Pressure mounts on FG to expel race row mayor as history of controversy emerges

QUIT: Politician steps down after remarks about 'black Africans'

Niall O'Connor

THE Fine Gael mayor who refused to represent "black Africans" has made controversial remarks about minority groups in the past, the Herald can reveal.

Pressure was mounting on Fine Gael today to expel Darren Scully from the party -- just hours after he resigned as mayor of Naas and withdrew his controversial remarks.

Anti-racist groups have today called for Mr Scully to be jailed over the comments as gardai examined an official complaint made by Labour TD Aodhan O'Riordain.

If found guilty of an offence, Mr Scully could be jailed for up to two years or hit with a €10,000 fine. He described black Africans as "aggressive" and "bad-mannered".

Sources close to Mr Scully have admitted that his comments caused "shock and outrage" in Fine Gael.

"It was highly embarrassing, not something we needed to say the least," a well-placed party source admitted.

However the Herald can reveal that Mr Scully has made extraordinary remarks in the past about Travellers and young mothers.

The 39-year-old Naas politician slammed the Travelling community for erecting "monstrous and inappropriate shrines" in local graveyards.

At a meeting of Naas town council in 2008, Mr Scully stated: "There are people who spend in excess of 60,000 on gravestones and they look tacky and are a disgrace, in my view."

And the councillor also came under fire for claiming young women were getting pregnant in order to boost their place on the local authority housing list.

He claimed that teens were looking for "advice on how to get pregnant".

"I see it myself. Some people are going out there and getting pregnant purely to get on the housing list. Having children should not be about getting on a housing list," he told a council meeting in 2008.

Further details of Mr Scully's controversial views were laid bare in an email he wrote to 4fm radio host Niall Boylan.

In the email, Mr Scully wrote: "A few years back when we opened a new council estate in Sallins...a lady from Sierra Leone started to complain to me that the house was not big enough for her and her family and asked could we knock some walls internally to create more room. A colleague quickly asked her how big was her house in Sierra Leone. She lived in a hut...the mind boggles."

hnews@herald.ie