Come what may, there will be new faces on Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council following the local government elections.
Several prominent figures are among the sitting councillors who are retiring.
They include Helena Dallat-O’Driscoll, daughter of the late SDLP MLA John, and Orla Beattie, who have decided not to stand.
They will be joined by veteran Ulster Unionist Norman Hillis, his party colleague, John Baird and Chris McCaw of Alliance, along with independents William McCandless and Stephanie Quigley, a former SDLP member.
Independent councillor Padraig McShane will also not stand, saying he was recently given "deeply concerning medical advice" that he should give up his role as a public representative.
The 74 candidates chasing 40 seats have thrown up some interesting contenders on the nationalist side. Sinn Féin press officer Niamh Archibald, a sister of Sinn Féin MLA, Caoimhe Archibald is joined by their father Ciaran on the party ticket. For the SDLP, the poll sees a return to electoral battle of veteran Dungiven councillor and former assembly member Michael Coyle.
Constituency notebooks:
- Belfast City Council a microcosm of the north
- Derry and Strabane to test Sinn Féin overhaul
- Unionists likely to remain majority in Antrim, Newtownabbey - but SF, Alliance eyeing more gains
- DUP face nervous wait in unionist dominated Mid and East Antrim Borough Council
- Independents aim to return in Ards and North Down, while Sinn Féin hopes to score first ever seat
A combination of the former Limavady, Coleraine, Ballymoney and Moyle councils, Causeway Coast and Glens stretches from Eglinton in Co Derry, along the north coast through the Glens to just beyond Glenariff. While it is largely a rural constituency, it features several significant urban areas, including Coleraine, Limavady, Ballycastle and Dungiven.
The council has been unionist dominated over the last nine years, with the DUP the largest party. However, that period has given witness to a growth in the Sinn Féin vote. In 2019, the party managed to turn its 22.2 per cent of the vote into two additional seats. With nine councillors, it is now the second largest party on the authority.
The SDLP has held firm at six members over the last two councils. The loss of two of its veterans, in Dallat-O’Driscoll and Beattie, make it difficult to predict how the party will fare on May 18.
On the unionist side, the UUP’s decline from 10 members in 2014 to seven in 2019 was mirrored exactly by the DUP’s growth from 11 to 14.
Since the 2014 contest, Alliance has enjoyed a steady increase in its share of the poll, taking eight per cent last time out. While the party is losing sitting councillor, Chris McCaw, it will be hopeful that its growth can continue along with transfers from the SDLP and Ulster Unionists in particular.
Among the issues raised across the parties are the cost of living crisis and the Stormont stalemate. Unionist candidates told The Irish News that the Windsor Framework was not being mentioned on the doorsteps as often as expected.
One candidate said: “But that’s just because it’s a given that unionists are opposing it; our voters just accept that no unionist will support it and so they don’t feel they have to raise it.”
The Ulster Unionist Party would need to double its seats in Causeway Coast and Glens to equal the DUP. That being unlikely, the DUP would expect to maintain its position as the dominant party with Sinn Féin in second place. Overall, Causeway Coast and Glens is likely to almost certain to remain unionist dominated.
CANDIDATES
Ballymoney
Caitlin Bond (SDLP)
Lee Kane (Alliance)
Jonathan McAuley (TUV)
Tom McKeown (UUP)
Cathal McLaughlin (Independent)
Alan McLean (DUP)
Ciarán McQuillan (Sinn Féin)
Leanne Peacock (Sinn Féin)
Mervyn Storey (DUP)
Ivor Wallace (DUP)
Darryl Wilson (UUP)
Bann
Ciarán Archibald (Sinn Féin)
Ryan Barkley (SDLP)
Sean Bateson (Sinn Féin)
Gemma Brolly (Aontú)
William Craig (TUV)
Richard Holmes (UUP)
Dawn Huggins (DUP)
Joe Hutchinson (Alliance)
Andrew Kerr (UUP)
Michelle Knight-McQuillan (DUP)
Jen McCahon (Green Party)
Adrian McQuillan (Independent)
Benbradagh
Robert Carmichael (UUP)
Michael Coyle (SDLP)
Liam McElhinney (Aontú)
Sean McGlinchey (Sinn Féin)
Kathleen McGurk (Sinn Féin)
Niall Murphy (Independent)
Dermot Nicholl (Sinn Féin)
Edgar Scott (DUP)
Christine Turner (Alliance)
Causeway
David Alexander (Independent)
Mark Coulson (Green Party)
Mark Fielding (DUP)
Sandra Hunter (UUP)
Allister Kyle (TUV)
John McAuley (DUP)
Peter McCully (Alliance)
Sharon McKillop (DUP)
Angela Mulholland (Independent)
Paul Shevlin (SDLP)
Richard Stewart (Alliance)
Emma Thompson (Sinn Féin)
Barry Torrens (UUP)
Coleraine
Philip Anderson (DUP)
Niamh Archibald (Sinn Féin)
Yvonne Boyle (Alliance)
George Duddy (Independent)
Helen Maher (SDLP)
Amy Louise Merron (People Before Profit)
Tanya Stirling (DUP)
Michael Sweeney (TUV)
Adele Tomb (DUP)
Russell Watton (PUP)
John Wisener (UUP)
Limavady
John Boyle (Aontú)
Steven Callaghan (DUP)
Aaron Callan (DUP)
Brenda Chivers (Sinn Féin)
Barry Crawford (UUP)
Amy Mairs (Alliance)
James McCorkell (Independent)
Ashleen Schenning (SDLP)
Billy Stewart (Independent)
Jordan Wallace (DUP)
The Glens
Wesley Craig (UUP)
Bill Kennedy (DUP)
Margaret Anne McKillop (SDLP)
Oliver McMullan (Sinn Féin)
Cara McShane (Sinn Féin)
Glenise Morgan (Alliance)
John Robbin (Aontú)
Maighréad Watson (Sinn Féin)
