No sponsorship pull from local publicans

A casual comment to the Mayor of Drogheda by a publican set the cat amongst the proverbial pigeons last week, when it was reported they were considering withdrawing €50,000 in Fleadh sponsorship unless the streets were properly cleaned.

At last week’s Municipal meeting of Drogheda councillors, Cllr Frank Godfrey said a sponsor had threatened to withdraw €50,000 in pledged funds for the festival, as they were upset at the state of the pavements.

However, this has been denied by the local vintners group, saying the comment was off-the-cuff and not supposed to be taken seriously.

“As the Chairman of the Louth County Branch of the VFI & Drogheda & District Publicans, we have no intentions of withdrawing or withholding any of our sponsorship money,” an angry Collette Nugent told the Drogheda Independent.

“We sponsored Drogheda Fleadh Cheoil Na hEireann not the council €130,000 and our sponsorship was nothing to do with the council, or indeed how it is run.”

She said she was very upset that our Mayor would take an off-the-cuff comment from a fellow publican and twist it out of context.

“The mayor had no authority quoting VFI or Fleadh business at a Town Council Meeting and it’s very upsetting to give publicans bad press after all our hard-diligent work to support Drogheda Fleadh,” she added.

“I fully understand the Mayors is upset and perhaps frustrated at his perception of how the town looks but using the Drogheda publicans as a bargaining tool is not acceptable.

“We take a big part in our communities and all you have to do is look around the town and see the huge investment and work we have done to get out pubs Fleadh Ready to give a Drogheda Cead Mile Failte to all our Fleadh visitors.”

The Louth branch of VFI Drogheda last week donated €130,000 to the Fleadh.

Ms. Nugent of the Market Bar said the publican who made the remarks to Councillor Godfrey was very sorry they had been taken up the wrong way.