Gerry's moving south...

[mayogodhelpus@gmail.com]

your nit picking maguire. what i'm saying is that people here in the north are not lookiing to to past when they are X ing their boxes and following that you have the continual rise in the strenght of sinn fein. voters here will drop whom ever they perceive as not doing their job. 'hot water' i presume yet AGAIN you refer to gerry's personal family business as a measure of his ability to perform his duties as a public representative but you choose to ignore the fact that he was emfactically re-elected. why are you concerned when his constituents are not? and while your at how many 'generations' have voted for sinn fein

[I'm sorry Lawseed but is that the ultimate pot calling the kettle black. People in the 6 counties vote for a set of parties based on what their religion is, what their parents religion was, what their grandparents religion was, etc. etc. etc.]

[I have yet to see that happen in the 26 counties.]

how can people in the north be voting for sinn fein because of their parents. just how many parents do folk have in mayo sinn feins vote is increasing expedentially because of the leadership they have shown. the dup are only 30years old and are attracting more votes also both at the expence of parties on the same side of the sectarian devide

you have already said you are a fg man because of your family tradition actually because of what eamon dev did in the early years of his dictatorship

No lawseed I did not, and many others on here including SF'rs can tell you the same. I mentioned family tradition, but also of FF and harder Republican, and maybe even Unionist a long way back. I did actually explain that I CHOOSE FG, I can link you to that post if you like.

I don't understand your line about how many parents do we have in Mayo, sorry can you explain what you meant by that.

You accuse people from the 26 of sticking to tradition by voting for 1 party because of what happened 1916-1923, yet you (in the 6) vote for a cohort of parties based on something that happened in 1641 or 1690 and vote along religious lines like your parents, grandparents and great-grandparents before you. The day I see 20% Protestant membership of SF north of the border or 20% Catholic membership of the DUP then come back and lecture us.

[lawnseed]

prods or catholics dont have to switch parties the dup and the shinners are in power together already but the wheels could come off when the shinners become the largest party and claim the 1st ministers job we'll wait and see.
  i dont vote as my family did because upto and until my father and mother returned from england 1968 i can say confidentally that nobody in our whole family ever voted because they'd have had the shite beat out of them. on the occasion or 2 that my father would have voted after that he probably would have voted stoops. i formed my political views based on my life experience and what i saw was the best way forward, if some party in the future comes up with a better plan i will look at what they are saying with open mind.
to be honest in the south fg's idealogidgy may differ from SF's but their policies seem to be converging also i think in richard bruton the party have something to offer but sure they couldnt get together history wouldnt allow it 

[Minder]

prods or catholics dont have to switch parties the dup and the shinners are in power together already but the wheels could come off when the shinners become the largest party and claim the 1st ministers job we'll wait and see.
  i dont vote as my family did because upto and until my father and mother returned from england 1968 i can say confidentally that nobody in our whole family ever voted because they'd have had the shite beat out of them. on the occasion or 2 that my father would have voted after that he probably would have voted stoops. i formed my political views based on my life experience and what i saw was the best way forward, if some party in the future comes up with a better plan i will look at what they are saying with open mind.
to be honest in the south fg's idealogidgy may differ from SF's but their policies seem to be converging also i think in richard bruton the party have something to offer but sure they couldnt get together history wouldnt allow it

Anti social behaviour?

[lawnseed]

by loyalists minder

[lawnseed]

whats ferris' daughter doing politically is she still involved

[Donnellys Hollow]

Dick Spring's nephew is running in Kerry North this time round. The Spring's would still have an extensive bailiwick around Tralee town and this could take some votes away from Ferris.

Jimmy Deenihan is home and hosed for FG. The remaining two seats are a toss up between Ferris, Spring and McEllistrim. Ferris could well be the one to lose out.

[lawnseed]

bailiwick? the springs are bailiffs? and you think this will get votes?

[Nally Stand]

your nit picking maguire. what i'm saying is that people here in the north are not lookiing to to past when they are X ing their boxes and following that you have the continual rise in the strenght of sinn fein. voters here will drop whom ever they perceive as not doing their job. 'hot water' i presume yet AGAIN you refer to gerry's personal family business as a measure of his ability to perform his duties as a public representative but you choose to ignore the fact that he was emfactically re-elected. why are you concerned when his constituents are not? and while your at how many 'generations' have voted for sinn fein

I'm sorry Lawseed but is that the ultimate pot calling the kettle black. People in the 6 counties vote for a set of parties based on what their religion is, what their parents religion was, what their grandparents religion was, etc. etc. etc.

I have yet to see that happen in the 26 counties.

Correction Mayo, Not along lines of religion, but along lines of Unionist/Loyalist or Nationalist/Republican.

I know absolutely no one who votes for candidates based on their religion. The likes of Billy Leonard (SF) is a Protestant and a former RUC part time reservist. He still got elected as a Cllr and I doubt if many unionists voted for him "because he is a Protestant". He was elected by Republicans & Nationalists because of his politics, and his religion is nothing to do with it.

Don't fall into the trap of perpetuating the myth that the conflict in the north was over religion!

[Maguire01]

your nit picking maguire. what i'm saying is that people here in the north are not lookiing to to past when they are X ing their boxes and following that you have the continual rise in the strenght of sinn fein. voters here will drop whom ever they perceive as not doing their job. 'hot water' i presume yet AGAIN you refer to gerry's personal family business as a measure of his ability to perform his duties as a public representative but you choose to ignore the fact that he was emfactically re-elected. why are you concerned when his constituents are not? and while your at how many 'generations' have voted for sinn fein

They might not be going back as many generations as with the parties in the south, but few people are studying each party's manifesto in the run up to each election and then making a decision based on policy or performance. And given the state of West Belfast, can people really continue to reelect Gerry Adams based on performance and what he has delivered for his constituents? What has he delivered that Peter Robinson hadn't?

And i'm definitely not choosing to ignore the fact that he was emphatically reelected. That was my point!

[Maguire01]

your nit picking maguire. what i'm saying is that people here in the north are not lookiing to to past when they are X ing their boxes and following that you have the continual rise in the strenght of sinn fein. voters here will drop whom ever they perceive as not doing their job. 'hot water' i presume yet AGAIN you refer to gerry's personal family business as a measure of his ability to perform his duties as a public representative but you choose to ignore the fact that he was emfactically re-elected. why are you concerned when his constituents are not? and while your at how many 'generations' have voted for sinn fein

I'm sorry Lawseed but is that the ultimate pot calling the kettle black. People in the 6 counties vote for a set of parties based on what their religion is, what their parents religion was, what their grandparents religion was, etc. etc. etc.

I have yet to see that happen in the 26 counties.

Correction Mayo, Not along lines of religion, but along lines of Unionist/Loyalist or Nationalist/Republican.

I know absolutely no one who votes for candidates based on their religion. The likes of Billy Leonard (SF) is a Protestant and a former RUC part time reservist. He still got elected as a Cllr and I doubt if many unionists voted for him "because he is a Protestant". He was elected by Republicans & Nationalists because of his politics, and his religion is nothing to do with it.

Don't fall into the trap of perpetuating the myth that the conflict in the north was over religion!

Political lines follow religious lines fairly much. Are there any examples other than Billy Leonard? On either side?

[Nally Stand]

your nit picking maguire. what i'm saying is that people here in the north are not lookiing to to past when they are X ing their boxes and following that you have the continual rise in the strenght of sinn fein. voters here will drop whom ever they perceive as not doing their job. 'hot water' i presume yet AGAIN you refer to gerry's personal family business as a measure of his ability to perform his duties as a public representative but you choose to ignore the fact that he was emfactically re-elected. why are you concerned when his constituents are not? and while your at how many 'generations' have voted for sinn fein

I'm sorry Lawseed but is that the ultimate pot calling the kettle black. People in the 6 counties vote for a set of parties based on what their religion is, what their parents religion was, what their grandparents religion was, etc. etc. etc.

I have yet to see that happen in the 26 counties.

Correction Mayo, Not along lines of religion, but along lines of Unionist/Loyalist or Nationalist/Republican.

I know absolutely no one who votes for candidates based on their religion. The likes of Billy Leonard (SF) is a Protestant and a former RUC part time reservist. He still got elected as a Cllr and I doubt if many unionists voted for him "because he is a Protestant". He was elected by Republicans & Nationalists because of his politics, and his religion is nothing to do with it.

Don't fall into the trap of perpetuating the myth that the conflict in the north was over religion!

Political lines follow religious lines fairly much. Are there any examples other than Billy Leonard? On either side?

I don't know the religion of every elected rep but I'd be very shocked if there were not numerous other examples. Former UUP MLA John Gorman also springs to mind. Either way my point is that it wouldn't be all that important. I raised the example of Billy Leonard as he is the most high profile cllr in that regard. I am a SF supporter and if every local SF candidate standing for election in my area were Protestant it would make zero difference to me or anybody else locally who support SF, they would still get the votes based on their politics. I'm not being blind and denying that there is a religious divide but my point it that Mayo is incorrect in saying that people vote along religious lines. As I say, people tend to vote in terms of their beliefs on the constitutional issue.

Obviously there are pricks out there who would not vote for someone with their own political views if they had "the wrong religion", but such pricks are in the minority. I don't know anyone like that anyway.

[Maguire01]

your nit picking maguire. what i'm saying is that people here in the north are not lookiing to to past when they are X ing their boxes and following that you have the continual rise in the strenght of sinn fein. voters here will drop whom ever they perceive as not doing their job. 'hot water' i presume yet AGAIN you refer to gerry's personal family business as a measure of his ability to perform his duties as a public representative but you choose to ignore the fact that he was emfactically re-elected. why are you concerned when his constituents are not? and while your at how many 'generations' have voted for sinn fein

I'm sorry Lawseed but is that the ultimate pot calling the kettle black. People in the 6 counties vote for a set of parties based on what their religion is, what their parents religion was, what their grandparents religion was, etc. etc. etc.

I have yet to see that happen in the 26 counties.

Correction Mayo, Not along lines of religion, but along lines of Unionist/Loyalist or Nationalist/Republican.

I know absolutely no one who votes for candidates based on their religion. The likes of Billy Leonard (SF) is a Protestant and a former RUC part time reservist. He still got elected as a Cllr and I doubt if many unionists voted for him "because he is a Protestant". He was elected by Republicans & Nationalists because of his politics, and his religion is nothing to do with it.

Don't fall into the trap of perpetuating the myth that the conflict in the north was over religion!

Political lines follow religious lines fairly much. Are there any examples other than Billy Leonard? On either side?

I don't know the religion of every elected rep but I'd be very shocked if there were not numerous other examples. Former UUP MLA John Gorman also springs to mind. Either way my point is that it wouldn't be all that important. I raised the example of Billy Leonard as he is the most high profile cllr in that regard. I am a SF supporter and if every local SF candidate standing for election in my area were Protestant it would make zero difference to me or anybody else locally who support SF, they would still get the votes based on their politics. I'm not being blind and denying that there is a religious divide but my point it that Mayo is incorrect in saying that people vote along religious lines. As I say, people tend to vote in terms of their beliefs on the constitutional issue.

Obviously there are pricks out there who would not vote for someone with their own political views if they had "the wrong religion", but such pricks are in the minority. I don't know anyone like that anyway.

I don't think there are numerous other examples. We can all name Billy Leonard because he's an exception to the rule.
Oh, and he's now an MLA.

[Nally Stand]

your nit picking maguire. what i'm saying is that people here in the north are not lookiing to to past when they are X ing their boxes and following that you have the continual rise in the strenght of sinn fein. voters here will drop whom ever they perceive as not doing their job. 'hot water' i presume yet AGAIN you refer to gerry's personal family business as a measure of his ability to perform his duties as a public representative but you choose to ignore the fact that he was emfactically re-elected. why are you concerned when his constituents are not? and while your at how many 'generations' have voted for sinn fein

I'm sorry Lawseed but is that the ultimate pot calling the kettle black. People in the 6 counties vote for a set of parties based on what their religion is, what their parents religion was, what their grandparents religion was, etc. etc. etc.

I have yet to see that happen in the 26 counties.

Correction Mayo, Not along lines of religion, but along lines of Unionist/Loyalist or Nationalist/Republican.

I know absolutely no one who votes for candidates based on their religion. The likes of Billy Leonard (SF) is a Protestant and a former RUC part time reservist. He still got elected as a Cllr and I doubt if many unionists voted for him "because he is a Protestant". He was elected by Republicans & Nationalists because of his politics, and his religion is nothing to do with it.

Don't fall into the trap of perpetuating the myth that the conflict in the north was over religion!

Political lines follow religious lines fairly much. Are there any examples other than Billy Leonard? On either side?

I don't know the religion of every elected rep but I'd be very shocked if there were not numerous other examples. Former UUP MLA John Gorman also springs to mind. Either way my point is that it wouldn't be all that important. I raised the example of Billy Leonard as he is the most high profile cllr in that regard. I am a SF supporter and if every local SF candidate standing for election in my area were Protestant it would make zero difference to me or anybody else locally who support SF, they would still get the votes based on their politics. I'm not being blind and denying that there is a religious divide but my point it that Mayo is incorrect in saying that people vote along religious lines. As I say, people tend to vote in terms of their beliefs on the constitutional issue.

Obviously there are pricks out there who would not vote for someone with their own political views if they had "the wrong religion", but such pricks are in the minority. I don't know anyone like that anyway.

I don't think there are numerous other examples. We can all name Billy Leonard because he's an exception to the rule.
Oh, and he's now an MLA.

Maguire, you are honing in on the issue of the religion of elected reps and ignoring the actual point of my post, and I don't know if it is deliberate or not so I will spell it out again. I believe that, contrary to Mayo's claim, most people in the six counties vote for their candidates based on their position on the constitutional issue and not based on their religion. I am not denying that there is a link between the constitutional issue and religion, but people, in the voting booth are not going to vote for a condidate based on their religion over their republican/nationalist/unionist/loyalist politics. Talking of how many Nationalist candidates are Protestant or vice versa isn't the issue. I raised Billy Leonard to show that people don't care that he is a Protestant. I don't think the people of Coleraine are the only constituency where people would elect a Protestant Republican candidate given the opportunity and nor do I believe that there is anything so overwhelming about Bily that he is the only Protestant that nationalists would ever vote for. If there were many others like him, I'm sure they would show a similar story. Of course most nationalist candidates are Catholic and most Unionist candidates are Protestant, but that is not to say that people will only vote for them for such religious convictions.

[mayogodhelpus@gmail.com]

your nit picking maguire. what i'm saying is that people here in the north are not lookiing to to past when they are X ing their boxes and following that you have the continual rise in the strenght of sinn fein. voters here will drop whom ever they perceive as not doing their job. 'hot water' i presume yet AGAIN you refer to gerry's personal family business as a measure of his ability to perform his duties as a public representative but you choose to ignore the fact that he was emfactically re-elected. why are you concerned when his constituents are not? and while your at how many 'generations' have voted for sinn fein

I'm sorry Lawseed but is that the ultimate pot calling the kettle black. People in the 6 counties vote for a set of parties based on what their religion is, what their parents religion was, what their grandparents religion was, etc. etc. etc.

I have yet to see that happen in the 26 counties.

Correction Mayo, Not along lines of religion, but along lines of Unionist/Loyalist or Nationalist/Republican.

I know absolutely no one who votes for candidates based on their religion. The likes of Billy Leonard (SF) is a Protestant and a former RUC part time reservist. He still got elected as a Cllr and I doubt if many unionists voted for him "because he is a Protestant". He was elected by Republicans & Nationalists because of his politics, and his religion is nothing to do with it.

Don't fall into the trap of perpetuating the myth that the conflict in the north was over religion!

Political lines follow religious lines fairly much. Are there any examples other than Billy Leonard? On either side?

I don't know the religion of every elected rep but I'd be very shocked if there were not numerous other examples. Former UUP MLA John Gorman also springs to mind. Either way my point is that it wouldn't be all that important. I raised the example of Billy Leonard as he is the most high profile cllr in that regard. I am a SF supporter and if every local SF candidate standing for election in my area were Protestant it would make zero difference to me or anybody else locally who support SF, they would still get the votes based on their politics. I'm not being blind and denying that there is a religious divide but my point it that Mayo is incorrect in saying that people vote along religious lines. As I say, people tend to vote in terms of their beliefs on the constitutional issue.

Obviously there are pricks out there who would not vote for someone with their own political views if they had "the wrong religion", but such pricks are in the minority. I don't know anyone like that anyway.

I don't think there are numerous other examples. We can all name Billy Leonard because he's an exception to the rule.
Oh, and he's now an MLA.

Maguire, you are honing in on the issue of the religion of elected reps and ignoring the actual point of my post, and I don't know if it is deliberate or not so I will spell it out again. I believe that, contrary to Mayo's claim, most people in the six counties vote for their candidates based on their position on the constitutional issue and not based on their religion. I am not denying that there is a link between the constitutional issue and religion, but people, in the voting booth are not going to vote for a condidate based on their religion over their republican/nationalist/unionist/loyalist politics. Talking of how many Nationalist candidates are Protestant or vice versa isn't the issue. I raised Billy Leonard to show that people don't care that he is a Protestant. I don't think the people of Coleraine are the only constituency where people would elect a Protestant Republican candidate given the opportunity and nor do I believe that there is anything so overwhelming about Bily that he is the only Protestant that nationalists would ever vote for. If there were many others like him, I'm sure they would show a similar story. Of course most nationalist candidates are Catholic and most Unionist candidates are Protestant, but that is not to say that people will only vote for them for such religious convictions.

Your missing the entire point Nally Stand. Evil Genius born in your house to your parents and babtised/christened into your church, we would see the defender of Republicanism and a United Ireland proponant. Nally Stand born to EG's parents and babtised/christened into his church and we would see Nally Stand the pro-Unionist, I'm Irish-British viewpoint.

Its all about the Religion.

[Maguire01]

I understand the point of your post NS. I just think it's largely academic.