Bizarre dispute between lord mayor and driver settled

A BIZARRE dispute between Cork’s Lord Mayor and his official driver which forced the city’s first citizen to drive himself has been resolved.

City Hall’s corporate affairs office released a short statement yesterday confirming the row is over.

“There was a misunderstanding which has been resolved. All matters now proceeding as normal,” Ita Madden, the council’s communications co-ordinator said in the statement.

City Hall has traditionally contracted chauffeuring companies to drive the first citizen to various functions.

Abbey Chauffeurs currently provides drivers for the first citizen’s trademark 08 C 1-registered Ford — one driver for weekdays and another for weekends.

However, a dispute arose earlier this week between Lord Mayor Brian Bermingham and his weekday driver. The situation arose after what has been described as a “clash of personalities”.

City Hall declined to comment in detail on the matter. For the past week, Mr Bermingham has been behind the wheel of the gleaming Ford driving himself to official functions.

He also declined to comment in detail on the matter when contacted and said corporate affairs officials were handling all queries.

He confirmed that the weekend driver will be driving him to his range of functions this weekend.

Among them is a reception and performance of Partners in Peace at the Waterfront Hall, Belfast. No doubt he will bring that spirit with him on Monday, when the regular weekday driver with whom he had the dispute resumes duty.

Mr Bermingham said he didn’t mind driving the car but he admitted finding parking had been a problem.