Fermanagh and South Tyrone (UK Parliament constituency)
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Fermanagh & South Tyrone is a Parliamentary Constituency in the British House of Commons and also an Assembly constituency in the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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Boundaries
The seat was created in 1950 when the old Fermanagh & Tyrone two MP constituency was abolished as part of the final move to single member seats. As the name implies, the seat includes all of County Fermanagh and the southern part of County Tyrone. Of the post 1973 districts, it initially contained all of Fermanagh and Dungannon and South Tyrone.
In boundary changes proposed by a review in 1995, a portion of Dungannon and South Tyrone (then simply called Dungannon) was transferred to the Mid Ulster constituency.
At the time of writing the Boundary Commission has proposed alterations to the Northern Ireland constituencies, however no changes are proposed for Fermanagh & South Tyrone.
Westminster elections
Member of Parliament
The Member of Parliament since the 2001 general election is Michelle Gildernew of Sinn Féin. Between 1983 and 2001 the MP was Ken Maginnis of the Ulster Unionist Party who retired at that election.
Election results
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MPs since 1950
- 1950 - 1955 Cahir Healy, Nationalist
- 1955 - Philip Christopher Clarke Sinn Féin - subsequently unseated on petition
- 1955 - 1964 - R.G. Grosvenor Ulster Unionist Party
- 1964 - 1970 James Hamilton, Marquess of Hamilton Ulster Unionist Party
- 1970 - 1974 - Frank McManus Independent Nationalist on "Unity" ticket
- 1974 - 1974 Harry West Ulster Unionist Party
- 1974 - 1981 - Frank Maguire Independent Republican
- 1981 (by-election) - 1981 Bobby Sands Anti-H-Block/Armagh Political Prisoner
- 1981 (second by-election) - 1983 Owen Carron Anti-H-Block Proxy Political Prisoner (from 1982 onwards standing for Sinn Féin)
- 1983 - 2001 Ken Maginnis Ulster Unionist Party
- 2001 - present Michelle Gildernew Sinn Féin
Assemblies and Forum elections
The six MLAs for the constituency elected in the 2003 election are:
- Tom Elliott Ulster Unionist Party
- Arlene Foster Ulster Unionist Party
- Tommy Gallagher Social Democratic and Labour Party
- Michelle Gildernew Sinn Féin
- Maurice Morrow Democratic Unionist Party
- Tom O'Reilly Sinn Féin
Changes 2003 - present
- Arlene Foster resigned from the Ulster Unionist Party on December 18 2003 and joined the Democratic Unionist Party on January 5 2004.
In the 1998 election the six MLAs elected were:
- Joan Carson Ulster Unionist Party
- Sam Foster Ulster Unionist Party
- Tommy Gallagher Social Democratic and Labour Party
- Michelle Gildernew Sinn Féin
- Gerry McHugh Sinn Féin
- Maurice Morrow Democratic Unionist Party
In the 1996 election to the Northern Ireland Peace Forum, 5 Forum members were elected from Fermanagh & South Tyrone. They were as follows:
- Sam Foster Ulster Unionist Party
- Tommy Gallagher Social Democratic and Labour Party
- Ken Maginnis Ulster Unionist Party
- Gerry McHugh Sinn Féin
- Maurice Morrow Democratic Unionist Party
In 1982 elections were held for an Assembly for Northern Ireland to hold the Secretary of State to account, in the hope that this would be the first step towards restoring devolution. Fermanagh & South Tyrone elected 5 members as follows:
- Owen Carron Sinn Féin
- Austin Currie Social Democratic and Labour Party
- Raymond Ferguson Ulster Unionist Party
- Ivan Foster Democratic Unionist Party
- Ken Maginnis Ulster Unionist Party
In 1975 elections were held to a Constitutional Convention which sought (unsuccessfully) to generate a consensus on the future of the province. The six members elected from Fermanagh & South Tyrone were:
- Ernest Baird Vanguard Progressive Unionist Party
- Austin Currie Social Democratic and Labour Party
- Thomas Daly Social Democratic and Labour Party
- John McKay Ulster Unionist Party
- Harry West Ulster Unionist Party
In 1973 elections were held to the Assembly set up under the Sunningdale Agreement. The six members elected from Fermanagh & South Tyrone were:
- Ernest Baird Vanguard Progressive Unionist Party
- Austin Currie Social Democratic and Labour Party
- Thomas Daly Social Democratic and Labour Party
- John Taylor Ulster Unionist Party
- Harry West Ulster Unionist Party
Politics and history of the constituency
For the history of the constituency prior to 1950, see Fermanagh & Tyrone (constituency).
Throughout its history Fermanagh & South Tyrone has seen a precarious balance between Unionist and Nationalist voters, though in recent years the Nationalists have advanced significantly to be in a clear majority. Many elections have seen a candidate from one community triumph due to candidates from the other community splitting the vote.
Perhaps because of this, Fermanagh & South Tyrone has repeatedly had the highest turnout of any constituency in Northern Ireland.
The seat was initially won by the Irish Nationalist Party in 1950 and 1951 then by Sinn Féin in 1955. However the Sinn Féin MP was unseated on petition on the basis that his convictions for IRA activity made him ineligible, and the seat was granted to the Ulster Unionist candidate.
In 1970 the seat was won by Frank McManus standing on the "Unity" ticket which sought to unite nationalist voters behind a single candidate. However in the February 1974 general election the Social Democratic and Labour Party contested the seat, dividing the nationalist vote and allowing Harry West of the Ulster Unionist Party to win with the support of the Vanguard Progressive Unionist Party and the Democratic Unionist Party.
In the October 1974 general election a nationalist pact was agreed and Frank Maguire won, standing as an Independent Republican. He retained his seat in the 1979 general election, when both the Unionist and Nationalist votes were split, the former by the intervention of Ernest Baird, leader of the short-lived United Ulster Unionist Party, and the latter by Austin Currie, who defied the official SDLP decision to not contest the seat. Maguire died in early 1981.
The ensuing by-election took place amidst the 1981 Irish Hunger Strike and is widely considered to be the single most important and prominent by-election in modern Ireland. In order to test public opinion, the IRA Officer Commanding in The Maze, Bobby Sands was nominated as an Anti-H-Block/Armagh Political Prisoner. Harry West also stood for the Ulster Unionist Party but no other candidates contested the by-election. On April 9, 1981, Sands won with 30,492 votes against 29,046 for West. 26 days later Sands died of starvation.
Speedy legislation barred "convicted felons" from standing for Parliament and so in the new by-election Sands' agent Owen Carron stood as a "Proxy Political Prisoner". The Ulster Unionist Party nominated Ken Maginnis. The second by-election in August was also contested by the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland, the Workers' Party Republican Clubs, a candidate standing on a label of General Amnesty and another as The Peace Lover. The turnout was even higher, with most of the additional votes going to the additional parties standing, and Carron was elected.
These victories had the effect of pushing Republicans towards the Armalite and ballot box strategy. In the 1982 elections for the Northern Ireland Assembly Carron headed up the Sinn Féin slate for the constituency and was elected.
Republicans suffered a reversal in the 1983 general election when the Social Democratic and Labour Party contested the seat. Maginnis won and held the seat for the Ulster Unionist Party for the next eighteen years until he retired. By this point boundary changes had resulted in a broad 50:50 balance between Unionists and Nationalists and it was expected that a single Unionist candidate would hold the seat in the 2001 general election. James Cooper was nominated by the Ulster Unionist Party.
However on this occasion it was the Unionist vote that was to be split. Initially Maurice Morrow of the Democratic Unionist Party was nominated to stand, with the DUP fiercely opposing the UUP's support for the Good Friday Agreement. However Morrow then withdrew in favour of Jim Dixon, a survivor of the Enniskillen bomb who stood as an Independent Unionist opposed to the Agreement. Dixon polled 6,843 votes, far in excess of the mere 53 vote lead that Sinn Féin's Michelle Gildernew had over Cooper. Subsequently the result was challenged amid allegations that a polling station had been kept open for longer than the deadline, allowing more people to vote, but the courts did not uphold the challenge.
Ahead of the 2005 general election there was much speculation that a single Unionist candidate could retake the seat. However the UUP and DUP ran opposing candidates and in the event Gildernew held her seat.