The Northern Ireland House of Commons, 1921-1972

This page is a summary of election results to the Northern Ireland House of Commons. The full voting figures, including all counts for STV elections, are available in the Stormont section of David Boothroyd's site which is still under development but looks very promising.

Elections to the Northern Ireland House of Commons were not on the whole great historical events, apart perhaps from the very first one in 1921 and the very last in 1968. Two constituencies, accounting for 11 of the 52 seats, did not vote in the 1925 general election because they had the same number of candidates as seats; in 1933 only 19 of the seats actually had contests. The mood of debates is brilliantly pictured in James Kelly's autobiography, "Bonfires on the Hillsides"; of course Kelly, who as well as being a political journalist also engineered Eamon de Valera's election in County Down in 1933, was not a neutral observer but I have not found anyone writing with real conviction about the period from the Unionist point of view.

The 1921 and 1925 elections were by proportional representation (Single Transferable Vote), with the Belfast constituencies, Queen's University and County Armagh each electing four representatives, Londonderry electing five, Antrim seven, Down eight and Fermanagh/Tyrone also eight. For the 1929 electionz the Unionist government abolished PR and carved out 48 single-member seats from the city and county constituencies. The accusation that these were especially gerrymandered to reduce representation of Nationalists is difficult to substantiate. The Nationalist seat in County Antrim could not have been retained by any contiguous set of boundaries, and the loss of one seat due to the way the lines fell on the map in Armagh was offset by a gain in Belfast. One historian claims that the draughtsman had actually intended to create another Nationalist seat (presumably Dock) in Belfast but miscalculated. The real targets of the shift to single-member seats were the Independent Unionists, the Northern Ireland Labour Party and the Ulster Liberal Party, all of whom had made gains in 1925 but lost out in 1929.

However it should also be noted that although the Stormont constituencies were probably no more distorted than any set of boundaries for single-member seats, it is absolutely clear that the boundaries of election districts for local government elections had been heavily gerrymandered when proportional representation was abolished for these earlier in the 1920s. The case of Londonderry Corporation, while probably the best known, is far from unique. The delay in abolishing the ratepayers franchise in Northern Ireland further added to the distortions that had been introduced to the system.

My late father, John Whyte, looked at this issue and others in some detail in his 1984 paper, "How much discrimination was there under the Unionist regime, 1921-1968?" which is available on the CAIN web-site.

The Northern Ireland Parliament sat at a new building near Stormont Castle in East Belfast from 1932, and is often referred to simply as 'Stormont'. It also had a Senate of 26 members, whose members included the Lord Mayors of Belfast and Londonderry and 24 Senators elected by PR from the lower house. This body made little legislative impact. There was also a Governor of Northern Ireland.

In 1968 the reformist Prime Minister Terence O'Neill abolished the four Queen's University seats and created four new constituencies near Belfast, partly compensating for fifty years of population growth in the suburbs. However the Northern Ireland Parliament itself was abolished in 1972 and its constituency boundaries were not used again.

Elsewhere on the Web, Martin Sloan has published results (just of those elected) for all regional level elections in Northern Ireland from 1921 to 1982, and for the Westminster elections in NI from 1922 to 1997.

Part 1: 1921-29

Northern Ireland was divided into ten parliamentary constituencies for the elections following the Government of Ireland Act, and these were used for the 1921 and 1925 elections to the Northern Ireland House of Commons until 1929 (and for the Westminster House of Commons until 1950). They were:

County Antrim (2 Westminster MP's, 7 Northern Ireland MP's): elected six Unionists and one Nationalist in 1921; an Unbought Tenant took one of the Unionist seats in 1925.

County Armagh (1 Westminster MP, 4 Northern Ireland MP's): elected two Unionists, one Nationalist and one Sinn Feiner in 1921; the Sinn Fein seat was won by a Republican in 1925.

County Down (2 Westminster MP's, 8 Northern Ireland MP's): elected six Unionists, one Nationalist and one Sinn Feiner in 1921; the Sinn Fein seat was won by a Republican in 1925 when all candidates were unopposed.

Counties Fermanagh and Tyrone (2 Westminster MP's, 8 Northern Ireland MP's): elected four Unionists, one Nationalist and three Sinn Fein in 1921; all three Sinn Fein seats were taken by Nationalists in 1925.

County Londonderry (1 Westminster MP, 5 Northern Ireland MP's): elected three Unionists, one Nationalist and one Sinn Feiner in 1921; the Sinn Fein seat was won by a Nationalist in 1925.

East Belfast (1 Westminster MP, 4 Northern Ireland MP's): elected four Unionists in 1921; NILP and an Independent Unionist took two of those seats in 1925.

North Belfast (1 Westminster MP, 4 Northern Ireland MP's): elected four Unionists in 1921; NILP and an Independent Unionist took two of those seats in 1925.

South Belfast (1 Westminster MP, 4 Northern Ireland MP's): elected four Unionists in 1921; an Independent Unionist took one of those seats in 1925, but he resigned immediately (having also been elected for West Belfast) and the Unionists won the by-election.

West Belfast (1 Westminster MP, 4 Northern Ireland MP's): elected three Unionists and one Nationalist in 1921; NILP and an Independent Unionist took two Unionist seats in 1925.

Queen's University of Belfast (1 Westminster MP, 4 Northern Ireland MP's): elected four Unionists in 1921 and (unopposed) in 1925.

Part 2: 1929-1969

The nine territorial constituencies were split into 48 seats, with results as follows:

County Antrim

(effectively Unionist gains from Nationalist - whose votes were too geographically dispersed to be concentrated in a single constituency and the 1925 Unbought Tenant, who fought the 1929 election as a Liberal.)

County Armagh

(effectively a Unionist gain from anti-Unionists)

County Down

(effectively no change)

Counties Fermanagh and Tyrone

Fermanagh

Tyrone

(effectively no change)

County Londonderry

(effectively no change)

East Belfast

(only in 1949 did Unionists repeat their 1921 clean sweep of all four seats, and in 1962 they won only one. Dock never elected an MP of the same designation twice running in this period, which must be some sort of record. Of course geographically it is not in East Belfast at all...)

North Belfast

(NILP never did better than one seat out of four here, and that in only four elections out of nine.)

South Belfast

(In contrast to today, South Belfast was the most consistently Unionist area of the city.)

West Belfast

(then as now the least Unionist seat in Northern Ireland.)

Queen's University of Belfast

QUB remained a four-seat constituency elected by Single Transferable Vote from the University's graduates until the 1968 election, when it was abolished and four new territorial seats created. An Independent Unionist was one of the four elected in 1929 and 1933, but resigned in 1935 and was replaced by a Unionist in the by-election. Two Independents were elected in 1945; one died in 1948 and was replaced by a Unionist in the by-election. Two Independents were again elected in 1949. One did not stand again in 1953 and was replaced by a Unionist. The other did not stand again in 1958 and was replaced by another Independent. One of the Unionists died in 1961 and was replaced by Sheelagh Murnaghan of the Ulster Liberal Party. She was re-elected with two Unionists and the Independent in 1962 and 1965. The Independent resigned in 1966 and a Unionist won the by-election.

The 1968 general election and after

Full details of this election are available from the CAIN web-site. Here I shall just note that the main features of the election were:
  1. the abolition of the QUB constituency and the creation of four new seats:
  2. the split in the Unionist Party over the reform programme of Prime Minister Terence O'Neill which meant that those Unionists elected came from three different categories:
  3. the rise of the civil rights movement undermined the Nationalist party and boosted several independent candidates.
The results, sticking to my geographical presentation, were as follows:

County Antrim: 8 seats, including the new seats of Larkfield and Newtownabbey, won by official Unionist supporters of O'Neill (including also O'Neill himself in Bannside). Larne won by an official Unionist opposed to O'Neill.

County Armagh: Armagh Central won by an official Unionist supporter of O'Neill; Mid and North Armagh won by official Unionists opposed to O'Neill; South Armagh won by a pro-civil rights Independent.

County Down: Ards, Iveagh, Mid Down, North Down, and the new Lagan Valley won by official Unionist supporters of O'Neill; East Down, West Down and Iveagh by official Unionists opposed to O'Neill; the new seat of Bangor by an unofficial Unionist backing O'Neill; and South Down and Mourne as usual by Nationalists. East Down was the seat of future Prime Minister and Chief Executive Brian Faulkner (later briefly Lord Faulkner).

Counties Fermanagh and Tyrone: North Tyrone won by an official Unionist supporter of O'Neill; Enniskillen, Lisnaskea and South Tyrone won by official Unionists opposed to O'Neill; the other four seats as usual won by Nationalists.

County Londonderry: South Londonderry won by O'Neill supporter (and immediate successor) James Chichester-Clark; City and North Londonderry won by official Unionists opposed to O'Neill; Foyle and Mid Londonderry won by pro-civil rights Independents (John Hume and Ivan Cooper).

Belfast: Official Unionist supporters of O'Neill won in Bloomfield, Pottinger (gain from NILP), Victoria, Duncairn, Ballynafeigh, Cromac, and Windsor; official Unionists opposed to O'Neill won in Shankill, St Anne's and Woodvale; unofficial Unionists backing O'Neill won in Clifton and Willowfield (effectively gained from official Unionists); NILP won in Oldpark and Falls (gained by Paddy Devlin from Rep Lab); Republican Labour held Dock with Gerry Fitt and gained Belfast Central from the NDP.

By-elections

Two by-elections took place in April 1970 after former Prime Minister Terence O'Neill and one of his leading supporters resigned their seats in Bannside and South Antrim. The Bannside by-election was won by Rev Ian Paisley as a Protestant Unionist, and South Antrim by one of his supporters. Detailed results are available from CAIN. The last election ever held to the Northern Ireland House of Commons took place for the Belfast St Anne's seat in November 1970 after the death of an anti-reform official Unionist, and resulted in the victory of his son, who is now a UUP life peer.

General Election Results Table


Unionist Ind U Nationalist Sinn Fein Ind Nats etc NILP Rep Lab Irish Lab Ind Lab etc Liberal Ind / oth
1921 40 - 6 6 - - - - - - -
1925 32 4 10 - 2 3 - - - - 1
1929 37 3 11 - - 1 - - - - -
1933 36 3 8 - 3 2 - - - - -
1938 39 3 8 - - 1 - - 1 - -
1945 33 2 9 - 1 2 - - 2 - 3
1949 37 2 8 - 1 - 1 - 1 - 2
1953 38 1 7 - 2 - 1 1 1 - 1
1958 36 - 8 - 1 4 1 - 1 - 1
1962 34 - 8 - - 4 2 1 1 1 1
1965 36 - 9 - 1 2 2 - - 1 1
1968 34 
(24 pro-O'Neill, 10 anti)

(pro-O'Neill)
6 -
(pro-civil rights)
2 2 - - - -

Unopposed seats in general elections:


See also: 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

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

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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Nicholas Whyte, 9 June 2000; last modified 17 February 2002.



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