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GAA ANALYST JOE Brolly has apologised to the people of Kolkata after Monaghan County Council demanded he apologise for comparing the town of Clones to the Indian city in an article about the Ulster gaelic football final.
In a piece published in the Sunday Independent on 5 June, the former Derry footballer referenced a young boy charging for parking outside his house, squeezing multiple cars into the front lawn with “no gaps between them” and no lane for exiting after the match.
“Welcome to Calcutta, Ireland,” Brolly wrote. The article also referred to the journey home after the game saying: “Six or so miles outside Calcutta, driving at an average speed of 4mph…”
The article prompted Monaghan County Council to pass a motion calling on Brolly and the Sunday Independent to apologise for the “critical and disrespectful” comparison.
After passing the motion on Monday the council will be writing to the newspaper and its columnist to express its “deep disappointment”.
Speaking to The Journal today, Brolly said he would like to issue an apology to the people of Kolkata (the official way of spelling the city’s name) for comparing their city to the Monaghan town.
“Upon reflection, I would like to extend my apologies to the people of Calcutta. In no way did I intend to demean them by comparing them to Clones,” Brolly said.
The outspoken pundit said he was stuck in traffic in Clones for three hours after Derry’s win.
“Every single person charges you to park in their lawns, driveways, fields. Then you’re just jammed-in, you can’t get out after the game. There’s nowhere else to go,” he said.
Speaking in a jovial manner, Brolly added: “The sooner Casement Park’s built the better.”
The redevelopment of the stadium in Belfast was given the green light in recent weeks after a legal challenge was rejected.
Brolly previously referred to Clones as the “Bangladesh of Ulster” and a “capital of gombeenism” in an article in 2019.
Monaghan County Council’s motion was brought forward by Councillor Richard Truell who said comparing Clones to Kolkata, which contains one of India’s poorest slums, is completely wrong.
The Fine Gael councillor said it was a “bit rich” that Brolly apologised to the people of Kolkata, saying “He may as well keep his apology then.”
“[Being] compared to Calcutta, that’s what the motion is about, that’s what I’m angry about and that’s what the people of Clones are angry about. It’s insulting to the people of county Monaghan,” Truell said.
Despite this, the local politician added that an invitation, contained in the council’s letter to Brolly, to visit Clones and get a tour of the town remains open.
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Is Michael Healy-Ray really that stupid ,,,,, Looks like the apple didn’t fall too far from the tree !!!!!
yes they are , and the very ones, that has there bread buttered by him , i heard , that these guys run, co, Kerry ,if your not with, them your out, and stay out ?. local Mafioso, i here say .big fish in small ponds .
How on earth did that amadan Healy Rae get elected , are people in constituency really that thick????
maybe we could put the dog into the dail instead of micheal.
As a farmer said to me ‘why should I indicate ,sure everybody knows where I’m going .’ The rural attitude to visitors/tourists is that they should deposit their money at the county boundary and not annoy the natives with demands for service, unspoilt countryside etc. It takes a Healy-Rae to actually come out and say this ; tell us more Michael.
Michael Healy Rae your ignorance knows absolutely no bounds!!
Michael Healy Rae is supported by the plain people of Kerry – crap goes in, crap comes out.
It’s bloody obvious Micheal Healy Rae is a man that can smell money a mile away. He must be doing a reality tv show soon and needs the cash for the phone and text votes. This is the Td who cut the grass of developers houses in my estate only last summer after he was elected. He even had his ‘vote no1′ stickers still on his van with his picture so there was no denying it was him. My ghost estate is in north cork so he drove a bit from Kerry to help the developer who is living it up in the uk!
I live in the country, and I know my way around. I have to say, country driving, particularly people over a certain age and in a certain profession, is shocking bad. No indicating, lucky if there’s one working brake light on the car. If a trailer is being towed, good luck. Then you can actually see the driver looking everywhere but the road. I usually have a rant about this a few times a week, when I’m stuck behind some numpty who doesn’t indicate, no brake light on the trailer, thinks road signs are just decorations for the roadside. And that Healy-Rae lad is a bigger numpty for questioning the need for road signs.
It says much for his chosen career that he is able to function as a member of the Dail, most of the political class see their job as being ” gettin in then gettin as much as they can ” this applies to most countries so we shouldn’t feel superior, but we do have a very good class of gobshites.
In a lot of rural areas, the local yooves tend to take great delight in turning the signs. And a turned sign is defintely worse than no sign at all! Many’s the time I’ve headed off in the wrong direction thanks to a bit of late-night shenanigans.
No money in signs as they are put in by the NRA also the bank hopes to “return to sustainable profitability by 2014.” by robbing the less well off..
have your say