Galway Advertiser 2004/2004_01_01/GA_0101_E1_023.pdf 

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January 1 2004

Galway Advertiser

N E W S 23

Eyre Square a shoddy festive showcase says Conneely
BY JULIE TIERNEY Bob Geldof would need to send a copy of his world hit record `Do They Know it's Christmas time at All' to Galway City Council, according to Fine Gael West Ward local election candidate Padraig Conneely, who has described as `pathetic' the city council's effort to make Eyre Square a showpiece this Christmas. Calling the square a "shoddy showcase for the city", he said it lacked any of the Christmas atmosphere that a city of its size should have. "I was in Eyre Square over the weekend and I was embarrassed when I met returning emigrants from Edinburgh, Paris, and Bermingham who were returning to their native city for the Christmas break to see such a pitiful effort by the city council in their feeble effort to showcase Eyre Square." He said the square which boasts a plaque to the late president John F Kennedy and a statue of Padraic O'Conaire, had been turned into a sad spectacle by the city council's neglect and that if it were not for the natural trees and some imaginative businesses like the Great Southern Hotel, the Skeffington Arms Hotel, Fibber Magees Bar, and the Galway Advertiser office, you would not know it was Christmas time at all. "It is time," he said, "that the public in Galway took a more active participation in their own city and not leave it to city council officials who obviously lack the passion and pride for the city. Imagination is not a degree, but common sense can be an education," he said. Conneely, who is running in the local elections in June did however compliment the city council for not forgetting to erect the crib.

Padraig Conneely.

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