{"id":124133,"date":"2025-11-06T01:33:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-06T01:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/124133\/"},"modified":"2025-11-06T01:33:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T01:33:09","slug":"christmas-in-limerick-the-drama-nobody-paid-to-see-but-everyones-watching","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/124133\/","title":{"rendered":"Christmas in Limerick: The drama nobody paid to see but everyone\u2019s watching"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAIPAN had Roy Keane<\/a> and Mick McCarthy. Watergate had Nixon and Deep Throat. Christmas in Limerick has Mayor John Moran and Dr Pat Daly.<\/p>\n

For those into their spectator sports, last week\u2019s council meeting didn\u2019t disappoint. As our paper was going to print, the three-hour marathon was unfolding. Between talk of leaks, perceived backstabbing, votes of confidence and the threat of a vote of no confidence, it was full value for the non-entry fee.<\/p>\n

READ ALSO:\u00a0Director general Dr Pat Daly says he is ‘fearful’ for Limerick City and County Council<\/a><\/p>\n

If Christmas in Limerick doesn\u2019t end up as the basis for a play, then some student out there needs to make it the topic of a thesis. Why? Because it\u2019s a fascinating insight into the human condition, management, managing people, power plays, leadership, reaction to change, the comfort of the common enemy and the safety of the status quo. <\/p>\n

There’s a whiff of ‘Talk to Joe’ about it. It hasn’t made Livelive, yet, but it did make RTE Radio One’s Today show on Monday morning with\u00a0Philip Boucher-Hayes interviewing the mayor.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While Mayor Moran and Dr Daly may be the two main protagonists, they\u2019re far from alone in this drama series. There are plenty of leading actors, directors, producers, backing dancers, stunt doubles, behind-the-scenes crew and silent spectators who are watching on – some with popcorn, others scratching their heads. <\/p>\n

There are 40 councillors in Limerick City and County Council, a number of whom wrote last week\u2019s script along with the mayor and director general.<\/p>\n

Among the dialogue were mentions of \u201ca s**tshow\u201d, \u201ccarnage\u201d, \u201ca garden full of weeds\u201d, \u201crabbit holes\u201d, \u201ca big girl\u201d, \u201cbroken hearts\u201d, \u201chands on hearts\u201d, \u201cfinger pointing\u201d, \u201cTrojan work\u201d and \u201churt feelings\u201d. There were even echoes of the great Jon Kenny, who, in the guise of hurling legend Timmy Ryan once lamented: \u201cI put a big personal effort in myself this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Very often in life it\u2019s the small things that cause the biggest problems. Limerick, like all cities, has its major issues but somehow it was the Christmas programme that lit the Halloween fireworks early.<\/p>\n

Sometimes a good row is what\u2019s needed to clear the air and reset the room. In an organisation the size of Limerick City and County Council personality clashes are bound to happen – it would be highly unusual if they didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

We all love to be right, that\u2019s just the way we\u2019re built. But for Limerick\u2019s sake, the ones who\u2019ll truly win are those willing to bend a little (or a lot) more than they are used to, accept change, and hear others out to get the train moving again with everyone on board.<\/p>\n

The local crowds are loving Connie at the Theatre Royal. They don\u2019t need to be watching Christmas in Limerick too.<\/p>\n

ADVERTISEMENT – CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n

ADVERTISEMENT – CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n

ADVERTISEMENT – CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n

ADVERTISEMENT – CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n

ADVERTISEMENT – CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n

ADVERTISEMENT – CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n

ADVERTISEMENT – CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n

ADVERTISEMENT – CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n

ADVERTISEMENT – CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAIPAN had Roy Keane and Mick McCarthy. Watergate had Nixon and Deep Throat. Christmas in Limerick has Mayor…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":124134,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[22140,42,8679,44,14563,49592,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-124133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-christmas-in-limerick","tag-headlines","tag-john-moran","tag-limerick-city","tag-limerick-city-and-county-council","tag-mayor-of-limerick","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124133\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}