Limerick mayor references case of soldier who beat woman at inauguration
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Ireland’s first directly-elected mayor John Moran has vowed to work to help make his adoptive Limerick city a safer place, citing a court case which heard a local woman was beaten unconscious in the city by a serving member of the Defence Forces.
Cathal Crotty, aged 22, of Parkroe Heights, Ardnacrusha, Clare, beat Natasha O’Brien, aged 24, unconscious in a random street attack, and boasted about it afterwards on social media. He walked free from a court on Wednesday after getting a fully suspended sentence.
During his official inauguration as the country's first directly-elected mayor of Limerick city and county, and as the first openly gay mayor of Limerick, Mr Moran set out his vision for a safer Limerick in light of the case.
“I think we all want a city and county that is safe. I think it is really important. You’ve got to remember [this] moment, and just imagining what things were like for those people when they were walking home,” Mr Moran said.
“It’s going to be a huge priority for me to really get on top of that issue,” he said.
Earlier, while addressing attendees at the inauguration ceremony at St Mary’s Cathedral, Mr Moran praised the work of the gardaí, ambulance crews, and firefighters who respond when people in the city are in need.
“I have witnessed first-hand the dedication of our frontline workers, I want to thank them from the bottom of my heart for all they do to make Limerick a better place.”
Mr Moran said he hoped people “can always feel welcome, whoever they may be, regardless of where they come from, who they choose to love, or whatever their religious beliefs”.
The former secretary general at the Department of Finance said it was “of course, significant” that he was Limerick’s first openly gay mayor, “but what is more significant is nobody is talking about it”.
“What I have found really interesting, is that on our [new] council we have three members of the LGBT community, [and] we have immigrants who haven't been born in Limerick — including myself."
He said what is "really significant" is that "the people of Limerick no longer see those kind of divisions. That’s a really super statement of how Limerick has progressed as a place for everybody to live and to call home".
Dressed in ceremonial robes and led by a piper, English-born Mr Moran spoke of a “new energy and a new confidence in the air” before he walked from the cathedral to City Hall.
At the conclusion of the official ceremony, local schoolchildren Shaheer Ghaffer, Sean Fitzgerald, and Tia Costelloe were handed the mayor’s microphone and asked him: "Will you diligently perform the responsibilities entrusted to you and serve the people of Limerick to the best of your ability?"
Shaking their hands, the new mayor replied: “I will”.
As well as focusing on law and order, Mr Moran pledged he would also use part of a €40m budget under his control to help do what he could to tackle the city’s capacity crises in housing and hospital beds.
The new mayor later led the 40 recently elected council members in the first formal meeting of the new-look joint-local authority.