A SDLP Northern Ireland Assembly election candidate, who is originally from Laois, was the victim of an assault while on the election trail.
Elsie Trainor, (nee McLoughlin) from Jamestown near Ballybrittas, is running for the party in next month’s election in South Belfast.
On Monday, she says that she was the victim of an assault by two youths who she spotted trying to steal her posters.
Elsie chased after the duo who said then says assaulted her and tried to steal her phone.
Ms Trainor tweeted on Tuesday: “Where to start. I gave chase as I wanted the police know which exit to lift them from.
“They assaulted me and after that tried to rob my phone.
“We need common ground politics here. We need to not fail these thugs as much as anyone else. Polarisation is wrecking our present and future.”
The incident has been widely condemned with Belfast South MP Claire Hanna saying that there should be no intimidation in elections.
She tweeted: “We in the SDLP knew Elsie had guts when we selected her but she shouldn’t have had to display it like this.
“There’s a toxicity in this election and we need a real public conversation about protecting democracy and the ability to participate in elections without intimidation or threat.”
Ms Trainor lives in Belfast with her husband and three children and is a marketing and communications professional.
She is living in Belfast now for 20 years but grew up in the rural townsland of Jamestown, as the youngest of a family of 10, and attended Rath NS and secondary school in Portarlington before studying in UCD.
She will be on the SDLP ticket alongside sitting MLA Matthew O’Toole and bidding to win a seat in the five-seat constituency.
Should Ms Trainor be elected to Stormont, she will add to the list of Rath National School past pupils in public office.
Currently the school can count Kildare South Sinn Féin TD Patricia Ryan and Laois Fine Gael councillors PJ Kelly and Thomasina Connell among its alumni.
She has since shared footage of the incident:
Monday night saw a blatant attack on democracy, and a statement of intent to intimate me. My posters were being systematically cut down one after another by two men, in broad daylight rush hour, on one of Belfast’s main roads. 🧵 pic.twitter.com/hKeRtnP7vW
— Elsie Trainor (@elsietrainor) April 13, 2022
