First online monthly council meeting is incident free
By Maurice Garvey
MONTHLY council meetings went online for the first time this week, passing relatively incident free, reports Maurice Garvey.
Not bad considering the Microsoft Teams platform had to facilitate 40 councillors, council staff, press who consistently pull the short stick in work, and an action-packed agenda.
The monthly council meeting on Monday Photo from Cllr Madeleine Johansson’s Facebook page
Online affairs generally provide odd moments of 'technical difficulty' with even Mayor Ed O'Brien - as the only Cllr present in council HQ to chair the meeting - losing his connection at one stage, but this proved to be a momentary blip in proceedings.
One of the highlights of the meeting, which was sadly only three and a half hours long on a dark Monday evening, was the halftime entertainment provided by long serving Cllr Mick Duff (Lab).
From the comfort of his Tymon abode, Cllr Duff espoused the merits to be enjoyed from the last of the Christmas Quality Streets to be found around the house.
Results of the orange sweets debate amongst his contemporaries would not be the only shocker during the night.
One female councillor enjoyed a cream cake with the camera on, akin to some sort of Japanese food fetish YouTube vid, while a curse word may have been inadvertently shared by another councillor who was battling wonky Wifi, but we can blame that one on Covid, because it gets the blame for everything these days anyway.
The Fine Gael/Sinn Fein housing spat, which is shaping up to be the epic local political battle of the year, failed to fully ignite but the embers of the Lindisfarne dispute carried on into social media long into the days after the meeting.
Legend has it, the Blueshirts and Shinners are still going at it strong and you can check it out online if it floats your boat.
Me? I preferred the cream cake.
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