Taxpayer Footed €650 Limo Bill for Catherine Connolly's Croke Park Trip to All-Ireland Final.

Catherine Connolly has launched her bid to become president

Galway West’s very own Independent TD, Catherine Connolly, has decided that what this country needs right now—amid numerous geo-political crises, Russians probing Irish coastal water, and a nervous economy —is herself in the Áras.

Standing outside Leinster House like a Socialist prophet, if that prophet were flanked by the Social Democrats, People Before Profit, and a ragtag band of Independents who somehow scrounged up enough nominations to get her on the ballot. Connolly declared Ireland to be at a “critical state.” (Groundbreaking insight—has she been watching the news?)

Her mission? To “empower people to find their own voices.” Because nothing says “empowerment” like a career politician—who has spent years inside the system—promising to shake things up from the cushy, state-funded confines of the presidency, where she has absolutely no power to change a thing. Even if she wanted a lightbulb changed, if elected, she would have to ask someone else for permission to change said lightbulb. Irish Presidents do not have the power to change a thing.

Catherine Connolly is a career politician. Of 26 years no less. Our intrepid socialist, defender of far left values, fully paid up member of the sisterhood of socialism, engaged in some behaviour that might not be considered very egalitarian, or left wing, or socialist or any of that stuff for the plebs.

Back in 2004, when Catherine Connolly was Mayor of Galway—a position of such earth-shattering importance it probably came with a sceptre, a ceremonial goat, and free parking—Fine Gael’s Cllr Padraig Conneely made a shocking discovery: the city had coughed up €650 to chauffeur Her Socalist Majesty to the All-Ireland hurling final in a limosiuone no less.

Now, in her defence, Connolly argued that the alternatives were simply unthinkable. A taxi? Outrageous—think of the meter! The train? Good God, man, we’re talking about rubbing elbows with the public. Driving herself? What is this, a peasant uprising? And as for a helicopter—well, if only someone had suggested it, it might’ve been cheaper and if not, really given the taxpayers something to cry about.

So yes, the limo was clearly the only fiscally responsible choice. After all, when you’re representing the proud people of Galway at a hurling match, you can’t very well arrive like some commoner who didn’t just land the council with a bill for a day’s transport that costs more than a month’s rent. Priorities, people. As Fine Gael Cllr Padraig Conneely said at the time, “You would buy return flights to Los Angeles for that money.”

Galway taxpayers coughed up €1,000 a week to ferry Catherine around while she was the Mayor of Galway. She wasn’t the only Galway Mayor to get the Limousine treatment in that period. €250,000 has been paid to the same company over the previous five years for limousine hire. (Limo Corporate Hire Irl Ltd). It was during Ireland’s Celtic tiger era, Town Cllrs from Leitrim on junkets to Monaco were being mistaken for the Sultans of Brunei and Dubai. A few years later, people will remember that John O’Donohue, the former Fianna Fáil Kerry TD, was forced to resign the office of Ceann Comhairle by the Labour Party because of his limousine adventures. Catherine’s all-Ireland limousine liaison is not in the same league, but was symptomatic of the era.

Would I take an all-expenses limo trip to the All-Ireland hurling final? I absolutely would. Because political hypocrisy is one of the gravest of sins. Especially if you’re a socialist who’s been ferried to an All-Ireland final in a limousine and then claimed that “the only alternative transport was a taxi, which would have incurred further costs on the council.”

Must have been no trains running to Dublin that day from Galway, sure they were only playing Cork in an All-Ireland final.

VERY IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT - Anyone got a spare ticket for Sunday’s All-Ireland final between Cork and Tipperary? Will shill for Middle East dictatorships, Sinn Féin, Fine Gael, or whatever you're having yourself.