On the night that Belfast City Council elect their new Lord Mayor, it’s unfortunate that their website is out of action! Great timing.
Part of me wondered whether the outage is connected to the new first citizen Lord Mayor – but that only requires one of two webpages to be changed, and couldn’t possibly require an entire site to be taken down.
Oh, and the new Lord Mayor? Sinn Féin’s Tom Hartley who achieved 25 votes against 23 for the DUP's Diane Dodds. The UUP's Davy Browne will be Deputy Mayor.
The Irish Times published a colourful pen picture of the new man ...
Tom Hartley is a 62 year old who has been involved with Sinn Féin for 40 years and represented the Lower Falls on the council for the past 16 years.
Until his election tonight he was chairman of the council’s Audit Committee, deputy chairman of the Policy and Resources Committee and a member of the boards of both the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust and Belfast Harbour Commissioners.
A keen supporter of tourism initiatives and arts projects, he is a former chairman of the tourism and arts sub-committees.
A familiar figure seen peddling his bike around the city streets, the environmental campaigner will now have to decide whether he wants to be seen in the back of the mayoral gas guzzling limo.
Mr Hartley has written a number of books, including ‘Written in Stone’ a history of the Belfast City Cemetery.
Only time will tell if this year's Lord Mayor will spend so much time on local radio, or whether he'll be jumping any tomatoes like his predecessor Jim Rodgers.
3 comments:
"Peddling his bike"? I hope he gets a good price for it! ;-)
He has a reputation as a good worker, although I think his suggestion to take down the union flag, or put a tricolour along side it, will be a little inflamatory. Unless there really is an election in the making.
I think this is good for Belfast. Tom Hartley is a man who knows this city historically better than most and one that will champion environmental issues.
It can only be a good thing in these times of 'moderisation' and 'development.'
Check out his Belfast cemetry history tours which are fasinating.
Pikey
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