Mid-Ulster now a republican heartland
by Michael Pierse
The methodical and enthusiastic work of Sinn Fein election
workers in Mid-Ulster has ensured an increase in the republican
vote there and reinforced SF as the largest political party in
the area.
Director of Elections, James Glass, and the committed activists
have achieved a momentum in the constituency and acclaimed
Mid-Ulster Sinn Féin in the minds of many as being the most
effective political force on the island.
Despite the gloomy and wholly inaccurate opinion polls, the buzz
among SF activists in the area was indomitable. Even on the night
before the vote workers put up posters in Magherafelt despite
being tailed by a DUP man in a jeep who set about pulling them
down. The RUC also followed them about the town and through a
nationalist estate overlooked by the hillside home of DUP
candidate Willie McCrea.
Beside a DUP polling agent in one of the election booths was an
ideal place to get an insight into the political chemistry of the
area. However his eager cordiality was quite surprising. Munching
a bag of crisps, which he shared with this journalist, the
friendly-looking bespectacled man enthusiastically conversed on
such mundane issues as the weather, the early low turnout and the
Maracycle race from Belfast to Dublin in which his wife was
participating. Surprised at his lack of inhibition, I was left to
muse that his unionism was more of an inherited tradition than a
political belligerence. His affable demeanour was typical of a
parochial bible belt man, really unaware of the world outside
Ballymena - to which he was off visiting his elderly parents
following work in the polling booth, he told me.
However his replacement was of a more aloof and entirely
unfriendly nature. His expression turned to disgust as Martin
McGuinness entered the booth, although stories abounded of the
Willie McCrea's daughter having welcomed Martin with a warm hand
of friendship, unaware of his identity and later mortified that
she had been in contact with a demonic republican.
Later in the day and contrasting with the quiet of morning
polling, the legions of voters, many of them very young, arrived
past the heavily armed RUC and seemed to be voting Sinn Féin.
The next day, amid the clammering of canteen cutlery and plates,
a continually flowing coffee machine and the sea of crisp shirts
and neat ties at the count centre in Omagh, Co Tyrone, candidates
sweated it out in the midday heat. The closeness of the
meterological depression shrouding the dreamy town was symbolic
of the tension on the foreheads of candidates inside. Looking
through a glass partition over the counting hall was like
glancing into a zoo of diverse political animals. The McCreas
maintained a vilgilant observance of the votes coming in for
Willie and his hapless second runner Paul McLean while Martin
McGuinness strolled about the hall chatting now and then with SF
Vice President Pat Doherty through a large net separating the
Mid-Ulster and West Tyrone counts.
As the counts dragged on it was increasingly apparent that SF's
poll-topping performance had clearly delivered three seats for
the party. Pending a formal announcement some attentions turned
to the England vs Colombia World Cup match. Republicans, media
and other party workers assembled in front of a TV, many
anticipating a shock defeat for the old enemy (not Willie
McCrea), but alas it was not to be. One English journalist cried
a lone yelp of joy at their first goal. ``Well it's nice to see us
winning something, considering we're losing everything else at
the minute,'' including their grip on Ireland, he conceded.
The long awaited announcement of the results of the Mid-Ulster
vote gave rise to the exuberant cheering of republicans. Willie
McCrea hastily left the hall, unprepared to mount a platform with
Sinn Féin, dancing about while shouting that he had ``topped the
poll'' - oblivious to the fact that SF had outpolled his party by
almost 10,000 votes. His running mate, Paul McLean, must have
felt devastated at his 307 first preference votes. Rather than
managing the DUP vote and giving his second-runner a reasonable
share of first preferences, he chose to maximise his own vote.
The SDLP candidate Denis Haughey, his eyes bulging, teeth
clenched and with a heart rate that inflated the veins on his
neck, described the waving of the Irish flag as
``tribalist'',''triumphalist'' and a hindrance to reconciliation.
In a function following the event, successful SF candidate John
Kelly passionately thanked the election workers present and
reminded people that he was their ``servant'' not their leader. The
young band playing at the function also paid credit to the
tireless work of local activist and Director of Publicity, Paul
Henry, who modestly refused to join in on a ballad - worthy of
any founding father of republicanism - that they had written
about him.
It was strong, steady and undeterred activism on the part of many
local people that created a dynamic which has propelled
republicanism to the top of the political scale in Mid-Ulster and
will undoubtedly continue to further maximise support for the
republican analysis there.
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