CITY TRIBUNE
Where’s the non Soc Dem pride in Bród committee?
Bradley Bytes – a sort of political column with Dara Bradley
The committee of Galway Pride, a community organisation for the local LGBT+ population, has a distinct Social Democrats look about it.
Its PRO, Sharon Nolan, was a Soc Dem candidate in City Central in the 2019 local election and narrowly missed out on a seat.
The Chair of the committee is Owen Hanley, the party’s sole city councillor in Galway, who represents City East.
Susan McGrady, an ordinary committee member, was a foot soldier of the Purple party in the last local elections, and ‘campaign manager’ for the Soc Dems. She also wants a seat on the party’s national executive policy-making body.
Treasurer, Rob Partridge, has canvassed for the Soc Dems, and has tallied votes with the Soc Dem team at election counts, as well as being linked with a possible run in the Loughrea electoral area.
Disabilities Officer, Cúán Keane, from Connemara, canvassed for Mister Soc Dems in Galway, Niall Ó Tuathail in last February’s General Election; as did Fundraising Officer, David Creaven, who also appears with the Soc Dem teams at count centres.
That’s six members of the Coiste Bród na Gaillimhe – or Galway Pride Committee 2021 – who have, to put it mildly, strong inclinations towards the Social Democrats. And the handful of other committee members may very well be connected to the Soc Dems, too.
All that’s missing is to make LGBT ally, and Soc Dem cult figure in Galway, Ó Tuathail, an honorary member!
What does this tell us about the Pride committee and about political activists and LGBT+ community in general?
Maybe there are no LGBT+ political activists in the other parties, although that seems very unlikely. And while the Soc Dems’ policies are perhaps more in tune with the LGBT+ community’s needs, the other larger parties are hardly silent on LGBT+ issues.
So why then are there mostly Soc Dem members on the committee? Maybe it’s just coincidence. Or could it be that, when local LGBT+ people of non Soc Dem persuasion – they do exist outside the committee apparently! – look at Galway Pride, they see it as a sort of sub-committee of the Galway West and Galway East branches of the Soc Dem party, rather than a fully independent organisation, open to hearing alternative political views on LGBT+ issues?
In fairness, there are some GAA club committees that are basically just an extension of the local Fianna Fáil Cumann. But for an organisation like Galway Pride, which prides itself on representing diversity and difference, its committee is remarkably similar.
(Photo: Owen Hanley, the Chair of Coiste Bród na Gaillimhe – Galway Pride Committee 2021. He’s one of six on the Bród committee who have connections with the Social Democrats).
For more Bradley Bytes, see this week’s Galway City Tribune. You can buy a digital edition HERE.
Primary school students have fallen behind in their education as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a local teachers’ representative.
Tommy Greally, INTO Chief Executive Committee member for Galway and Roscommon, said teachers in the region were noticing a decline in educational development since returning from extended school closures.
“From going to meetings with local teachers, we have noticed that in the first, second and third class groups in Galway and Roscommon, there is a drop in standard and they are requiring extra help.
“Thankfully, we have had extra supports from the Department [of Education] and they are being focused on that extra help, but even junior infants teachers can see that because creches were locked down, the children are a little behind where they normally would be,” said Mr Greally.
“There is just a general sense that it has had a negative effect.”
It was for this reason that nobody – teachers, students nor their parents – wanted to return to online learning.
“It’s so important that we keep the schools open and most teachers agree,” said Mr Greally.
However, there were measures that could be taken to make schools a safer environment, he said – particularly when it came to testing and tracing which was abandoned in late September.
“Contact tracing has to come back, to give confidence to everybody. If I find out one of my pupils has Covid, I contact the parents of the other children in the pod and they can take antigen tests, but they don’t have to if they don’t want to.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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There were 40 volunteers with the Galway Samaritans manning the phones round-the-clock over the three days of Christmas – with a noticeable increase in the length of calls since the pandemic hit.
But surprisingly Christmas day itself is not the busiest on the calendar over the festive season.
“Often people if they have anybody to be with will not be alone on the day itself, it’s before and after Christmas that people get worried about family, relationships, health, being alone, drinking – all the normal stresses and strains in their life,” explains branch director Catherine Emerson.
“And this is a very uncertain time. This Christmas and last they are worried about who they are allowed to see, where can they go. If they live on their own, they would have normally gone to a social club, bingo, a men’s shed – that’s just not happening during Covid.”
The Galway branch of the Samaritans is handling 2,000 calls a week. In November the charity answered 32,500 calls nationally, which was five per cent up on the month before. The number of calls overall are slightly down compared to 2019 before the pandemic.
Some Galway volunteers had to step down due their own health making them vulnerable or they were looking after vulnerable relations. Luckily enough new volunteers have stepped up, training online to take the calls to the freephone number.
There are currently 114 listening volunteers who man the phones three hours a week from the Nuns Island headquarters, with an average of 90 donating their time every week.
“A large proportion of calls last less than 30 seconds. These are people who are not able to talk at that time but want to know when that time comes there is somebody at the other end of the line.
“The average length of call is actually twelve minutes but we’ve noticed since Covid that the calls are actually a lot longer so there may be less of them but the volunteers may be talking for 20 minutes, even an hour.”
Catherine was on duty overnight on Christmas night, while another stalwart Anne Wynne, a former director, was lending a sympathetic ear to callers on her 13th Christmas day.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
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The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Galway citizens – who live in the county because they’ve been ‘priced-out’ of the city housing market – may be ineligible to apply for new affordable purchase schemes offered by Galway City Council.
The ‘fundamentally unfair’ scenario was flagged by a member of the local authority’s Housing Strategic Policy Committee (SPC), and former city councillor, Mark Lohan.
He has called for ‘fairness’ in the scheme’s eligibility to allow city people living in the county to apply to buy affordable homes in the city they were born and reared but no longer can afford to live.
A City Council affordable purchase scheme, devolved from central Government, is expected to be unveiled in the first quarter of 2022.
According to Mr Lohan, one of the first affordable homes available for purchase is expected to be the 85-unit plan in Merlin Woods, which is currently going through planning and is not expected to be ready for occupancy until 2025.
Some of the criteria for eligibility to apply to buy an affordable home in the scheme includes an upward income limit of €65,000 for an individual, it must be for first-time buyers and for new builds only.
There is also a requirement for residency in the city, although the length of residency is not yet specified.
See full story in this week’s Galway City Tribune, on sale in shops now – or you can download a digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie
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