North Antrim 1973-1982


DUP V/UUUP UUP U(P)/UPNI Ind U A NILP Ecol SDLP IIP
82a 45.8%**** 0.8% 28.8%**
0.6% 9.3%*
0.5% 14.2%*
79w 51.6%
23.4%

11.9%

7.5% 5.6%
75cc 52.7%*** 8.1%** 5.4% 7.3%
9.5%*

17.0%*
74wo 72.6%



14.6%

12.8%
74ab 61.8%

11.5%
5.0%

21.6%
74wf 63.5%

21.0%



15.5%
73a 29.4%** 14.5%*
30.0%**
9.7%* 1.5%
14.8%*

See spreadsheets for 1973 Assembly, February 1974 Westminster, October 1974 Westminster, 1975 Convention, 1979 Westminster and 1982 Assembly.

Assembly election, 20 October 1982 (eight seats)

*Ian Paisley MP MEP (DUP) 9,231
Joe Gaston (UUP) 5,856
Jim Allister (DUP) 5,835
Sean Farren (SDLP) 5,006
Roy Beggs (UUP) 4,885
Jack McKee (DUP) 4,515
Cecil Cousley (DUP) 4,133
Charles Brown (UUP) 3,606
Michael O'Cleary (SDLP) 3,321
Sean Neeson (Alliance) 3,258
*Ken McFaul (DUP) 3,153
David Burnside (UUP) 2,542
Tom Benson (Alliance) 2,170
Robert Glass (UUUP) 444
Price McConaghy (Ind U) 357
Malcolm Samuel (Ecology) 295
Votes by party:
DUP 26,867 (45.8%) 4 seats (4.1 quotas) best result for DUP in Northern Ireland
UUP 16,889 (28.8%) 2 seats (2.6 quotas)
SDLP 8,327 (14.2%) 1 seat (1.3 quotas)
Alliance 5,428 (9.3%) 1 seat (0.8 quotas)
UUUP 444 (0.8%, 0.1 quotas)
Ind U 357 (0.6%, 0.1 quotas)
Ecology 295 (0.5%, 0.05 quotas)

Electorate: 104,683
Votes cast: 60,510 (57.8%); spoilt votes 1,543 (2.6%)
Valid votes: 58,607; quota: 6,512

* Elected to the 1975 Constitutional Convention

With an extra seat awarded to the constituency, the DUP picked up one and the UUP two compared with 1975. Neither of the two Vanguard candidates who had won seats in the Convention stood again. The runner-up, Charles Brown of the UUP, finished on 4,885 votes, far behind Cecil Cousley of the DUP who had 6,835.

Westminster Election, 3 May 1979 (one seat)

* Ian Paisley (DUP) 33,941 (51.6%) best result for DUP in Northern Ireland
Jeremy Burchill (UUP) 15,398 (23.4%)
Hugh Wilson (Alliance) 7,797 (11.9%)
Sean Farren (SDLP) 4,897 (7.5%)
John Turnly (IIP) 3,689 (5.6%)

Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) majority: 18,543; Electorate: 102,224; Turnout: 62.6%

Another storming result for Paisley, but the UUP must also have been cheered by taking almost a third of his vote - after their dismal results from a few years before. Yet another seat where the IIP failed to make the breakthrough despite a high-level defection from the SDLP. Turnly was assassinated by the UDA in June 1980.

Constitutional Convention election, 1 May 1975 (seven seats)

* Ian Paisley MP (DUP-UUUC) 19,335
Ken McFaul (DUP-UUUC) 7,658
* Clifford Smyth (DUP-UUUC) 5,806
John Turnley (SDLP) 4,888
* Hugh Wilson (Alliance) 4,601
Denis Haughey (SDLP) 3,371
Iris Agnew (UPNI) 3,138
William Wright (VUP-UUUC) 2,761
James McClements (SDLP) 2,318
David Allen (VUP-UUUC) 2,268
Adam Erwin (UUP-UUUC) 1,751
William Rainey (UUP-UUUC) 1,587
Samuel Murphy (UPNI) 1,425
Maurice McHenry (Alliance) 1,311
Vote by party:
[UUUC got 41,166 votes (66.2%) and won 5 seats (5.3 quotas)]
DUP 32,799 (52.7%) 3 seats (4.2 quotas) best result for DUP in Northern Ireland
SDLP 10,577 (17.0%) 1 seat (1.4 quotas)
Alliance 5,912 (9.5%) 1 seat (0.8 quotas)
VUP 5,029 (8.1%) 2 seats (0.6 quotas)
UPNI 4,563 (7.3%, 0.6 quotas)
UUP 3,338 (5.4%, 0.4 quotas)

Electorate: 103,469
Votes cast: 63,064 (60.9%); spoilt votes 866 (1.4%)
Valid votes: 62,218; quota 7,778

* member of the 1973 Assembly (Smyth had been elected in a by-election after the Assembly was prorogued)

The DUP had over four quotas, but only three candidates, who were thus all safely elected. They and Vanguard gained a seat each from the UUP as compared with 1973; Vanguard won two seats here despite having less than two thirds of a single quota on first preferences. It was a close thing though as David Allen of Vanguard was only 48 votes ahead of Adam Erwin of the UUP on the final count, 6114 votes to 6066.

Westminster election, 10 October 1974 (one seat)

*@ Ian Paisley (DUP-UUUC) 43,186 (72.6%)
@ Hugh Wilson (Alliance) 8,689 (14.6%)
Mary Mc Alister (SDLP) 7,616 (12.8%)

Democratic Unionist Party (DUP - UUUC) majority: 34,497; Electorate: 103,763; Turnout: 57.7%

* sitting MP
@ member of Assembly (which by this time had been prorogued).

A pretty comprehensive victory for Paisley, though interesting to note that Alliance swept up a fair number of votes from both pro-Assembly Unionists and SDLP compared with the elections held earlier in the year.

Assembly by-election, 20 June 1974 (one seat)

Clifford Smyth (DUP-UUUC) 29,739 (61.8%)
John Turnley (SDLP) 10,421 (21.6%)
Iris Agnew (UUP, pro-power-sharing) 5,546 (11.5%)
Jack Fawcett (Alliance) 2,430 (5.0%)

Electorate: 104,168
Percentage turnout: 46.7
Quota: 24,069

The by-election was caused by the death in a car accident of David McCarthy, a pro-Assembly member of the UUP, on 15 July 1973. By the time the election took place the Assembly had already been prorogued due to the collapse of the power-sharing executive. Clifford Smyth, the DUP candidate and runner-up in the 1973 election, won on the first count. He later left the DUP (and was a UUP candidate in the 1979 Westminster election in North Down) and wrote a not especially fulsome biography of Ian Paisley.

Westminster Election, 28 February 1974 (one seat)

*@ Ian Paisley (DUP-UUUC) 41,282 (63.5%)
T.E. Utley, (Pro-Assembly Unionist) 13,651 (21.0%)
Mary McAlister (SDLP) 10,056 (15.5%)

Democratic Unionist Party (DUP - UUUC) majority: 27,631; Electorate: 103,763; Turnout: 57.7%

* sitting MP
@ Member of Assembly

This was not one of the seats where a split in the pro-Agreement vote let in the UUUC. Utley's vote, though not much down on the UUP vote in the Assembly elections, in fact turned out to be largely on loan from Alliance and SDLP..

Assembly election, 28 June 1973 (seven seats)

* Ian Paisley (DUP) 14,533
John Baxter (UUP, pro-White Paper)  9,009
* William Craig (Vanguard) 8,538
John O'Hagan (SDLP) 6,204
David McCarthy (UUP, pro-White Paper) 5,125
John Turnly (SDLP) 4,376
Trevor Strain (UUP, pro-White Paper) 3,937
James Craig (DUP) 3,871
Samuel Steele (UUP, pro-White Paper) 3,294
Hugh Wilson (Alliance) 2,876
Clifford Smyth (DUP) 2,572
* Phelim O'Neill (Alliance) 1,701
William Kelly (Alliance) 1,672
David Burnside (Vanguard) 1,505
Patrick McHugh (NILP) 830
James Miller (Alliance) 651
Thomas Seymour (Vanguard) 315
Robert Binnie (NILP) 240
Votes by party:
UUP (pro) 21,365 (30.0%) 2 seats (2.4 quotas)
DUP 20,796 (29.4%) 2 seats (2.4 quotas)
SDLP 10,580 (14.8%) 1 seat (1.2 quotas)
Vanguard 10,538 (14.5%) 1 seat (1.2 quotas)
Alliance 6,900 (9.7%) 1 seat (0.8 quotas)
NILP 1,070 (1.5%, 0.1 quotas)

Electorate: 99,635
Votes cast: 72,289 (72.6%); spoilt votes 1,040 (1.4%)
Valid votes: 71,249; quota 8,907

* Member of the Northern Ireland House of Commons when it was dissolved.

Three of the four Stormont MPs who had represented parts of North Antrim were candidates here. Exactly a thousand votes separated runner-up Clifford Smyth from his fellow DUP candidate James Craig, 6829 to 7829. Baxter became Minister for Information in the power-sharing Executive.

Samuel Steele is listed by Brian Walker as a pro-White paper candidate, but by James Knight as an anti. I have tallied him as an anti.


See also:

Results from 1973 to 1982 for each seat: East Belfast | North Belfast | South Belfast | West Belfast | North Antrim | South Antrim | Armagh | North Down | South Down | Fermanagh and South Tyrone | Londonderry | Mid Ulster

Other sites based at ARK: ORB (Online Research Bank) | CAIN (Conflict Archive on the INternet) | Northern Ireland Life and Times Survey

Your comments, please! Send an email to me at nicholas.whyte@gmail.com.

Nicholas Whyte, 25 March 2003.



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