For long serving Sinn Fein Councillor Joanna Byrne yesterday’s election of Cllr. Paddy McQuillan as Mayor of Drogheda was by no means a joyous occasion. Once again she had been denied the chance to become the town’s first citizen by the other parties engaging in a voting pact.

While the visibly upset and disappointed, Councillor Byrne congratulated the new Mayor she described the voting pact that had denied her once again as a charade.

“In my eight and a half years on this Council I have served myself with determination, grit, and more importantly grace” she said. Despite this charade, today will be no different and I’ll start off by congratulating you Mayor on your appointment.

“I can only imagine how proud of a day this is for you, your wife Deirdre and your wider family and I wish you well in your term. Drogheda had a non-entity of a Mayor last year and the expectations of you to match Cllr Hall’s previous levels of engagement and representation in this office will be exceptionally high and you have mammoth task ahead of you to deliver that.

“That said, it would be remiss of me not to comment on how you’ve got here and the return of the biggest circus show in town. At a time where our town is facing many challenges, the election was interesting in the fact that people voted for stability and security, with a minimal turn over in representation. ‘Better the devil ye know’ as the old saying goes.

“This could be in part due to the collegial approach we had taken as a Council offering a united front on many of the big issues in recent times most recently the D Hotel Fiasco. There was a real opportunity here for you all to build on this and show that the equality and fairness we advocate for our constituents starts right here, that we treat each other with the same fairness and respect, but it seems we still don’t.

“Your exclusion of SF for Mayors and Chairs was perhaps expected. But you excelled yourselves this year in your tactical orchestration last week to exclude SF from all the various committees we serve on. The best interests of these committees was not taken into consideration when passions and expertise where overlooked for power and greed.

“This, as always, was led by one or two usual suspects, supported by some others who I’m sincerely disappointed in, and others have just sold their souls to the devil it seems for two pieces of silver, and I’m including you in that Mayor.

“Your years of abstaining and never actively participating in trying to enact change in this Chamber does not in my view warrant such a reward.

In gathering his band of merry men to ensure the numbers were in place to secure this political pact of exclusion county wide, it seems a myth was being peddled to newly appointed members by an experienced Cllr that they would get nothing done if they didn’t sign up to the pact.

“Having been on the outside of this Golden circle throughout all of my service, and my party colleagues for many years before me I can attest to the fact that this is wholly untrue. However, I feel that this has left the Executive exposed and I feel they should be afforded the opportunity to comment on this and reassure the Members and indeed the public that all Cllrs are and will continue to be treated equally by the powers that be and no favouritism or backhanders will be afforded to those in this pact.

“This is something I will be monitoring throughout this term and won’t be afraid to pull either the pact, or the executive up on if I feel there is a sniff of it.

Working relations are fractured here and trust is broken. Spouting to the media and on social media that we need to work as a united front to deliver for Drogheda, but actively moving in ways to undermine that unity only delivers division. Division for Drogheda at the hands of this political pact.

“The people of our town and city deserve better regardless of who they vote for. What I am resolute on though is the Sinn Fein always has, and will continue to put the needs of the people first, and we will remain focused on that over this term.

Before I finish I’d like to take a moment to quote a line or two from a statement you released Mayor, on June 14^th 2021,

“What we have now is a system where pacts are entered into on the day local elections are counted as quid pro quo for further back scratching down the road”. 

“This form of cronyism is undemocratic and it needs to change. Passing the chains of office to each other in backstage deals that deliberately exclude other elected members of the council needs to stop.

“The chains of office of the mayor and deputy mayor of Drogheda are not the property of any individual or political party to pass around as they see fit. They are the property of the people of Drogheda and they are paid for by the tax payer. 

“The pact system has been in place for so long that the standard response to any challenge is “that’s the way it’s done”.  Some want it to stay.  They are happy to hand the chains around in return for political gains and status.

“But there are fairer alternatives worthy of considering for an honourable and responsible post of first citizen. 

“Secret pacts are unfair and undemocratic and unworthy of the honour and importance of this post for Drogheda.  In order for it to change, all elected representatives must want to work together to change it. If not we will continue as we are with individuals, some of whom were not elected by the people, handing the chains to and fro excluding democratically elected representatives from their Game of Chains. Cronyism has no place in modern politics.”

“Mayor, it’s pretty evident to me that you are in fact the biggest player in your own "Game of Chains”. As I said earlier, you sold your soul for two pieces of silver, and how you expect anybody to take you at your word after this I do not know. This is the danger of what happens when Independents are no longer Independent.”