Good Kickstart to the Campaign

Seeing that it was only on Wednesday night that I was called and offered the post of Northern Ireland campaign manager for the YES! TO FAIRER VOTES campaign a lot has been done.

I attended two party events and as a result have managed to speak to representatives of five of the Northern Irish political parties. The first of these was a quiz night on behalf of my own local Association of the Alliance Party here in North Down along with their neighbours in Strangford. Michael Carchrie Campbell and myself did form a team, yes just the two of us, which managed to hold our own considering the comparative size of the teams.

Of course the main reason for us being there was to introduce the campaign and to get signatures of support from members of one of the parties that is keen to help us the Yes result next May. So thanks to Michael Carchrie Campbell for printing off some flyers and business cards for me, we were armed to start getting the army of volunteers that we need. If anyone is holding a local party event and wants literature or sign-up sheets like the ones we were using please get in touch and we will get this sorted out.

Being in educated at school level across the two constituencies it was good to make my opening public remarks of the campaign amongst neighbours. It was also good to see and talk with two of my own MLAs there the Alliance's Stephen Farry as well as the Green Party's Brian Wilson, who was that with his wife Anne Wilson. Now I have to go to the ends of Northern Ireland to spread it further.

The second was an event that I mentioned in my interview only on Monday as being a key place that the successful applicant would have to be present. So off I went along with Michael again to the Ramada Hotel near Shaw Bridge for the SDLP party conference.

I had a productive time talking to many of the key people within the party including getting a brief moment with the leader Margaret Ritchie. However, I had a longer chat with other MPs, MLAs and councillors, getting a lot of positive feedback from them as well as many of the members at the conference. We also took advantage of the exhibition to present ourselves to many of the key players in Northern Ireland including the Northern Ireland Local Government Association, Northern Ireland Community Volunteers Association, Women's Resource and Development Agency, Disability Action, National Union of Students NI, Age NI - Older People's Commission.

Interesting seeing some familiar faces and as is the way with political activists everywhere, the occasion changing of political hats mid conversation.

It has been a great day, meeting with so many of the influencers within the SDLP and to see the positivity with which they are greeting the Yes campaign here in Northern Ireland.

I look forward over the next six months to working with them and everyone else from all sectors of Northern Ireland life to bring about Fairer Votes for Westminster.

All in all it has been a very productive few days not just on these visible public events but also behind the scenes in drawing a plan together as to how to get the work done that needs to be done between now and May 5th.

Seeing as I am still working my notice for my current employer I am indebted to amount of time and effort that Michael has put in already, often alongside me into the small hours, in getting this campaign off to as successful a start as it has been.

Division of Culture - Not me!

As the son of a west bank Derry/Londonderry (Stroke) City born and raised father, who father, and father's father and his father before him were all born in the city I'm proud of the culture of that city.

There are the poets Seamus Heaney and Seamus Deane, authors Joyce Cary, Jennifer Johnshon and Nell McCaferty, playwright Brian Friel, artist Willie Doherty. Musicians Dana, the Undertones, Damian McGinty and Keith Harkin of Celtic Thunder and yes even Girls Aloud's Nadine Coyle. There was also the restoration dramatist Geroge Farquhar and the hymn writer of There is a Green Hill Far Away Cecil Alexander is often said to have been inspired to write that from the view from the Bishop's Palace of the hills outside Derry's walls.

I know that at times it has been tough to reconcile all parts of the city together. Indeed the part of the city that as a boy and youth I visited to see my grandmother was a protestant enclave on the 'wrong' side of the Foyle in some people's opinion. My family also has strong links to county Donegal, the county just a few miles to the West or North of Stroke City but is actually in the 'South of Ireland'.

However, no matter how close the City is to the border of another country it is part of the United Kingdom, its culture is diverse and crosses that man-made imaginary line in the hills. It is a diverse culture and one that is as much part of this country as any other and one that if worthy of being a name being considered City of Culture for a year if it were awarded.

The problem of course is that the full title of the award under consideration is the UK City of Culture and the leader of Sinn Féin on the council Maeve McLaughlin has said:

"While we are a city of culture there has to be a recognition that we're not part of the UK. We are not opposing the bid, but we are putting down a marker at this stage and saying we should be exploring, rather than cementing, this relationship.

"There is a huge onus on the team that's been put together to lead this bid to put in writing how they will address the issue of the tens of thousands of nationalists and republicans in this city and region who do not recognise themselves as part of the UK."

As I've pointed out above the geography does make the city a part of the UK, but I readily admit that the culture is not so easily confined. As someone who support Bangor and Ulster in the Rugby yet Down and Derry in the Gaelic sports I'm part of that mixed up culture.

I'm more of the same mind as the former SDLP leader Mark Durkan MP who said:

"This bid is an opportunity for Derry to promote itself as a city and to promote the wider region. It is about our civic ambition. It is about our cultural ambition. It is nothing to do with political aspiration – in which the people of this city have very clear views and differences about wanting to be part of a united Ireland or United Kingdom.

"Are we going to say that any other funding or opportunity that is set up on a UK basis we count ourselves out of? We should not be disabling ourselves from making the most of any opportunity to which we are as entitled as anyone else.

"And we can do that without compromising any of our political beliefs, any of our interests and identities that we hold very dearly at a political level."

I know for a fact that nationalist groups are not backward in coming forward for funding from the Northern Irish departments since devolution, just because the money is from the UK coffers.

I hope Sinn Féin realise that the title is one thing how that is then promoted is up to the people and civic officials of Derry/Londonderry/Doire. Give the City a chance to celebrate its culture in all its diversity.