Belfast Falls (Northern Ireland Parliament constituency)

Coordinates: 54°35′31″N 5°57′47″W / 54.592°N 5.963°W / 54.592; -5.963

Belfast Falls
Former Borough Constituency for the Parliament of Northern Ireland
Belfast Falls shown within Belfast and Belfast shown within Northern Ireland
Former constituency
Created	1929
Abolished	1973
Election method	First past the post

Belfast Falls was a constituency of the Parliament of Northern Ireland.

Boundaries

Belfast Falls was a borough constituency comprising part of western Belfast. It was created in 1929, when the House of Commons (Method of Voting and Redistribution of Seats) Act (Northern Ireland) 1929 introduced first-past-the-post elections throughout Northern Ireland.

Belfast Falls was created by the division of Belfast West into four new constituencies. It was formed from the Falls ward and included the Falls Road. It survived unchanged, returning one member of Parliament, until the Parliament of Northern Ireland was temporarily suspended in 1972, and then formally abolished in 1973.^[1]

Politics

The constituency was the most staunchly nationalist in Belfast. It was initially held by Nationalist Party members, then later by a variety of labour movement activists and members of smaller nationalist parties.^[1]

Members of Parliament

	Member	Party
1929	Richard Byrne	Nationalist Party
1933
1938
1942	Eamon Donnelly	Independent Republican
1945	Harry Diamond	Socialist Republican Party
1949
1953
1958		Republican Labour Party
1962
1965
1969	Paddy Devlin	Northern Ireland Labour Party
1970	Paddy Devlin	Social Democratic and Labour Party
1973	Constituency abolished

Election results

Northern Ireland 1921–72

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General Election 22 May 1929: Belfast Falls^[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Nationalist	Richard Byrne	6,941	55.8	N/A
	NI Labour	Billy McMullen	5,509	44.2	N/A
Majority			1,432	11.6	N/A
	Nationalist gain from new seat		Swing

General Election 30 November 1933: Belfast Falls^[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Nationalist	Richard Byrne	Unopposed	N/A	N/A
	Nationalist hold		Swing	N/A

General Election 9 February 1938: Belfast Falls^[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Nationalist	Richard Byrne	5,334	53.3	N/A
	NI Labour	John Glass	4,667	46.7	N/A
Majority			667	6.6
	Nationalist hold		Swing	N/A

Death of Byrne

By-election 2 April 1942: Belfast Falls^[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Independent Republican	Eamon Donnelly	4,595	54.8	N/A
	Nationalist	George McGouran	1,971	23.5	N/A
	NI Labour	John Glass	1,821	21.7	- 25.0
Majority			2,623
	Independent Republican gain from Nationalist		Swing

General Election 14 June 1945: Belfast Falls^[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Socialist Republican	Harry Diamond	5,016	42.9	N/A
	Federation of Labour	John Collins	3,912	33.5	N/A
	Nationalist	James McGlade	2,766	23.6	N/A
Majority			1,104	9.4	N/A
	Socialist Republican gain from Independent Republican		Swing

General Election 10 February 1949: Belfast Falls^[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Socialist Republican	Harry Diamond	unopposed	N/A	N/A
Majority			N/A	N/A
	Socialist Republican hold		Swing

General Election 22 October 1953: Belfast Falls^[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Republican Labour	Harry Diamond	7,510	73.1
	Independent Irish Labour	Seamus MacKearney	2,761	26.9
	Irish Labour	Jack MacGougan	1,361	11.8
Majority			4,749	46.2
	Republican Labour gain from Socialist Republican		Swing

General Election 20 March 1958: Belfast Falls^[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Republican Labour	Harry Diamond	7,510	73.1
	Independent Irish Labour	Seamus MacKearney	2,761	26.9
Majority			4,749	46.2
	Republican Labour hold		Swing

General Election 31 May 1962: Belfast Falls^[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Republican Labour	Harry Diamond	7,662	76.6
	Ind. Labour Group	John Joseph Brennan	2,343	23.4
Majority			5,319	53.2
	Republican Labour hold		Swing

General Election 25 November 1965: Belfast Falls^[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Republican Labour	Harry Diamond	unopposed	N/A	N/A
Majority			N/A	N/A	N/A
	Republican Labour hold		Swing

General Election 24 February 1969: Belfast Falls^[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	NI Labour	Paddy Devlin	6,275	53.1	N/A
	Republican Labour	Harry Diamond	5,549	46.9	N/A
Majority			726	6.2	N/A
	NI Labour gain from Republican Labour		Swing

References

1 2 The Northern Ireland House of Commons, 1921-1972, Northern Ireland Elections
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Northern Ireland Parliamentary Elections Results: Boroughs: Belfast

Parliament of Northern Ireland constituencies

1921–1929	1929–1973

Antrim	Antrim Borough Bannside Carrick Larkfield (from 1969) Larne Mid Antrim Newtownabbey (from 1969) North Antrim South Antrim

Armagh	Central Armagh Mid Armagh North Armagh South Armagh

Belfast East	Belfast Bloomfield Belfast Dock Belfast Pottinger Belfast Victoria

Belfast North	Belfast Clifton Belfast Duncairn Belfast Oldpark Belfast Shankill

Belfast South	Belfast Ballynafeigh Belfast Cromac Belfast Willowfield Belfast Windsor

Belfast West	Belfast Central Belfast Falls Belfast St Anne's Belfast Woodvale

Down	Ards Bangor (from 1969) East Down Iveagh Lagan Valley (from 1969) Mid Down Mourne North Down South Down West Down

Fermanagh and Tyrone	East Tyrone Enniskillen Lisnaskea Mid Tyrone North Tyrone South Fermanagh South Tyrone West Tyrone

Londonderry	City of Londonderry Foyle Mid Londonderry North Londonderry South Londonderry

Queen's University	Queen's University (to 1969)

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