Its my statue, my town.. Cllr J Gilligan

Stab*City

Guys trying to show the city in a good light and then this guy comes along.. He actually thinks he owns Limerick. Its people like him who have ruined Limerick. A counsellor calling dancers ******s and claiming the statue as his!

Insect Overlord

*face-palm*

I would love to see this make the local papers. What a shambles.

Lingua Franca

Wow. What a king Cnut. What a wonderful, welcoming place. A flipping dance video. I can't think of anything more harmless and he equates it with vandalism.

Well, if that's what he really wants I'll go on mentally picturing Limerick as the open sewer of grime and grimness portrayed in Angela's Ashes, especially since it seems attitudes haven't changed in the last century.

krudler

Jesus, this is the kind of clown that gets elected in this city

houseinthesun

Question is, was he coming from or going to the local hostelry in the background?
My guess is the former!
His patronising tone alone was sickening .........."People like you"!

Swiper the fox

I watched the secret millionaire thing on sky+ last night and Cllr Gilligan and his cronies seemed to be fairly pissed off handing over the keys to the ex-soldiers, this video is fairly embarrassing for him but I suppose he is from a different generation and didn't understand what was going on, I understood he was popular enough during his term as mayor.

Berty

I posted it to Facebook, I hope the Internet is Kind to him.

[Sarcasm ALARM]

Kess73

What a great example of the backward and ignorant thinking that has helped give Limerick a bad reputation and a great example of the kind of person that businesses get to cross paths with when trying to set up in Limerick.


Local media should be all over this to highlight the kind of abuse and ignorance that attempts at something positive can be met with by certain elected officials in Limerick.

And the scary thing is that there are a number of other elected officials who would have very similar mannerisms and backward thinking that get to influence what happens in this city.


Well done John Gilligan, you just showed yourself up as exactly the kind of elected official that this city and country can do without.

Embarrassing to think that he was the mayor of Limerick and representing the city to outside investors and the like.

He verbally abused the dance crew and accused them of vadalism, maybe he should go and report the "crimes" he witnessed and was happy to make accusations about. If he had a shred of decency he would step down, but the gravy train is far too good for that to happen.

Lingua Franca

Swiper the fox wrote: »

this video is fairly embarrassing for him but I suppose he is from a different generation and didn't understand what was going on

That is absolutely in no way an excuse for saying crap like "this is MY statue". Unless he either a. paid for it out of his own pocket and installed it in public out of the goodness of his over exerted chest muscle or b. cast it himself, both of which I sincerely doubt, given his attitude.

If he was English he'd be calling those guys plebs and telling them to know their place.

Kess73

houseinthesun wrote: »

Question is, was he coming from or going to the local hostelry in the background?
My guess is the former!
His patronising tone alone was sickening .........."People like you"!

Yep from the elected official who likes to get up on a soapbox when there is a reporter around so that he can go on about discrimination against Limerick and people living in Limerick. That video suggests that he is a dab hand at making false accusations and discriminating against people himself.

Brennans Row

Stab*City wrote: »

A counsellor calling kids ******s and claiming the statue as his!

The sound is pretty poor, but I would give Councillor Gilligan the benefit of the doubt here.

He is clearly irate about Kids with a three-day-beard :rolleyes: jumping (dancing) on the Dockers Monument.

Kess73

Lingua Franca wrote: »

That is absolutely in no way an excuse for saying crap like "this is MY statue". Unless he either a. paid for it out of his own pocket and installed it in public out of the goodness of his over exerted chest muscle or b. cast it himself, both of which I sincerely doubt, given his attitude.

If he was English he'd be calling those guys plebs and telling them to know their place.

Good shout, pretty much a less educated version.

Insect Overlord

Brennans Row wrote: »

The sound is pretty poor, but I would give Councillor Gilligan the benefit of the doubt here.

He is clearly irate about Kids with a three-day-beard :rolleyes: jumping (dancing) on the Dockers Monument.

I genuinely can't tell if you're being serious or sarcastic.

How could you possibly give him the benefit of the doubt after watching his behaviour in that video?

Kess73

Brennans Row wrote: »

The sound is pretty poor, but I would give Councillor Gilligan the benefit of the doubt here.

He is clearly irate about Kids with a three-day-beard :rolleyes: jumping (dancing) on the Dockers Monument.

Bet if he was offered a photo op of getting his face in the paper with regards the Make A Move festival before what happened in the video, he would have been quick to try and pretend he was totally behind it and that it was great for Limerick.

Certain elected officials in Limerick. Great at pretending to be behind something or that they had something to do with it when there is a photo op. But not so good at getting behind things when there is no benefit for themselves.

Bit like another elected official who, when it suited him, was all talk about the skate park and had no problem using it as a location for him to have pics taken of himself, but who then months commented in public about how it should be closed down.

banie01

Swiper the fox wrote: »

I understood he was popular enough during his term as mayor.

During his mayoral term all I seem to remember it was a constant stream of B.S and phot ops?
I've never heard a positive opinion of the man from anyone whom he hadn't actually performed a service too...
And even with those folk the opinion is usually one of he's a P.I.T.A but he did me a turn!

Beer Baron wrote: »

I posted it to Facebook, I hope the Internet is Kind to him.

[Sarcasm ALARM]

As have I....
I really cannot believe the small minded petty and bullying attitude he exuded in that post!

Itsdacraic

The state of them.
Pity he didn't knock them back to MTV land.

BobMc

Charming, well done John, I'm sure the press will pick up on it now!

Melion

Itsdacraic wrote: »

The state of them.
Pity he didn't knock them back to MTV land.

Yeah, the state of them :rolleyes:
No mention of that belly which was about to push the bigger guy into the Shannon

Kess73

There once was a man called Gilligan,
Who thought that he was without sin,
One day some dancers made him see red,
And in he went like Joe Dredd.


Respect the statue he said,
I put it there he said,
He puffed out belly and jaw,
and stood like he was the law.

HattieMcDoogal

I'm going to be devils advocate here. I'm by no means condoning what was said but that statue is a memorial. I know someone who lost a family member down the docks (decades ago) and to some dancing on that statue may be seen as akin to dancing on a gravestone.

I'm not trolling, I can just see two sides to this.

Melion

HattieMcDoogal wrote: »

I'm going to be devils advocate here. I'm by no means condoning what was said but that statue is a memorial. I know someone who lost a family member down the docks (decades ago) and to some dancing on that statue may be seen as akin to dancing on a gravestone.

I'm not trolling, I can just see two sides to this.

Thats fair enough, no problem with that. And im sure if someone had went over to them and calmly explained the situation they would have been a lot more welcoming instead of GI fúcking Joe going in all guns blazing abusing them.

Theres no doubt in my mind that he was sitting outside Clohessys, his mates said something so he thought he would be the big man and try to intimidate them to impress people. It backfired badly for him.

Kess73

HattieMcDoogal wrote: »

I'm going to be devils advocate here. I'm by no means condoning what was said but that statue is a memorial. I know someone who lost a family member down the docks (decades ago) and to some dancing on that statue may be seen as akin to dancing on a gravestone.

I'm not trolling, I can just see two sides to this.

But surely if that was Gilligan's initial aim, should he not have gone with that approach rather than going in with accusations of vandalism, claims that it was his statue, and what not?


I wonder if he would have been so aggressive and vocal if there had been a fashion shoot at a prominent statue that involved a model or local "celeb" leaning against or sitting on part of the statue?

tipptopper

He could do with doing a bit of dancing himself and get some exercise, his mouth is nearly as big as his gut; nearly....

D1stant

Kess73 wrote: »

What a great example of the backward and ignorant thinking that has helped give Limerick a bad reputation and a great example of the kind of person that businesses get to cross paths with when trying to set up in Limerick.


Local media should be all over this to highlight the kind of abuse and ignorance that attempts at something positive can be met with by certain elected officials in Limerick.

And the scary thing is that there are a number of other elected officials who would have very similar mannerisms and backward thinking that get to influence what happens in this city.


Well done John Gilligan, you just showed yourself up as exactly the kind of elected official that this city and country can do without.

Embarrassing to think that he was the mayor of Limerick and representing the city to outside investors and the like.

He verbally abused the dance crew and accused them of vadalism, maybe he should go and report the "crimes" he witnessed and was happy to make accusations about. If he had a shred of decency he would step down, but the gravy train is far too good for that to happen.

I dont know anything about Gilligan, but I dont see anything in the video to warrant him resigning

He thought they were abusing the statue. He got the wrong end of the stick. Big deal

And I dont think there is anything backward with him trying to defend public property. He was a bit pompous about it but at least he had the bottle to face them on it.

TEMPLAR KNIGHT

They were dressed like a bunch of scumbags from what I can see in the video in their wife beaters that's what I would think if I just saw them. But because I know a few of them I obviously know they are not. Totally out of line from gilligan in fairness!

Brennans Row

Insect Overlord wrote: »

I genuinely can't tell if you're being serious or sarcastic.

Both!

Insect Overlord wrote: »

How could you possibly give him the benefit of the doubt after watching his behaviour in that video?

I viewed it twice and I found the sound to pretty poor.

To be honest, I can see where Gilligan’s anger is coming from, in that the council has been painstakingly trying to improve the city’s environment only often enough to see it been undone by vandalism, tagging etc.

Therefore he might have just simply misjudged the situation by blowing his top when he confronted those two adults in the video-clip?

Kess73

D1stant wrote: »

I dont know anything about Gilligan, but I dont see anything in the video to warrant him resigning

He thought they were abusing the statue. He got the wrong end of the stick. Big deal

And I dont think there is anything backward with him trying to defend public property. He was a bit pompous about it but at least he had the bottle to face them on it.

If that is how you see it, then fair enough. I think he was out of line with his false accusations and that what he said smacked of double standards based on claims/statements he has made to the media in the past.


I still think it is a bit strange that he has never made any comment in the past in relation to people involved with events leaning on or sitting on any other statues in Limerick if he is so worried about public property. Afterall he is a man who was always been quick to run to one of the local papers or radio station when he had something to say.


I also don't think the way he spoke to other people, even after it was explained to him what was going on is the way someone in his position should speak to people. He was quick to try and intimidate by mentioning he was a councillor yet all he managed to do was sound like an uneducated blow hard used to bullying folk.

Stab*City

The dancers did alot for this town aswell.. they are always out promoting Limerick as much as the next man and some of them were not from here originally.

Id much rather look at some top class dancers do there thing than an auld statue put there by the photo op council we have here in limerick. I read through the dockers monument committee website and nowhere did it mention JG.

I know that my ideal Limerick is not going to suit the next guy. But i hate these dudes that walk around dressed like my grandfather did in 1981 trying to push their way of life on everybody.

Swiper the fox

Just watched the whole thing to see what the fuss was, a lot of ye are losing the run of yereselves completely. The only "kids" involved were the ones making snide remarks constantly in the background, he didn't act in an aggressive manner to any kids, all I saw was two grown muscular men, the first guy was fine and respectful, the second guy who came in with the English accent was extremely aggressive and acted the total bollocks, I missed the part where Gilligan said it was "my statue", could someone say where on the clip it is, he consistently said it was belong to the people of Limerick which is fair enough. He kept his cool throughout while he was being abused all round. Those who are suggesting he should resign are living in cloud cuckoo land, just any excuse to moan about our politicians.
Don't bother making snidey comments until you have watched it in its entirety,
FAIR PLAY TO HIM is what i say, I wish all our councillors had that passion for anything.

Itsdacraic

Swiper the fox wrote: »

Just watched the whole thing to see what the fuss was, a lot of ye are losing the run of yereselves completely. The only "kids" involved were the ones making snide remarks constantly in the background, he didn't act in an aggressive manner to any kids, all I saw was two grown muscular men, the first guy was fine and respectful, the second guy who came in with the English accent was extremely aggressive and acted the total bollocks, I missed the part where Gilligan said it was "my statue", could someone say where on the clip it is, he consistently said it was belong to the people of Limerick which is fair enough. He kept his cool throughout while he was being abused all round. Those who are suggesting he should resign are living in cloud cuckoo land, just any excuse to moan about our politicians.
Don't bother making snidey comments until you have watched it in its entirety,
FAIR PLAY TO HIM is what i say, I wish all our councillors had that passion for anything.

Exactly. He saw some fools in wife beaters, jumping and swinging off a statue that he and other people in Limerick worked hard to raise money for to commerate the dead dockers of Limerick. It's no wonder he may have over-reacted initially. If they were filming the whole thing why didn't they include the clips of what exactly they were doing on the statue?

Stab*City

Swiper the fox wrote: »

Just watched the whole thing to see what the fuss was, a lot of ye are losing the run of yereselves completely. The only "kids" involved were the ones making snide remarks constantly in the background, he didn't act in an aggressive manner to any kids, all I saw was two grown muscular men, the first guy was fine and respectful, the second guy who came in with the English accent was extremely aggressive and acted the total bollocks, I missed the part where Gilligan said it was "my statue", could someone say where on the clip it is, he consistently said it was belong to the people of Limerick which is fair enough. He kept his cool throughout while he was being abused all round. Those who are suggesting he should resign are living in cloud cuckoo land, just any excuse to moan about our politicians.
Don't bother making snidey comments until you have watched it in its entirety,
FAIR PLAY TO HIM is what i say, I wish all our councillors had that passion for anything.

And FAIR PLAY TO YOU! You urge people to watch the video in its entirety yet you dont yourself and decide then to judge other posters! Typical Gilligan attitude. :rolleyes:

Swiper the fox

Stab*City wrote: »

And FAIR PLAY TO YOU! You urge people to watch the video in its entirety yet you dont yourself and decide then to judge other posters! Typical Gilligan attitude. :rolleyes:

You obviously have an axe to grind as the thread starter, are you that aggressive English guy? Love your name by the way:rolleyes:.
What are you talking about? I said I watched it in its entirety, which is more than I think a few of the commenters did.

Your response to my post is idiotic to say the least, I don't even know where to start in response to it. Please try to express yourself a bit better.
I have absolutely no connection with Gilligan, in fact any comments I have made in the past would have been quite unfavorable, in this case I have no problem?

Lingua Franca

Swiper the fox wrote: »

He kept his cool throughout while he was being abused all round.

Did you watch a different video to me? I watched the link in the OP, if it helps.

Itsdacraic wrote: »

If they were filming the whole thing why didn't they include the clips of what exactly they were doing on the statue?

They did. It's the last few seconds of the video.

Swiper the fox

Lingua Franca wrote: »

Did you watch a different video to me? I watched the link in the OP, if it helps.




They did. It's the last few seconds of the video.

Don't know how I got myself into this position as defender of John Gilligan but I can't just let it lie. At no stage did he lose his cool, he seemed a little flustered alright but at one stage the English guy was shouting in his face in a really aggressive manner. The OP suggests that it was a bunch of kids that were being attacked by the councillor, to be fair that couldn't be further from the truth, there may have been kids involved but all I saw was two large adults and some older teenagers and they didn't do themselves any credit. Lots of people jumped on this topic when it started but they are all quiet now, I'd be interested to see what the reaction is from Facebook or wherever it is being watched. Plenty of people will assume the worst without watching it, this is what I did before I saw it. I don't want to get involved in a row here but I am giving my honest impressions.

Lingua Franca

I'm getting some pretty disgusted reactions on facebook from other performers. Most of my friends are arty types (as am I) and entertainers and have done some variations of busking, street theatre, flash mobs etc. I can't post their reactions here though, it'd just be a load of asterixes.

Insect Overlord

Swiper the fox wrote: »

he didn't act in an aggressive manner to any kids, all I saw was two grown muscular men,

Whatever about the kids, but he was certainly aggressive towards the adults. Just after 1:20 on the video he gets right in the face of the camera-man, pointing his finger and quoting his title as Councillor. He then incorrectly accuses them all of vandalism.

Around the 01:30 mark he walks up as close to the second man a he could possibly get without physically touching him. He says he can "track them down". That's a fairly menacing thing to say to a total stranger at the side of the road.

He then spends 3 minutes repeating "Stay off the statue" as if it's his own property. Surely if he felt the statue was in danger then the local Garda station around the corner should have been his first port-of-call. I'll point out more when I get a few minutes to dissect the video in more detail later.

celticcrash

It seems that John Gilligan was trying to protect the Dockers Monument.
The two men were the agressors here. One of them started screaming at him.
I bet if you asked the two bearded men what the monument stood for, they would not have a clue.
Fair play to John Gilligan we need more people like him.

aN.Droid

celticcrash wrote: »

It seems that John Gilligan was trying to protect the Dockers Monument.
The two men were the agressors here. One of them started screaming at him.
I bet if you asked the two bearded men what the monument stood for, they would not have a clue.
Fair play to John Gilligan we need more people like him.

We need more people who see red and incorrectly judge people?

Sounds like the dream alright.

juneg

I was in Paris recently and as we went to a lot of parks with children we noticed all the statues / public art / memorials were not really accessible to public as they had ropes or railings around them. I would agree with this method of protecting public statues and I think Irish local authorities should include the cost of this initially.

The Limerick dockers worked hard and mainly died young. It's really not ok to jump/ dance on any monument. It is more respectful to have a look but dont touch approach.
Put it this way, if I were walking past the dockers statue with my children and one of them jumped on it I would give out to them, get them off it and explain that we dont risk destroying public property. I wouldnt like to see anyone jumping on it.

seachto7

Would it have been different if the Ali G lads were hanging off the O Connell monument, or the Richard Harris one?
Or if they were swinging off statues out in UL between the library and concert hall.

They more than likely weren't damaging the statue at all and were doing no harm to anyone, but they come across as twats and Gilligan comes out of this looking like a buffoon.

whatdoicare

I'm confused - were the dancer guys jumping on the statue?
If so, I'd be livid if I was the artist who created that art work. They could do damage to it.
I'm only 30 and I'd have yelled at them too if I saw them jumping all over a monument. It belongs to Limerick city - that doesn't mean it can be danced on if anyone feels the need to.

Swiper the fox

Insect Overlord wrote: »

Whatever about the kids, but he was certainly aggressive towards the adults. Just after 1:20 on the video he gets right in the face of the camera-man, pointing his finger and quoting his title as Councillor. He then incorrectly accuses them all of vandalism.

Around the 01:30 mark he walks up as close to the second man a he could possibly get without physically touching him. He says he can "track them down". That's a fairly menacing thing to say to a total stranger at the side of the road.

He then spends 3 minutes repeating "Stay off the statue" as if it's his own property. Surely if he felt the statue was in danger then the local Garda station around the corner should have been his first port-of-call. I'll point out more when I get a few minutes to dissect the video in more detail later.

You've lived a fairly sheltered life if you consider Gilligans behaviour threatening, I assume he pointed out that he was a councillor to ensure the lads that he wasn't just some crank, same as anyone would have done in the situation, the only threatening behaviour I saw was from the English guy, the carry on of the young fellas behind the camera was an embarrasment.

smcgiff

The crew were wise to the PR potential from the get go.

Gilligang was, ahem, a little the worse for wear. It's a pity he couldn't articulate himself better, and all we see from the crew's antics were their own final shot. We don't see what angered Gilligan.

I don't think anyone comes out of this glowing.

Itsdacraic

Swiper the fox wrote: »

You've lived a fairly sheltered life if you consider Gilligans behaviour threatening, I assume he pointed out that he was a councillor to ensure the lads that he wasn't just some crank, same as anyone would have done in the situation, the only threatening behaviour I saw was from the English guy, the carry on of the young fellas behind the camera was an embarrasment.

You could almost sense their delight at getting their big "you tube" moment.

Itsdacraic

Lingua Franca wrote: »

Did you watch a different video to me? I watched the link in the OP, if it helps.




They did. It's the last few seconds of the video.

Exactly one nicely edited in clip lasting a couple of seconds. Why didn't they show the full episode leading up to when Gilligan came across to them?

I'd be pretty pissed off if a memorial to a relation of mine was being used as a dance studio.

aN.Droid

Itsdacraic wrote: »

Exactly one nicely edited in clip lasting a couple of seconds. Why didn't they show the full episode leading up to when Gilligan came across to them?

I'd be pretty pissed off if a memorial to a relation of mine was being used as a dance studio.

It was being used to promote the city. Just because something seems in bad taste to you does not mean it is.

People have different ways to show respect.

Swiper the fox

Limericks wrote: »

It was being used to promote the city. Just because something seems in bad taste to you does not mean it is.

People have different ways to show respect.

Who were they promoting the city to and how are they hoping to do that? What were they doing and why was jumping around on public monuments such a vital part of their plan? Genuine question.

jonski

I would like to see the Video of the dance , knowing the statue I doubt very much that it was a dance troupe using it as a stage .

Either way he should have approached it in a more civil and diplomatic manner .







Off topic , the first time my wife saw that statue she said " ha , a statue of people throwing rubbish into the docks "

Itsdacraic

Limericks wrote: »

It was being used to promote the city. Just because something seems in bad taste to you does not mean it is.

People have different ways to show respect.

Explain how somebody who happened upon a scene where people were jumping up and down on a memorial statue would know that they were doing it to promote limerick?

How does it even promote Limerick?

jonski

Itsdacraic wrote: »

Explain how somebody who happened upon a scene where people were jumping up and down on a memorial statue would know that they were doing it to promote limerick?

How does it even promote Limerick?

They were jumping up and down on it ? really ? , I didn't see this anywhere ?

langdang

Limericks wrote: »

It was being used to promote the city. Just because something seems in bad taste to you does not mean it is.

People have different ways to show respect.

If I danced on your car, in good taste, would it be OK with you?
Clue - You REALLY don't want to see me in a wife beater giving it Gangnam Style on your car's roof.

I'm gonna give the guy the benefit of the doubt here, the city would be a lot better off if more people would stand up for public and private property.
He mightn't have made the best job of it, but tis better than slinking away and pretending you saw nothing.