Sinn Féin push for MEPs on both sides of Border

SINN FÉIN has high hopes of returning the party’s first MEPs in both the North and South next year.

In a simultaneous launch of European candidates in Dublin yesterday, the party announced that Bairbre de Brún would be its representative in the three-seater North of Ireland constituency. Following Sinn Féin’s strong performance in the Assembly elections, Ms de Brún is seen as the favourite to take the Nationalist seat currently held by former SDLP leader John Hume.

However, should Mr Hume decide to contest the election, his personal popularity will make it a much closer contest than his party’s poor showing in the recent elections may suggest.