Independent Republican Cllrs Confirm as Candidates in 2011

| Readers 50

This should make the 2011 local council election in Magherafelt interesting.  The Irish News reports today that

The brother of IRA hunger striker Francis Hughes has confirmed he will stand against Sinn Féin in next year’s local council elections.  Oliver Hughes sits on Magherafelt District Council as an independent republican representative for Moyola district after resigning in 2006 with former Sinn Féin colleague Patsy Groogan over what they described as “internal differences”.  Mr Groogan also confirmed he intends to stand as an independent candidate in the local elections.

When they resigned in 2006 Oliver Hughes stated

“Our reasons for resigning are the result of major domestic political difficulties within the republican movement in south Derry.

“All sides have agreed that we would not debate our difficulties in public.”

Perhaps they’ll get the opportunity to articulate those “difficulties” this time round?

Discover more from Slugger O'Toole

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Recent posts

Brian O'Neill

Open Sunday – discuss what you like…

Brian O'Neill

Open sunday – politics free zone…

Jack Russell

Integrated Education must change to survive

We are reader supported. Donate to keep Slugger lit!

For over 20 years, Slugger has been an independent place for debate and new ideas. We have published over 40,000 posts and over one and a half million comments on the site. Each month we have over 70,000 readers. All this we have accomplished with only volunteers we have never had any paid staff.

Slugger does not receive any funding, and we respect our readers, so we will never run intrusive ads or sponsored posts. Instead, we are reader-supported. Help us keep Slugger independent by becoming a friend of Slugger. While we run a tight ship and no one gets paid to write, we need money to help us cover our costs.

If you like what we do, we are asking you to consider giving a monthly donation of any amount, or you can give a one-off donation. Any amount is appreciated. 

Give a monthly donation Give a one-off donation