UK general election: Foyle is prized SDLP seat Sinn Féin would love to take

In the last year, James Tourish has met Bertie Ahern, Keir Starmer and Bill Clinton – and turned 18. The Derry man is “excited” to be voting for the first time in the UK general election on July 4th.

“We haven’t always had the right to vote, so just understanding the history of what people in this city and throughout the North did to achieve this, I see it as a privilege,” he says.

Tourish is a former head boy of St Columb’s College in Derry, and the fact he has had such opportunities is down to the role played by his city and its people in Northern Ireland’s recent history. He says “big names” such as John Hume and Martin McGuinness have given “younger people who are now first-time voters an opportunity to really look at how electoral politics can change society”.

“That’s what young people really want – the assurance that they actually can bring about change and they can implement new policies and really steer where the political discourse is going.”

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[ Poor performance in South raises stakes for Sinn Féin of upcoming election in North ]

As far as this Westminster election goes, in the Foyle constituency – which covers Derry city and surrounding areas – the discourse is around the battle between the two largest nationalist parties, the SDLP and Sinn Féin, for the seat.

SDLP leader and outgoing MP Colum Eastwood is defending a 17,000-strong majority against Sinn Féin’s Sandra Duffy, a former mayor of Derry and Strabane and a first-time general election candidate.

“I believe Colum Eastwood will retain his seat with a much-reduced majority,” says local election analyst Gerry Murray. “It certainly isn’t going to be anywhere near the massacre of Sinn Féin by Eastwood in 2019.”

That election had its own dynamic, not least the fallout from Brexit which was felt acutely in this Border constituency. Five years on, other dynamics at play include the outworkings of Sinn Féin’s post-2019 clear out in Foyle.

“If you think of the major cull of the old guard, I don’t think they anticipated this would be the election they would win,” says Murray. “I think it’s an election too soon for Sinn Féin.”

With the local and European elections taking place in the Republic earlier this month, he says Sinn Féin has not been “able to put the same physical resources” into Duffy’s campaign that it has in previous elections.

Aside from a brief blip from 2017 to 2019, Foyle has been an SDLP seat since its creation more than four decades ago. It is the only majority nationalist constituency which has remained with the SDLP rather than Sinn Féin. This makes it a prize Sinn Féin would love to not only take, but keep.

[ Sinn Féin to ‘dust ourselves off’ after it failed to reach electoral ambitions ]

“They can tolerate Colum Eastwood holding Foyle this time round,” says Murray, “but they will be back, because if they can take the head off the SDLP, the party’s gone.”

Such ifs are for the future. For the moment, SDLP voter Ellie-Jo Taylor (20) – “a republican, but an SDLP republican” – speaks of the party’s female MLAs who have inspired her and the “hope” she sees among its members.

“I think they have a lot of interesting things to say about where we should be, how we should run a united Ireland, including everybody, and a more social democratic society which I really support.”

A law and politics student at Queen’s University Belfast, Taylor also highlights the humanitarian crisis in Gaza as “super important” to her and says she “couldn’t support” Sinn Féin’s decision to meet US president Joe Biden during a St Patrick’s Day visit to Washington despite calls for a boycott due to American backing for Israel.

Murray says one factor to watch will be whether People Before Profit benefits from this. He says Eastwood has “cut a niche out” with a younger vote which is pro-Palestinian” and has been to the fore in campaigning around Bloody Sunday. He expects Sinn Féin might “haemorrhage some support to the left”.

Sinn Féin voter Matthew O’Reilly Deehan (21) disagrees.

“I don’t think a lot of people can question Sinn Féin’s credentials on Palestine, it’s always been very strong on that, and people are also conscious that without America there would probably be no Good Friday [Belfast] Agreement and that, in order to build a constructive peace, like or lump it, America will be involved in that,” he says.

From Derry but with a father from Dublin, he was attracted to the party by its stance on Irish unity and says the Border has always “seemed illogical” to him.

“The policies of the party seem very progressive, and they’re always in the community. Where I live you can’t really move for Sinn Féin representatives.”

[ Sinn Féin’s US fundraising arm sends $51,000 back to party in Belfast for ‘election expenses’ ]

For young people his age, he says, the election is all about seeing the end of the Conservative government in the UK.

“A lot of people are exercised about that, they might not be party political but they know what’s wrong,” he says. “People my age, my friends, would all probably be voting for Sinn Féin, because I see the positivity in that campaign, and also the hope in it, that there can be something better that lies ahead and I do think that will inspire people to the ballot box.”

His mind is made up but many others are still deciding, not least Tourish.

“Although we didn’t experience the open wounds of the Troubles, we definitely see the scars it has left on society, and issues like segregated housing and segregated schools,” he says.

“Young people will be looking towards politicians who want to foster a better sense of community and ones that can actually deliver for all, because although Foyle might be a nationalist seat, nationalist or unionist people will be wanting an MP who can deliver for both.”

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