Books and Links

This site does not contain very much information about the peace process which led to the Good Friday Agreement and therefore also to the 1998 and 1996 elections, nor about the tortuous developments since which led to the suspension of the Assembly and its associated institutions in February 2000 and their restoration in May of that year, nor indeed about the various crises since. I can strongly recommend CAIN, the Conflict Archive on the Internet at the University of Ulster, which does have a lot of that information. Useful links on the official side include: Political party links: Other web-sites dealing with Northern Ireland politics, elections and related data include: Media: Sites about elections and election theory:

Useful books

I cannot recommend the following four reference books strongly enough:

W.D. Flackes and Sydney Elliot, Northern Ireland, A Political Directory 1968-1999 (Fifth edition), Belfast: Blackstaff Press, 1999: The fifth edition of this book is just out - Cathy Gormley kindly let me review it for the Ethnic Conflict Research Digest. It is good (rather than excellent as previous editions were) and still utterly essential for anyone with an interest in Northern Ireland politics. Particularly good from my point of view are the vivid and accurate descriptions of the most recent campaigns in the section listing election results.

Brian Walker, Parliamentary Election Reults in Ireland, 1918-92, Ancillary Publication V to A New History of Ireland, Dublin: Royal Irish Academy and Belfast: The Institute of Irish Studies, The Queen's University of Belfast, 1992: Covers exactly what it says in the title, divided into five sections for I: the 1918 general election, treated as the First Dáil election by Republicans; II: the UK parliament from 1922 to 1990 (the 1992 election results are in an appendix); III: the NI House of Commons ('Stormont'), 1973 Assembly, 1975 Convention, and 1982 Assembly; IV: Dáil Éireann, from the 1921 Second Dáil to the 1989 26th Dáil (we are now on the 28th); and V: the European Parliament, to which both parts of Ireland have elected representatives since 1979. The sections covering elections by Single Transferable Vote give first preference votes for all candidates, and the order in which they were elected. To complete the set of course you should also get Walker's volume on Parliamentary Election Results in Ireland, 1801-1922, Ancillary Publication IV in the same series.

Gordon Lucy, Northern Ireland Local Government Election Results 1993, Lurgan: Ulster Society (Publications) Ltd, 1994: Despite the extremely partisan nature of almost all Ulster Society publications, this one is really worth the money if you can get hold of a copy. In retrospect, the 1993 elections were almost the calm before the storm. The "Brooke-Mayhew" talks had broken down in 1992, and behind the scenes the Hume-Adams talks were beginning to produce the movement that would lead to the IRA ceasefire of 1994. From the psephological point of view, the elections happened just in time for the redrawing of the parliamentary boundaries and so kept me (and presumably my opposite numbers in the other political parties) happy analysing the implications of moving, say, Holywood from one constituency to the next. Just as important, they happened immediately after the regular revision of local government electoral districts, so they form a sound base of comparison for the elections of 1997 and 2001 - the latter being at present the next scheduled elections in Northern Ireland. The author allowed his political views to intrude now and then on his analysis, which makes the book all the more entertaining. Appendices include reflections on the role of women in Northern Ireland politics, and some nice maps whose design I have borrowed from in this site.

David Boothroyd, Politico's Guide to the History of British Political Parties, London: Politico's, 2001. I had some input into the Irish entries. 


See also: The Boundary Commission's Provisional Recommendations | Boundary Commission 2003 | Jim Riley's analysis of votes and seats in the 1998 Assembly election | Gerrymandering | The constituencies | The political parties | The NI Executive

Results from 1996 to 2001 for each seat: East Belfast | North Belfast | South Belfast | West Belfast | East Antrim | North Antrim | South Antrim | North Down | South Down | Fermanagh and South Tyrone | Foyle | Lagan Valley | East Londonderry | Mid Ulster | Newry and Armagh | Strangford | West Tyrone | Upper Bann

Surveys of each recent election: 2004 European | 2003 Assembly | 2001 Westminster | 2001 local govt | 2000 S Antrim | 1999 European | 1998 Assembly | 1997 local govt | 1997 Westminster | 1996 Forum | 1995 N Down | 1994 European | 1993 local govt | 1992 Westminster | 1989 European | 1989 local govt | 1987 Westminster | 1986 by-elections | 1985 local govt | 1984 European | 1983 Westminster | 1982 Assembly | 1981 local govt | 1979 European | 1979 Westminster | 1977 local govt | 1975 Convention | Oct 1974 Westminster | Feb 1974 Westminster | 1973 Assembly | 1973 local govt | Summary of all Northern Ireland elections since 1973 | Brief summary of election results 1997-2003

Historical pieces: Westminster elections 1885-1910 | The 1918 election | Dáil elections since 1918 | Westminster elections since 1920 | Senate of Southern Ireland 1921 | Irish Senate elections in 1925 | Northern Ireland House of Commons | Northern Ireland Senate | The 1973 and 1975 referendums

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

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

Nicholas Whyte, 3 December 2000; modified 26 May 2013


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