Surge for Sinn Fein and Alliance sees changing of the guard

24 May 2023

LONG serving Rowallane Ulster Unionist councillor Robert Burgess was one of several high profile casualties at last week’s local government election which reshaped the district’s political landscape.

Following an excruciating long two-day election count at Newry Leisure Centre last Friday and Saturday, Cllr Burgess lost out to Alliance which made history by claiming two seats in Rowallane for the first time.

Elsewhere, the TUV’s Harold McKee lost his seat in the Mournes — also to Alliance — while the SDLP’s Karen McKevitt lost her seat in Crotlieve by a single vote and party colleague Hugh Gallagher, who was elected for the first time in 2019, lost his seat as Sinn Fein picked up three in Slieve Croob.

Sinn Fein’s Newry, Mourne and Down Council group leader Barra Ó Muirí surprisingly lost his seat in Slieve Gullion while the party’s Gerry O’Hare also lost his Crotlieve seat, also by a single vote.

And history almost repeated itself during the marathon election count with current council chairman

Michael Savage involved in a titanic battle for one of the remaining two seats in Newry which he finally secured alongside his SDLP colleague, Doire Finn.

Four years ago, the council’s SDLP chairman, Mark Murnin, lost his Slieve Croob seat and while early tallies suggested Cllr Savage may not have made it over the line, he held on to his seat with the four others in the Newry DEA won by Sinn Fein in an election packed with drama and surprises, including a power cut late on Saturday afternoon.

Republicans won four more seats than in 2019 to finish the election with 20, with the SDLP losing three seats during what was a bruising election for the party which now has just eight seats. Alliance and the DUP have five seats each, with David Taylor the local authority’s sole Ulster Unionist representative.

The council’s two Independents are Jarlath Tinnelly and Mark Gibbons.

Sinn Fein topped the poll in Downpatrick, Newry, Slieve Gullion and Crotlieve, with its 20 councillors contributing to the massive 144 council seats the party secured across Northern Ireland, making it the largest in local government, with the DUP poll toppers in Rowallane, Slieve Croob and The Mournes.

But Sinn Fein was left wondering what might have been.

Louise Rooney missed out on an elusive third seat in Downpatrick and if she had made it alongside O Muiri and O’Hare, the party would have secured an unprecedented 23 seats — over half those on the council.

Sinn Fein’s aggressive strategy to secure three seats in Downpatrick almost paid off and while it only won two, the party will be back in 2027 more than confident of securing a hat-trick of seats.

What Sinn Fein didn’t envisage was the loss of Ó Muirí and O’Hare, but the sad news was tempered by the performance of Siobhan O’Hare who won a third seat for the party in Slieve Croob without reaching the quota. She joins party colleagues Roisin Howell and Jim Brennan.

The DUP’s Glyn Hanna, Jonny Jackson and Alan Lewis produced stunning performances to top the poll in The Mournes, Rowallane and Slieve Croob respectively.

Hanna, who jokingly describes himself as a political heavyweight, polled a massive 2,340 first preference votes and was delighted to be joined by party colleague Henry Reilly who polled over 1,000 first preferences.

Jackson, who was contesting his first election, having been co-opted just before Christmas, clocked up the miles during an extensive canvass and secured 1,414 first preferences. He was followed by party colleague and other election first timer, Callum Bowsie, whose first preference vote was just nine short of the 1,340 quota.

Lewis, who topped the poll in Slieve Croob on a UUP ticket in 2019 when he secured 1,303 votes polled 1,723 first preferences under the DUP banner and said he was rewarded for his hard work on the ground across the DEA.

But it was a bad election for the SDLP and UUP, which both played critical roles leading to the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.

The SDLP lost one of its three Downpatrick seats to Sinn Fein, who were snapping at the heels of Nationalists going into the closing stages of the count when Conor Galbraith, chosen to stand in place of the retired Dermot Curran who gave the party five decades of service, saw off the challenge from his party colleague, Aurla King, before the youth worker eventually defeated Sinn Fein’s Louise Rooney.

The loss of Cllr Burgess was a bitter blow for the UUP which at one stage looked like its place on the local authority in the new council term would be confined to the history books as it was feared it would end up with no seats until Cllr Taylor got over the line, with the SDLP’s eight seats only three more than Alliance and the DUP.

The loss of a third SDLP seat in Downpatrick was expected, but the party was left reeling with the loss of Gallagher and McKevitt which further diminishes its once proud standing as South Down’s political powerhouse.

Mr Burgess, who made it to the count centre after news had filtered through that he had lost his seat, was greeted with hugs and warm handshakes by many of his former council colleagues from various parties who extended their sympathy to him which he accepted with good grace.

Politics is brutal and Mr Burgess is acutely aware of that.

The genial Saintfield farmer could have stayed at home but chose to drive to Newry to say farewell to colleagues, many of whom he has worked with for over two decades as a member of the former Down Council and its successor, Newry, Mourne and Down.

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