'A bit jealous of our medieval city' - Kilkenny candidate fires back at 'not a city' comment by Labour TD

Candidate in the local elections for Kilkenny City Seán Ó hArgáin has taken his party colleague and TD for Louth, Ged Nash, to task for what he called his ill-informed comments on Kilkenny’s city status.

Mr O'hArgain, a former Mayor of Kilkenny, has offered to host his friend on a re-education programme for a weekend in the Marble City to ‘put him straight’ on the history and current status of Kilkenny.

Deputy Nash claimed that Kilkenny is a town, not a city, while demanding that his home town of Drogheda be included in the Living City Scheme. Mr Ó hArgáin said that Deputy Nash needed to bark up another tree to secure funding for his own town.

“The killing thing is that Ged knows Kilkenny well and has visited the city regularly. We have treated him to a great welcome and it’s obvious that he is a bit jealous of what our medieval city has achieved,” said Mr O'hArgain.

“While we share his frustration at the lack of funding for Drogheda, our fellow former Corporation and Borough Council-led town, attacking our city status is the wrong way to go.

“Both of our large urban settlements have a vibrant cultural, tourism and built heritage, as Ged stated in his Dáil contribution.

The fact remains, however, that our city remains a city and always will. That is because King James I had the good sense to grant Kilkenny city status, under Royal Charter in 1609. We will gladly show Deputy Nash the charter in the Medieval Mile Museum when he takes up the re-education offer!”

Mr O’hArgain said that a number of national politicians have done their best to end this, particularly Meath man, Noel Dempsey.

“Even the destructive actions of local Minister, Phil Hogan, in 2014 had to accept ‘the continued use of the term city’. Messing with Kilkenny’s status is a dangerous game indeed,” he said.

The Labour candidate replied more seriously that it was past time to revisit the way city’s are determined in Ireland.

“Not a single new city has been declared in Ireland since we achieved our independence. North of the border from Drogheda, both Lisburn and Newry have been granted city status. Towns like Drogheda, Dundalk and Sligo have strong cases to make for city status,” he said.

He also called for the reversal of the decision to abolish the city and town councils which he said were the ‘heartbeat’ of local government in Ireland.

“We would hope to see Deputy Nash join us in this campaign, giving us back proper European- style local democracy,” he said.