Sinn Fein? They have gone away, you know.

[Carmen Stateside]

Well said Charlie. Syfillis is clueless when it comes to most things, especially northern politics.  He has single handedly destroyed this discussion board with his bullshit on every thread going.  I wonder does he really think people give an actual f**k what he says?
A Moron!

[Syferus]

Well said Charlie. Syfillis is clueless when it comes to most things, especially northern politics.  He has single handedly destroyed this discussion board with his bullshit on every thread going.  I wonder does he really think people give an actual f**k what he says?
A Moron!

I hope you didn't miss the irony that you just proved you care very, very dearly.

Also I'd like to remind charlie that nationalism != SF. They are just one, rather blood-soaked, part of it and don't own what the boundaries of acceptable nationalist or republican thought is. Incidents like this and moreover SF's lame reactions to them highlight that fact.

I'm not afraid of childish, foul-mouthed attempts to shout down those who don't agree with the dogma that seems to start and end with "what about.." when it comes to every wrong-doing by SF/IRA, and nor is anyone else in the south for that matter. The rules are different in the rest of Ireland and you'll never get any closer to your goals of nationalism until you realise that and stop shouting. You see everyone that isn't a blind adherent as your enemy. What sort of future will be built with that attitude?

[gallsman]

Daithi McKay f..ked up gone.
Barry f..ked up gone. But all you hear is republican bashing from the usual suspects, the entire SDLP voting population must post on here. What is with all the hatred?

Hatred?! Catch yourself on you complete f**king flake.

Wow. settle pettel  You on traffic duty again?

The republicanism is defined by voting shinner and supporting Celtic mentality right here. Embarrassingly pathetic.

The fact that so many can't see people wanting to hold idiots like McElduff to account for being idiots to account as anything other than "bashing" or "hatred" is laughable, yet not one bit surprising for some of the luminaries and intellectual colossi we have on this board. Everybody's a "stoop" apparently. Morons throwing around what they think are insults but are clearly too f**king stupid to see the irony given some of the things the shinners have stooped to.

[seafoid]

In the long term this will benefit SF. They have to deal with the past to move forward.

[T Fearon]

SF now intent on focusing on its Southern electorate at the expense of the North.Remember Gerry Adams at the time of the decommissioning row,saying Republicans would never do anything demanded by Unionists?

[Il Bomber Destro]

I wouldn't be surprised if the SDLP stand aside and allow a unionist to stand alone against a SF candidate. It would be the last treachery for them in Tyrone, following on from bringing in Fergal Logan to unseat Michelle Gildernew in FST and of course, parachuting Brid Rodgers into WT to try and beat Pat Doherty.  There she was, a Donegal woman, living in Armagh poncing around Omagh wearing a Tyrone jersey.  Classy.  Really classy.  Tyrone people can spot a spoofer a mile off.  She got hammered.  Hammered. She actually lost votes from Joe Byrne who got 15000 in 1997.  The latest chancer, McCrossan who is an absolute SF hater, lost them another 10k last year, coming in just over 5k.  It wouldn't even win them an Assembly seat in that constituency where the quota was 7300 votes last year.  Eugene McMenamin and Joe Byrne could always get votes here

Part of being a Shinner cult type appears to be to sneer about anything and everything the SDLP do it would seem, and to look down on them as some kind of inferior beings. It's not a football team you are following.

following on from bringing in Fergal Logan to unseat Michelle Gildernew in FST and of course, parachuting Brid Rodgers into WT to try and beat Pat Doherty.  There she was, a Donegal woman, living in Armagh poncing around Omagh wearing a Tyrone jersey.

Yes Rodgers was from Donegal. As was Pat Doherty. And I don't think Mid Ulster's boundaries expanded to the Bogside but that didn't stop McGuinness running there.

The latest chancer, McCrossan who is an absolute SF hater, lost them another 10k last year, coming in just over 5k.  It wouldn't even win them an Assembly seat in that constituency where the quota was 7300 votes last year.  Eugene McMenamin and Joe Byrne could always get votes here

But it's ok to be a SDLP hater of course 
Incidentally McCrossan didn't lose them 10k votes, they were lost long ago. The SDLP vote hasn't exceeded 6500 since 2001. Who got that highest vote since then? McCrossan. His vote in the Assembly last March was 3k higher than what Joe Byrne got in 2011.

Rich coming from a little FGbot /FGbot like yourself. You ever going to address the shameful past of your own establishment parties or is that too close to the bone?

[Il Bomber Destro]

Daithi McKay f..ked up gone.
Barry f..ked up gone. But all you hear is republican bashing from the usual suspects, the entire SDLP voting population must post on here. What is with all the hatred?

Hatred?! Catch yourself on you complete f**king flake.

Wow. settle pettel  You on traffic duty again?

Shameful response.

Go clean a boat you hun dog.

The fact you can be so unrepentant after what happened is incredible.

The fact you feel you have a right to comnent is incredible to me. I can honestly say hand on heart that i hate you for your shameful degradation of the nationalist community up here. I love live and work with unionist people protestant people. I refuse to be lectured by you. Sanctimonious tr**p.

Listen the guy you are engaging with would kill his granny to get ahead in life. You won't find him condemning the wrongs and corruption of his state.

[Il Bomber Destro]

Well said Charlie. Syfillis is clueless when it comes to most things, especially northern politics.  He has single handedly destroyed this discussion board with his bullshit on every thread going.  I wonder does he really think people give an actual f**k what he says?
A Moron!

I hope you didn't miss the irony that you just proved you care very, very dearly.

Also I'd like to remind charlie that nationalism != SF. They are just one, rather blood-soaked, part of it and don't own what the boundaries of acceptable nationalist or republican thought is. Incidents like this and moreover SF's lame reactions to them highlight that fact.

I'm not afraid of childish, foul-mouthed attempts to shout down those who don't agree with the dogma that seems to start and end with "what about.." when it comes to every wrong-doing by SF/IRA, and nor is anyone else in the south for that matter. The rules are different in the rest of Ireland and you'll never get any closer to your goals of nationalism until you realise that and stop shouting. You see everyone that isn't a blind adherent as your enemy. What sort of future will be built with that attitude?

FG/IRA and FF/IRA are two other blood soaked parts of Irish history but don't let facts get in the way of justifying hypocrisy.

[AQMP]

I was just going to say that the Acute Hospital is situated in FST, a constituency represented by an SF MP. But I fear the point may be lost!

[Franko]

The result from the GE in June:

Barry McElduff (SF)            22,060        50.7%
Thomas Buchanan (DUP)    11,718        26.9%
Daniel McCrossan (SDLP)     5,635         13.0%
Alicia Clarke (UUP)              2,253          5.2%   
Stephen Donnelly (All)        1,000           2.3%
Ciaran McClean (Green)         427           1.0%
Barry Brown (CISTA)             393           0.9%

Majority                            10,342        23.8%

Turnout                            43,675        68.2%

On these figures it would take something earth shattering for SF to lose this seat.  McElduff got more than 50% of the vote.

What would happen if the candidate was to be a victim of the Omagh bomb running on a respect/reconciliation ticket? 

The SF vote maxed out in 2017, while in WT many voters opposed to SF no longer vote as it is pointless on a split vote trying to have their preferred candidate elected, only core non-SF voters turn out. 

There is plenty of scope to increase the non-SF vote if there was a prospect of sending a strong message to the politicians that the sectarian nonsense has no future. Someone like Stanley McComb would be capable of drawing a considerable non-partisan vote and would highlight the case for the victims of the Omagh bomb in their campaign for a proper inquiry.

Like West Belfast, West Tyrone has gained nothing from its SF representation in government in Belfast and elected to Westminster.  It has lost the acute hospital to FST and the A5 will begin at the other end in Foyle instead of an extension to the A4 dual carriageway (another serious accident at Garvaghy on Saturday night) due to decisions by SF ministers seeking party votes in other constituencies.  No new employment to replace the downgrading of the lost civil service jobs and at the Education Authority.  Yet SF supporters continue to return representatives every time, strange.

Do you have any facts to back any of this up?

The loss of the hospital and the change in the building of the A5 are facts.  Decisions taken by SF ministers are facts.  No new employment brought to replace jobs taken away by DUP-SF government by borrowing money to make people redundant are facts.  EA downgrading of WELB employment in Omagh a decision taken by SF minister is a fact.  SF supporters voting in SF candidates every time despite gaining nothing in terms of jobs or roads to the West and losing health facilities is a fact. Highest votes achieved in an election by SF in WT in 2017 elections is a fact.  Speaking to others who live in the constituency who do not support SF they are despondent at the lack of progress in health and employment and many tel me they no longer see a point of voting, others say they vote to stop their vote being stolen, that a fact.

Stanley McComb or another similar person of integrity standing in election against SF as a victims representative would beat SF, that's my opinion.

Is it any wonder the SDLP is in the state it's in when you hear predictions like this.

Paraphrasing your post, employment and infrastructure seem to be the two biggest issues pertaining to the voters in WT.

What qualifications and experience would your preferred candidate Stanley McComb bring to the table to resolve these issues?

Absolutely none.  As I stated above my reason for proposing him or another of similar integrity is purely as a victims representative in response to the behaviour of all politicians in the last ten days. 

McElduff and other SF representatives have brought nothing to WT and only stood by while their colleagues took away the acute hospital and failed to hold on to the A5 to Omagh so another candidate who may not change the employment or health issues for WT will not matter as McElduff would have made no difference over the remainder of the current Westminster mandate in relation to bringing much needed infrastructure and employment to WT.

Your statement that 'employment and infrastructure seem to be the two biggest issues pertaining to the voters in WT' is incorrect as the majority of voters in WT given the results of the last two elections and SF voters would appear to prefer to keep the area down at the level created by years of unionist and direct rule by continuing to elect SF representatives who have been the main representatives for the last 20 years.

BTW I am not a member of the SDLP and my opinion that a victims representative as a candidate would bring out a vote to remove a future SF candidate has nothing to do with the SDLP.

Right, so lets get this clear.  Your produce a paragraph-long diatribe about the failings of McElduff with regard to employment and infrastructure in WT and how voters are becoming disillusioned with this.  You then propose a candidate who has absolutely NO experience in dealing with issues of this nature.  When challenged on this, you say that, in fact, these issues are not that important to the voters of WT???

Do you actually ever read what you post?

This whole 'victims' candidate is a red herring, pushed by unionists as they (and all other political parties) know that the ONLY way they are going to remove SF from the WT seat is for the SF candidate to stand aside.  Most of those saying otherwise are being disingenuous and using supposed 'care' for victims to push an 'anybody but SF' political agenda.  This includes you Owen.

[Feckitt]

Speculation that SF could run Peter Canavan even though his home area would be Fermanagh & South Tyrone.  Peter obviously has the biggest profile of any person in the whole county and is much loved and respected throughout West Tyrone.

This could be a possibility as it would follow in the footsteps of the 'civic nationalist' letter to the Taoiseach before Christmas,

Also tomorrow night Joe Brolly (who believe it or not is a complete unknown amongst large swathes of the Northern population) will be on UTV tomorrow night as a civic nationalist to talk about how middle class catholics now unanimously reject Northern Ireland.

Interesting times!

[tonto1888]

Well said Charlie. Syfillis is clueless when it comes to most things, especially northern politics.  He has single handedly destroyed this discussion board with his bullshit on every thread going.  I wonder does he really think people give an actual f**k what he says?
A Moron!

I hope you didn't miss the irony that you just proved you care very, very dearly.

Also I'd like to remind charlie that nationalism != SF. They are just one, rather blood-soaked, part of it and don't own what the boundaries of acceptable nationalist or republican thought is. Incidents like this and moreover SF's lame reactions to them highlight that fact.

I'm not afraid of childish, foul-mouthed attempts to shout down those who don't agree with the dogma that seems to start and end with "what about.." when it comes to every wrong-doing by SF/IRA, and nor is anyone else in the south for that matter. The rules are different in the rest of Ireland and you'll never get any closer to your goals of nationalism until you realise that and stop shouting. You see everyone that isn't a blind adherent as your enemy. What sort of future will be built with that attitude?

SF/IRA? Where did you get that term from?

[tonto1888]

Daithi McKay f..ked up gone.
Barry f..ked up gone. But all you hear is republican bashing from the usual suspects, the entire SDLP voting population must post on here. What is with all the hatred?

Hatred?! Catch yourself on you complete f**king flake.

Wow. settle pettel  You on traffic duty again?

The republicanism is defined by voting shinner and supporting Celtic mentality right here. Embarrassingly pathetic.

The fact that so many can't see people wanting to hold idiots like McElduff to account for being idiots to account as anything other than "bashing" or "hatred" is laughable, yet not one bit surprising for some of the luminaries and intellectual colossi we have on this board. Everybody's a "stoop" apparently. Morons throwing around what they think are insults but are clearly too f**king stupid to see the irony given some of the things the shinners have stooped to.

can we leave supporting Celtic out of this

[tonto1888]

Speculation that SF could run Peter Canavan even though his home area would be Fermanagh & South Tyrone.  Peter obviously has the biggest profile of any person in the whole county and is much loved and respected throughout West Tyrone.

This could be a possibility as it would follow in the footsteps of the 'civic nationalist' letter to the Taoiseach before Christmas,

Also tomorrow night Joe Brolly (who believe it or not is a complete unknown amongst large swathes of the Northern population) will be on UTV tomorrow night as a civic nationalist to talk about how middle class catholics now unanimously reject Northern Ireland.

Interesting times!

Is Peter a member of SF? I seen him in the paper the other day saying the southern govt should release the findings on the Aiden McAnespie investigation

[Applesisapples]

A few observations on this saga.
Barry McElduff from what I read was a good hard working politician, Unionists acknowledge privately that he did not intend hurt. These same Unionists then ensured that hurt was felt and compounded by their own actions.
McElduff has done the right thing in resigning and should have shown more awareness in the props he was using. That said I think his comedic videos are unbecoming a man in his position.
SF need to get smart and grasp the nettle of what their representatives feel is ok to tweet and retweet, they need to show sensitivity around some of the commemorations etc...these might appeal to the grassroots but make middle-class voters uneasy, and these are the vote they need to attract.
As nationalists we should not hold our breaths waiting on Unionists to follow the same high standards set by SF in the McElduff and McKay cases.
Finally the pathetic quasi unionist bandwaggon jumping by Colm Eastwood and Daniel McCrossan is no replacement for a coherent political strategy and the SDLP is a far cry from the Party led by Hume.