SDLP candidate in West Tyrone facing a sustained campaign of intimidation…

The last SDLP MLA in Strabane was Eugene McMenamin had both his car and his home attacked. Like SF’s perils in Bangor, it’s the price of running against the thuggery of the post-conflict years.

Now at least the abuse Daniel McCrossan is taking is not (yet) physical. But it seems more than virtual:

“My car’s been followed, with photos of it posted online which is a bit of a danger for me being on the policing board,” he told the Belfast Telegraph.

“Activists from other campaigns have called me a scumbag and said they would ‘deal with me in the way that they see fit.’ It’s been very nasty.”

West Tyrone is a tight interface in which SF needs to squeeze the SDLP vote to eat up the gap between themselves and DUP (the only way of determining if this election is a success or not). The only way forward is to face it down.

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.