SanguineÓ hEáracheered bySF youth

Sinn Féin’s Gearóid Ó hEára said he was impressed by the energy and enthusiasm of the young party activists who drove a campaign in Foyle that saw the party vote stand still in 2015.
By Kevin Mullan
Published 12th May 2015, 18:10 BST
Sinn Fein's Gearoid O'hEara congratulates Mark Durkan at last night's count. On right is DUP candidate Gary Middleton. DER1815MC122Sinn Fein's Gearoid O'hEara congratulates Mark Durkan at last night's count. On right is DUP candidate Gary Middleton. DER1815MC122
Sinn Fein's Gearoid O'hEara congratulates Mark Durkan at last night's count. On right is DUP candidate Gary Middleton. DER1815MC122

Mr Ó hEára polled 11,679 votes almost equalling Martin Anderson’s 12,098 in 2010 on a reduced turnout but saw the SDLP’s Mark Durkan increase his majority. He was nonetheless sanguine in his assessment.

“I’d like especially to speak to our campaign team because this election was very, very hard, they worked tirelessly, there was great humour, I was totally impressed by the amount of young people and the energy and the enthusiasm that they showed during this election campaign. I thought it was really inspiring.

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“I’m particularly pleased that the Sinn Féin vote has held up and I want to send a message to all of those people across the constituency who came out and voted for Sinn Féin: We see this as a continuum. So, we haven’t made the gains that we had hoped to make, we held our vote, we consolidated it, and we’ll build on that next time out.”

Related topics:Sinn FeinFoyleSDLP