The party is over for Mac Con Midhe

The party is over for Mac Con Midhe

28 May 2014

VETERAN Sinn Fein councillor, Eamonn Mac Con Midhe, was the dramatic casualty of a shockingly low poll in Downpatrick.

Only 47.2% voted in the Downpatrick electoral area and Sinn Fein is blaming the unexpected defeat of Mac Con Midhe on the near 70% of voters from the Model Farm and Flying Horse estates who failed to vote.

Their decision opened the door for independent Cadogan Enright who was almost 170 votes ahead of Mac Con Midhe when the veteran republican was eliminated.

It was a bitter blow for Mac Con Midhe who admitted the result “hurt” but said there were other things he wanted to do in life away from politics.

Sinn Fein had been expected to once again pick up two seats but Mac Con Midhe’s exit left newcomer Naomi Bailie as the sole Sinn Fein councillor for the County Town. Bailie will take great personal satisfaction which saw her poll 1,031 votes in her first council election.

The election of Enright is just rewards for his hard work as a Down councillor. He has been extremely active in the small village communities around Lecale to the extent that many village associations sent members to canvass for him before the election.

He has also been one of the leading lights in the drive by a group of local farmers to create a huge new energy hub centred around Bishopscourt.

This hard work has hurt other parties, particularly the SDLP. Enright took several hundred votes from the SDLP in this election and he has given the nationalist party plenty to think about as a new era of local government gets underway.

But his election has dismayed senior council officials who find his highly confrontational style of doing business very off putting and disruptive. Enright is not well liked among other councillors either and it was noticeable just how few other politicians congratulated him when he was elected on Friday.

However, there is widespread agreement across the political spectrum that he is an extremely able politician and it is likely he will force himself centre stage within the new council.

He will be one of three independent councillors in the new super council and it is likely Enright will try to form an alliance with them on certain issues.

The SDLP will be pleased to have three councillors elected in the county town, especially when the Sinn Fein representation ped to just one. But they will be concerned at that large haemorrhage of votes to Enright.

Colin McGrath once again topped the poll in Downpatrick and he was elected on the first count, followed by Dermot Curran and Gareth Sharvin.

It was a sweet moment for Curran, Northern Ireland’s longest serving politician who was first elected when local government was last reorganised in 1973. Highly respected throughout the Province he was delighted to be joined by his sons Jerome and Gerard who flew in for the count. Curran’ s only regret was that Eddie McGrady, the man who first persuaded him to enter politics, had died earlier this hear and was not in Newry to witness his election.