Turlough Murphy is running for a vacant council seat in the Fews dsitrict of Newry and Mourne. Not much news there, but it gets more interesting. Turlough is the brother of Conor Murphy MP for the South Armagh. And his opponent is none other than Willie Frasier Frazer from FAIR. Both the UU and DUP stood aside to let Wille have a clear run at the seat. Nomination papers were handed in to the council on Friday for the seat, which was vacated by Sinn Fein councillor Brendan Lewis in May.
Mr Frazer, a prominent campaigner from Markethill, said he was standing for the seat to give a voice to victims in south Armagh.
“It’s not the Nationalist community I have a problem with, it’s the Republican community,” he said. “The reasons I am standing for the seat is, one, it shows that the DUP and UUP, who have offered their full support for me, can come together for important issues. The second reason is to highlight what is going on in the south Armagh area. The people of this area now have a choice; vote for the perpetrator or vote for the victim. I want to give the victims in south Armagh a proper voice.”
The provisional date for the by-election is Wednesday August 9.