old twist at Independent councillor Tommy Hartigan representing his lordship at the opening of the new Reilig Mhuire graveyard extension in Askeaton. The month before, Keary strongly criticised Mayor Moran over a proposed multi-million euro commitment, from his discretionary mayoral fund, to purchase a 70-acre site in Patrickswell.
“Are you going to buy cattle or something? At the moment there isn’t a whole pile of money in cattle, so you might be better off sowing spuds there,” he chided.
Then there was the time Keary deemed it “inappropriate” of the Mayor to have worn the mayoral robes at the the National Famine Commemoration 2025 in Kilmallock. Before that, he was kicking up at the DEM for needing approval to ride bicycles on a cycling study trip to Denmark, while Mayor Moran didn’t need any approval for his foreign trips.
There was also the time he referred to the Mayor’s plans for his five-year term as “a wishlist from little Johnnie for Christmas for Santy”.
So yes, even the Mayor probably needed a little sit down after reading the front page of the Limerick Post last week.
Cllr Keary even went as far as putting his name on the record at last week’s Rathkeale area meeting to say that the chaos which ensued at the mayoral fund brawl was not the fault of the Mayor but his own fellow council and party members – including members of his own party.
“We have our own misgivings from time to time, but it was the behaviour of the elected members, other than the Mayor, the last day. I was ashamed of some of our councillors – within our own party. The childishness was unreal, unheard of,” he confessed.
In the words of former US vice president Hubert Humphrey, “To err is human. To blame someone else is politics.”
– Local Democracy Reporting Scheme