Tipperary town Facebook row spills on to the airwaves

Photo: Tipp FM/Sarah O'Dwyer

A Tipperary County Councillor says she’s seeking legal advice on an issue that’s arisen on Facebook overnight.

A post encouraged people to text Cllr Mary Hanna Hourigan over comments she made at the recent Tipp/Cashel Municipal District meeting.

The issue in question has arisen from two similar motions raised by Cllrs John Crosse and Martin Browne at this week’s meeting of the Tipp/Cashel municipal district.

Cllr Crosse called for a review of parking charges in Tipperary town, while Cllr Browne asked for the implementation of 2 hour free parking.

The March for Tipp group had listed free 2 hour parking as one of their demands.

However, at the meeting Cllr Hanna Hourigan said she had spoken to two business owners who are friends of hers, who were opposed to the idea.

Last night, a Tipperary Town page posted a photo of the Cllr, along with her phone number, and encouraged their 6,600 followers to text her demanding answers.

They wanted to know which business owners in the town had said they wanted to keep pay parking.

Cllr Hourigan says while she’s happy to engage on any issue, this was a step too far…

Padraig Culbert from March for Tipp has claimed responsibility for the post on Facebook last night, which said: ‘Perhaps people would like to text Councillor Hanna Hourigan and ask “what businesses wanted to keep paid parking?”‘

However, Padraig Culbert refuted any claims of bullying.

He says Cllr Hourigan’s information is freely available for constituents on the Fine Gael website, and the post simply encouraged people to contact her on an issue affecting the town…

Cllr Hourigan’s party collegue Cllr Michael Fitzgerald commented on the post saying it was ‘nothing short of Bullying’, while Sinn Fein Cllr Martin Browne also said it was ‘a form of online bullying that would not help anyone or any cause.’

Cllr Fitzgerald says he’ll no longer be engaging on the issue on Facebook.

He says that with such a following Padraig Culbert should put his name forward for next years’ local election, despite Mr Culbert saying he wouldn’t…

Cllrs and officials have agreed to review the pay parking strategy in the town in early 2019.

Meanwhile, as part of the council’s shop local campaign in the lead up to Christmas, there will be free parking in Tipperary town for the entire month of December.

Officials said this was not a knee-jerk reaction to the calls from the March For Tipp group.