`It's your victory'
``It's your victory, it's your election, it's your seat,'' Gerry
Adams MP told hundreds of jubilant supporters on the Falls Road
on Friday afternoon.
Even before the news broke that Sinn Féin President Adams had,
for a second time, been elected MP for West Belfast, crowds began
congregating outside the Republican Press Centre. Old and young
had come. Parents rushed out of their homes with all the children
in tow.
Men and women clapped and cheered until they were hoarse.
Youngsters were hoisted onto parents' shoulders for a better
view. In the atmosphere of general exhilaration, the MP's hand
was shaken a thousand times. More than one grandmother clasped
Adams in an emotional bearhug.
Behind two high wooden doors, piles of votes were being counted.
Those outside anxiously watched those doors, poised to pounce on
any co-worker emerging with the latest news. ``How many unionists
voted for Hendron?'' Another whispered: ``What about
Andersonstown?'' Looking good.
d so the wait continued. The young Sinn Féin supporters,
conducting themselves quietly and with dignity, showed no signs
of being intimidated - either by the large force of heavily-armed
RUC men in the corridors, or by the glares of hostile loyalists,
or by the grandiose columns and marble staircases of City Hall
itself, built as an extravagant symbol of unionist domination.
For once, its corridors were filled by working-class people.
But there were no crowds of SDLP supporters, just a handful of
career politicians. The SDLP's Alex Atwood - tipped as a possible
future SDLP contender for West Belfast - was telling journalists
to come to him before approaching the current SDLP candidate.
``Hendron's under pressure,'' intoned Alex smoothly.
After nearly five nail-biting hours, news came of good Sinn Féin
results in the other Belfast seats, particularly North Belfast
where candidate Paddy McManus increased Sinn Féin's share of the
total poll.
Sinn Féin smiles grew broader while the RUC looked
correspondingly glum.
Phoblacht 18 June 1987.
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