AN ULSTER Championship-winning hurler is aiming to become Sinn Féin's first councillor on the only remaining local authority where the party has no representatives.
Noel Sands, who as a player with Portaferry won seven Down Senior Hurling Championships and three Ulster Senior Hurling Championships, is standing as a candidate in North Down and Ards on May 18.
The predominantly unionist council is the only one of the north's 11 local authorities where Sinn Féin is not represented.
The party secured just 267 first preference votes in 2019's corresponding election, languishing in last place behind the NI Conservatives.
However, Mr Sands, who works in finance and whose family own and run Sands' Bar in Portaferry, said he is determined to buck the trend.
“I am determined to work hard for all people and all communities across the Ards Peninsula and Co Down and I hope to be the first Sinn Féin councillor elected to serve on the North Down Council," he said yesterday after handing in his nomination papers in Bangor.
“As a lifelong resident of the Ards community, I’ve had the privilege of raising my family here, amongst the greatest of people, and I want to do everything that I can to positively transform our community."
In a playing career spanning more than two decades, Mr Sands captained the Down side that won the Ulster Senior Hurling Championship in 1992, while he also managed his hometown side when they were victorious in Down Senior Hurling Championship in 2012.
He continues to be active in local GAA circles, regularly coaching underage teams.
