INDEPENDENT councillor Terence Slowey has been left ‘devastated and traumatised’ by a legal storm at Donegal County Council yesterday, friends have said.
The councillor wept as fellow councillors paid tribute to him in the wake of the Byrne-gate scandal – an admission by Fianna Fail councillor Brendan Byrne that he had commissioned solicitors’ letters threatening to sue Cllr Slowey, including one from former county manager Michael McLoone which he said he knew nothing about.
All the legal correspondence was read into the county council records yesterday.
In them it showed that Cllr Byrne had got a legal firm to issue proceedings against Cllr Slowey for remarks he made in the council chamber in November.
But Mr McLoone’s lawyers wrote to the council to say he had NEVER asked Carrick councillor Byrne to issue proceedings on his behalf.
Cllr Byrne admitted his role in the chamber yesterday afternoon.
Councillors from Fine Gael, Sinn Fein, Labour and the Independent benches condemned the Fianna Fail man for his role in the affair.
Former Mayor Noel McBride said: “Cllr Slowey and his family have been put through an awful experience by these letters being sent to him in the days before Christmas as his loved ones arrived home.
“It was a severely traumatic and distressing time for Cllr Slowey.”
Fellow Fine Gael councillor Micky Doherty told Cllr Byrne he should “pack your bags and leave” after what he described as “disgraceful behaviour.”
Fianna Fail however is refusing to get involved in the row, Cllr Ciaran Brogan insisting the row “is a matter between Cllr Slowey and Cllr Byrne.”
Cllr Slowey says he doesn’t want to comment, on the advice of his solicitor.
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