On 22nd May 1998 my maternal grandmother was in the Ulster Hospital in Belfast and she was meant to stay there. Instead, aided by the diplomatic skills of her daughter, and with the promise of a swift return, she left.

It was the day of the referendum on the terms of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement on which the Northern Irish electorate was asked: “Do you support the agreement reached at the multi-party talks on Northern Ireland?”

My gran voted ‘Yes’.

The fragility of the peace settlement ushered in by the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement in 1998 has been all too apparent in recent weeks.

A tragic loss of life in the Creggan area of Derry has once again been held in the eyes of the world; and Father Martin Magill’s rebuke of political apathy resonated far and wide.

Northern Ireland has been without devolved government for 835 days and counting. In Saint Anne’s Cathedral last week, the depth of frustration was palpable; the sense of disenfranchisement, tangible… But what ought to be our response?

Tomorrow, we, the people of Northern Ireland have the opportunity to register a political opinion in local council elections. It would, arguably, be easy to justify not making the effort: we have no government; politicians don’t take their democratic responsibility seriously, so why should we? I would, respectfully, disagree.

Politics can be defined as the processes by which people negotiate and compete in an effort to come to some kind of shared decision and implement it. It is therefore an inherently collective activity and it involves making choices that affect more than just the individual.

Local councils in Northern Ireland have responsibility for local planning, waste collection, parks, leisure facilities, cemeteries, economic development, street cleaning, arts and cultural facilities, registration of births, deaths and marriages, among other things. In short, this means that if you’ve ever appreciated your bins being collected, enjoyed a stroll through the local park or a visit to your nearest leisure centre, you have inadvertently appreciated your local council.

In the elections tomorrow a total of 819 candidates are standing for 462 seats across Northern Ireland’s 11 councils. Polling stations are open from 7am to 10pm – you can find your nearest here and all sorts of other useful information here.

When I endure the inconvenience of making it to the voting booth tomorrow, I’ll think of my grandmother. I’ll recall the words of Father Magill and take them as a commission.

Whether we write numbers in a box tomorrow or not, we are all invested in the imperfect realisation of our collective life. For my part, I want my view to be counted and I humbly suggest yours should be too.

 

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.

While you’re here, you might be interested in our #MeetTheCandidate series, featuring interviews with candidates standing for the UUP, SDLP, 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.