And so, after searching behind ditches and under tables, the SDLP has finally located two candidates to run in Fermanagh/South Tyrone and North Belfast: Mary Garrity and Martin McAuley respectively.
What’s that, Virginia? You’ve never heard of them? Not surprising. Martin and Mary are hardly household names, and yes, it would be unkind to add ‘Even in their own house’. Then why has the SDLP chosen these two people to run?
Well, after telling the world that it plans to stand in all eighteen constituencies, it could hardly pull out of these two without conceding that Sinn Féin was the only credible nationalist voice. Had they come up with a stronger candidate , they might have made sure that Sinn Féin didn’t get either of these seats. But while in normal circumstances the SDLP would sell their granny’s ears if it meant damaging Sinn Féin prospects, Fermanagh/South Tyrone and North Belfast are different. The shadow of a dead man hangs over both.
Over Fermanagh/South Tyrone, the shadow is that of Bobby Sands. Even to name the constituency is to bring back memories of those fevered times, when the MP for the area died rather than be classified a criminal by Maggie Thatcher. The song by Francie Brolly says it all:
So I’ll wear no convict’s uniform
Nor meekly serve my time
That Britain might brand lreland ‘s fight
Eight hundred years of crime.
Over the North Belfast constituency the shadow is that of Pat Finucane, killed three weeks after Douglas Hogg declared in the House of Commons that Finucane and other Belfast solicitors were “unduly sympathetic to the IRA.” The Finucane family were eating a Sunday meal at their kitchen table when loyalist paramilitaries (in collusion with state forces) used a sledge-hammer to break into their house. They fired repeatedly, hitting Pat Finucane fourteen times and killing him. Pat Finucane’ son, Michael, wrote later that the scene had been seared into his mind:
“The thing I remember most vividly is the noise; the reports of each bullet reverberating in the kitchen, how my grip on my younger brother and sister tightened with every shot.”
To say that this election isn’t about Bobby Sands and Pat Finucane is of course true. It’s about Brexit and the need for Ireland north and south to act with European allies to prevent an economically ruinous border. And it’s on that basis most people in those constituencies will be voting. But there is no exorcising the tragedy that hangs over both constituencies and the debt owed to two brave men.
As for the SDLP ‘ we-have-a-candidate-but-not-a-big-one stance, it recalls Alexander Pope’s words nearly three hundred years ago, Describing Joseph Addison, he declared he was “Willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike.” That just about sums up the SDLP position in the two constituencies.
its a british general election.the brexit referendum was held over a year ago.
billy
Did you not know, this is the ‘closing the stable door after the horse has bolted’ election!
Is it not about the possible dire consequences of said referendum???
no.its a british election to the mother of all parliaments.(as they call it).
The ‘Brexit’ vote was quite ambiguous – [Northern] Ireland and Scotland voted to ‘stay’. And did so with quite emphatic votes.
‘Middle’ (i.e. ‘super-‘patriotic’ / Thatcherite) England wanted ‘out’ to reconstitute ‘The [White] Commonwealth’ (or Brutish Empah lite).
I think it has ‘fizzed’ Middle England that the Commonwealth as a would-be economic body doesn’t and will never exist. South Africa sees itself as an economic ‘power’ along with the other BRICS states and the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation.
Oz / NZ are settling down into being economic satellites of China. Canada is Uncle Sam’s rational wee brother.
The UK general election will probably be a re-run of the ‘Brexit’ vote. Labour was looking forward to unseating a lot of SNP Westminster MPs, but is all over the place on ‘Europe’. If the SNP hold the seats they won in the west of Scotland it will be quits for Labour.
Jude. Are you damning with faint praise?
Maybe Jude is praising with faint damn!
As for the two SDLP candidates in question, virtually nothing is known about them, and that will not change during the course of, and subsequent to the election when they will return to oblivion.
It surprises me that apparently educated people can always be found to play the part of political sacrificial lambs!
Billy, would you prefer that the nationalist community ignored these elections completely and that 18 unionists were returned to Westminster? You know how that would be interpreted in Britain? These people are all well settled in the colony. They have integrated wholly into Britishness and now can be regarded as an outlying Finchley. The unionists would revel in their position and the taigs could just lie down. Unless you have a new republican Dáil for us all to give our allegiance to? Or have you any plan?
yes.if irish votes changed anything in westminster.voting would be banned.
So, if the rebels didn’t claim any unemployment benefit you could say there was full employment in the province? You can go into your nuke shelter in the garden but the majority of us here like to show that we are still alive and kicking. I can remember in the mid 60s when the unionists filled most of the seats and remember what happened next?
The voters will continue to punished the sdlp for giving the Fermanagh south Tyrone seat back to unionist.
Billy you seem to put a lot of faith and reliance in the result of the Brexit “Referendum”. Could I just remind you that this “referendum” was held in an advisory capacity and is not legally binding as emphasized and thus stated by a Supreme Court judge….Lady Brenda Hale in November 2016….Britain can still change her mind at any time …..something a lot of people have forgotten or overlooked !
Hope springs eternal in the human breast;
Man never is, but always to be blessed:
The soul, uneasy and confined from home,
Rests and expatiates in a life to come.
– Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man
In order for the DUP to be dragged into the 21st century, I think it is vital that SF continue their forward advance on the election front.
SF adding a couple of MPs will put more pressure on Foster whether she cares to admit that or not.
“The 21st Century” ..??
The DUP remain totally oblivious and ignorant to the concepts of fairness decency and democracy that took root and prevailed in all civilised societies during the latter half of the 20th century ..!! They are incurably contaminated with sectarian bigotry, as are their supporters …!!
The DUP look wholly unsuitable for democratic government. They must adhere to and deliver on outstanding rights issues before getting anywhere near the executive.
SF would be well advised not to blink on this one.
Putting forward the said two candidates says so much about the SDLP – I hope this election sees their continued demise and hopefully see the back of them within the next few years. As a anti Brexit party they seem more concerned by their ideological rivals than the implications of Brexit. The SDLP have no chance in North Belfast and Fermanagh / South Tyrone. It’s seems merely an opportunity to stand in Sinn Fein’s way, split the Nationalist vote and add strength to the Unionist vote. Instead of vote Mike get Colum, it’s a matter of vote Colum and get everything and anything but Sinn Fein. When are the SDLP going to nail their colours to the mast and designate Unionist? They’ve done everything and anything Unionist but designate.
I don’t expect Sinn Féin to take the North Belfast seat, but I will be looking out for how much the party’s share of the vote increases in the constituency. What Daithí McKay called the “Fearghal McKinney effect” didn’t follow through in 2015 when up against “the might Dodds” as the single unionist candidate, but in the context of Brexit, a re-engaged nationalist electorate, as well as the broad appeal of John Finucane himself, Sinn Féin under these circumstances are in strong contention to exceed their 34% watermark from 2010.
Indeed, such a strong showing would bode well for Sinn Féin in view of the Tory plan for new Westminster boundaries. According to research done by Electoral Calculus, the newly-proposed constituency of North-West Belfast – it subsuming 75% of the current North Belfast boundaries – would be very much a winnable seat for Sinn Féin. When one applies the 2015 results to the boundary of North-West Belfast, 15,918 votes were for the DUP, whilst Sinn Féin got 15,191 votes; there being less than a thousand between them.
It can therefore be said that whilst Finucane probably isn’t going to win in 2017, he or whoever the Sinn Féin candidate is come the next Westminster election – assuming the Tories follow through with their boundary changes by then – looks in good shape to win the MP seat the next time out.
Billy,standing for westminster was good enough for Bobby Sands and prisoners Phil Clarke and Tom Mitchell during the border campaign ,so I think I’ll follow their example and ignore “FIRESIDE REBELS”
Before Kevin departed this parish,he assured us all PBP would NEVER stand aside in North Belfast.Does anyone know if they are standing?
well its still a british election no matter what way you dress it up.by the way ime sure you were warm enough sitting at the fire through the 70s.