Lessons From Clon

4th Jun 2014

It is shameful that Minister Phil Hogan had to intervene in the long-running saga over the Lord Mayor’s pay here in Cork.

In previous years the Lord Mayor’s position had been seen by councillors as a huge opportunity to raise their profile, be it for re-election to City Hall or in the hope of having the letters T and D written after their name.

Photo opportunities are abundant for their twelve months in office and hardly a day goes by when their mug doesn’t appear in local newspapers. The councillor who got hold of the chain closest to an election would benefit most from the publicity - or so the theory went - but out-going Ard-Mhéara Catherine Clancy lost her seat despite the seal of office. Michael O’Connell, the Lorda in 2010-2011 when austerity hit hard lost his too.
 

Labour's Catherine Clancy taking the soup. The former Lord Mayor lost her seat.

Undoubtedly the rosy-red Labour Party logo on their posters and flyers wouldn’t have helped but, in this column’s opinion, persisting with a grossly overweight pay-packet at a time of brutal austerity has had as much a part to play in their re-election failure.

Since austerity began after Fianna Fáil’s disastrous reign in power, Cork citizens have been looking at photos of smiling Lord Mayors in a far more cynical light:

‘Look at your one there on the 100 grand salary and a driver under her arse while I get screwed’

The irony is that the man who has weighed in to finally remove the ludicrous wads of wedge flung at Cork’s Lord Mayor every year is arguably the chief architect of the austerity that shone a light on the silly stacks of spondoolies spent on the office in the first place.
 

Clon With the Wind: Cionnaith Ó Súilleabháin is one of the members of the new Mayoral Council in Clonakilty

Environment Minister Phil Hogan is the public face of the hated property and water taxes that Corkonians are still raging about but he has oddly been the one to finally put a stop to the first citizen’s bonanza.

That said, he has also abolished town councils like those in Clonakilty, Cobh, Youghal, Bandon, Fermoy and Passage West – surely more democracy, accountability and local representation was what the doctor ordered when the economy got sick and not less of it?

The Kilkenny man thought removing funding would strip these Cork communities of a valuable thorn with which to prod and annoy politicians on behalf of their electorate, like himself, further up the political food chain.
 

We raise a glass to Clon for organising their own election

We just loved the reaction that Clon had to the news though – their local heritage council effectively said, ‘why see the removal of funding as pulling the plug on local democracy? We’ll do the job for free!’.

Instead of lying down or even taking a pitiful protest to the Dáil about the abolition, they organised a separate ballot paper for a new ‘Mayoral Council’. The top five candidates sit on the council and get a year each in “office”.

Mayor Collette Twomey was elected on the first count – her reputation as the ‘Baroness of Blackpudding’ at Clonakilty Blackpudding is impressive and, notably, the company is Cork City FC’s shirt sponsor.
 

Mayor Twomey: knows her shit when it comes to pudding

The new mayoral council describes itself as “non-political” – while no committee is void of politics it is surely a message that party politics are not welcome - ensuring that, often obscure, agendas from Dublin do not get in the way of what’s best for this pretty town in west Cork that has just received major plaudits for renovating Astna and Emmet Squares.

The experiment will be closely watched by the rest of us around the city and county – especially those of us who think Cork should have, at the very least, far more autonomy from The Pale’s dirty aul whip.  
 

Kilduff: mad for the pudding

The low turnout of just 36% is of some concern (the county council turnout nudged 60%) and the age profile of the successful five candidates is distinctly middle-aged at best.

Some participation from Clonakilty’s energetic 18 to 45 year olds, even as candidates, would increase the group’s appeal and representation - the members of the mayoral council don’t look like anyone you might meet at a midweek session in De Barras or bump into at a stone circle gathering to discuss the future according to rooibos tea leaves.

It’s hard to knock the new council’s initiative and energy for one big reason though. These good people are prepared to work voluntarily on behalf of their town while, shamefully, Cork city’s previous batch of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Labour city councillors fudged every attempt to knock some common sense into the Lord Mayor’s offensively large pay packet.
 

The Clon Pong: the town's bugbear has been a stink cloud whose source has sparked much debate

It would be too much to expect councillors to work for free, it’s not an easy (part time) job, but being more in touch with those they represent is surely a top priority for those now donning the old red robes for the next five years.

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