Council Affairs: Mayorsplaining the hot new trend

LIMERICK Post satirical columnist Sean Mellor looks at the phenomenon of ’mayorsplaining’ in his latest Council Affairs.

YOU’VE heard of mansplaining but we’ve witnessed a new phenomenon down in Merchant’s Quay over the past two years. This new anomaly is known as mayorsplaining.

Mayor John Moran took to his blog to outline the folly of those with different viewpoints to his. Unfortunately, his ‘my way or the highway’ approach has often helped little to bring those with different perspectives together.

Mayor Moran is deeply passionate about Limerick, and his desire for change is infectious, but the delivery of this message is where he often falls down.

Instead of working to find middle ground, his mayorsplaining method has, at times, fanned the flames to create negative outcomes and greater division. The ugly side of this has been clearly evident on social media over recent weeks as citizens with opposing standpoints hurl abuse at each other, and at the Mayor himself.

This certainly doesn’t bode well for Team Limerick into the future in the interest of unity and togetherness, no matter how passionate you are. It’s quite saddening, really.

There were many positive signs before the summer recess that councillors, executive, and first citizen were finally working towards sorting out their differences. We need more of this, but Mayor Moran is not the only leader in the Council chamber, or indeed in Limerick. Our local politicians also have a mandate to represent their electorate and now need to be their voices more than ever to get everyone on the same page.

In his latest blog, the Mayor says the message relayed to him after all the fun and games of the past month is “feck the begrudgers”.

This, he opined, “was not so much animosity towards the objectors as an unmistakable hunger for change — and encouragement when I needed it. People had unexpected fun and they want more.”

There were so many positives and the buzz at many of the events during the month of August was electric. More of that please.

But, how about also working harder to bring the objectors, the perceived party poopers, along to the long-table soiree next year? Are we to believe that their protest is invalid? Are these business owners and residents not also part of Team Limerick?

You can’t please some people any of the time, but we finally have a leader who could get everyone singing from the same hymn sheet. We’re so close!

“People watched children play where cars normally pass. They danced in front of the fountain and experienced the Crescent as a place to stay rather than somewhere to drive through,” Moran enthused in his latest missive.