There was high drama surrounding the election of the Mayor of Kilkenny last night.
Fine Gael’s Pat O’Neill – who was eventually ratified – says an attempt by fellow councillors to have someone else elected “felt a bit underhanded”.
Pat O’Neill was expected to be unopposed in his bid for the Mayoral chain last night, succeeding Fianna Fáil’s Joe Malone – in keeping with a pact between the two parties.
However, some members within Fianna Fáil decided at the 11th hour that they wanted to try keep the position within the party for another year.
Pat O’Neill says it was the timing of their attempts that most bothered him.
There was also an attempt by Fianna Fáil to get other councillors on board with their bid.
Independent Breda Gardner and the Green Party’s Malcolm Noonan were each offered a 6-month stint as Mayor if they were to back Andrew McGuinness for the position last night.
Malcolm told KCLR today that, while it was tempting, he couldn’t accept.
After all the drama, Mayor Pat O’Neill was eventually unanimously elected.
