Rosemary McGlone Selected by Aontú to Contest South Down Constituency in Stormont Election
Aontú has selected Rosemary McGlone as their candidate for South Down in the next Assembly Elections, a key constituency for the party as we aim to challenge the Stormont Establishment Parties and provide genuine opposition to the to the broken Stormont system.
A nationalist and human rights activist. Rosemary McGlone is a teacher in a Secondary School in Belfast and a mother to four young children. Like many Nationalists, Rosemary felt no longer represented by SF or the SDLP. Rather than let herself be disenfranchised with no one to vote for, Rosemary has taken a step forward so that people like her might have a voice in Stormont. Like so many Rosemary has been frustrated by Nationalist parties in the North who have abandoned their communities and supported discriminatory policies. The final straw came for Rosemary when Sinn Féin and SDLP MLAs voted for abortion up until birth for children with disabilities. Rosemary McGlone also opposes the deprioritisation funding of hundreds of local schools that is contained in the Integrated Education Bill.
An Teachta Tóibín: “44,000 people are on housing waiting lists, 250,000 people are on hospital waiting lists for longer than a year, ¼ of a million people are in poverty and SF/SDLP MLAs have voted for abortion right up until the birth of the child. That the DUP has torn down Stormont in the middle of these very real human crisis is wrong and it must not be allowed to happen again. Aontú is the only political party calling for the reform of the democratic institutions to prevent any one party tearing them down again or any one party preventing an Executive being formed in the future. These life and death issues are too important for Stormont to be crashed over and over again. We are also calling for the suspension of MLA salaries for the political parties who crash the democratic institutions or prevent Executives being formed”.
“Rosemary is a life long human rights activist and nationalist, who stopped voting for the SDLP because they abandoned her and so many communities to pursue identity politics. Rosemary will lead the fight to give a voice to the tens of thousands of people who currently have no representation in County Down. Stormont is broken, and she will help lead the fight by Aontú to make the democratic institutions work. Rosemary will also stand strong for the human right to life for everyone. Rosemary fully supports the Integrated Education sector but will fight for equality and parity of esteem in the education system, especially for Rural Schools, and will oppose the Integrated Education Bill that seeks to prioritise funding for one sector over your local school. All students, Catholic, Protestant and Integrated, should be treated equally.”
“Aontú is only three years old, yet we have achieved over 50,000 votes, has elected reps from Derry to Wexford, has over 1,000 members and 60 functioning Cumann. Aontú is polling higher that PbP and similar levels to the Labour and the Greens. We are an All-Ireland political movement that is now preparing for the Stormont elections. The north is at a cross roads. Do we stumble along from one crisis to another or do we back the Aontú campaign to reform the system for the better. A vote for Rosemary is a vote for compassion and a vote to fix the broken system.”
