Sinn Féin now circulating this election leaflet in North Belfast.
The most famous (albeit deceased ) resident of North Belfast is Henry Joy McCracken, hanged for his role as Leader of the 1798 Rebellion and now interred in Clifton Street Cemetry.
The United Irishmen had a philosophy of uniting Catholic, Protestant and Dissenter. The Republican Ideal. The Holy Grail of Nationalism.
Henry Joy…and indeed most of the Leaders of the 1798 Rebellion were Protestant.
Sinn Féin are betraying the Republican Ideal. Reducing Republicanism to dividing rather than uniting Irishmen and Irishwomen.
It is shameful.
Keeping An Eye On the Czar of Russia 
Have the SDLP found the line between being an Irish nationalist socialist party and attracting dissenter and protestant? It’s not subtle enough for politics but the message is the message. Someone forgot to dress it in bull.
To some extent, I dont want to conduct a post mortem on this campaign before it is over.
I think the stories you will read on Slugger O’Toole next weekend are already written. Certainly in relation to SDLP.
A reasonable analyst might say SDLP could be squeezed in North Belfast but Micks peculiar line that Alliances “small but growing Catholic vote” will also be affected doesnt seem reasonable as any potential Alliance voters will include liberal voters who dont have a UUP candidate.
This seems to cue up a Slugger thread “SDLP are finished in North Belfast and will lose to Assembly seat to Alliance”. Thats the headline Slugger wants to write.
And probably there are seventeen other headlines they want to write “Brave Naomi Defeats Bigots” etc.
The thing I am seeing most is that the dynamic within every constituency is different.
The “sample” of eighteen seats is really too small to see a pattern.
The really big issue is 2016.
The Elections in 2014, 2015 and 2016 are in the right order for the main parties. But for SDLP, Sinn Féin and Alliance the major issue is Apathy.
In 2014 SDLP lost one council seat.
In 2014 Alliance lost two council seats from a lower base.
In 2014 Sinn Féin lost ten council seats from a higher base.
And all have lessons to learn.
But like I say, too early to conduct post-mortems on this one.
Always uneasy at the use of religious terms – they should have said Nationalist/Unionist ‘Background’ .
Strange pic of Gerry put his shows on….
They just dont seem as competent lately. have they got complacent?
How do you know the % of nationalist and unionist background? That’s not measured anywhere.
re. “How do you know the % of nationalist and unionist background? That’s not measured anywhere.”
Implicit in the poster stats is the view that because there are more Catholics then a good turn out will get Gerry elected – SF are (correctly) implicitly establishing the linkage between religious background and political background. In my opinion they should make that implicit linkage explicit rather than suggest that voting for SF is related to whether Mary was or was not a virgin (or whatever else divides the 2 Christian sects).
Sammy do you mean they should use electoral rather than census statistics?
kathy,
I don’t think they should use the ‘C’ word or the ‘P’ word – in election literature. Religion is a proxy for political beliefs – hence in my opinion if they should use terms such as Nationalist or Unionist background(which are derived from the census stats on religion) – these elections have nothing to do with religious matters.
Of course as was the case with the boy McCracken – not everyone follows their background.
That leaflet is as bad as it gets.
The provos should drop the name Sinn Fein.
Provo style Irish Republicanism is now dead.
They might as well call themselves the wee Joe Devlin fan club.
Tell me FJH the leaflet is a joke on your part.