Raymond Blaney and Bill Corry have called on voters in Downpatrick and Lecale to reject the ‘entrepreneurs of sectarianism and nationalism’ who tried to wreck the St Patrick’s Parade and vote Number 1 at the upcoming elections for their party colleague Cllr Cadogan Enright.
The veteran local politicians were signing the nomination papers for Cllr Enright in the wake of what they described as the ‘disgraceful’ sullying of Downpatrick’s name last week.
Bill Corry pointed out that “There was a cross-party agreement on emblems and flags achieved last January in the inter-party committee chaired by Cllr Cadogan Enright. The SDLP, Sinn Fein and the DUP have all managed to undo different aspects of this agreement”.
Raymond Blaney pointed out that “The A&E department at the Hospital is under threat, why did not local politicians carry a banner at the front of the parade protesting the falsehood that the local Health Trust is unable to recruit staff? The truth is that the DUP, SDLP and SF are in coalition with each other and did not use their power to dissent from the Stormont Budget last week to force the Minister to protect our local hospital. Instead they had a pre-election spat about flags. Cllr Cadogan Enright has done a great job in focusing on local issues that really matter in our area and I call on voters to recognise this and give him a number one vote and preserve the independent voice on Council pioneered by Bill Corry and myself”.
Cllr Cadogan Enright thanked his retired party colleagues and said “When voters elected Raymond Blaney and Bill Corry to council they were sending a signal to the major parties. They demanded that we focus on the local needs of the community for good health care, a clean environment for our children and excellence in front-line council services. For the last few years I have striven to follow their lead and have published details of my work for the local community each week at www.enright.ie and distributed an annual newsletter reporting to every house. ”
“I am honored to be nominated by such respected local men, and promise to continue in their tradition if elected as one of the seven councillors in Lecale. I will stay free of the regular irrelevant spats between the SDLP and SF or the DUP and UUP that have no relevance to the local population and continue to work with all parties and none for the benefit of the local community as I have been doing these last few years,” concluded Cllr Cadogan Enright.