Mayor of Limerick John Moran responds to Dr Pat Daly’s account of City Hall row

MAYOR John Moran says his version of events differs from that of council director general Dr Pat Daly regarding an alleged physical altercation between the pair, adding: “We have different recollections.”

The first citizen claimed he was “physically manhandled out of the way” during a tense exchange.

It came after Mayor Moran appeared on local radio last October, where he criticised the council’s delivery of Christmas plans.

READ MORE: Physical altercation or ‘robust exchange?’ Limerick mayor and Dr Pat Daly dispute row at City Hall

Dr Daly said he felt the mayor had thrown council staff “under the bus” following the interview, and described their clash in City Hall soon after the radio broadcast as “a fairly robust exchange”.

The disclosure of the incident came on Tuesday in the first instalment of a three-part series in The Currency by former Limerick Leader editor Alan English, focusing on the deteriorating relationship between the two most senior figures in the local authority.

When contacted by Limerick Live on Tuesday, Limerick City and County Council did not comment further.

However, this Wednesday morning Mayor Moran said in a statement to Limerick Live: “As Pat says in the article he was ‘upset’ that morning following the interview, and he has described what followed as ‘a fairly robust exchange’. My own account is also set out there. We have different recollections, but I don’t intend to add to that.”

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Meanwhile, in the second instalment of the series, published this Wednesday morning, it has been claimed that since Mayor Moran became Limerick’s first directly-elected mayor, “Team Limerick has fragmented”, with people now “aligned in camps”.

Northside Fine Gael councillor Olivia O’Sullivan said: “People who have got on well for years have taken sides. They are in the mayor’s camp, or JP McManus’s camp, or the council’s camp or some other camp.”

Councillor Joe Leddin said the local authority is in “absolute crisis” and “nearly in a state of paralysis”.

“It’s like a family at war in public – and it’s not doing the individuals any good in terms of their own mental health,” the City West councillor and former mayor said. “We are actually on the rocks.”

Another stakeholder told Mr English: “So much ground has been made by Limerick over the last decade. Thousands of multi-national jobs were created. But now it’s like ‘Team Limerick’ has fragmented and projects across the city are being impacted. If one side is pro-something, the other side will go against – and you have a logjam.”

A council staff member said privately: “Nobody is saying it was amazing before he came – but our delivery has gone to the dogs since he’s come in. We’re not delivering. We’re losing investment everywhere”. 

Businesswoman Helen O’Donnell, who was runner-up in the June 2024 election eventually won by John Moran, claimed the mayor told her he was not going to run for the role seven months before the vote, which she said prompted her to enter the race.

Mayor Moran said he does not recall the conversation, but added it is “quite possible I was of that view at the time”.

Early in his term, the mayor angered councillors when he suggested they should apply to sit on the boards of companies operating at arm’s length from the local authority, including Limerick Twenty Thirty.

Social Democrats councillor Shane Hickey-O’Mara claimed that after he expressed a view on the matter, he was “screamed at from across the room”.

A psychotherapist by profession, he said it informed his view of the mental state of various individuals.

“The culture is to scream people down, frighten them, make them go quiet. They’re making snide comments. They’re laughing at you. They’re walking out when you start talking,” he said.

He described the council chamber as “the most insecure room I’ve ever been in”.

City North councillor Sharon Benson of Sinn Féin said the director general is “part of the problem”.

“I know the mayor rubbed people up the wrong way. But right now, I see the mayor trying to make it work, but I don’t think Pat is. I think there’s just a solid ‘No, this isn’t happening’,” she said.

One staff member said they felt “sick to the stomach” at a meeting where Mayor Moran was “bickering” with senior management.

Another said his “micromanagement” has made their “life a living hell”.

“He’s just very hard to work with, because he will never concede a point. We have a saying among ourselves – we mightn’t be good enough for John Moran, but we’re good enough for each other,” the staff member added.

Government is planning a review into the legislation which underpins the role of Mayor of Limerick, and also sets out the division of responsibility between Mr Moran and Dr Daly.

But its timeline is unclear.

Mayor Moran appeared live on RTE's Prime Time on Tuesday night in which he appeared to criticise the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage.

"I don't think it's really fair of the department to be washing its hands on this issue. In a way, I have to try and figure out where to go. I have an interpretation of the legislation. I spent many years working as a lawyer interpretring and indeed writing legislation at the Department of Finance. We've asked the department for an interpretation of what the actual legislation they wrote was intended, and how it was intended to operate in various different factual situations. They havent presented us with that. It's not necessarily fair on Limerick, and it's certainly not fair on me or Pat Daly. If we can get the clarity on the legislation, even pending the review, life gets a lot simpler," he said.