IT was former US President Woodrow Wilson that said, “The ear of the leader must ring with the voices of the people”.
And there’s a big difference between taking interest and showing interest. Limerick councillors feel Mayor John Moran doesn’t listen to them and their frustration this past week reached fever-pitch in the Council chamber.
A special meeting on the Boro Park to discuss the Mayor’s plans to build 500 modular homes in Janesboro proved a telling moment. Councillors, for the first time since Moran was elected in June 2024, showed a united front across the political divide.
It was a resounding ‘NO’ to his plans, with plenty of pointers being dished out to him over the three-hour meeting from all sides. Surely a bitter pill for the Mayor, but there was learning in this show of local democracy, if he chooses to take heed.
Independent councillor Frankie Daly appealed to the Mayor to start being more openminded. If not, he warned, “your mayoralty is going to be a disaster”.
“You are losing the run of yourself and you’re not bringing people with you. When it comes to the crunch, you are not prepared to listen,” Cllr Daly maintained.
Fine Gael councillor Peter Doyle was of the view that the Mayor’s vision for modular homes in the Boro Park was “as daft as putting modular homes in the People’s Park”. The “political antenna”, he suggested, didn’t seem to be working when it came to this issue.
Cllr Kieran O’Hanlon (FF) reminded the Mayor that councillors speak on behalf of the people. He claimed that by having named Cllrs Sarah Kiely (FG) and Catherine Slattery (FF) as the brains of the Save Boro Park operation on his blog prior to the meeting, the Mayor was “using them for target practice”.
“This is happening because ye don’t agree with the Mayor. Tough luck! That is totally unacceptable,” he fired at his majesty on high.
Cllr John Sheahan advised the Mayor to “start being real”, before pointing out that most people in the chamber can “see the wood from the trees”. It was no longer, he said, a case of just FF and FG against the DEM.
“It’s the whole chamber today. Everybody seems to be on the same hymn sheet bar yourself, Mayor.”
Cllr Sheahan may not have had the “crystal balls” but did foresee the Council being in “deep trouble” if the Mayor doesn’t receive the message.
It is said that the best remedy for loneliness, loquaciousness, and laryngitis, is skillful listening.
– Local Democracy Reporting Scheme