Northern Ireland may continue to lack a devolved government at Stormont, but local councils have continued to function as normal. Ahead of the local government elections on 2nd May, Northern Slant wants to give our readers the opportunity to (virtually) meet candidates from across the political spectrum. The one thing they have in common is that none of them have been elected before. In today’s interview Jamie Pow speaks to Cara Hunter, the SDLP’s candidate to represent Derg on Derry and Strabane Council.

 

Hi Cara, could you tell us about yourself and your life before entering politics?

I finished my degree in July 2017. I started it in California State University, Northridge, just outside LA. I did Broadcast Journalism and then moved to England to finish my degree at Liverpool John Moore’s University. From there I went on to work for Kellogg’s European headquarters in Dublin. It was amazing to work in their Communications /PR team, and I had two female bosses who were really helpful and gave me the confidence to speak up in board meetings. It was really empowering. The job involved lots of writing and creating videos to reflect the aims of the company. It was great craic. And then I fell into politics from there, so here we are!

 

What made you come back to Northern Ireland?

My father is from Clady and my mother is from Portrush, so growing up, I was always between the two of them. In Clady you can tell it’s so much more deprived, especially compared to Portrush with the golf and the Giant’s Causeway, and all the other tourist attractions. Here in Derg in West Tyrone, it’s so extremely deprived. When you look at my dad’s area, we don’t even have a GAA pitch. So when you’re given an opportunity to help, it’s really the perfect area to run in. It’s a border community, the whole way throughout, with a violent history. A lot of my campaign is to do with mental health, so it’s trying to heal the border community. A lot of people that I meet have post-traumatic stress, so I’m trying to push for the facilities to try and help them overcome their struggles. That’s what made me want to stand. Because everyone has such a traumatic story to tell, and yet they don’t have the facilities they need to help overcome them.

 

Compared to other careers, what is it about entering politics that you think will give you the chance to make a difference?

The reason I got into it was something that happened two years ago. In March 2017 my best friend actually took his own life. He was an arts student at university in London. It’s so sad because everyone I know has a story about someone they know. When he passed away, I was just finishing my dissertation and had just done a documentary on trans-generational trauma, looking at parents and what they had been through during the Troubles. PTSD, addictions; it’s an endless cycle. Young people are crying out for help, and they’re not receiving it. My friend was one of those people. My friend will never come back, but it’s so important to me to use my life to make a difference.

Everyone I meet thinks there needs to be more access to mental health facilities and greater mental health awareness. Gransha would be the nearest mental health facility to where I live in the Derg, and the crisis intervention team there is so under-staffed and under-funded. I just thought to myself, you know what, I’m so passionate about this for all the right reasons. When I was making the documentary I spoke to Daniel McCrossan, the MLA for the area, to get a political perspective on it all. He sat down for an interview with me and was really helpful, and from there we kept in touch. And then this opportunity came up, so here I am.

Often politics can seem like it’s about brown envelopes shady business. But I’m a young woman. I have no baggage. I genuinely love my country so much – no matter if people think it’s Northern Ireland or Ireland, whatever you want to call it. I love my country and the people in it, regardless of who they are. I just want to help.

 

Why was it you found your political home in the SDLP?

Well, I did my dissertation on the year of 1981, primarily focusing on the hunger strikes and how different political parties handled them. Throughout, I found the SDLP to have been a strong voice for anti-violence and doing what’s right. There was so much need to discuss the power of the ballot box, not the bullet. Looking forward, if there is going to be a united Ireland it will be parties like the SDLP that are going to bring the substance to the forefront. I think it’s very important to maintain that we don’t go backwards and we keep moving forwards. Guns are not the way forward, our parents were taught that and I don’t want my children to learn that the hard way. I don’t want my son or daughter dying for a united Ireland, so I want to do what I can to promote the ideal of peace.

 

Do you think that living away from Northern Ireland has given you a new kind of perspective?

100%. When I was living in America, my college was one of the most diverse in LA. It was a blessing to meet so many people from different walks of life. They have so many different struggles, completely different backgrounds. It really enhances your empathy as a human being, and you just want people to get along. I think that’s where my hunger for progress came from. When I was in America, nobody cared what colour you are or where you came from. Certainly nobody was asking if you’re Protestant or Catholic. There was much more harmony. Maybe it’s a bit silly to think that we change things here in my lifetime, but I want to at least contribute to that.

 

You’ve spoken about how important mental health is to you. What are some of the other issues affecting of Derry and Strabane that you would hope to address if you’re elected?

Given that my area is so rural, there are so many facilities lacking. Castlederg, for example, has no bank. So people are travelling 10-15 miles just to lodge a cheque. There’s a large elderly population here, so the concept of online banking – especially when broadband can be so slow – can seem a bit ridiculous. So that would be at the forefront of my mind. It might seem like a small thing, but for some people going to somewhere like a bank is the only place they’ll go in a day. Post offices and rural transport are so important too. I’ve met some single young mothers, usually in their early 20s, who want to retrain, go back into education, or get a job, and they can’t afford a car. But then there’s no transport to facilitate them to help them go back into education, get a job, or maintain a job. I know that might sound like a small thing, but if you think about it, if the income of the family is dependent upon having a car, it’s a big issue.

 

We’ve had no Assembly for quite a while now. Have you come across much apathy on the doorsteps as a result, or are people more engaged with this opportunity to elect representatives to serve them on local councils?

A lot of people think that we’re the ones not taking our seats at Stormont, telling us to get back to work. But once they realise that the local council is the only thing functioning, it’s different. We’re knocking on doors until 9 o’clock at night fighting for every vote, so I think when people see that we’re hungry for change and hungry for their vote, people are more willing to listen. There’s definitely a lot of anger that Stormont isn’t working, they’re sick of the same, sick of the divide, and they want politicians to go back to work. We keep getting the same line on the doorsteps: ‘I wouldn’t get paid if I didn’t go to work, so why should they?’ And I feel exactly the same way. I feel those frustrations. I was disillusioned for a long time myself. But, looking forward, I think it’s vital that people see that local councils are functioning. Thank goodness something is.

 

What message would you give those thinking about not voting in the upcoming election?

I would say, if you’re a young woman, think of the ancestors before you who fought so hard for the vote. Back in the day, if you didn’t have land, you didn’t have the vote. So much had to change so that we could all vote today. And I think it’s so important to respect that. Your voice is in your vote. The country is falling apart. We want to get Stormont back up and running. With hospital waiting lists and everything else, it’s a disaster, so by people using their vote they can send a message to the parties that are holding us back. We’re sick of the same. We need to keep moving forwards and work together. If you vote for the right parties, we can send that huge, solid message that we need to get back into action. We deserve better. And I think a lot of young people are getting more politically involved because they see how things affect us every day. People are starting to wake up.

 

Voting will be open on Thursday 2nd May between 7am and 10pm. You can find the full list of candidates standing in each council area on the Electoral Office website here. No matter your persuasion, we encourage you to weigh up the options and head to the voting booth on 2nd May. Make your voice heard.

Check out the rest of our #MeetTheCandidate series here, featuring interviews with candidates standing for the UUP, Alliance and the Green Party. We also approached candidates standing for the DUP and Sinn Féin, but they did not take up our invitation to participate.