Shankill Road residents vote for Sinn Fein. Sure why wouldn't they?

Barry McColgan
Ógra Shinn Féin
West Tyrone

The recent comments from the UPRG (Ulster Political Research Group) that people from unionist areas, even from the 'hard-line' Shankill are beginning to vote for Sinn Féin, has shocked and surprised many.

The report carried in the Belfast Newsletter that covered interviews with leading UPRG figures, Colin Halliday and Jackie McDonald had a sensationalist, almost exclusive air about it, as if it was an earth shattering revelation.

Former UDA prisoner Colin Halliday said,

“It wasn’t big numbers but there were votes from loyalist areas went into the box for Sinn Féin. What we’re taking from that is that voters believe, ‘These people are doing the work for us. We’re being neglected by our own politicians.’

(Colin Halliday UPRG speaking at the Ógra Youth Camp, June 2010)

The truth is we have been steadily picking up votes in unionist areas in the past number of years, anybody who has tallied the ballot boxes from unionist areas across the north in the past number of elections will tell you that.

And the increasing number of Shankill road residents contacting Gerry Adams office looking assistance and advice in constituency work is further proof and has been pointed to in the past.

That is also reflective throughout the north where an increasing number of people from the unionist community have been using Sinn Féin offices, availing of the first class constituency and community service we provide. I have seen it hundreds of times myself in Omagh.

I suppose the difference here is, what we have been saying for years, has now been confirmed by two of the UPRG’s main figures, people who have no reason to be supporting Sinn Féin assertions.

The reality is that the peace process has opened up politics in the north, communities and the electorate want real solutions for the problems facing our society today. And they are no longer willing to tolerate rhetoric or platitudes; they want positions and statements backed up by action on the ground.

That is why Sinn Féin are having the steady success in winning hearts and minds in working class unionist areas, because we are committed to building a new Ireland, an Ireland that prioritises the needs of deprived areas like the Shankill.

Our policies are aimed at demolishing the system which has built the inequality that plagues working class unionist and republican areas, the very system which the main unionist parties are doing their utmost to retain.

(Ógra activists involved in Community work in Omagh during the December Cold Snap)

Sinn Féin are based in and sustained in working class communities the length and breadth of Ireland, we understand the issues facing the working families, the single parents and the long term unemployed, because they are our activists. Their plight is our plight and we have a vested interest in creating a new and equal society, we make no bones about that.

The absolute failing of working class unionism, and perhaps that in itself is an oxymoron, to build a credible political movement, has also ensured that people struggling within working class unionist areas are looking to Sinn Féin as the short term constituency provider they need and the long term alternative they want.

Does this mean they all support a United Ireland? Of course not and we would be foolish to assume so.

At this point, some will, most probably won't.

But a first step is very important, and if someone is initially voting for Sinn Féin based on their constituency service, they are a lot more likely to listen to and be convinced of the arguments for a united Ireland, not based on old romantic notions, but on tangible and real reasons for today, economic reasons that makes sense to them, their families and their communities. The first step in creating an ally is to pacify resistance and in winning anyone as a voter you have definitely achieved that.

I believe that working class people from unionist areas have a lot to gain from a new united Ireland, and that if we continue the essential outreach to their community and build on the excellent constituency work and present the polices that will dramatically enhance the lives of people within their area, then we can be the alternative they need.

It won't happen overnight, but then all great rivers started somewhere with a little trickle.