Londonderry City (UK Parliament constituency)

Londonderry City
Former Borough constituency for the House of Commons
1801–1922
Number of members	One
Replaced by	Londonderry

Londonderry City was a parliamentary constituency in Ireland. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the first past the post voting system .

Boundaries and Boundary Changes

This constituency was the Parliamentary borough of Derry in County Londonderry.

It was an original constituency represented in Parliament when the Union of Great Britain and Ireland took effect on 1 January 1801. In 1922 it was combined with North Londonderry and South Londonderry, to form the Londonderry county constituency.

Politics

After the extension of the franchise in 1885, the constituency was one of the most marginal seats in Ireland. There were many close elections.

Sinn Féin won in 1918. The MP (best known in Irish history as Professor Eoin MacNeill) was also returned by National University of Ireland. As MacNeill did not take his seat in the United Kingdom House of Commons he could not choose which constituency he would represent and arrange a by-election in the other. He played an active role in the First Dáil and in the government it set up.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party	Notes
	1801	Henry Alexander
	1802	Sir George Fitzgerald Hill, Bt	Tory
	1830	Sir Robert Alexander Ferguson, Bt	Liberal
	1860 by-election	William McCormick	Conservative
	1865	Lord Claud John Hamilton	Conservative
	1868	Richard Dowse	Liberal Party
	1872 by-election	Charles Edward Lewis	Conservative
	1886	Justin McCarthy[1]	Irish Parliamentary Party
	1892	John Ross	Conservative
	1895	Edmund Francis Vesey Knox	Irish Parliamentary Party
	1899 by-election	Arthur John Moore	Irish Parliamentary Party
	1900	Marquess of Hamilton	Unionist
	1913 by-election	David Cleghorn Hogg	Liberal Party
	1914 by-election	James Brown Dougherty	Liberal Party
	1918	Eoin MacNeill	Sinn Féin
	1922	Constituency abolished

Elections

The elections in this constituency took place using the first past the post electoral system.

General Election 14 December 1918
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Sinn Féin	Eoin MacNeill	7,335	50.7	N/A
	Irish Unionist	Sir Robert Newton Anderson	7,020	48.5	N/A
	Irish Parliamentary	William Hamilton Davey	120	0.8	N/A
Majority			315	2.2	N/A
Turnout			14,475	86.5	N/A
	Sinn Féin gain from Liberal		Swing	N/A

By-Election 30 November 1914: Londonderry City Electorate
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Sir James Brown Dougherty	unopposed[2]
Majority
Turnout
	Liberal hold		Swing

Londonderry City by-election, 1913 Electorate
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	David Cleghorn Hogg	2,699	50.5	+50.5
	Irish Unionist	Hercules Arthur Pakenham	2,642	49.5	-1.6
Majority			57	1.0	n/a
Turnout
	Liberal gain from Irish Unionist		Swing	n/a

General Election December 1910 Electorate 5,068
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Irish Unionist	Marquis of Hamilton	2,415	51.1
	Irish Parliamentary	John Randolph Leslie	2,310	48.9
Majority				1.2
Turnout
	Irish Unionist hold		Swing

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Footnotes

1. Lewis was declared elected at the 1886 general election, but the result was overturned on petition, and the seat awarded to McCarthy
2. Debrett's House of Commons 1918 p 249

References

• The Parliaments of England by Henry Stooks Smith (1st edition published in three volumes 1844–50), 2nd edition edited (in one volume) by F.W.S. Craig (Political Reference Publications 1973)
• 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 I 1832–1885, edited by M. Stenton (The Harvester Press 1976)
• 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)
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "L" (part 4 )

See also

• List of UK Parliament Constituencies in Ireland and Northern Ireland
• Redistribution of Seats (Ireland) Act 1918
• MPs elected in the UK general election, 1918
• List of Dáil Éireann constituencies in Ireland (historic)
• Members of the 1st Dáil