Campaign group plans to hold rally on Sunday

A RALLY is being held this weekend to mark 1,000 days since Stormont collapsed.

The campaign group We Deserver Better will highlight the significant milestone with a rally outside government buildings on Sunday at 1.30pm in an effort to bring about change to Northern Ireland’s political landscape.

The group believes violent dissident republicans have taken advantage of the political void.

Following the collapse of the Assembly in January 2017, Co Fermanagh man Dylan Quinn helped set up We Deserve Better and walked the 90 miles from his home town of Enniskillen to Stormont in an effort to get the politicians back to the table for talks.

Reflecting on what the campaign group has achieved since it was first set up, Mr Quinn highlighted the number of independent candidates who were elected in May’s local government elections and had publicly backed We Deserve Better.

He believes the group has moved on from calling on politicians to get back to work to having the potential to bring real political change.

“It’s not just about this Sunday or the next, it’s about the continuation of the conversation and when it comes to an election we can say, ‘we can change those in Stormont and it’s up to us to do that’,” Mr Quinn said.

The campaigner added that society is being damaged by the lack of a devolved government and that it has undermined the “very fabric of what our peace process was about”.

“I’m down in Fermanagh and we can see an increase in tensions down here. We have seen an increase in dissident activity,” he said.