30 October 1997 Edition
Back issue: Vote shaker - Sinn Féin take five
THE five seats won by Sinn Féin in last week's assembly election have, without any doubt, shaken the opponents of the republican cause and equally heartened its supporters.
The five elected are Gerry Adams in West Belfast, Owen Carron in Fermanagh/South Tyrone, Martin McGuinness in Derry, Jim McAllister in Armagh and Danny Morrison in Mid-Ulster.
In achieving this breakthrough in electoral politics, Sinn Féin has delivered on its main election promise of providing a new political leadership in the North.
Sinn Féin's share of almost one-fifth of the total poll in the seven constituencies it contested has dispensed with the claims of the SDLP to be the sole representatives of the nationalists of the North. And in terms which cannot be disputed by those who have so often challenged the Republican Movement to a contest at the ballot boxes.
The five elected are Gerry Adams in West Belfast, Owen Carron in Fermanagh/South Tyrone, Martin McGuinness in Derry, Jim McAllister in Armagh and Danny Morrison in Mid-Ulster.
In achieving this breakthrough in electoral politics, Sinn Féin has delivered on its main election promise of providing a new political leadership in the North.
Sinn Féin's share of almost one-fifth of the total poll in the seven constituencies it contested has dispensed with the claims of the SDLP to be the sole representatives of the nationalists of the North. And in terms which cannot be disputed by those who have so often challenged the Republican Movement to a contest at the ballot boxes.