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LAST UPDATE | 13 Dec 2019
SINN FÉIN’S JOHN Finucane has been elected MP for North Belfast, unseating DUP deputy leader Nigel Dodds.
Finucane, the current Lord Mayor of Belfast, was elected in the early hours of this morning.
The SDLP had pulled out of the constituency to give Finucane and his remain-backing party the best chance of defeating the DUP.
The loss of Dodds, who is the party’s leader in Westminster, is a major blow to the DUP.
Finucane paid tribute to his father Pat Finucane, a solicitor who was murdered during the Troubles.
“I can’t help but think of my father and where we have come from, not just as a family but as a society as well,” he said
The success for Sinn Féin in Belfast caps a good few weeks for the party. In November, the party won the by-election in Dublin Mid-West after a poor showing at the European and local elections in May.
Sinn Féin had put poured significant effort into the constituency, with some campaigners coming from as far as Cork to back Finucane.
“I am absolutely very disappointed, not just for North Belfast, but also for Northern Ireland,” said DUP leader Arlene Foster in response to Dodd’s defeat.
“I think it’s clear the demography wasn’t there,” she said. “The pan-nationalist front has come to fruition again.”
Belfast South
In Belfast South, the SDLP’s Claire Hanna defeated the DUP’s Emma Little Pengelly.
Hanna, who was tipped to win after Sinn Féin pulled out from contesting the seat, campaigned as a strong Remain voice in Westminster.
Little Pengelly took the seat from the SDLP former leader Alasdair McDonnell at the last election in 2017 by only a few thousand votes.
The success is a significant boost for the SDLP, which found itself without any MPs after the 2017 election.
In Foyle, SDLP leader Colum Eastwood also defeated Sinn Féin’s Elisha McCallion by 17,110 votes.
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Best news in years now get Arlene out
@Niall Carry: Well done John Finucane your Dad would be very proud.
Great result but rte struggling with londonderry on screen is a disgrace, it’s Derry.
@Daniel Roche: Derry to you , Londonderry to others get used to it
@Gus Sheridan: It’s Derry not Londonderry. You will have to get used to it
@Decko49: “It’s Derry not Londonderry.”
To hell with Brexit, this is the important stuff!
@Will: the constituency is called east londonderry, and the people elected call it londonderry. We’re never going to get a United Ireland if we can’t even bring ourselves to respect what the unionists in the North call themselves. On the other hand, no real difference between isolationist nationalism anywhere in the UK now – are the English going to start repatriation of Scottish and Northern Irish people soon?
@Decko49: don’t mind Gus. He is the resident loyalist on here. Sad little man. He gets bored this time of year. No orange marches to attend or no opportunity to sing sectarian songs
Well done John. When the British Forces murdered your dad they thought they would silence you. But we Irish always fight injustice.
@Sean Marlow: so long as the light isnt shining on us,then its a different story isnt it…
@Gerry Campbell: fup off gerry
@Sean Marlow: Sinn Fein fight injustice? Give us all a break.
@Conor Kleaver: nope..
Poetic justice, delighted for John Finucane..
@Dave Stewart: what? The real face of Sinn Féin.
@Chin Feeyin: your getting lazy chin, nothing about bank robberies or jarry etc? Not a overly massive fan of sf myself but the panic they solicit in you and all the other fg zombies on the journal actually makes me want to vote for them!
@Thomas Maher: I just don’t like homophobia. Do you?
@Thomas Maher: by the way, I have never written anything in support of FG here. Never. Not once. So I don’t know how you think I am a FG supporter.
unionist fine gael wont be happy
@Tom Finnegan: Spot on Tom.
Not too much of a shock though to be honest! We knew the seat was there for the taking! Irish unity is coming!
@Vlad Eire: Hope not
Bad night all round for DUP/UDA
The media won’t b happy
Delighted!
Congratulations Little Britain, you have dethroned America as the laughing stock of the world
@Colin McNally: Electing a Marxist anti-semite. Now that’d be funny.
@Daniel Rea: The anti Semite propaganda certainly worked well. I certainly condem the Nazi Isreali regime. Does that make me an anti Semite?.
@Donal Desmond: Maybe not an anti-semite but certainly historically illiterate.
I don’t agree with much of what the Israelis do as they are overly heavy handed in their response to terror attacks on their citizens but invoking the Nazis? The same group that started a war that killed nearly 60 million people? The same people who ran camps to systematically murder millions of innocents? It’s a ridiculous comparison.
Also, ever heard of Godwins law?
@Donal Desmond: obviously. The Israeli have a good given right to indiscriminately murder Palestinians, heard them into ghettos, deny them their civil rights and engage in illegal land grabs and anyone who doesn’t support that right is an anti-semite and a racist…
The writing is on the wall for the DUP. Brexit is no good in any shape or form for Ireland.
Reunification will happen a bit sooner now that liar Johnson owns the mess he helped create.
Consensus in Ulster is Better in the EU than in the U.K.
Pragmatic decisions on real issues of all Ireland trade will happen and not before time.
The alternative Little Englander ERG populism just doesn’t work in an Irish context.
Neither does rampant nationalism as Sinn Fein have found south of the divide.
EU membership and a healthy influx of dynamic immigrants have changed the outlook.
The old insults of Rome Rule no longer apply and the business community know that the
future prosperity depends on remaining in the single market. Of course reunification will
be difficult but it does stand a great chance of succeeding because of EU and American
involvement and commitment in the peace process.
@John Charles Mc Allister: there will be no reunification. Boris, leader of the Unionist and Conservative Party, will not allow it.
@Chin Feeyin: it’s not for Boris to decide or prevent. The GF Agreement and our friends in the USA will see to that.
@Joey Navinski: it certainly is for Boris to decide. NI is part of UK, of which he is PM.
Trump doesn’t care about NI.
@Chin Feeyin: neither Boris nor Trump will be in power for ever and if a border poll recommends a United Ireland it will eventually come to pass. Unless we sellout our northern brothers and sisters again of course.
@Chin Feeyin: The Northern Ireland Act 1998 states that “if at any time it appears likely to him that a majority of those voting would express a wish that Northern Ireland should cease to be part of the United Kingdom and form part of a united Ireland”, the Secretary of State shall make an Order in Council enabling a border poll.
If they don’t act on it they are going against an international treaty. Thats much bigger than Boris!
Delighted for John Finucane and his family. Well deserved John.
Good to see SDLP take back the Foyle seat.
Will Arlene be applying for an Irish passport soon ?
Excellent, change it up a little I hope
Time for a border poll we’ll done to Marylou McDonald she was right no Irish mp would block brexit
what was the election count? was it close or no? the numbers coming through here will also be interesting
have your say