|
|
 |
You are > Home > Ballina mayor rapped over ‘Sophie’ poster affair
|
Tuesday, December 24, 2002
Ballina mayor rapped over ‘Sophie’ poster affair
A member of Ballina’s Town Council has said that he no longer has confidence in the local Mayor.
Cllr Padraig Moore has criticised Mayor Ray Collins for his actions last week in respect of what has now become known as the “Sophie story”.
Mayor Collins was the focus of the national media’s attention last week after the “Western People” reported how the Mayor had voiced the objections of local people to a poster for Opium perfume in Ward’s pharmacy window on Pearse Street.
The poster was a provocative photograph of supermodel Sophie Dahl lying naked on a draped pedestal.
In a light hearted response to the Mayor’s complaints, the proprietor of Ward’s, Mr Padraig Ward, put a strategically placed card over the poster which read “By order of the Mayor’ over the poster.
The national print media and national airwaves picked up on the story immediately and follow-up stories were accompanied by photographs of the Mayor in bed with the poster.
Cllr Padraig Moore said the Mayor should have let the matter lie following the article in the Western People.
“I have no confidence in him for any future negotiations. I am sure the matter will be discussed further at the next Council meeting,” he said. Cllr Moore said people had a right to be upset by the poster. And as Mayor, Cllr Collins was right to try to deal with the matter.
“His cause was genuine but once he ‘got into bed with Sophie’, he was being disrespectful to women himself,” Cllr Moore said.
He said there was a certain decorum attached to the office of Mayor. Respect for Mayor Collins, particularly outside of Ballina, had disappeared because of his actions, he claimed.
Cllr Mary Kelly said she also felt Mayor Collins’ behaviour had been unacceptable:
“It started out as a joke but to go into the national papers and on the radio - he did not do any favours for Ballina in his capacity as Mayor.”
Cllr Kelly said the majority of people she had spoken to about the matter had not found the saga funny.
But Mayor Collins said he was standing by his actions. He said he had been inundated with phonecalls from people congratulating and supporting him for his stance on the Opium poster.
He said one Ballycastle woman rang him and praised him for having put Ballina “on the map”. She had told him that he had given people something lighthearted to read at Christmas time.
“What else can you do?” Mayor Collins asked. “I could have been all prudish and pretended to be sanctimonious. I really did think the poster was offensive to women.”
The Mayor said he was disappointed that the newspapers had blown the story out of proportion. However, he still stood over what he had said.
He said many people had paid tribute to him for the many contributions he had made to Ballina over the years, particularly his work for the arts.
Mayor Collins said he had used the publicity generated by the ‘Sophie story” to promote Ballina. One woman had rang him from Cork to congratulate him on his stance.
She said the Mayor had convinced her to bring a group of people to Ballina for the annual Festival next July.
“People who had a sense of humour enjoyed the episode. I was inundated with calls. There were a few cranks whose minds were narrow but you will have that in every town,” he said.
Main News Page |
Previous Page
|
|
|
|
Facebook
