The performance of Sinn Féin following its difficult 2019 local government election will be a key interest point in Derry City and Strabane district council’s elections.
Given the huge nationalist majority in the region, support for the Windsor Framework will not be as big a factor as in unionist-dominated areas. However, Sinn Féin’s efforts to recover after losing five seats last time out will be a talking-point.
The party’s sitting MP, Elisha McCallion also lost the Westminster seat to SDLP leader Colum Eastwood, which led to an unprecedented public overhaul of its operation in Derry.
The party’s two sitting MLAs, Martina Anderson and Karen Mullan, stepped down by agreement to be replaced by current assembly members Pádraig Delargy and Ciara Ferguson. Changes within Sinn Féin have continued at local government level where the party’s two sitting councillors in Sperrin, including former MLA Michaela Boyle, are retiring. The party is also fielding a raft of new faces in the May 18 contest.
Constituency Notebooks:
- DUP face nervous wait in unionist dominated Mid and East Antrim Borough Council
- Belfast City Council a microcosm of the north
- Unionists likely to remain majority in Antrim, Newtownabbey - but SF, Alliance eyeing more gains
In all, 70 candidates will fight for the 40 Derry and Strabane seats. The poll is also unusual in that 11 sitting councillors are fighting a local government election for the first time, having been co-opted during the life of the last council. Six sitting councillors, including the authority’s longest serving member, independent Sean Carr, are retiring.
If Sinn Féin’s high-risk gamble is to pay dividends, the party will have to recover two seats from the SDLP, two from People Before Profit and one from Aontú. It is likely Sinn Féin will target People Before Profit’s Maeve O’Neill in the Moor district electoral area. O’Neill was co-opted to replace veteran campaigner Eamonn McCann when he stepped down in March 2021.
Likewise, Sinn Féin will likely target Aontú in Ballyarnett after former deputy leader Dr Anne McCloskey took a seat from them in 2019. McCloskey stepped down in the last term and was replaced by Emmet Doyle who was unsuccessful as a candidate in the Moor DEA last time out.
The SDLP had a good election in 2019, taking a seat from Sinn Féin in Ballyarnett, largely through a very well-managed vote. The Ballyarnett battle with Sinn Féin will be a key indicator on May 18 with margins too tight to call.
Within unionism, attention will focus on the performance of Ryan McCready (UUP) and Graham Warke (independent) who resigned as DUP councillors during the last term.
The DUP has pulled out all the stops in its effort to regain the two seats, drafting in Julie Middleton, wife of junior minister Gary, in the Faughan DEA.
Buoyed by its success in 2019 when it took two seats, Alliance is fielding in all DEAs in the hope of building on that.
Candidates across the parties have reported the same issues being raised on the doorsteps. Among young people, key issues would appear to be transport and infrastructure as well as the cost of living crisis.
The cost of living, the continuing lack of a Stormont government and this year’s unprecedented increase in rates in Derry and Strabane appear to be the main causes of concern among older voters.
With so many sitting councillors fighting an election for the first time against new-comers to the electoral battle, Derry and Strabane is almost impossible to call.
CANDIDATES
Ballyarnett
Colm Cavanagh (Alliance)
Damien Doherty (People before Profit)
Emmet Doyle (Aontú)
Sandra Duffy (Sinn Féin)
Rory Farrell (SDLP)
Catherine McDaid (SDLP)
John McGowan (Sinn Féin)
Patrick Murphy (Sinn Féin)
Brian Tierney (SDLP)
Derg
Caroline Devine (Sinn Féin)
Steven Edwards (SDLP)
Leza Marie Houston (Aontú)
Derek Hussey (UUP)
Keith Kerrigan (DUP)
Adam McGinley (People before Profit)
Ruairí McHugh (Sinn Féin)
Anne Murray (Alliance)
Antaine Ó Fearghail (Sinn Féin)
Andy Patton (Independent)
Faughan
Hayley Canning (SDLP)
Alex Duffy (Sinn Féin)
Rachael Ferguson (Alliance)
Sean Fleming (Sinn Féin)
Damian Gallagher (People before Profit)
Ryan McCready (UUP)
Julie Middleton (DUP)
Declan Norris (SDLP)
Graham Warke (Independent)
Gary Wilkinson (DUP)
Foyleside
Lilian Seenoi Barr (SDLP)
Shauna Cusack (SDLP)
Shaun Harkin (People before Profit)
Conor Heaney (Sinn Féin)
Seán Mac Cearáin (Aontú)
Stephen McCallion (SDLP)
Danny McCloskey (Alliance)
Grace Uí Niallais (Sinn Féin)
Sperrin
Jason Barr (SDLP)
Raymond Barr (Independent)
Paul Boggs (Sinn Féin)
Mel Boyle (Alliance)
Allan Bresland (DUP)
Maurice Devenney (DUP)
Tommy Forbes (SDLP)
Carol Gallagher (People before Profit)
Paul Gallagher (Independent)
Brian Harte (Sinn Féin)
Patsy Kelly (Independent)
Fergal Leonard (Sinn Féin)
Darán Mac Meanman (Aontú)
Glen Miller (UUP)
The Moor
John Boyle (SDLP)
Darryl Christy (Aontú)
Gary Donnelly (Independent)
Michael Downey (Alliance)
Dermott Henderson (SDLP)
Aisling Hutton (Sinn Féin)
Patricia Logue (Sinn Féin)
Emma McGinley (Sinn Féin)
Maeve O'Neill (People before Profit)
Waterside
Chelsea Cooke (DUP)
Caitlin Deeney (Sinn Féin)
Darren Guy (UUP)
Christopher Jackson (Sinn Féin)
Philip McKinney (Alliance)
Niree McMorris (DUP)
Janice Montgomery (UUP)
Sean Mooney (SDLP)
Davina Pulis (People before Profit)
Martin Reilly (SDLP)
