Mattress Mick has revealed he declined a plea to enter into politics when a councillor approached him for Mayor. The bedding king admits he turned down the plea to run for Dublin City Council, as he felt it would affect his business.
Speaking to the Irish Sun about the councillor’s plea, Mattress Mick told reporters that “it came out of the blue and I was astonished”. The local treasure that Mick is, if he had won his seat on the Council, he might have been able to become Dublin Lord Mayor.
Each year, members vote for a representative to take up the role of Mayor for a year, while living it up at Mansion House. The mattress king told the paper, “the councillor who approached me said I’d be great as Mayor because I was an independent guy and something of a character”.
However, famed for his bedding, Mick put his business before politics and declined the invitation to run. Mattress Mick’s is one of Ireland’s leading mattress, beds, and bedroom furniture stores and “is too important” to take time away from.
“Politics is a funny business, and my own business is too important to me to take a year out,” explained the Mattress Man. “Besides I don’t know what the furniture is like in the Mansion House. If it was the wrong style, I’d want to bring my own stuff in.”
The bedding king still has a lot of passion for politics and can be seen this evening on Virgin Media One. Mattress Mick can be heard speaking up for the homeless in tonight’s Eating With the Enemy, when he goes head-to-head with free-market, small-government libertarian Adam Keane as they sit down for dinner together.
“I feel I got the upper edge because I had a more reasoned argument, on account of being older and knowing this city so well,” said Mattress Mick. “Everybody has a right to a home.”
The episode also features a debate between drag queen Bonnie Ann Clyde and outspoken priest Joe McDonald. Everybody taking part are completely unaware of who will be at the other side of the table, with Bonnie saying, “When I turned the corner and saw a priest, I was shocked”.
Eating With the Enemy is on tonight at 9pm, on Virgin Media 1.
