Mayor branded ‘a disgrace’ by party colleague in row over chain
Cllr Fergal Browne pictured during his own tenure as mayor of Carlow in 2020
CAUGHT in the middle of a chain reaction? A Carlow Municipal District meeting descended into acrimony last Thursday when mayor Paul Doogue’s proposal to return the town’s historic chain of office to the county museum prompted a furious response from fellow councillors, including one who stormed out of the chamber. Fine Gael party colleague cllr Fergal Browne described the mayor as “a disgrace. You’re an absolute disgrace”, before exiting the meeting.
Cllr Doogue had told the meeting in the town hall that he intended to table a motion at the next MD meeting calling for the original mayoral chain, which is over 100 years’ old, to be returned to Carlow County Museum, from which it was removed in 2019 following a council vote.
Voted on unanimously at the time, the chain had been presented to the museum by the outgoing Cathaoirleach of Carlow Town Council, councillor Eileen Brophy, ahead of the dissolution of Carlow Town Council in 2014. It remained there for five years before the Carlow MD voted to retrieve it, on a motion proposed by cllr Fergal Browne and seconded by cllr Tom O’Neill.
Reportedly, some councillors had complained that the replacement chain was of poor quality and had already begun to deteriorate.
Cllr Doogue acknowledged the decision to retrieve the chain had been made democratically and said nothing improper had been done. However, he argued it had nonetheless been the wrong call.
“I don’t believe any person or councillor should be able to remove an item from the museum on a long-term basis,” he told the meeting.
His remarks were cut short by cllr Browne, who rose abruptly from his seat. “You’re losing the run of yourself now. You’re a disgrace. You’re an absolute disgrace,” he shouted, before walking out of the room.
Cllr Andrea Dalton echoed the sentiment, accusing the mayor of “undermining democracy” and pointing out that the original decision had passed without dissent and with the approval of the museum’s own board.
“Mayor, you’re a disgrace,” said cllr Andrea Dalton.
She added that a democratic decision had already been made with no dissent then or since, and the decision to remove the original chain of office had also been passed by the board of the museum.
“Many decisions have been passed and revisited,” countered cllr Doogue.
“It has been in use in Carlow since 2019 and mirrors the image of our own outgoing urban district council area. It’s the same area. It was passed. Now you’re making it sound like something wrong was done,” replied cllr Dalton angrily.
“In a time when it’s ‘reuse and recycle’, you want to put a chain in a museum when it can be used,” she added.
She went on to accuse the mayor of “going gung-ho against the decision and gung-ho against the wishes of the museum”.
Cllr Dalton also took issue with media coverage of the dispute, telling the mayor: “Why didn’t you come and talk to people about it instead of putting my face all over the ?” to which cllr Doogue replied that he had nothing to do with it.
“Who’s your puppet master, then?” she responded.
She also objected to a photograph published alongside the story last Friday, noting it showed her wearing the cathaoirleach’s chain rather than the mayoral chain.
The controversy was reignited by former councillor Walter Lacey, who says he discovered only after retiring that the chain presented to the museum had been retrieved and put back into ceremonial use. He told that he had then contacted the museum, the mayor and county council CEO Coilin O’Reilly, asserting that the MD, which is, in his opinion, a non-statutory body, had no legal entitlement to remove the chain in the first place and requested its immediate return.
He said that although Mr O’Reilly did get back to him to outline how the process worked, cllr Doogue was the only person to engage with him, meeting him in person. “I explained where I was coming from and he said ‘I agree with you’ and he has since made that public,” he said.
Frustrated by the silence of others, Mr Lacey said he then went to the press.
“My understanding is that the district council of Carlow is not a statutory body and, therefore, has absolutely no entitlement to request for the chain to be removed from the museum,” Mr Lacey said.
“There’s no justification to take a chain out of the museum because you don’t like the one you’re wearing,” he said, criticising what he understood to be the municipal district members’ motivation for taking back the historic chain.
“All I want to do is return the chain nice and quietly, put it back in its place. I didn’t want any fuss,” he declared.
Mayor Doogue said he had been taken aback by the hostility his remarks had provoked and he warned that the chain’s continued ceremonial use put a piece of irreplaceable local heritage at risk.
“If it does get taken, if it’s lost by no fault of anybody, it is Carlow history gone forever,” cllr Doogue said.
Notably, the replacement chain procured in 2019 is currently sitting unused in a drawer.
Cllr Adrienne Wallace described the row as “a storm in a teacup”, saying “there are bigger issues to address here”.
Mayor Doogue’s motion will be formally put before the next meeting of Carlow Municipal District later this month.
