THERE WAS a good-humoured response in Co Tipperary yesterday as local radio news led with a controversy about a councillor in Northern Ireland who has said he would rather go to Outer Mongolia than visit Nenagh.
Randal Daniel McDonnell, an Independent member of Co Antrim’s Moyle District Council, made the comment following an invitation by Nenagh Town Council.
The two councils have been twinned for 25 years and regularly exchange visits.
In August, a delegation of councillors from Nenagh travelled to Co Antrim for the Oul’ Lammas Fair in Ballycastle. A return visit by the Moyle councillors is scheduled for the end of next month and is expected to include a trip to Limerick’s Thomond Park for a rugby match followed by dinner.
However, when the matter was discussed by Moyle District Council, Mr McDonnell asked: “What would anybody want to go to Nenagh for? I would rather go to Outer Mongolia.”
According to yesterday's Belfast Telegraph, which reported the comments, Mr McDonnell, who lives in Cushendun and represents the Glens district electoral area, is "famed for his politically incorrect outbursts" and for being a kill-joy who "cancelled Christmas" when he was council chairman in 2001.
The chief executive of Moyle District Council, Richard Lewis, was confident that the visit would go ahead and said his council had “an excellent ongoing relationship” with Nenagh.
Nenagh mayor Sinn Féin councillor Séamus Morris yesterday told The Irish Times: "Nenagh is known as a stranger's paradise and Randal will be welcomed with open arms" at any time.
He hoped Outer Mongolia was not being denigrated – he assumed it was “a nice place too”.
Mr McDonnell could not be reached for comment. Moyle District Council said: “Randal doesn’t have a mobile phone, doesn’t use an answering machine and is hard to get hold of.”
