Mid Ulster (UK Parliament constituency)
Encyclopedia
Mid Ulster is a Parliamentary Constituency in the British House of Commons
British House of Commons
The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...

.

Boundaries

The constituency was created in 1950 when the old two-seat constituency of Fermanagh and Tyrone
Fermanagh and Tyrone (UK Parliament constituency)
Fermanagh and Tyrone was a Parliamentary Constituency in Northern Ireland which was represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom...

 was abolished as part of the final move to single member seats. Originally the seat primarily consisted of the northern, eastern and western parts of County Tyrone
County Tyrone
Historically Tyrone stretched as far north as Lough Foyle, and comprised part of modern day County Londonderry east of the River Foyle. The majority of County Londonderry was carved out of Tyrone between 1610-1620 when that land went to the Guilds of London to set up profit making schemes based on...

, with the south included in Fermanagh & South Tyrone
Fermanagh and South Tyrone (UK Parliament constituency)
Fermanagh and South Tyrone is a Parliamentary constituency in the British House of Commons. The current MP for the constituency is Michelle Gildernew of Sinn Féin....

. Of the post 1973 districts, it contained all of Omagh
Omagh
Omagh is the county town of County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. It is situated where the rivers Drumragh and Camowen meet to form the Strule. The town, which is the largest in the county, had a population of 19,910 at the 2001 Census. Omagh also contains the headquarters of Omagh District Council and...

 and Cookstown
Cookstown
Cookstown may refer to either of the following:*Cookstown, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland*Cookstown, Ontario, Canada*Cookstown, New Jersey, United States...

 and part of Strabane
Strabane
Strabane , historically spelt Straban,is a town in west County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. It contains the headquarters of Strabane District Council....

 and Magherafelt
Magherafelt
Magherafelt is a small town in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. It had a population of 8,372 people recorded in the 2001 Census. It is the biggest town in the south of County Londonderry and is the social, economic and political hub of the area...

.

In boundary changes proposed by a review in 1995, the seat was split in two, with the name retained by the eastern half, even though it contained only 30% of the old seat. The western half became the nucleus of the new West Tyrone constituency
West Tyrone (UK Parliament constituency)
West Tyrone is a county constituency in Northern Ireland, represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post voting system.-Boundaries:...

. The new Mid Ulster also gained areas from East Londonderry
East Londonderry (UK Parliament constituency)
East Londonderry is a Parliamentary Constituency in the United Kingdom House of Commons.-Boundaries:The seat was created in boundary changes in 1983, as part of an expansion of Northern Ireland's constituencies from 12 to 17, and was predominantly made up from the old Londonderry constituency...

 and Fermanagh and South Tyrone
Fermanagh and South Tyrone (UK Parliament constituency)
Fermanagh and South Tyrone is a Parliamentary constituency in the British House of Commons. The current MP for the constituency is Michelle Gildernew of Sinn Féin....

, taking it deeper into County Londonderry
County Londonderry
The place name Derry is an anglicisation of the old Irish Daire meaning oak-grove or oak-wood. As with the city, its name is subject to the Derry/Londonderry name dispute, with the form Derry preferred by nationalists and Londonderry preferred by unionists...

.

Following their most recent review of parliamentary boundaries in Northern Ireland, the Boundary Commission have made no changes to Mid Ulster. The electoral areas are confirmed as below, through the passing of the Northern Ireland Parliamentary Constituencies Order in 2008.
  • The entire districts of Cookstown
    Cookstown
    Cookstown may refer to either of the following:*Cookstown, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland*Cookstown, Ontario, Canada*Cookstown, New Jersey, United States...

    , and Magherafelt
    Magherafelt
    Magherafelt is a small town in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. It had a population of 8,372 people recorded in the 2001 Census. It is the biggest town in the south of County Londonderry and is the social, economic and political hub of the area...

  • From Dungannon and South Tyrone district; Altmore, Coalisland North, Coalisland South, Coalisland West and Newmills, Donaghmore, and Washing Bay

History

For the history of the constituency prior to 1950, see Fermanagh and Tyrone (UK Parliament constituency)
Fermanagh and Tyrone (UK Parliament constituency)
Fermanagh and Tyrone was a Parliamentary Constituency in Northern Ireland which was represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom...

.

In both its incarnations, Mid Ulster has seen a precarious balance between unionist and nationalist
Irish nationalism
Irish nationalism manifests itself in political and social movements and in sentiment inspired by a love for Irish culture, language and history, and as a sense of pride in Ireland and in the Irish people...

 voters, though in recent years the nationalists have advanced significantly to be in a clear majority. Many elections have seen a candidate from one community triumph due to candidates from the other community splitting the vote.

The seat was initially won by the Irish Nationalist Party in 1950
United Kingdom general election, 1950
The 1950 United Kingdom general election was the first general election ever after a full term of a Labour government. Despite polling over one and a half million votes more than the Conservatives, the election, held on 23 February 1950 resulted in Labour receiving a slim majority of just five...

 and 1951
United Kingdom general election, 1951
The 1951 United Kingdom general election was held eighteen months after the 1950 general election, which the Labour Party had won with a slim majority of just five seats...

 then by Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin is a left wing, Irish republican political party in Ireland. The name is Irish for "ourselves" or "we ourselves", although it is frequently mistranslated as "ourselves alone". Originating in the Sinn Féin organisation founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith, it took its current form in 1970...

 in 1955
United Kingdom general election, 1955
The 1955 United Kingdom general election was held on 26 May 1955, four years after the previous general election. It resulted in a substantially increased majority of 60 for the Conservative government under new leader and prime minister Sir Anthony Eden against Labour Party, now in their 20th year...

. However the Sinn Féin Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 (MP) was unseated on petition on the basis that his Irish Republican Army (IRA) convictions made him ineligible, and in subsequent by-elections the seat was won by the Ulster Unionists
Ulster Unionist Party
The Ulster Unionist Party – sometimes referred to as the Official Unionist Party or, in a historic sense, simply the Unionist Party – is the more moderate of the two main unionist political parties in Northern Ireland...

.

In a by-election in 1969, the seat was won by Bernadette Devlin
Bernadette Devlin McAliskey
Josephine Bernadette Devlin McAliskey , also known as Bernadette Devlin and Bernadette McAliskey, is a socialist republican political activist...

 standing as an independent socialist nationalist on the "Unity
Unity (Northern Ireland)
"Unity" was the political label for a series of electoral pacts by Irish nationalist and Irish Republican candidates in Northern Ireland elections in the late 1960s and early 1970s...

" ticket which sought to unite nationalist voters behind a single candidate. At the age of 21, Devlin was the youngest person ever elected to the House of Commons
British House of Commons
The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...

 in the era of universal suffrage
Universal suffrage
Universal suffrage consists of the extension of the right to vote to adult citizens as a whole, though it may also mean extending said right to minors and non-citizens...

. The by-election saw a 91.5% turnout, a record for any UK by-election.

Devlin held her seat in the 1970 general election
United Kingdom general election, 1970
The United Kingdom general election of 1970 was held on 18 June 1970, and resulted in a surprise victory for the Conservative Party under leader Edward Heath, who defeated the Labour Party under Harold Wilson. The election also saw the Liberal Party and its new leader Jeremy Thorpe lose half their...

 but generated controversy when she had a child out of wedlock as well as for her fierce anti-clericalism
Anti-clericalism
Anti-clericalism is a historical movement that opposes religious institutional power and influence, real or alleged, in all aspects of public and political life, and the involvement of religion in the everyday life of the citizen...

. The Social Democratic and Labour Party
Social Democratic and Labour Party
The Social Democratic and Labour Party is a social-democratic, Irish nationalist political party in Northern Ireland. Its basic party platform advocates Irish reunification, and the further devolution of powers while Northern Ireland remains part of the United Kingdom...

 stood a candidate against her in the February 1974 general election
United Kingdom general election, February 1974
The United Kingdom's general election of February 1974 was held on the 28th of that month. It was the first of two United Kingdom general elections held that year, and the first election since the Second World War not to produce an overall majority in the House of Commons for the winning party,...

 and the nationalist vote was strongly divided, allowing John Dunlop
John Dunlop (Northern Ireland politician)
John Dunlop was a Unionist politician from Northern Ireland.He was Member of Parliament for Mid Ulster from 1974 to 1983. Initially elected as a member of the Vanguard Progressive Unionist Party, from 1976 he represented the short-lived breakaway United Ulster Unionist Party.- External links :...

 of the Vanguard Progressive Unionist Party
Vanguard Progressive Unionist Party
The Vanguard Unionist Progressive Party , informally known as Ulster Vanguard, was a unionist political party which existed in Northern Ireland between 1973 and 1978...

 to win with the support of the Ulster Unionist Party
Ulster Unionist Party
The Ulster Unionist Party – sometimes referred to as the Official Unionist Party or, in a historic sense, simply the Unionist Party – is the more moderate of the two main unionist political parties in Northern Ireland...

 and the Democratic Unionist Party
Democratic Unionist Party
The Democratic Unionist Party is the larger of the two main unionist political parties in Northern Ireland. Founded by Ian Paisley and currently led by Peter Robinson, it is currently the largest party in the Northern Ireland Assembly and the fourth-largest party in the House of Commons of the...

.

Dunlop held his seat for the next nine years, though in 1975 he was part of a large section of Vanguard that broke away to form the short lived United Ulster Unionist Party
United Ulster Unionist Party
The United Ulster Unionist Party was a unionist political party which existed in Northern Ireland between 1975 and 1984.It emerged from a division in the Vanguard Progressive Unionist Party in the late 1970s...

. He held his seat in 1979
United Kingdom general election, 1979
The United Kingdom general election of 1979 was held on 3 May 1979 to elect 635 members to the British House of Commons. The Conservative Party, led by Margaret Thatcher ousted the incumbent Labour government of James Callaghan with a parliamentary majority of 43 seats...

 only due to a Unionist pact. He polled poorly in the 1982 Assembly election taking a dismal 2.8% of the vote. Consequently, in 1983 he did not stand again and the following year the UUUP was wound up.

The 1983 general election
United Kingdom general election, 1983
The 1983 United Kingdom general election was held on 9 June 1983. It gave the Conservative Party under Margaret Thatcher the most decisive election victory since that of Labour in 1945...

 saw fierce contest for the seat, with the Ulster Unionist Party
Ulster Unionist Party
The Ulster Unionist Party – sometimes referred to as the Official Unionist Party or, in a historic sense, simply the Unionist Party – is the more moderate of the two main unionist political parties in Northern Ireland...

, Democratic Unionist Party
Democratic Unionist Party
The Democratic Unionist Party is the larger of the two main unionist political parties in Northern Ireland. Founded by Ian Paisley and currently led by Peter Robinson, it is currently the largest party in the Northern Ireland Assembly and the fourth-largest party in the House of Commons of the...

, Social Democratic and Labour Party
Social Democratic and Labour Party
The Social Democratic and Labour Party is a social-democratic, Irish nationalist political party in Northern Ireland. Its basic party platform advocates Irish reunification, and the further devolution of powers while Northern Ireland remains part of the United Kingdom...

 and Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin is a left wing, Irish republican political party in Ireland. The name is Irish for "ourselves" or "we ourselves", although it is frequently mistranslated as "ourselves alone". Originating in the Sinn Féin organisation founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith, it took its current form in 1970...

 all polling strongly. The winner was the DUP's William McCrea
William McCrea (politician)
Robert Thomas William McCrea is a politician from Northern Ireland, and a member of the Democratic Unionist Party.-Career:...

, albeit by the narrow majority of just 78 over Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin is a left wing, Irish republican political party in Ireland. The name is Irish for "ourselves" or "we ourselves", although it is frequently mistranslated as "ourselves alone". Originating in the Sinn Féin organisation founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith, it took its current form in 1970...

's Danny Morrison
Danny Morrison
Daniel Morrison is the name of:* Dan Morrison , American professional wrestler* Dan Morrison , umpire in Major League Baseball* Dan Morrison , American football coach for the SMU Mustangs...

. In general elections from then to 2005 the Ulster Unionists
Ulster Unionist Party
The Ulster Unionist Party – sometimes referred to as the Official Unionist Party or, in a historic sense, simply the Unionist Party – is the more moderate of the two main unionist political parties in Northern Ireland...

 did not contest the seat.

Following the boundary changes, McCrea contested the new Mid Ulster in 1997
United Kingdom general election, 1997
The United Kingdom general election, 1997 was held on 1 May 1997, more than five years after the previous election on 9 April 1992, to elect 659 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party ended its 18 years in opposition under the leadership of Tony Blair, and won the general...

 but by now Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin is a left wing, Irish republican political party in Ireland. The name is Irish for "ourselves" or "we ourselves", although it is frequently mistranslated as "ourselves alone". Originating in the Sinn Féin organisation founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith, it took its current form in 1970...

 had established itself as the best party to outpoll a unionist and so drew votes from the SDLP, resulting in Martin McGuinness
Martin McGuinness
James Martin Pacelli McGuinness is an Irish Sinn Féin politician and the current deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland. McGuinness was also the Sinn Féin candidate for the Irish presidential election, 2011. He was born in Derry, Northern Ireland....

 winning. He has held the seat to date. During the 2001 General Election, Mid-Ulster had the highest turnout in any constituency in the United Kingdom.

Members of Parliament

ElectionMemberPartyNotes
1950
United Kingdom general election, 1950
The 1950 United Kingdom general election was the first general election ever after a full term of a Labour government. Despite polling over one and a half million votes more than the Conservatives, the election, held on 23 February 1950 resulted in Labour receiving a slim majority of just five...

 
Anthony Mulvey
Anthony Mulvey
Anthony Mulvey was an Irish nationalist politician.Born in County Leitrim, Mulvey edited the Ulster Herald before his election to represent Fermanagh and Tyrone for the Nationalist Party in the British House of Commons at the 1935 UK general election.Mulvey did not take his seat until 1945, and...

 
Independent Republican
Independent Republican (Ireland)
Independent Republican was a political title frequently used by Irish republicans when contesting elections in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland since the 1920s....

 
1951
United Kingdom general election, 1951
The 1951 United Kingdom general election was held eighteen months after the 1950 general election, which the Labour Party had won with a slim majority of just five seats...

 
Michael O'Neill
Michael O'Neill (politician)
Michael O'Neill was an Irish politician in the United Kingdom.O'Neill was educated at Dromore National School and Bellisle Academy. He was a farmer and a chairman of the Gaelic Athletic Association...

 
Independent Republican
Independent Republican (Ireland)
Independent Republican was a political title frequently used by Irish republicans when contesting elections in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland since the 1920s....

 
1955
United Kingdom general election, 1955
The 1955 United Kingdom general election was held on 26 May 1955, four years after the previous general election. It resulted in a substantially increased majority of 60 for the Conservative government under new leader and prime minister Sir Anthony Eden against Labour Party, now in their 20th year...

 
Tom Mitchell  Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin is a left wing, Irish republican political party in Ireland. The name is Irish for "ourselves" or "we ourselves", although it is frequently mistranslated as "ourselves alone". Originating in the Sinn Féin organisation founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith, it took its current form in 1970...

Disqualified by resolution of the House of Commons, 18 July 1955
August 1955
Mid Ulster by-election, 1955
The by-election held in Mid Ulster on 11 August 1955 was called as a result of a vote in the British parliament on 18 July 1955 which voted 197 votes to 63 to nullify the result of the previous 1955 UK General Election in the constituency...

 
Tom Mitchell  Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin is a left wing, Irish republican political party in Ireland. The name is Irish for "ourselves" or "we ourselves", although it is frequently mistranslated as "ourselves alone". Originating in the Sinn Féin organisation founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith, it took its current form in 1970...

Election declared undue on petition; Return amended, 25 October 1955
  Charles Beattie
Charles Beattie
Charles Beattie was a Northern Irish farmer and auctioneer. Active in the Ulster Farmers' Union and in Unionist associations, he achieved senior office in the Orange Order and the Royal Black Institution and served on Omagh Rural District Council from 1952 until his death...

 
Ulster Unionist
Ulster Unionist Party
The Ulster Unionist Party – sometimes referred to as the Official Unionist Party or, in a historic sense, simply the Unionist Party – is the more moderate of the two main unionist political parties in Northern Ireland...

Declared duly elected on petition; disqualified by resolution of the House of Commons, 7 February 1956
1956
Mid Ulster by-election, 1956
The by-election held in Mid Ulster on 8 May 1956 was called because both candidates in the Mid Ulster by-election, 1955 were disqualified. Tom Mitchell was disqualified from assuming office because he was a convicted felon. Charles Beattie was awarded the seat but he was also disqualified because...

George Forrest
George Forrest (politician)
George Forrest was a Unionist politician in Northern Ireland who served as MP for Mid Ulster from 1956 until his death...

 
Independent Unionist
Independent Unionist
See also Independent .Independent Unionist has been a label sometimes used by candidates in elections in the United Kingdom, indicating a support for Unionism, retaining the unity of the British state....

Ulster Unionist
Ulster Unionist Party
The Ulster Unionist Party – sometimes referred to as the Official Unionist Party or, in a historic sense, simply the Unionist Party – is the more moderate of the two main unionist political parties in Northern Ireland...

Died, 10 December 1968
1969 Bernadette Devlin
Bernadette Devlin McAliskey
Josephine Bernadette Devlin McAliskey , also known as Bernadette Devlin and Bernadette McAliskey, is a socialist republican political activist...

 
Unity
Unity (Northern Ireland)
"Unity" was the political label for a series of electoral pacts by Irish nationalist and Irish Republican candidates in Northern Ireland elections in the late 1960s and early 1970s...

, later Independent Socialist
1970 Independent Socialist Became Independent Socialist in October 1970
Feb 1974
United Kingdom general election, February 1974
The United Kingdom's general election of February 1974 was held on the 28th of that month. It was the first of two United Kingdom general elections held that year, and the first election since the Second World War not to produce an overall majority in the House of Commons for the winning party,...

John Dunlop
John Dunlop (Northern Ireland politician)
John Dunlop was a Unionist politician from Northern Ireland.He was Member of Parliament for Mid Ulster from 1974 to 1983. Initially elected as a member of the Vanguard Progressive Unionist Party, from 1976 he represented the short-lived breakaway United Ulster Unionist Party.- External links :...

 
Vanguard Progressive Unionist
Vanguard Progressive Unionist Party
The Vanguard Unionist Progressive Party , informally known as Ulster Vanguard, was a unionist political party which existed in Northern Ireland between 1973 and 1978...

1975 United Ulster Unionist
United Ulster Unionist Party
The United Ulster Unionist Party was a unionist political party which existed in Northern Ireland between 1975 and 1984.It emerged from a division in the Vanguard Progressive Unionist Party in the late 1970s...

Left Vanguard and joined the United Ulster Unionist Party, 11 October 1975
1983
United Kingdom general election, 1983
The 1983 United Kingdom general election was held on 9 June 1983. It gave the Conservative Party under Margaret Thatcher the most decisive election victory since that of Labour in 1945...

 
William McCrea
William McCrea (politician)
Robert Thomas William McCrea is a politician from Northern Ireland, and a member of the Democratic Unionist Party.-Career:...

 
Democratic Unionist
Democratic Unionist Party
The Democratic Unionist Party is the larger of the two main unionist political parties in Northern Ireland. Founded by Ian Paisley and currently led by Peter Robinson, it is currently the largest party in the Northern Ireland Assembly and the fourth-largest party in the House of Commons of the...

 
1997
United Kingdom general election, 1997
The United Kingdom general election, 1997 was held on 1 May 1997, more than five years after the previous election on 9 April 1992, to elect 659 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party ended its 18 years in opposition under the leadership of Tony Blair, and won the general...

 
Martin McGuinness
Martin McGuinness
James Martin Pacelli McGuinness is an Irish Sinn Féin politician and the current deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland. McGuinness was also the Sinn Féin candidate for the Irish presidential election, 2011. He was born in Derry, Northern Ireland....

 
Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin is a left wing, Irish republican political party in Ireland. The name is Irish for "ourselves" or "we ourselves", although it is frequently mistranslated as "ourselves alone". Originating in the Sinn Féin organisation founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith, it took its current form in 1970...

 

Elections in the 2010s

Elections in the 2000s

Elections in the 1990s

Between 1992 and 1996 there were significant boundary changes, creating the new seat of West Tyrone
West Tyrone (UK Parliament constituency)
West Tyrone is a county constituency in Northern Ireland, represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post voting system.-Boundaries:...

. This had a huge knock on effect on Mid Ulster, which lost all its areas in Omagh and Strabane district councils, and gained the Torrent LGD in Dungannon from Fermanagh and South Tyrone
Fermanagh and South Tyrone
Fermanagh and South Tyrone can refer to:*Fermanagh and South Tyrone *Fermanagh and South Tyrone...

, and the parts of Magherafelt District Council
Magherafelt District Council
Magherafelt District Council is a district council in County Londonderry in Northern Ireland. Council headquarters are in Magherafelt. The Council area stretches from Lough Neagh and the River Bann in the east and into the Sperrin Mountains in the west and is divided by the Moyola River. It covers...

 previously in East Londonderry
East Londonderry
East Londonderry or East Derry can refer to:*The eastern part of County Londonderry*The eastern part of the city of Derry*East Londonderry *East Londonderry...

. Therefore the implied 1992 election results are very different from the actual ones and are displayed above.

Elections in the 1980s

Elections in the 1970s

Elections in the 1960s

Elections in the 1950s

The seat was awarded to Beattie on petition on the grounds that Mitchell's conviction as a felon
Felony
A felony is a serious crime in the common law countries. The term originates from English common law where felonies were originally crimes which involved the confiscation of a convicted person's land and goods; other crimes were called misdemeanors...

 made him ineligible to sit in Parliament. However, Beattie in turn was also found ineligible to sit due to holding an office of profit under the crown, triggering a further by-election.

Mitchell was subsequently unseated upon petition, on the grounds that his terrorist convictions made him ineligible to sit in Parliament.

Sources

  • Guardian Unlimited Politics (Election results from 1992 to the present)
  • http://www.psr.keele.ac.uk/ (Election results from 1951 to the present)
  • F. W. S. Craig
    F. W. S. Craig
    Frederick Walter Scott Craig was a Scottish psephologist and compiler of the standard reference books covering United Kingdom Parliamentary election results. He originally worked in public relations, compiling election results in his spare time which were published by the Scottish Unionist Party...

    , British Parliamentary Election Results 1918 - 1949
  • F. W. S. Craig
    F. W. S. Craig
    Frederick Walter Scott Craig was a Scottish psephologist and compiler of the standard reference books covering United Kingdom Parliamentary election results. He originally worked in public relations, compiling election results in his spare time which were published by the Scottish Unionist Party...

    , British Parliamentary Election Results 1950 - 1970

See also

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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