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NEWRY (6 seats)
Candidates: Doire Finn (SDLP), Michael Savage (SDLP); Nicola Grant (The Workers Party); Valerie Harte (Sinn Féin), Geraldine Kearns (Sinn Féin), Cathal King (Sinn Féin), Aidan Mathers (Sinn Féin), Mariya Krupska (Independent); Sharon Loughran (Aontú); Andrew McCracken (UUP); Helena Young (Alliance).
No Malone makes it interesting
Newry DEA has always had a reputation for returning an independent councillor when it comes to local government elections with the likes of the late Eugene Markey, Jackie Patterson and Davy Hyland sitting in council.
It was no different in 2019 but perhaps more surprising when Gavin Malone, the Barcroft man who quit his council job to fight the election, left the more established candidates and parties in his wake topping the poll with 2,296 first preference votes - 922 ahead of Sinn Féin’s Liz Kimmins in second and 881 above the quota.
Malone is not running this time around and the question is, where will Malone’s 2000+ votes go should his supporters return to the ballot box?
The Alliance Party’s Helena Young no doubt will have targeted some of those voters after she just failed to be elected in 2019, losing out to the SDLP’s Gary Stokes by 41 votes for the sixth and final seat. The Meadow and Armagh community activist who has kept herself in the public eye since 2019, is expected to pick up a seat which would be Alliance’s first in Newry in some 50 years.
Sinn Féin are fielding four candidates but only one of the three elected last time is standing again.
Valerie Harte is the last of the ‘established names’ standing for the party in the city following the retirement of councillors Charlie Casey and Roisin Mulgrew earlier this year with Liz Kimmins, elected in 2019, now an MLA. Casey and Mulgrew were replaced with the co-option of two relatively unknowns (to the voting public), Geraldine Kearns and Cathal King.
Harte, Kearns and King with be joined on the ballot paper by Aidan Mathers who many will be familiar with through his years of working in the Newry Sinn Féin office.
With Malone not standing, Sinn Féin may benefit to some extent. His performance was perhaps a telling factor in 2019 when the party also fielded four candidates in Newry but only returned three councillors with Sarah McAllister the one to lose out after the third count.
Even with the ‘Malone factor’ in 2019, the Sinn Féin party vote, while down slightly at 4,433 from 4,560 in 2014, held steady which will be encouraging heading into Thursday’s vote.
In 2019 the SDLP ran two candidates, Gary Stokes and Michael Savage who were both elected however, the party vote dipped to 2,109 from 2,786 in 2014 (when they fielded four candidates) with the percentage of votes dropping from 31.6% to 21.3%.
Savage, at the end of a year as Chairperson of Council, is again running but with Stokes not standing, he’ll be joined by Doire Finn on the ballot with the party fielding just two candidates again.
Newry native Finn is the Parliamentary Secretary to leading SDLP MLA Matthew O’Toole, and is fighting her first election.
An unknown quantity in this election will be Aontú’s Sharon Loughran. The Emergency Department nurse in Daisy Hill is unashamedly fighting in the election to save services at the Newry hospital and by all accounts, is receiving a positive reception on the doors as people are concerned for the future of Daisy Hill.
This is the first time Aontú has fielded a candidate in Newry but like colleagues in other DEA’s, Loughran will get votes. How many and what impact that will have we’ll know next weekend.
Also standing for The Workers Party is Nicola Grant. This is her first local council election, but she is no stranger to elections having stood at the last Assembly election.
Standing for the UUP is Andrew McCracken while in the tradition of Newry elections, Ukranian born Mariya Krupska is running as an Independent candidate in the 11 strong field.
