If memory serves, every SF candidate running for the second time (or more) had an increased vote. The interesting statistic is that SF seemed to gain most among younger voters and in the bigger cities. That, I think is a fairly standard phenomenon in most of the world; i.e.; older and rural voters tend to be more conservative while younger and urban voters tend to be more accepting of "challenger" parties. Their gains this time round were huge in the statistical sense, but still very small potatoes in the overall picture. Maybe that's part of the price paid for all those decades of abstentionism. Their current strategy and work ethic will no doubt pay great dividends for them in the longer term.

Brit PM Blair has been helping a fund raising consortium for NI, allegedly based largely on fears of SDLP that they may effectively disappear in the '03 (?) election without serious fundraising help. Guess Nimble doesn't mind over much having a papist as a deputy, but would not, or could not, stand for him to be a "Fenian Bastard" as well.