Mayoral Remarks
Mayor Darren Scully resigned from office on 22 November 2011 in the wake of comments he made about the "aggressive attitude" of "black Africans" he had allegedly encountered in the course of his constituency work.
He made the remarks on a national radio station, 4fm, and then repeated them the local radio station, Kfm. He stated that due to the aggression he had allegedly received "in every single case I've had" that he would no longer represent black Africans. 4fm presenter Niall Boylan said afterwards that he thought Scully had committed "political suicide" on live radio. Anti-racism groups called for Scully to be jailed. The Garda Síochána are investigating him under the Prohibition of Incitement to Hatred Act. Naas Town Council members convened a special protocol meeting to discuss the issue. Pressure mounted on Fine Gael to expel Scully. Independent TD Catherine Murphy, who beat Scully in the 2005 by-election, in Dáil Éireann, described his comments as "outrageous" and "totally unacceptable". Former Labour TD Moosajee Bhamjee, Ireland's first Muslim TD, said Scully's remarks represented the "beginning of official racism" in Ireland and described them as "enlightenment" for the "small neo-Nazi following in this country".
Scully has said, "It saddens me that people would call me a racist because I'm not. I know what I am as a person and I'm not any of those things". Irish Independent columnist Ian O'Doherty defended Scully and compared those who called for his resignation to Nazis. Kevin Myers, another Irish Independent columnist, criticised the "viciously sanctimonious hysteria" that had "erupted" over a matter which, said Myers, was "symptomatic of the frustration felt by so many Irish people, who for years have felt quite powerless in the face of immigration policies that have had such profound effects on their communities".
In 2008, Scully criticised Irish Travellers for their "monstrous and inappropriate shrines" in graveyards. The same year he accused young women of getting pregnant to increase their chances of getting local authority housing and claimed teenagers were seeking "advice on how to get pregnant".
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