Newry and Armagh (UK Parliament constituency)

Coordinates: 54°14′52″N 6°36′06″W / 54.24778°N 6.60167°W / 54.24778; -6.60167
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Newry and Armagh
County constituency
for the House of Commons
Outline map
Boundary of Newry and Armagh in Northern Ireland
Current constituency
Created1983
Member of ParliamentMickey Brady (Sinn Féin)
Created fromArmagh and South Down[1]

Newry and Armagh is a parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom House of Commons.

Boundaries

1983-1997: The District of Armagh, and the District of Newry and Mourne wards of Ballybot, Belleek, Bessbrook, Camlough, Creggan, Crossmaglen, Daisy Hill, Derrymore, Drumalane, Drumgullion, Fathom, Forkhill, Newtownhamilton, St Mary's, St Patrick's, Tullyhappy, and Windsor Hill.

1997-present: The District of Armagh, and the District of Newry and Mourne wards of Ballybot, Bessbrook, Camlough, Creggan, Crossmaglen, Daisy Hill, Derrymore, Drumgullion, Drumalane, Fathom, Forkhill, Newtownhamilton, Silver Bridge, St Mary's, St Patrick's, Tullyhappy, and Windsor Hill.

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 Armagh constituency with the addition of Newry town from the old South Down constituency. In 1995, the Boundary Commission originally proposed to abolish the seat with the Armagh district joining most of Dungannon in a new 'Blackwater' constituency with the rest becoming part of a new Newry and Mourne constituency. This was strongly opposed during the local enquiries and the eventual boundary review left the seat unchanged. It contains the entirety of Armagh district and the Newry half of Newry and Mourne district.

History

For the history of the equivalent constituency prior to 1983, please see Armagh.

The constituency is overwhelmingly nationalist, though initially on its creation in 1983 Jim Nicholson of the Ulster Unionist Party won the seat due to the nationalist vote being divided between the Social Democratic and Labour Party and Sinn Féin. In 1986 Nicholson, along with all the other unionist MPs, resigned his seat in protest over the Anglo-Irish Agreement and stood in a by-election to provide voters the opportunity to decide on it. However the nationalist parties contested the seat and Seamus Mallon of the SDLP gained sufficient votes to outpoll Nicholson and win the seat. Mallon held it until his retirement in 2005.

The unionist vote in the constituency has declined somewhat in recent years, with the shift being more marked as both the Ulster Unionist Party and the Democratic Unionist Party now stand. The main attention has been upon the rise of the Sinn Féin vote. In the 2001 election they surged forward, cutting Mallon's majority drastically, as well as heavily outpolling the SDLP in the equivalent area local elections held on the same day. Then in the 2003 Assembly election Sinn Féin won three seats to the SDLP's one. Mallon stood down at the 2005 general election fearing the loss of his seat as was widely predicted among political pundits, the seat subsequently fell to Sinn Féin with Murphy out polling the SDLP by almost 8000 votes.

Members of Parliament

The Member of Parliament since the 2015 general election is Mickey Brady of Sinn Féin. He succeeded his party colleague Conor Murphy who had gained the seat from the SDLP in 2005.

Election Member[2] Party
style="background-color: Template:Ulster Unionist Party/meta/color" | 1983 James Frederick Nicholson Ulster Unionist
style="background-color: Template:Social Democratic and Labour Party/meta/color" | 1986 by-election Seamus Mallon SDLP
style="background-color: Template:Sinn Féin/meta/color" | 2005 Conor Murphy Sinn Féin
style="background-color: Template:Sinn Féin/meta/color" | 2015 Mickey Brady Sinn Féin

Election results

Elections in the 2010s

General Election 2017: Newry and Armagh
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Sinn Féin Mickey Brady[3]
Alliance Jackie Coade
Ulster Unionist Sam Nicholson[4]
Majority
Turnout
General Election 2015: Newry and Armagh[5][6]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Sinn Féin Mickey Brady 20,488 41.1 −0.9
Ulster Unionist Danny Kennedy[7] 16,312 32.7 +13.6
SDLP Justin McNulty 12,026 24.1 +0.7
Alliance Kate Nicholl 841 1.7 +0.5
NI Conservatives Robert Rigby 210 0.4 N/A
Majority 4,176 8.4 −10.2
Turnout 49,877 64.2 +3.8
Sinn Féin hold Swing −7.2
General Election 2010: Newry and Armagh[8][9]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Sinn Féin Conor Murphy 18,857 42.0 -0.9
SDLP Dominic Bradley 10,526 23.4 −1.8
UCU-NF Danny Kennedy 8,558 19.1 +5.2
DUP William Irwin 5,764 12.8 −5.6
Independent Willie Frazer 656 1.5 +1.5
Alliance Andrew Muir 545 1.2 N/A
Majority 8,331 18.6 +2.4
Turnout 44,906 60.4 −9.6
Sinn Féin hold Swing +1.2

Elections in the 2000s

General Election 2005: Newry and Armagh[10]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Sinn Féin Conor Murphy 20,965 41.4 +10.5
SDLP Dominic Bradley 12,770 25.2 −12.2
DUP Paul Berry 9,311 18.4 −1.0
Ulster Unionist Danny Kennedy 7,025 13.9 +1.6
Independent Gerry Markey 625 1.2 +1.2
Majority 8,195 16.2
Turnout 50,696 70.0 −6.8
Sinn Féin gain from SDLP Swing +11.3
General Election 2001: Newry and Armagh[11]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
SDLP Seamus Mallon 20,784 37.4 −5.6
Sinn Féin Conor Murphy 17,209 30.9 +9.9
DUP Paul Berry 10,795 19.4 N/A
Ulster Unionist Sylvia McRoberts 6,833 12.3 −21.5
Majority 3,575 6.4
Turnout 55,621 76.8 +1.3
SDLP hold Swing

Elections in the 1990s

General Election 1997: Newry and Armagh[12]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
SDLP Seamus Mallon 22,904 43.0 −6.3
Ulster Unionist Danny Kennedy 18,015 33.8 −2.4
Sinn Féin Patrick McNamee 11,218 21.1 +8.6
Alliance Peter Whitcroft 1,015 1.9 +0.0
Natural Law David Evans 123 0.2 N/A
Majority 4,889 9.2
Turnout 53,275 75.4 −2.5
SDLP hold Swing −2.0

1997 Changes are compared to the 1992 notional results shown below.[13]

Notional 1992 UK General Election Result: Newry and Armagh
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
SDLP N/A 25,740 49.3 N/a
Ulster Unionist N/A 18,930 36.3 N/A
Sinn Féin N/A 6,530 12.5 N/A
Alliance N/A 972 1.9 N/A
Majority 6,810 13.1 N/A
General Election 1992: Newry and Armagh[14]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
SDLP Seamus Mallon 26,073 49.6 +1.5
Ulster Unionist Jim Speers 18,982 36.1 −1.8
Sinn Féin Brendan Curran 6,547 12.5 +0.7
Alliance Eileen Bell 972 1.8 +0.5
Majority 7,091 13.5
Turnout 52,574 77.9 −1.3
SDLP hold Swing +1.7

Elections in the 1980s

General Election 1987: Newry and Armagh[15]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
SDLP Seamus Mallon 25,137 48.1 +11.3
Ulster Unionist Jim Nicholson 19,812 37.9 −2.1
Sinn Féin Jim McAllister 6,173 11.8 −9.1
Alliance William Henry Jeffrey 664 1.3 N/A
Workers' Party of Ireland Gerard O'Hanlon 482 0.9 −1.4
Majority 5,325 10.2 +6.9
Turnout 52,268 79.2 +3.2
SDLP gain from Ulster Unionist Swing +6.7
By-election 1986: Newry and Armagh
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
SDLP Seamus Mallon 22,694 45.5 +3.7
Ulster Unionist Jim Nicholson 20,111 40.3 +0.2
Sinn Féin Jim McAllister 6,609 13.2 −7.7
Workers' Party of Ireland Patrick McCusker 515 1.0 −1.2
Majority 2,583 5.2
Turnout 49,929 76.9
SDLP gain from Ulster Unionist Swing +4.2
General Election 1983: Newry and Armagh[16]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Ulster Unionist Jim Nicholson 18,988 40.0 N/A
SDLP Seamus Mallon 17,434 36.8 N/A
Sinn Féin Jim McAllister 9,928 20.9 N/A
Workers' Party of Ireland Thomas Moore 1,070 2.3 N/A
Majority 1,554 3.3 N/A
Turnout 47,420 76.0 N/A
Ulster Unionist win (new seat)

See also

References

  1. ^ "'Newry and Armagh', June 1983 up to May 1997". ElectionWeb Project. Cognitive Computing Limited. Retrieved 13 March 2016.
  2. ^ Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "N" (part 2)
  3. ^ Simpson, Claire (28 April 2017). "Michelle Gildernew to stand for Sinn Féin in Fermanagh-South Tyrone". The Irish News. Retrieved 3 May 2017.
  4. ^ "UUP announce south and east Belfast candidates for the General Election". Belfast Telegraph. 8 May 2017.
  5. ^ "Election Data 2015". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
  6. ^ http://www.eoni.org.uk/Elections/Election-results-and-statistics/Election-results-and-statistics-2003-onwards/Elections-2015/UK-Parliamentary-Election-Results/UK-Parliamentary-Election-Result-Belfast-East-(10) 24Aug15
  7. ^ "Member of Parliament for Newry and Armagh". YourNextMP. Retrieved 23 February 2015.
  8. ^ "Election Data 2010". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 26 July 2013. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
  9. ^ Statement of Persons Nominated
  10. ^ "Election Data 2005". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
  11. ^ "Election Data 2001". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
  12. ^ "Election Data 1997". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
  13. ^ http://www.bbc.co.uk/election97/constituencies/426.htm
  14. ^ "Election Data 1992". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
  15. ^ "Election Data 1987". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
  16. ^ "Election Data 1983". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.

54°14′52″N 6°36′06″W / 54.24778°N 6.60167°W / 54.24778; -6.60167