Foyle (Assembly constituency)

Foyle is a constituency in the Northern Ireland Assembly.

The seat was first used for a Northern Ireland-only election for the Northern Ireland Forum in 1996. Since 1998, it has elected members to the current Assembly.

For Assembly elections prior to 1996, the constituency was largely part of the Londonderry constituency. Since 1997, it has shared boundaries with the Foyle UK Parliament constituency.

For further details of the history and boundaries of the constituency, see Foyle (UK Parliament constituency).

Members

The six MLAs for the constituency elected in the 2011 election were:

• Martina Anderson – Sinn Féin
• Mark H. Durkan – Social Democratic and Labour Party
• Colum Eastwood – Social Democratic and Labour Party
• William Hay – Democratic Unionist Party
• Raymond McCartney – Sinn Féin
• Pat Ramsey – Social Democratic and Labour Party

William Hay can be considered Foyle's current most high profile MLA with his role as Speaker in the Assembly.

The six MLAs for the constituency elected in the 2007 election were:

• Martina Anderson – Sinn Féin
• Mary Bradley – Social Democratic and Labour Party
• Mark Durkan – Social Democratic and Labour Party
• William Hay – Democratic Unionist Party
• Raymond McCartney – Sinn Féin
• Pat Ramsey – Social Democratic and Labour Party

The six MLAs for the constituency elected in the 2003 election were:

• Mary Bradley – Social Democratic and Labour Party
• Mark Durkan – Social Democratic and Labour Party
• William Hay – Democratic Unionist Party
• Mitchel McLaughlin – Sinn Féin
• Mary Nelis – Sinn Féin
• Pat Ramsey – Social Democratic and Labour Party

Changes

• Mary Nelis resigned from the Assembly and was replaced by Raymond McCartney (also Sinn Féin) with effect from 15 July 2004 [1]

In the 1998 election the six MLAs elected were:

• Mark Durkan – Social Democratic and Labour Party
• William Hay – Democratic Unionist Party
• John Hume – Social Democratic and Labour Party
• Mitchel McLaughlin – Sinn Féin
• Mary Nelis – Sinn Féin
• John Tierney – Social Democratic and Labour Party

Changes 1998–2003

• On 1 December 2000, John Hume resigned from the assembly and his seat was filled by Annie Courtney, also Social Democratic and Labour Party.
• Annie Courtney failed to be selected by the Social Democratic and Labour Party in the 2003 election and so stood unsuccessfully as an independent.

In the 1996 election to the Northern Ireland Peace Forum, 5 Forum members were elected from Foyle. They were as follows:

• Mark Durkan – Social Democratic and Labour Party
• John Hume – Social Democratic and Labour Party
• Martin McGuinness – Sinn Féin
• Mitchel McLaughlin – Sinn Féin
• John Tierney – Social Democratic and Labour Party

Elections

Northern Ireland Assembly

Northern Ireland Assembly election, 2011
Party		Candidate	1st Pref	Result	Count
	Democratic Unionist	William Hay	7,154	Elected	1
	Sinn Féin	Martina Anderson	6,950	Elected	1
	SDLP	Mark H. Durkan	4,970	Elected	4
	Sinn Féin	Raymond McCartney	3,638	Elected	7
	SDLP	Pat Ramsey	3,138	Elected	7
	People Before Profit	Eamonn McCann	3,120	Not elected	7
	SDLP	Colum Eastwood	2,967	Elected	7
	SDLP	Pól Callaghan	2,624	Not elected	4
	Sinn Féin	Paul Fleming	2,612	Not elected	6
	Independent	Paul McFadden	1,280	Not elected	3
	Alliance	Keith McGrellis	334	Not elected	3
	Independent	Terry Doherty	60	Not elected	3

Northern Ireland Assembly election, 2007
Party		Candidate	1st Pref	Result	Count
	Democratic Unionist	William Hay	6,960	Elected	1
	SDLP	Mark Durkan	6,401	Elected	1
	Sinn Féin	Martina Anderson	5,414	Elected	6
	Sinn Féin	Raymond McCartney	4,321	Elected	8
	SDLP	Pat Ramsey	3,242	Elected	10
	Sinn Féin	Lynn Fleming	2,914	Not elected	7
	SDLP	Mary Bradley	2,891	Elected	10
	SDLP	Helen Quigley	2,648	Not elected	10
	Socialist Environmental	Eamonn McCann	2,045	Not elected	6
	Independent Republican	Peggy O'Hara	1,789	Not elected	4
	Ulster Unionist	Peter Munce	1,755	Not elected	7
	Green (NI)	Adele Corry	359	Not elected	2
	Alliance	Yvonne Boyle	224	Not elected	2
	Independent (Unionist)	Willie Frazer	73	Not elected	2

Northern Ireland Assembly election, 2003
Party		Candidate	1st Pref	Result	Count
	SDLP	Mark Durkan	6,806	Elected	1
	Democratic Unionist	William Hay	6,101	Elected	1
	Sinn Féin	Mitchel McLaughlin	6,036	Elected	1
	Sinn Féin	Raymond McCartney	3,679	Not elected
	Sinn Féin	Mary Nelis	3,499	Elected	9
	SDLP	Mary Bradley	3,345	Elected	8
	Ulster Unionist	Mary Hamilton	3,322	Not elected
	SDLP	Pat Ramsey	2,826	Elected	9
	Socialist Environmental	Eamonn McCann	2,257	Not elected
	SDLP	Gerard Diver	1,769	Not elected
	Independent	Annie Courtney	802	Not elected
	Alliance	Alan Castle	227	Not elected
	Independent	Danny McBrearty	137	Not elected

Northern Ireland Assembly election, 1998
Party		Candidate	1st Pref	Result	Count
	SDLP	John Hume	12,581	Elected
	Democratic Unionist	William Hay	6,112	Elected
	Sinn Féin	Mitchel McLaughlin	5,341	Elected
	Ulster Unionist	Jack Allen	4,669	Not elected
	SDLP	Mark Durkan	4,423	Elected
	SDLP	John Tierney	3,778	Elected
	Sinn Féin	Mary Nelis	3,464	Elected
	SDLP	Annie Courtney	2,560	Not elected
	Sinn Féin	Gearóid Ó hEára	2,531	Not elected
	Sinn Féin	Lynn Fleming	1,360	Not elected
	Alliance	Colm Cavanagh	1,058	Not elected
	Labour Party NI	Ken Adams	345	Not elected
	Progressive Unionist	Brian Gurney	287	Not elected
	Green (NI)	Peter MacKenzie	253	Not elected
	Natural Law	Donn Brennan	32	Not elected

1996 Forum

Successful candidates are shown in bold.

Party		Candidate(s)	Votes	Percentage
	SDLP	John Hume Mark Durkan John Tierney Pat Devine Mary Bradley	19,997	44.3
	Sinn Féin	Martin McGuinness Mitchel McLaughlin Mary Nelis Moira McCloskey Gary Fleming	11,618	25.7
	Democratic Unionist	Gregory Campbell William Hay	5,504	11.2
	Ulster Unionist	Jack Allen Richard Dallas Andrew Davidson	4,553	10.1
	Alliance	Aaron McCormack Gerry Lynch	790	1.7
	NI Women's Coalition	Margaret Logue Diane Greer Teresa Kelly	695	1.5
	Progressive Unionist	Brian Gurney Paul Whitlock	580	1.3
	Labour Coalition	Margaret Lawrence Jim Gannon Geraldine Quigley Tony Martin Patrick Muldowney	544	1.2
	Ulster Democratic	David Nicholl Thomas Stone	497	1.1
	UK Unionist	David Taylor Richard Jordan	324	0.7
	Green (NI)	Peter Doran Michael O'Kane Chloe Wilson	194	0.4
	Conservative	Derek Sloan Elizabeth Sloan	92	0.2
	Workers' Party	Noel Lynch Alexander Doherty	81	0.2
	Ulster Independence	Donal Casey Ken Kerr	65	0.1
	Natural Law	Donn Brennan David Cooke	41	0.1
	Democratic Left	James Doody Brian Cullen	40	0.1
	Independent Chambers	Sydney Waddell Jason Angus	22	0.1