'Dirty tricks' in Limerick: Fianna Fail in pole position
IN THE first alleged "dirty tricks" incident of the local elections in the city, Fianna Fail candidate Joe Crowley has been accused by rivals Kevin Kiely (Fine Gael) and John Ryan (Labour) of cutting down their posters.
Cllr Kiely got a phone call from a member of the public at 2.15pm on Thursday afternoon saying somebody was tampering with his posters in the Highfield area on the Ennis Road.
He rushed to the scene and says he saw Joe Crowley and one of his election workers with his poster on the ground. However, Mr Crowley says it was an unfortunate incident and a complete misunderstanding.
"I caught them red-handed," said Cllr Kiely. "I'm very disappointed at this gutter politics. I've made a complaint to the Fine Gael director of elections who has passed the complaint onto the gardai," said the Fine Gael candidate, who said more than 40 of his posters have disappeared from the Ennis Road area.
Labour's Cllr John Ryan said he was appalled when he heard the news. "It's very low and very foolish, and in broad daylight too. I felt numb when I heard the news," said Cllr Ryan, who also say a "good few" of his posters are missing in the Ennis Road area. "It's not like they're being blown away," he added.
Joe Crowley said it arose from when he was canvassing with European election candidate Brian Crowley in the area on Wednesday.
"I said to Brian, 'It would be nice to have my posters near your posters'. I told him (the election worker] where the two poles were. What happened was, he went across and he cut down a Kevin Kiely poster and he cut down a John Ryan poster but fortunately I was there so I went back over and told him, 'No, no, no put them back up.' You can't take down someone's posters.' He said, 'No, I was just moving them' and I told him you can't do that," said Mr Crowley.
Mr Crowley says he wanted his posters put up either beneath or behind Brian Crowley's ones on two particular poles.
"So they (election workers] moved one of the (Kevin Kiely] posters down to put it back up in a different position. So the Joe Crowley poster would go behind or underneath the Brian Crowley one. Then they put the other two posters back. That's exactly what happened. I've spoken to Kevin Kiely about it and I've apologised over it," said Mr Crowley, who added that John Ryan's poster was put back exactly where it was and Kevin Kiely's poster was put back up on the next pole.
But Cllr Kiely doesn't believe this version of events.
"I don't accept that he removed mine so he could put up his beside Brian Crowley's. I don't accept any reason why he should touch anybody else posters. It's dirty tricks at its worst," concluded Cllr Kiely.
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Tuesday 22 May 2012
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