SDLP candidate Richie McPhillips (right) says he can count on the support of Orangemen as he tries to retain the seat he won only last year and has not ruled out attending the Twelfth of July.
“I have no doubt there will be Orangemen voting for me, no doubt whatsoever. The fact is quite a few of them see beyond the party label and beyond the sectarian situation of orange or green. I have no doubt many Orangemen and women will vote for me,” he told Election Files.
The Newtownbutler man says he has never attended the Twelfth but may do so in the future.
“I have never got an invitation. I am not going to say I would never not attend, we are living in an evolving place,” he explained.
He says he has “many, many friends” in the Orange Order in Fermanagh.
“At some point at maybe in the future I could look at the Twelfth of July as something that we can look at for the community, I have always crossed the divide.”
With the election one week away, Mr. McPhillips is “very confident.”
“No ifs, no buts, no maybes, I will be elected. I will be there to represent them, whether they are Orangemen, Republican, Portuguese, Polish, Lithuanian, Indian, whatever they may be,” he said.
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