The Northern Ireland Assembly elections saw socialists Eamonn McCann and Gerry Carroll elected in Foyle and West Belfast.

In West Belfast Gerry topped the poll with 8,299 votes. Speaking at the count Gerry said, "The West Belfast Rising has begun. For too long people have been presented with a false choice.

"That they can support the shambles in Stormont, that they can support the status quo or they can support a return to the armed actions of the past.

"But today People Before Profit has blown that myth out of the water. There is a clear alternative and it's one not based on sectarianism, one not based on armed actions.

"It's one based on people power and socialist politics. Ours is an alternative that believes in standing up to corporations and not giving them a handout. Ours is an alternative that seeks to empower people and not tell them to rely on politicians wedded to the past.

"Ours is an alternative that opposes austerity and seeks to get rid of the gap between the rich and the poor. Ours is an alternative that organises across 32 counties and challenges the establishment in north and south.

"Ours is an alternative that seeks to unite working class people across the divide. We will designate as Other in Stormont. That doesn't mean we'll be afraid to challenge the great and the good in either community when they fail us.

"But history isn't made by people who sit on the fence. History is made by people who seek to bring the fences down.

"But history isn't made by people who sit on the fence. History is made by people who seek to bring the fences down.

"People often are presented in this city as Unionist or Nationalist. We see ourselves as representing working class people of Belfast, from the Shankill or the Falls.

"The media made a lot of Gerry Adams' comments and tweet. No doubt the comments were wrong and Gerry Adams was right to apologise. But the hypocrisy of Foster and the DUP was absolutely sickening.

"Opposition to racism and bigotry is not a game to be played a few days before an election. It's a principle you have to stick by every single day.

“No doubt much will be made in the South about this election result.

“West Belfast has a clear message for Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum in Leinster House, or Micheál Martin and Enda Kenny as they call themselves.

“You have nothing to celebrate about with this election result because the austerity the people of West Belfast are opposed to is the same austerity impacting on people south of the Border.

“There is a spectre. A spectre is haunting the establishment North and South - and it’s based on socialist politics and people power.

“A day of reckoning is coming and it’s coming soon for people who are pushing austerity wherever they come from."