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3 May 2017

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‘Game-changer’ John Finucane selected to challenge DUP deputy leader Dodds in North Belfast

‘For the first time ever, there is a prospect of a nationalist MP being returned for North Belfast’ – BBC political analyst Chris Donnelly

THE SURPRISE SELECTION of Belfast solicitor John Finucane as the Sinn Féin Westminster candidate for North Belfast was ratified at a convention on Wednesday evening, giving voters a real chance of unseating DUP deputy leader Nigel Dodds MP.

John Finucane’s has been hailed by political analysts as well as nationalists and anti-Brexit ‘Remainers’ as “a game-changer”.

BBC political panellist Chris Donnelly wrote: “The Westminster contest in North Belfast just got serious.”

Danny Morrison tweeted: “What an election for North Belfast now!”

The DUP’s Nigel Dodds was confident about being re-elected after the Ulster Unionist Party stood aside to ensure a unionist won at all costs against the strongest non-unionist challenge, which has been from Sinn Féin in the recent past.

Chris Donnelly noted: “In March’s election, the combined SF/SDLP vote represented some 42.5% as compared to 42.8% for the combined votes of the DUP/UUP/PUP.”

He added:

“For the first time ever, there is a prospect of a nationalist MP being returned for North Belfast.”

Pat Finucane H&S

John Finucane is the youngest son of assassinated human rights lawyer Pat Finucane (pictured). 

Pat was shot dead in front of John and his family in 1989 by a unionist Ulster Defence Association death squad acting in concert with British Intelligence agencies in a murder that was designed to terrorise solicitors (or anyone else, for that matter) from challenging state-sponsored human rights abuses.

In a tweet on Tuesday evening after his candidacy for Wednesday’s North Belfast constituency convention was unveiled, John Finucane said he was “very proud” of his nomination.

Gerry Kelly at Stormont video grab

Sinn Féin MLA Gerry Kelly – proposing John Finucane

Both of North Belfast’s sitting Sinn Féin MLAs, Gerry Kelly and Carál Ní Chuilín, have been involved in the decision to select Finucane, with Kelly proposing and Ní Chuilín seconding the young solicitor as the candidate.

The move is also a clear indication of the Sinn Féin’s commitment to promoting a new and younger generation of leaders, following on from the promotion of Michelle O’Neill as the party’s Northern leader.

It also sends out a message to the electorate that the party sees North Belfast as winnable. In recent elections, Sinn Féin has eclipsed the SDLP and narrowed the gap on the sitting unionist MP, the DUP’s Nigel Dodds.

In the 2015 contest, a DUP/UUP pact secured the seat for Dodds and the very new UUP leader, Robin Swann, in one of his first decisions on taking office, has refused to nominate a candidate, giving Dodds a free run again.

SDLP

As for the SDLP, blogger Jude Collins believes the Finucane candidacy will “make it very difficult” for the SDLP to field a candidate in North Belfast. In the past (under the influence of embittered veteran Alban Maginnes), the SDLP has point-blank refused to enter a progressive alliance that includes Sinn Féin

Jude Collins said:

“To their credit, the SDLP have always been supportive of the Finucane campaign. If they now run Nicola Mallon or some other candidate against John Finucane, it’ll expose their concern for the family as a sham: party interest trumps human compassion.

“If they don’t run a candidate, they’ll have made the possibility of a Sinn Féin MP in North Belfast a distinct possibility.”

Proposing John Finucane, Gerry Kelly said:

“Sinn Féin is the only party which can take this seat from the DUP, which can send a clear message to Tory leader and Prime Minister Theresa May that she has no mandate to take the North out of the EU, that she has no mandate for Tory cuts, and she has no mandate to continue to deny equality and rights for all.”

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◼︎ Read also: Geraldine Finucane – ‘Unfinished Business’, The Pat Finucane Anniversary Lecture 2017  

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