Agreed,I coached it full time in the schools for 2 yrs plus,and tbf at minor weâre well represented, growing big time thanks to the Mellon family mainly, staunch gaels and republicans
All the way back to Tommy Mellon escapee in the 5Os,and county board member,and his sonâs Sean,Pearse,Thomas Ashe,and Steven,2 of them teachers who kept GAA alive in the City despite the brits and Derry city fc
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Martina asked not to run in Derry 
The end of the road for our Fenian Princess.
Farewell Martina.
What is the real story here Fulvio ??
Iâm not entirely sure.
SF in Derry seems to have ran into chaos after McGuinness passed away. Perhaps @Corksfinedtboy, @TheBlackSpot and @glenshane might have a better line.
Elishaâs beau no doubt has been a key factor when you hear some of the stories surrounding him.
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My take on it, which would certainly not be authoritative, would be, as I said previously, that Derry is essentially a Nationalist not Republican town. In other words an SDLP stronghold which briefly fell to SF with the demise of John Hume and the rise of McGuinness. With both big personalities gone it is reverting to type no doubt aided by the sleaze/nepotism of McCallion\Martina.
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Not just her man,jobs for the boys and girls pussedtoff the ordinary republicans in the city who gained fuck all since the gfa
Permit me to be class dunce a minute but whatâs the difference? Id always thought the distinction was nationalists from north identify as Irish and northern Irish whereas republican sought for 32 county Ireland. Is this, or was this ever, correct understanding of the terms as seem almost interchangeable anymore?
It was always explained to me that Nationalism was primarily political and Republicanism leaned more towards paramilitary/armed struggle. Same applies to Unionist/Loyalist.
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To me it was always a class issue. Loyalism and Republicans were working class whereas the other two were more middle class
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Interesting.
At the start of the Civil Rights movement, though, virtually all Catholics were referred to as Nationalist and an awful lot of them lived in poverty. There would have been very few wealthy Catholics in the NI of the 60s.
Other than the Castle Catholics!
Wealth is I suppose relative. There was a good section of Catholic shopkeepers\publicans who would have been comparatively wealthy and seen themselves as middle class. Republicanism was a sort of niche market esp after 50âs 60âs confined to a few tradionally republican families. Late 60âs/70âs exploded it again.
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This is it. Nepotism is the main issue but there are other issues. There was always a little grudge with republicans in the north about Derry. Derry was always seen to have had it relatively easy, notwithstanding Bloody Sunday and Greysteel. Derry had a nationalist majority, the city was safe to go out in, they were only two miles from Donegal so easy to skip across to. Life was seen as easy compared to the rest of the six counties.
Derry had/has a large sdlp support. The issues at the start of the troubles was gerrymandering/jobs/civil rights. Sure Martin always said he got involved because he didnât get a job as a car mechanic. While they were complaining of jobs in Derry, they were getting burned out of their houses in Belfast.
Belfast was different during the war too, dangerous to go out in or get caught on the wrong side. They had the Shankill Butchers and the bombs, Adair etc. Mid Ulster was always dangerous right through from Robin Jackson and Billy Wright and South Armagh took the fight to brits and bombed the fuck out of London.
McGuiness kept things quiet in Derry and kept the dissidents quiet but they were always there. They had their views on him and the back channels. The dissidents have caused issues for the SF leadership in Derry especially since his death, not helped by the social media content from Martina Anderson and in particular the tweet from Elisha McCallion saying the hotel they were staying at in London had tiny rooms. In Derry they just thought she was on a junket in London buying expensive handbags and living it up. The dirt on the husband didnât help. It is the jobs for the leadership family members which is the biggest bug bearer, complete nepotism. A lot of the locals see it as the top of the SF leadership in Derry giving jobs to their family and relatives and looking after themselves. They have had it for years now and they all voted sdlp.
Martin is long gone now and the dissidents see no difference to their lives since the GFA. Life was easy enough in Derry bar they were under British rule, life in Belfast is light years away from what it was during the war. The dissidents in Derry have only seen the SF leadership boast about their wealth and posting tweets about holidays and their great lives. They are hated now in Derry and the republicans of Derry want a United Ireland now and the brits out.
The SF leadership was correct in removing the leadership from Derry but they may never regain the ground from the sdlp.
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McCallion making that joke about it being her canvassers and not debt collectors knocking on doors didnât do much to help with that image either Iâm sure.
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the SF leadership in Derry giving jobs to their family and relatives and looking after themselves.
Youâre bang on ref above I can testify to that at first hand- ref Derry SF councillors" owning" pubs, businesses,and houses across the border,one ( now SF councillor in Donegal , Terry Crossan worked on tbe doors bouncing, within 2 yrs he was assistant manager of Peadar O Donnellâs , moved from working class to middle class area,now shifted across the border, OS guess who now officially owns the sane pub?
William fuckin McGuinness,
Ref dissidents - they rule Derry now, an old mucker of mine Gary âDonsoâ Donnolly is an officiallly an independent councillor,ex 32 - Real ra/ provo,good guy whoâs popular amongst the youth in Derry.
Provos are dead in the water.
Troubles started in Derry and will end there, yes Derry is predominant nationalist,and not sectarian like Belfast and mid Ulster but lot of good guys buried in itâs republican plot and all.over the city cemetery
Very true.
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Too many of the very best buried all over the North. And what have we got. Terrible waste of good young men.
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A northern Ireland Identity.
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No. What we have left is
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
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@Corksfinedtboy
Yer man Dixie Elliot: Big clear out in SF Derry?
Iâm a Republican who comes from Derry and I can tell you that Brexit had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that Sinn FĂ©in voters jumped to Colm Eastwood in the Westminster election and the party also lost 5 seats in the council elections.
I know for a fact that among those voters there were Republicans who did so in order to punish that party.
One month after Raymond McCartney sat on a yacht in Dubai owned by a former Chief Petty Officer the British Royal Navy, Ian Hardcastle, he and Spike Murray told the family of brave Kevin Lynch that their band was no longer welcome at Sinn FĂ©in commemorations.
Martina Anderson was dancing like Orange Lily at that years Hunger Strike commemoration and this didnât go down well among Republicans.
A video was put on Facebook of local members partying in a hotel room during a dinner dance to commemorate dead volunteers. The person who put it up didnât notice the lines of coke on a table. It was quickly removed but the damage had already been done.
Martinaâs niece Elisha McCallion was canvassing in Cornshells in Derry and people werenât answering their doors. She was videoed shouting âcome out itâs Sinn FĂ©in not debt collectorsâ. That too was taken down but it caused an angry storm on social media.
Sinn FĂ©in were in full denial mode calling people liars then Elishaâs dumb husband weighed in and said that it was only a joke that people need to lighten up.
Not only that but it was known that the main Shinner families in the city were handing out political positions and jobs to their own family members and that cronyism and corruption was rife. This even caused a massive split in the party locally.
Come the Westminster election Sinn FĂ©in couldnât get members to canvass or man polling stations. A local journalist said to me that he couldnât believe it as during previous elections in Derry, Sinn FĂ©in were like an army on the march, unstoppable.
As recently as a couple of weeks ago members of the party walked out of a meeting in the Waterside when Martina began wagging her finger at them like a school teacher. One girl said that she joined Sinn FĂ©in for politics and not to play third cousin to the McCartneys and Andersons.
The Sinn FĂ©in inquiry was leaked to the Irish Examiner by a member of the party.
Stories emerging from other party members are shocking indeed. Yes they are talking about it even though some are deluded enough to think that it will save the party locally.
Judging by the opinion in the city, the clear out has only confirmed what everyone already knew and Sinn FĂ©in, as we know them, are finished in this city.
In fact during that Westminster election the Sinn FĂ©in vote was down in every constituency except North Belfast so why is the entire Derry leadership alone only getting the chop?
Dixie Elliott put that up on FB a few days ago. (Dixie was a blanketman and cellmate of Bobby Sands and then Tom McElwee)
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