Was that due to the huge personality of John Hume ??
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Itâs true that grass roots SF members put the work in on the streets but I donât think McDonald is seen as grass roots by the grass roots. As has been pointed out John Humeâs Derry was always an SDLP town and swung to SF mainly thru McGuinnessâ influence. Going back to SDLP. Michelle OâNeill is seen by many SF voters as a lighweight. But we are in an era of lightweight politicians. The DUP seem to be under most pressure. Theyâve partly extricated themselves from the religious wing but not completely and always have to keep looking over their shoulders. They, like SF, keep the hammer on any internal dissent, but have more internal strains than SF. If they donât play it right they could lose a substantial part of their support to Jim Allister and the TUV. Soft Unionism as in UUP is drifting towards Alliance.
Maybe not being out and about so much over the last year Iâm not getting the âworking classâ voice that youâd hear at games and in the pub and Iâm hearing a bit more of the âmiddle classâ voice but it seems to me that thereâs a shift in younger peopleâs concerns. Brexit stalled the shift a bit but I was getting the feeling that there was less concern about politics in general and more the salary going into their accounts at the end of the month.
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I wouldnât necessarily say so. You could MMG was every bit as much revered as Hume.
Y and John Tierney,Pat Hume gained more votes for the SDLP as her husband did,Pat Ramsey a local bogsider also v popular and good local ground worker
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Would Catholics who arenât as interested in a United Ireland and moreso just want peace tend to stick with the SDLP rather than the Alliance?
Ya but MMG only really focussed on electoral politics from late 90s or so .
I remember reading an article once that I think was wrote by Nell or Eamon McCann and the line was the Derry was never a republican city per se until the civil rights protest were nuclear .
Iâd say thatâs probably a fair enough summation. Thereâs very hardcore republican areas of Derry City but as a whole it was always fairly moderate. Derry for a majority nationalist city would never have the feel of West Belfast, South Armagh, East Tyrone or South Derry.
As regards Westminster elections everything in the north depends on what constituency youâre in. It seems to me the SDLP have better young talent than SF these days. The Alliance clearly have superior talent to Unionist parties. The next NI election will break down a lot on class lines and education I think, with the SDLP and Alliance taking more of the middle class/college educated vote. A class split within Unionism is becoming very apparent.
Iâd say for the most part that would be right. Having said that I remember at the time of the GFA being told by a fella that heâd be voting SF and being completely surprised by it as Iâd have put him down as a Catholic Alliance voter. So my judgement is rather suspect!
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The SDLP are hugely reliant on transfers, I can only see there being one winner in the Alliance/SDLP battle next time out and if the Alliance outlast the SDLP in some constituencies then the SDLP are in trouble.
Eastwood will put an awful lot of nationalists/republicans voting SDLP. His linking up with FF caused a lot of ructions last time about.
Just look at sport in Derry City itself. Itâs a soccer town. The GAA doesnât really have a strong presence there.
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Scuse me?
?? For a population of 80,000 (?) and maybe 75% of that nationalist, what inroads have they made in Co Derry Gaelic Football or hurling?
I think Tom McGuinness was the only city lad there to be a top class inter county footballer ?
That said a friend of mine from Derry reckoned that James McClean and Shane Duffy were more than decent underage footballers .
I was surprised to hear Derry was in America.
I was just distinguishing soccer from gaelic. Though, didnât Derry have a large American base during WW2 and for some time after?
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Interesting read this - the clergy role is interesting too
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Most Irish people call it soccer.
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Heâs from Italy and the UK.