Councillor Jack Murray insists that the people of Inishowen have been heard following a historic day for Sinn Fein across the peninsula as the party gained three seats for the first time.
Murray, who was co-opted into the Buncrana Electoral Area and re-elected in 2014, retained his seat again on the first count with a massive 1,414 votes on Sunday.
The Buncrana native was followed by north Inishowen’s Albert Doherty and Terry Crossan, who won the final seat in south Inishowen, a feat never done previously.
However, a spokesperson for the party said they were going to have to analyse what went wrong across the board in local and European elections after a “difficult day” for candidates.
In Dublin, support for Sinn Féin was down 12 percentage points, while in Cork, there was a nine-point drop.
Candidates also lost in Galway, Limerick, Offaly and Cavan.
But, Murray, despite a poor vote across the country for Sinn Fein, believes people are ‘fed up with the rejection’ they feel in north Donegal.
He told Donegal Daily: “We wanted to increase our representation in Inishowen and we were hurting because five years ago we came close and only missed out by 80 votes and we always knew that we could do it.
“We have worked very hard over the last five years and we have done it.
“And it is emotional for us as a party because as you can see the wife of the late Eddie Fullerton, Diana, is here with us today.
“Yesterday was his 28th anniversary and Eddie was the sole flag-bearer for Sinn Fein on the Donegal County Council before he was murdered and for us to get three councillors in Inishowen, this weekend of all weekends, is very emotional for us as a party and I’d like to think that Eddie is smiling down on us today,” he added.
“The people who murdered Eddie thought that would wipe out Sinn Fein in this area and we have proven them wrong and it is a magnificent day for Sinn Fein in Inishowen.
“And now we want more clout to be able to deliver more for the people of Inishowen and deliver on things like Swan Park, Buncrana Leisure Centre, the new three school campus, and better water infrastructure,” Murray said.
Sinn Fein gain third seat in Inishowen. Terry Crossan elected on ninth count. #LE19Donegal pic.twitter.com/QYVVDrsLgo
— Shaun Keenan (@Skeenan14) May 26, 2019
“The Fine Gael vote has collapsed and people are realising that Inishowen and Donegal are neglected by the government and I would like to think that Joe McHugh is going to go into the next cabinet meeting and tell them that the people of Inishowen are fighting back.
“They have overwhelmingly rejected the Fine Gael party and they are endorsing Sinn Fein in this area.
“People are fed up of being rejected, not just by this government, but by generations of this government and we’ve been telling people on the doors to treat this election as a mid-term election and give the government a bloody-nose and they’ve done it.”