West Tyrone (UK Parliament constituency)

For other constituencies of the same name, see West Tyrone (disambiguation).

Coordinates: 54°31′19″N 7°30′00″W / 54.522°N 7.500°W / 54.522; -7.500

West Tyrone
County constituency for the House of Commons
Boundary of West Tyrone in Northern Ireland.
Current constituency
Created	1997
Member of parliament	Pat Doherty (Sinn Féin)
Created from	Mid Ulster
Overlaps
European Parliament constituency	Northern Ireland

West Tyrone is a county constituency in Northern Ireland, represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post voting system.

Boundaries

Since the constituency's creation it has consisted of the District of Omagh; and the District of Strabane.

The seat was created in a boundary review conducted in 1995 and was predominantly made out of the western half of the old Mid Ulster constituency – indeed it contains more of the old Mid Ulster than the current seat of that name. It also contains parts of the old Foyle constituency.

Although the Boundary Commission altered several Northern Ireland constituencies for the 2010 general election, West Tyrone was left unchanged.

History

For the history of the equivalent seat prior to 1997, see Mid Ulster.

The seat is overwhelmingly nationalist, as evidenced by the election results in which nationalist parties have always won over 50% of the vote since the seat was created. However, the nationalist vote has traditionally been split between the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) and Sinn Féin, whilst the unionist parties have been more willing to make pacts to increase their chances of victory.

When the seat was created it was nominally held by the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), based on mapping the 1992 general election results onto the new boundaries, but this was because the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) had not contested the equivalent area. In the 1996 Forum elections the UUP outpolled the DUP and it was agreed that the DUP would not contest the seat. As a result William Thompson of the UUP won in 1997 with a narrow majority over the SDLP, with Sinn Féin coming third on a large vote.

In the 2001 general election the SDLP and Sinn Féin both targeted the constituency heavily, in the hope that a shift in the vote from one nationalist party to the other would enable them to outpoll the Ulster Unionists. In the event Sinn Féin's Pat Doherty won.

In 1998 both Sinn Féin and the SDLP won two seats in the Northern Ireland Assembly, with the UUP and DUP winning one each. However, there was much speculation that an increase in Sinn Féin's vote at the SDLP's expense would result in Sinn Féin taking a seat from its nationalist rival at the next assembly election. However, the election was complicated by the intervention of the independent candidate Dr. Kieran Deeny, campaigning on the sole issue of the retention of the hospital in Omagh. In a result that shocked commentators he took one of the SDLP's assembly seats.

Deeny stood again in the 2005 general election and asked most parties to withdraw to support him. Many local activists and voters appeared to agree with this, with some making their support public, but in the end the UUP, DUP and SDLP all fielded candidates. Doherty held the seat for Sinn Féin, but with Deeny polling strongly in second place.

Members of Parliament

The Member of Parliament since the 2001 general election is Pat Doherty of Sinn Féin. Between 1997 and 2001 the MP was William Thompson of the Ulster Unionist Party.

Election		Member^[1]	Party
	1997	William Thompson	Ulster Unionist
	2001	Pat Doherty	Sinn Féin

Elections

General Election 2015: West Tyrone ^[2]^[3]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Sinn Féin	Pat Doherty	16,807	43.5	−4.9
	DUP	Tom Buchanan	6,747	17.5	−2.3
	SDLP	Daniel McCrossan	6,444	16.7	+2.7
	UUP	Ross Hussey	6,144	15.9	+1.7
	Alliance	Stephen Donnelly	869	2.2	−0.1
	Green (NI)	Ciaran McClean	780	2.0	n/a
	CISTA	Barry Brown ^[4]	528	1.4	N/A
	NI Conservatives	Claire-Louise Leyland	169	0.4	N/A
	Independent	Susan-Anne White	166	0.4	N/A
Majority			10,060	26.0	−2.7
Turnout			38,654	60.5	−0.5
	Sinn Féin hold		Swing	−1.3

General Election 2010: West Tyrone^[5]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Sinn Féin	Pat Doherty	18,050	48.4	+9.5
	DUP	Tom Buchanan	7,365	19.8	+2.0
	UCU-NF	Ross Hussey	5,281	14.2	N/A
	SDLP	Joe Byrne	5,212	14.0	+4.9
	Alliance	Michael Bower	859	2.3	N/A
	Independent	Ciaran McClean	508	1.4	N/A
Majority			10,685	28.7
Turnout			37,275	61.0	−14.2
	Sinn Féin hold		Swing	+3.8

General Election 2005: West Tyrone
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Sinn Féin	Pat Doherty	16,910	38.9	−1.9
	Independent	Kieran Deeny	11,905	27.4	N/A
	DUP	Tom Buchanan	7,742	17.8	N/A
	SDLP	Eugene McMenamin	3,949	9.1	−19.6
	UUP	Derek Hussey	2,981	6.9	−23.5
Majority			5,005	11.5
Turnout			43,487	72.1	−7.8
	Sinn Féin hold		Swing

General Election 2001: West Tyrone
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Sinn Féin	Pat Doherty	19,814	40.8	+10.0
	UUP	William John Thompson	14,774	30.4	−4.1
	SDLP	Brid Rodgers	13,942	28.7	−3.3
Majority			5,040	10.4
Turnout			48,530	79.9	+0.3
	Sinn Féin gain from UUP		Swing

General Election 1997: West Tyrone
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	UUP	William John Thompson	16,003	34.6	N/A
	SDLP	Joe Byrne	14,842	32.1	+1.1
	Sinn Féin	Pat Doherty	14,280	30.9	+9.9
	Alliance	Ann Gormley	829	1.8	−2.9
	Workers' Party	Tommy Owens	230	0.5	N/A
	Natural Law	Robert Johnstone	91	0.2	N/A
Majority			1,161		N/A
Turnout				79.6	N/A
	UUP win (new seat)

Notional 1992 result

The projected result of what the result would have been if West Tyrone had existed for the 1992 election is shown below.

Notional 1992 UK General Election Result : West Tyrone
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	DUP	N/A	15,738	38.8	N/a
	SDLP	N/A	12,590	31.0	N/A
	Sinn Féin	N/A	8,102	20.0	N/A
	Others	N/A	2282	5.6	N/A
	Alliance	N/A	1900	4.7	N/A
Majority			3,158	7.8	N/A

^[6]

References

Bibliography

"Guardian electoral history". West Tyrone. Retrieved 6 August 2005.

Westminster Constituencies in Northern Ireland (18)

Democratic Unionist Party (8)	Belfast East Belfast North East Antrim East Londonderry Lagan Valley North Antrim Strangford Upper Bann

Sinn Féin (4)	Belfast West Mid Ulster Newry and Armagh West Tyrone

Social Democratic and Labour Party (3)	Belfast South Foyle South Down

Ulster Unionist Party (2)	Fermanagh and South Tyrone South Antrim

Independent (1)	North Down

Northern Ireland European constituency Sinn Féin (1) Democratic Unionist Party (1) Ulster Unionist Party (1)

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