GREAT things, they say, can happen when you don’t care who gets the credit.
So perhaps, rather than looking to get kudos for everything, what if our Mayor and city fathers instead accepted responsibility for their actions? There wouldn’t be half the commotion down in Merchant’s Quay if they could work in unity, rather than constantly trying to get the upper hand.
And look, credit you give yourselves isn’t worth having. So don’t mind trying to score the brownie points.
As I scrolled down through the auld FaceTube the other night, it struck me that this is a big part of the problem down in Limerick City and How’s Your Father. Of course, it always has been, but it has entered a whole new mad-as-a-box-of-frogs dimension since the arrival of our new directly-elected leader.
Back in the day, our mayors, elected by their colleagues in the chamber for a term of one year, would have been itching to get their name on at least on Mickey Mouse statue before their jig was up. The transience of life makes local councillors act a tad silly, especially when there’s everlasting acclaim going a begging at the feet of some grotesque effigy or other.
Unfortunately, little changes down in the big house on Merchant’s Quay. We may have a new head honcho, a new layer of democracy, but the desire for pats on the back is as strong as ever.
As CS Lewis once said, a man who knew all too well about fantasy adventures, “Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less.”
Correcting a Limerick Post headline on his Twitter/X account this past week, the Mayor had a ‘better wording’ for a piece titled: ‘Rail the right track to Limerick’s future, Council meeting with Irish Rail hears‘.
“This could read – ‘Councillors get on board with Mayor and Irish Rail’s vision for a Limerick built on trains’,” Mayor Moran suggested.
Now, in fairness to the man, he did qualify his trumpet blowing solo by pointing to a piece (also published in this newspaper) he penned himself extolling the value of rail and bus travel rather than ‘the horrible spectre of traffic-clogged growth’. The Mayor was on the same page as his Council colleagues, that’s the bottom line, but sometimes keeping your powder dry is the best approach.
“One clear voice”, that’s the phrase I keep hearing from councillors at local authority meetings.
What Council members want is everyone in City Hall speaking out of the same collective orifice, and nobody going rogue, and giving everyone their fair shake of the credit.
Shur, listen, ye are all a great bunch, so take a bow.
Before I go – be careful out there, get them before they get you, and remember, no man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself or get all the credit for doing it.
– Local Democracy Reporting SchemeÂ