South Down (UK Parliament constituency)

South Down
County constituency for the House of Commons
Boundary of South Down in Northern Ireland.
Current constituency
Created	1950
Member of parliament	Margaret Ritchie (Social Democratic and Labour)
Created from	Down
1885–1922
Replaced by	Down
Created from	Down
Overlaps
European Parliament constituency	Northern Ireland

South Down is a parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom House of Commons. It has been represented since 2010 by Margaret Ritchie, of the Social Democratic and Labour Party.

Boundaries

Slieve Donard

The county constituency was first created in 1885 from the southern part of Down. It was defined as including 'The Baronies of – Iveagh Upper, Lower Half, Lordship of Newry, and Mourne, and so much of the Barony of Iveagh Upper, Upper Half, as comprises the Parishes of – Clonallan, Donaghmore, Drumgath, Kilbroney, and Warrenpoint.'.^[1] In 1918, it was redefined as including 'The rural district of Newry No. 1; the part of the rural district of Kilkeel which is not included in the East Down Division; and the urban districts of Newcastle, Newry and Warrenpoint.'^[2] From the dissolution of Parliament in 1922, it was merged back into Down. Maps showing the component units of the constituency can be seen here.

The seat was re-created in 1950 when the old Down two MP constituency was abolished as part of the final move to single member seats. Originally the seat consisted of most of the mid and southern parts of County Down, with the north included in North Down. It was defined as including '(i) The urban districts of Banbridge, Downpatrick, Dromore, Kilkeel, Newcastle, Newry and Warrenpoint; (ii) the rural districts of Banbridge, Downpatrick, Kilkeel, Moira and Newry No. 1.'^[3] Of the post 1973 districts, it contained all of Down and Banbridge, together with parts of Newry and Mourne, Ards and Craigavon.

In 1983 the seat was radically cut down as part of an expansion of Northern Ireland's constituencies from 12 to 17. Significant parts of the constituency were transferred to either Upper Bann or Newry and Armagh. The composition of the seat in 1983 was the entire district of Down, the Annaclone, Ballyoolymore, Croob, Dromore, Drumadonnell, Garran, Quilly and Skeagh electoral wards of Banbridge, and the Annalong, Ballycrossan, Binnian, Clonallan, Cranfield, Donaghmore, Drumgath, Kilkeel, Lisnacree, Rathfriland, Rostrevor, Seaview, and Spelga wards from Newry and Mourne.^[4]

In boundary changes proposed by a review in 1995, the seat was originally to be abolished and replaced by a new Mid Down constituency. This provoked a storm of protest and following a local enquiry minor changes were made with the seat losing one small section to Lagan Valley and another to Strangford. It still consists of parts of Down, Banbridge and Newry and Mourne districts.

In 2005, the Boundary Commission published provisional recommendations for modifying the boundaries of constituencies in Northern Ireland. For South Down, it originally proposed to add part of Newry from Newry and Armagh and the Loughbrickland part of Banbridge district from Upper Bann, while losing some more of Down to Strangford. These changes were challenged in a round of public consultations, with the result that revised recommendations were made. Under the new proposals, the Newry area remained in Newry and Armagh and Loughbrickland in Upper Bann. This meant that only 4 wards around the town of Ballynahinch were transferred to Strangford. These changes became the final recommendations and were given legal effect in 2008.

History

1885 to 1922

The constituency was a predominantly Nationalist area in 1918. The Unionists had significant but minority support. The Sinn Féin candidate polled poorly, probably due to the limited electoral pact to avoid seriously splitting the anti-unionist vote in seats the unionist candidate might have otherwise won.

The First Dáil

Sinn Féin contested the general election of 1918 on a platform that instead of taking up any seats they won in the United Kingdom Parliament, they would establish a revolutionary assembly in Dublin. In republican theory every MP elected in Ireland was a potential Deputy to this assembly. In practice only the Sinn Féin members accepted the offer and their candidate Éamon de Valera only received 0.2% of the votes in South Down, while being elected unopposed for East Clare; the nationalist Jeremiah McVeagh, elected as IPP MP for South Down, did not participate in the First Dáil.

In 1921 Sinn Féin decided to use the UK authorised elections for the Northern Ireland House of Commons and the House of Commons of Southern Ireland as a poll for the Irish Republic's Second Dáil. This area, in republican theory, was incorporated in a potential eight-member Dáil constituency of Down.

1950 to present

When initially created this seat had a clear unionist majority, albeit with a strong nationalist minority. However boundary changes, which have wrapped it closer around nationalist heartlands near Downpatrick and the Mournes have transformed South Down into a safe nationalist seat.

The Westminster seat was consistently held by the Ulster Unionist Party from its creation until 1987. In the October 1974 general election the former Conservative MP Enoch Powell defended the seat for the UUP, representing a coup for them as they gained the support of a high profile English politician, offering them a spokesperson to the United Kingdom as a whole.

Powell advocated a policy of integration for Northern Ireland whereby all forms of devolution would be wound up and the province governed as an integral part of the United Kingdom. As part of this he campaigned for the province to have the same ratio of MPs to population as in the rest of the United Kingdom, rather than fewer, which had previously been justified due to the existence of the devolved Stormont Parliament. Powell was successful in this but a side effect was that in his own constituency a significant block of unionist voters were removed, resulting in a nationalist majority. Powell managed to survive due to a split nationalist vote, but in 1987 he narrowly lost to Eddie McGrady of the Social Democratic and Labour Party, who held the seat until retiring in 2010.

Since then the unionist vote has declined further due to boundary changes, which excluded mainly unionist Dromore and Saintfield, and a trend for many unionists to tactically vote for the SDLP at Westminster elections to avoid the seat falling to Sinn Féin.

Members of Parliament

The Member of Parliament since the 2010 general election is Margaret Ritchie of the Social Democratic and Labour Party. She succeeded fellow SDLP MP Eddie McGrady, who had held the seat since 1987 when he defeated Enoch Powell of the Ulster Unionist Party who had represented the seat since October 1974.

• In this section by-elections are indicated by an asterisk after the date.

Election		Member	Party
1885		constituency created
	1885	John Francis Small	Irish Parliamentary
	1886	Michael McCartan	Irish Parliamentary
	1892		Irish National Federation
	1900		Irish Parliamentary
	1902 *	Jeremiah McVeagh	Irish Parliamentary
1922		constituency abolished – see Down
1950		constituency re-created
	1950	Lawrence Orr	Ulster Unionist
	Oct 1974	Enoch Powell	Ulster Unionist
	1987	Eddie McGrady	Social Democratic and Labour
	2010	Margaret Ritchie	Social Democratic and Labour

Elections

Elections in the 2010s

General Election 2015: South Down[5][6]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	SDLP	Margaret Ritchie[7]	18,077	42.3	-6.1
	Sinn Féin	Chris Hazzard[7]	12,186	28.5	-0.2
	UUP	Harold McKee	3,964	9.3	+2.0
	DUP	Jim Wells	3,486	8.2	-0.4
	UKIP	Henry Reilly[7]	3,044	7.1	n/a
	Alliance	Martyn Todd[7]	1,622	3.8	+2.5
	NI Conservatives	Felicity Buchan	318	0.7	n/a
Majority			5,891	13.8	-6.0
Turnout			42,589	56.8	-3.4
	SDLP hold		Swing	-2.9

General Election 2010: South Down[8]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	SDLP	Margaret Ritchie	20,648	48.5	1.6
	Sinn Féin	Caitríona Ruane	12,236	28.7	1.7
	DUP	Jim Wells	3,645	8.6	-7.6
	UCU-NF	John McCallister	3,093	7.3	-1.5
	TUV	Ivor McConnell	1,506	3.5	3.5
	Green (NI)	Cadogan Enright	901	2.1	2.1
	Alliance	David Griffin	560	1.3	0
Majority			8,412	19.8
Turnout			42,589	60.2	-8.5
	SDLP hold		Swing	0.1

Elections in the 2000s

General Election 2005: South Down[9]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	SDLP	Eddie McGrady	21,557	44.7	-1.6
	Sinn Féin	Caitriona Ruane	12,417	25.8	+6.1
	DUP	Jim Wells	8,815	18.3	+3.3
	UUP	Dermot Nesbitt	4,775	9.9	-7.7
	Alliance	Julian Crozier	613	1.3	0.0
Majority			9,140	19.0
Turnout			48,177	65.4	-5.4
	SDLP hold		Swing	-3.8

General Election 2001: South Down[10]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	SDLP	Eddie McGrady	24,136	46.3	-6.6
	Sinn Féin	Mick Murphy	10,278	19.7	+9.4
	UUP	Dermot Nesbitt	9,173	17.6	-15.2
	DUP	Jim Wells	7,802	15.0	0.0
	Alliance	Betty Campbell	685	1.3	-2.1
Majority			13,858	26.6
Turnout			52,074	70.8	0.0
	SDLP hold		Swing

Elections in the 1990s

General Election 1997: South Down[11]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	SDLP	Eddie McGrady	26,181	52.9
	UUP	Dermot Nesbitt	16,248	32.8
	Sinn Féin	Mick Murphy	5,127	10.4
	Alliance	Julian Crozier	1,711	3.5
	Natural Law	Rosaleen McKeon	219	0.4
Majority			9,933
Turnout				70.8
	SDLP hold		Swing

General Election 1992: South Down[12]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	SDLP	Eddie McGrady	31,523	51.2
	UUP	Drew Nelson	25,181	40.9
	Sinn Féin	Sean Fitzpatrick	1,843	3.0
	Alliance	Michael Healey	1,542	2.5
	NI Conservatives	Stephanie McKenzie-Hill	1,488	2.4
Majority			6,342
Turnout				80.9
	SDLP hold		Swing

Elections in the 1980s

General Election 1987: South Down[13]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	SDLP	Eddie McGrady	26,579	47.0
	UUP	Enoch Powell	25,848	45.7
	Sinn Féin	Geraldine Ritchie	2,363	4.2
	Alliance	Siobhan Laird	1,069	1.9
	Workers' Party	Des O'Hagan	675	1.2
Majority			731	1.3
Turnout				79.4
	SDLP gain from UUP		Swing

South Down by-election, 1986
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	UUP	Enoch Powell	24,963	48.4
	SDLP	Eddie McGrady	23,121	44.8
	Sinn Féin	Hugh McDowell	2,963	5.7
	Workers' Party	Sean Magee	522	1
Majority			1,842
Turnout
	UUP hold		Swing

General Election 1983: South Down[14]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	UUP	Enoch Powell	20,693	40.3
	SDLP	Eddie McGrady	20,145	39.3
	Sinn Féin	Patrick Fitzsimmons	4,074	7.9
	DUP	Cecil Harvey	3,743	7.3
	Alliance	Patrick Forde	1,823	3.6
	Workers' Party	Margaret Magee	851	1.7
Majority			548	1.1
Turnout				77.7
	UUP hold		Swing

Elections in the 1970s

General Election 1979: South Down
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	UUP	Enoch Powell	32,254	50.0
	SDLP	Eddie McGrady	24,033	37.3
	Alliance	Patrick Forde	4,407	6.8
	Irish Independence	John Markey	1,853	2.9
	Republican Clubs	Des O'Hagan	1,682	2.6
	Inter-Dependence Party	Francis Rice	216	0.3
	Reform	Peter Courtney	31	0.1
Majority			8,221	12.8
Turnout				72.0
	UUP hold		Swing

General Election October 1974: South Down
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	UUP	Enoch Powell	33,614	50.8
	SDLP	Sean Hollywood	30,047	45.4
	Republican Clubs	Gerard O'Hanlon	2,327	3.5
	Marxist-Leninist (Ireland)	David Vipond	152	0.2
Majority			3,567	5.4
Turnout				72.4
	UUP hold		Swing

General Election February 1974: South Down
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	UUP	Lawrence Orr	31,088	52.1
	SDLP	Sean Hollywood	25,486	42.8
	Republican Clubs	Hugh Golding	3,046	5.1
Majority			5,602	9.4
Turnout				65.0
	UUP hold		Swing

General Election 1970: South Down
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	UUP	Lawrence Orr	34,894	54.3
	Unity	Hugh Golding	21,676	33.7
	Liberal	John Quinn	7,747	12.1
Majority			13,218	20.6
Turnout				74.0
	UUP hold		Swing

Elections in the 1960s

General Election 1966: South Down
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	UUP	Lawrence Orr	32,876	64.0
	Liberal	John Quinn	9,586	18.7
	Independent Republican	George Mussen	8,917	17.4
Majority			23,290	45.3
Turnout				65.8
	UUP hold		Swing

General Election 1964: South Down
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	UUP	Lawrence Orr	32,922	59.0
	Independent Republican	George Mussen	11,031	19.8
	NI Labour	Samuel Thompson	6,260	11.2
	Liberal	Hamilton Gooding	5,610	10.1
Majority			21,891	39.2
Turnout				72.1
	UUP hold		Swing

Elections in the 1950s

General Election 1959: South Down
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	UUP	Lawrence Orr	36,875	85.4
	Sinn Féin	Kevin O'Rourke	6,298	14.6
Majority			30,577	70.8
Turnout				55.6
	UUP hold		Swing

General Election 1955: South Down
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	UUP	Lawrence Orr	37,921	65.9
	Sinn Féin	Kevin O'Rourke	19,624	34.1
Majority			18,297	31.8
Turnout				73.9
	UUP hold		Swing

General Election 1951: South Down
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	UUP	Lawrence Orr	37,789	58.4
	Independent Republican	Gerald Annesley	26,976	41.6
Majority			10,813	16.7
Turnout				82.0
	UUP hold		Swing

General Election 1950: South Down
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	UUP	Lawrence Orr	38,508	63.5
	Irish Labour	Jack MacGougan	22,176	36.5
Majority			16,332	26.9
Turnout				76.7
	UUP hold		Swing

Elections in the 1910s

General Election 14 December 1918: South Down
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Irish Parliamentary	Jeremiah McVeagh	8,756	59.2%	N/A
	Irish Unionist	John Alexander Weir Johnston	5,573	37.7%	N/A
	Independent	Alexander Fisher	436	2.9%	N/A
	Sinn Féin	Éamon de Valera	33	0.2%	N/A
Majority			3,183	21.5%	N/A
Turnout			18,708		N/A
	Irish Parliamentary hold		Swing	N/A

Elections in the 1900s

General Election 1906: South Down
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Irish Parliamentary	Jeremiah McVeagh	3,910		N/A
	Irish Unionist	Peter Kerr-Smiley			N/A
Majority					N/A
Turnout					N/A
	Irish Parliamentary hold		Swing	N/A

Irish Parliamentary Party candidate Jeremiah McVeagh was elected unopposed in a by-election 19 February 1902.^[15]

General Election 1900: South Down
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Irish National Federation	Michael McCartan	Unopposed	N/A	N/A
	Irish National Federation hold		Swing	N/A

Elections in the 1890s

General Election 1895: South Down
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Irish National Federation	Michael McCartan	4,057	54.6	+1.2
	Liberal Unionist	T. Rowan	3,378	45.4	-0.7
Majority			679
Turnout			7,435
	Irish National Federation hold		Swing

General Election 1892: South Down
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Irish National Federation	Michael McCartan	4,207	53.4	+53.4
	Liberal Unionist	J. W. Craig	3,636	46.1	+46.1
	Parnellite Nationalist	E. Magenis	42	0.5	+0.5
Majority			571	7.3
Turnout			7,885
	Irish National Federation gain from Irish Parliamentary		Swing

Elections in the 1880s

General Election 1886: South Down
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Irish Parliamentary	Michael McCartan	4,786	55.6	-1.6
	Conservative	R. S. Corbett	3,816	44.4	+1.6
Majority			970
Turnout			8,602
	Irish Parliamentary hold		Swing

General Election 1885: South Down
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Irish Parliamentary	John Francis Small	4,995	57.2	+57.2
	Conservative	W. H. Kisbey QC	3,743	42.8	+42.8
Majority			1,252	14.4	+14.4
Turnout			8,738
	Irish Parliamentary hold		Swing

See also

• List of Parliamentary constituencies in Northern Ireland

References

1. Redistribution of Seats Act, 1885, (Ch 23) Seventh Schedule, Part III – Ireland – County of Down
2. Redistribution of Seats (Ireland) Act, 1918, (Ch 65) Fourth Schedule,
3. Representation of the People Act, 1948 (Ch 65) First Schedule, Part IV – Northern Ireland – (a) County Constituencies
4. Crewe, Ivor (1983). British Parliamentary Constituencies – a Statistical Compendium. faber and faber. ISBN 0-571-13236-7.
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-(14) 25Aug15
7. https://yournextmp.com/constituency/66138/
8. "Election Data 2010". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
9. "Election Data 2005". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
10. "Election Data 2001". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
11. "Election Data 1997". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
12. "Election Data 1992". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
13. "Election Data 1987". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
14. "Election Data 1983". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
15. "Election intelligence" The Times (London). Thursday, 20 February 1902. (36696), p. 10.

Further reading

• Guardian Unlimited Politics (Election results from 1992 to the present)
• http://www.psr.keele.ac.uk/ (Election results from 1951 to the present)
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "D" (part 3)
• Parliamentary Election Results in Ireland, 1801–1922, edited by B.M. Walker (Royal Irish Academy 1978)
• Who's Who of British members of parliament: Volume II 1886–1918, edited by M. Stenton and S. Lees (The Harvester Press 1978)
• Who's Who of British members of parliament: Volume III 1919–1945, edited by M. Stenton and S. Lees (The Harvester Press 1979)
• F. W. S. Craig, British Parliamentary Election Results 1950 – 1970
• The Liberal Year Book For 1917, Liberal Publication Department
• The Constitutional Year Book For 1912, Conservative Central Office
• The Constitutional Year Book For 1894, Conservative Central Office

External links

• http://www.oireachtas.ie/members-hist/default.asp?housetype=0
• http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/en.toc.dail.html