LOWER Falls IRSP representative Michael Kelly has put his name forward for the first time for a council election – contesting for a seat in the Court DEA.

This year the IRSP are running two candidates with Dan Murphy also standing in Blackmountain DEA in West Belfast. Michael said the party had asked him to contest the election in 2019 which he refused but decided to stand this year because if elected it will give a greater platform from which to represent people in the area.

“Our election last year for the Assembly was to see how things would go," he said. "For Stormont it’s a different ball game as it was for the whole of West Belfast and Dan got around 1,100 first preference votes which is nothing to be sneezed at. It was our first time running in a Stormont election and we were happy enough with the result.

“For the council elections I was asked by the IRSP to run in the 2019 elections and I refused initially because I’m a street activist first and foremost and I never saw myself as standing in elections but I had been increasingly taking part in work within the community for the best part of six years. I’ve always had a good community spirit and I was brought up here and my family are well known in the community in Lower Falls and we’re a republican family so I’ve always had that sense of community around me growing up.”

Michael explained how his work helping residents has grown over the last six years and he has felt frustrated with residents having their issues ignored by statutory bodies.

“I started helping people by phoning the Housing Executive and getting on to the council about issues with their housing, bins and issues of vandalism happening in the likes of Dunville Park. After the IRSP asked me in 2019 I thought more about it and what brought it home to me was from the many times I’ve rang these statutory bodies and they’ve palmed me off and you have to fight tooth and nail to actually speak to them.

“I thought I’ll stand in the next one because I’ve been doing the work essentially of a councillor and if I can get into City Hall it’ll mean I’ll have a better platform to represent people in the Lower Falls.”

The IRSP man said one of the biggest issues in the area was housing and he has been involved in many campaigns on the issue, particularly with regards to mould which has been affecting the health of residents in the area due to the age of some of the accommodation.

“Housing is a massive issue in the area and we don’t have all the resources to sort everything out. It’s a very sad thing and it brings it home to you when you can’t get to the root of the problem because it’s so bad. All you can do is try your best for people.

“The work we’ve done on the houses in Lower Clonard Street is one case and they are in a terrible shape with mould. They’re over 100 years old and the Housing Executive are constantly palming residents off and essentially telling residents that this is their lot and it’s wrong. That campaign will be progressing regardless of how things go in the election."

Another issue at the heart of Michael’s campaign is working with youth in the area.

Court DEA
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Court DEA

“I’ve been in many times to St Peter’s Youth Club and talked to some of the more vulnerable and harder to reach kids in the area and have given talks and done workshops with them. Some of these kids are seen as tearaways by the community but we would speak to people and say they’re kids and they are our kids from this community and we need to engage with them. We need to know why they’re getting on the way they are and getting to the root cause of it and a lot of it comes down to issues of poverty.

“There are very few opportunities for a lot of young people in our areas and a lot have been left behind since the Good Friday Agreement. It all feeds in to each other, the issues with housing and poverty."