Alternative Republican Voice or Just a Waste of Time?
In the final days before we are encouraged to cast our vote in the council elections, I can’t help but reflect on the candidates available to the republican electorate in the Belfast area who claim to represent the “alternative republican voice”. As a republican who could stand accused of coming from the alternative republican camp, I approach polling day on Thursday 22nd May with a heavy heart.
I know it must take a bit of soul searching to finally agree to put ones name forward to stand as a candidate in any election, but if I’m to be honest some who have chosen to throw their hat in the ring have either been misguided in making their choice or have just lost the run of themselves in their attempt to become el supremo in representing alternative republicans. Either way they do a disservice to those of us seeking an alternative republican voice.
Instead of focusing on issues which truly effect the day to day lives of people of North and West Belfast, ALL the candidates who claim to oppose Stormont have spent more time attacking each other on social networking sites, levelling allegations of back stabbing, un-comradely and elitist behaviour and trying to undermined each- others election campaign. Hardly actions to install confidence in those of use looking for a alternative to the status quo?
We need only explore the actions of candidates from RNU standing in North and West Belfast. Are we seriously being asked to invest our trust in people such as Sammy Cusack who is the RNU candidate in North Belfast? Cusack publically justified a petrol bomb attack on a work van belonging to a contractor in Ardoyne, who was in the district carrying out much needed repairs on a water main to enhance the quality of service to the people in Ardoyne. RNU West Belfast candidate is no better. His idea of fun is to mock and poke fun at those with severe disabilities and post it on Facebook as some sort of badge of honour. 
RNU Candidate Tommy Docherty (Left) a true representative of all the people
Do RNU really take the republican people of North and West Belfast as morons? No harm to Paddy Mc Cotter who is eirigis candidate for West Belfast, but to work out some sort of election agreement with RNU and Docherty is either a sign of desperation or a case of ” you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours”. Either way Paddy must accept the consequences for this relationship with Docherty/ RNU and man up to his choice of friends. Recent attempts by Paddy to publically distance himself from RNU is nothing short of dishonourable when taking into account the decision by RNU to withdraw Docherty as their candidate in the same ward where Paddy Mc Cotter is standing in an attempt to enhance Paddy chances of being elected.
Tommy Docherty posing with eirigis Paddy Mc Cotter
I think it would have been better for alternative republican voters if all anti-Stormont candidates would have arrived at an agreement to stand aside and allowed Ciaran Mulholland to proceed as the sole alternative republican voice candidate in the Blackmountain ward. In my view he was articulate, educated, grounded and coherent in delivering his message and his decision to withdraw from the election was a mistake. Since his decision to stand aside, there hasn’t really been an alternative candidate who stands out. We have been left with a hotchpotch of mediocre alternatives, driven by self- interest and egos. I take no delight in high lightening my concerns, but to ignore the realities is only to prolong the agony and the lack of credible leadership that exists within the alternative republican base. Until then, unity, cohesiveness, honour, and a credible alternative republican voice, is as distance now as it was when the Good Friday Agreement was signed and for that reason I will not be voting for any of the above.
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