Chris Donnelly

Loyalists have erected flags in a shared housing development in South Belfast in a move which immediately challenges the new DUP MP for the area, Emma Little Pengelly, to condemn those responsible and call on the PSNI to remove the flags- an intriguing proposition, given that the organisation whose name appears on some of the flags, the UVF, was one of the paramilitary organisations publicly endorsing the DUP candidate days before the Westminster election earlier this month. The area concerned, …

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Undoubtedly the most intriguing aspect of the early post-election period has been how the British public has been introduced to the DUP by a mainstream media in Britain which clearly gave the party little or no attention in the past. The long list of controversial comments about gays, Muslims, Catholics and other Others has even been making front page news as the DUP experiences the heat associated with fifteen minutes of fame. The underlying theme remains one of a party …

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Barely a week since the UDA was responsible for killing a man in North Down, the umbrella loyalist organisation, the Loyalist Communities Council (LCC), has issued a statement warning unionists and loyalists against voting for the Alliance Party. Helpfully, the loyalists have offered “guidance” to unionists regarding voting intentions in marginal constituencies. Arlene Foster came in for stinging criticism after meeting UDA leader, Jackie McDonald, days after the Bangor killing of Colin Horner. She confirmed that she did not raise …

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It is hard to believe that 27 years have come and gone since David O’Leary scored the fifth and final penalty to send the Republic of Ireland through to the quarter finals of the World Cup. I have very clear memories of watching the game and penalty shootout with my brother in our living room. I was convinced we’d lose out on penalties, and with each Romanian kick finding the net until Timofte faced off against Packie, it seemed almost inevitable …

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I had a piece in Thursday’s News Letter election supplement about the battle taking place within nationalism in the Westminster election. I agree with Alex Kane that unionists will be out in numbers on Thursday in an attempt, from their perspective, to rectify what happened in March. Primary emotions play a major role in producing higher voter turnout at election time. Fear, anger and hope have each played a role in determining major upswings in turnout, with significant electoral landmarks …

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Jim Wells is in the headlines again. Betcha that’s a sentence which makes the DUP press team despair…. This time, Mr Wells has made the news for his proclamation that Sinn Fein is “not welcome” in a “unionist town.” Mr Wells made the comments on Twitter in the aftermath of Sinn Fein election workers canvassing the small town of Rathfriland in the South Down constituency. His (now deleted) tweet read: Many complaints about Sinn Fein canvassing in Rathfriland yesterday. They …

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SDLP DUP ALL SF UUP   Comb Nat Comb Un 2017 A 19.4% 20.8% 17.8% 17.7% 9.0% 37.1% 31.9% 2016 A 20.0% 22.0% 16.4% 14.2% 6.7% 34.2% 34.1% 2015 W 24.5% 22.2% 17.2% 13.9% 9.1% 38.4% 37.7% 2010 W 41.0% 23.7% 15.0% – 17.3% 41.0% 41.0% 2005 W 32.3% 28.4% 7.2% 9.0% 22.7% 41.3% 51.1% In March’s Assembly election, South Belfast became the first and only Assembly constituency to elect all five MLAs from different political parties. The result was …

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Celebrity endorsements are a feature of political life across the western world. We are well used to prominent figures in the entertainment industry lining up to endorse or criticise political candidates- in the United States, Britain and Ireland. Figures within the sporting world are also known for raising their voices to offer opinions on political developments and at election time. In recent days, snooker’s Ronnie O’Sullivan publicly offered his support to Jeremy Corbyn ahead of June’s election. Gregg Popovich, head …

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Arlene Foster has been slammed for comments she made about Sinn Fein’s northern leader, Michelle O’Neill, in a Sunday Independent article published today. When asked what word she would associate with Mrs O’Neill, Arlene Foster answered, “Blonde!” Here is the excerpt in full from the paper, beginning with the journalist (Niamh Horan) asking what Arlene thought of Michelle O’Neill: She pauses for a moment, then laughs. A bold look on her face. “I don’t want to be sexist and I …

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There are good reasons to believe that, even with a solitary Unionist candidate in North Belfast, there is a possibility of John Finucane pulling off a shock and taking the seat from the DUP’s Nigel Dodds in next month’s Westminster election. The DUP MP’s vote lead in 2015 over Sinn Fein’s Gerry Kelly was substantial. Running without a unionist opponent, Dodds claimed over 19,000 votes, with Kelly just under 14,000. The differential turnouts between unionists and nationalists was a considerable …

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Sinn Fein’s surprise move to bring in John Finucane in North Belfast will have succeeded in adding to the pressure on the leaderships of both nationalist parties to secure some form of understanding that will allow the nationalist and pro-Remain constituencies to feel they can maximise representation at the forthcoming Westminster election in the face of an expected unionist pact across multiple constituencies. The Nationalist Surge in March’s Assembly election is best understood as a call for the collective leadership …

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The Westminster contest in North Belfast just got serious. Sinn Fein have announced their intention to run Belfast-based solicitor John Finucane in the constituency at next month’s Westminster election. After nationalists succeeded in taking a majority of seats in the constituency at the Assembly election in March, Sinn Fein are clearly seeking to capitalise on the resurgent nationalist vote, and the candidacy of John Finucane will make this into a straight Dodds vs Finucane contest. The candidacy of John Finucane …

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There are many expressing surprise at the fact that, for the first time, the SDLP appear to be open to the idea of an electoral pact with Sinn Fein. In the not too distant past, such a development would have been considered unthinkable. A core plank of SDLP policy was to ensure the blue water distancing the party from Sinn Fein remained clearly visible. In both of the previous Westminster elections, (here for 2010 and here for 2015) the SDLP …

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Both Unionist parties have already signalled their willingness to enter talks to agree the terms for an expected electoral pact, but expect speculation to develop about the prospect of a Brexit pact for the non-unionist parties. Already, Sinn Fein’s Declan Kearney and John O’Dowd have signalled support for such a position, and intriguingly the SDLP Foyle MP, Mark Durkan, did not close the door on such a proposal on The Nolan Show this morning (under interrogation from fellow commentator, David …

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There’s nothing like the scent of a fresh election in this mid-Spring air to get the pulses racing. A few early thoughts for Slugger readers as we embark on yet another election odyssey: This one is all about Brexit, and that suits both of our main parties. For Sinn Fein, it taps into and feeds the energy which created the Nationalist Surge delivering the historic election results in March. Nationalism remains agitated and unnerved by the cocktail of developments from …

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Taoiseach Enda Kenny has confirmed that the Irish government will move to hold a referendum to allow Irish citizens living in the north of Ireland and abroad the right to vote in Irish Presidential elections. In a speech delivered at the Famine Memorial in Philadelphia, the Fine Gael leader finally confirmed that the government would move to act on a recommendation made at the Constitutional Convention in 2013. This is a move likely to be supported across the board by …

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The Nationalist Surge has dramatically altered the composition of the Northern Ireland Assembly, whilst also prompting many questions and challenges to both Nationalists and Unionists. Below I have listed five things which can be taken from the election results. 1.  The surging nationalist turnout, and within that the unprecedented support for Sinn Fein from within northern nationalism, needs properly understood. Nationalists were already of the opinion that the pendulum had swung too far in unionism’s favour at Stormont before the …

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All has changed. Utterly. Ten months ago, Sinn Fein and the SDLP mustered a meagre 36% of the vote between them in the May 2016 Assembly election, returning just 40 seats, the lowest number for the nationalist parties since the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. In contrast, the newly-elected DUP leader, Arlene Foster, emerged the triumphant winner of a contest which underlined both the DUP’s electoral dominance and broader sense that they were politically in the driving seat, dictating the …

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The DUP launched its manifesto today in a breathtaking example of the cynical manner with which the party has treated the electorate since the RHI scandal unfolded before our eyes. The party leader, Arlene Foster, declared that she would not answer any questions at the launch due to suffering from a case of “man flu” which, alas, did not prevent her from delivering her speech- a decision which prompted this response on Twitter from the BBC’s political correspondent, Gareth Gordon: …

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