Mayor to honour council official despite objections

A HIGH-PROFILE Tralee Town Council official, who has been suspended since last October to allow for an investigation into local tourism projects, is to be honoured by the council against the wishes of their management.

Engineer John Griffin, who headed up the Jeanie Johnston and other projects in Tralee, is among six people due to receive mayoral awards from Tralee Mayor Johnny Wall in the town hall on Monday night.

Mayor Wall said he had discussed the situation with Kerry county manager Martin Nolan, who told him it would be ‘inappropriate’ to give an award to Mr Griffin at this time and that no officials would be attending.

However, Mayor Wall convened an emergency council meeting last evening, at which it was decided to go ahead with the presentation of the awards, in the absence of officials, on Monday night. Town clerk John Breen was at the meeting.

“No councillor opposed the granting of an award to Mr Griffin,” the mayor said afterwards.

Mayor Wall said that, as far he was concerned, staff matters were for the manager and he was just fulfilling his civic obligation to honour people who had made a valued contribution to the community in Tralee. “John Griffin put a lot of work and his own time into tourism projects at a time when we had nothing in Tralee in the 1980s. He certainly did his bit and more for tourism here and I will be presenting him with a plaque to acknowledge that,” the mayor added.

Town council officials could not be contacted for comment last evening.

Mr Griffin was suspended last October and his union, the Local Authority Officers’ Association branch of SIPTU, has been seeking his re-instatement.

Others to be honoured by Mayor Wall on Monday night are: Kerry Education Service chief executive Barney O’Reilly to mark 100 years of public education in the county; Tralee Community Hospital campaigner Ellen Rowan; publican Bill Kirby, of the Brogue Inn, for his work for tourism; the FCA, and musician Billy Curtin.