North-East Tyrone (UK Parliament constituency)

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North-East Tyrone
County constituency
Created: 1918
Abolished: 1922
Type: House of Commons

North-East Tyrone was a former UK Parliament constituency in Ireland.

Contents

[edit] Boundaries and Boundary Changes

This county constituency comprised the north-eastern part of County Tyrone.

It returned one Member of Parliament 1918-1922.

Prior to the United Kingdom general election, 1918 the area was the East Tyrone and part of the Mid Tyrone constituencies. From the dissolution of Parliament in 1922 North-East Tyrone became part of the Fermanagh and Tyrone seat.

[edit] Politics

The constituency was a predominantly Nationalist area in 1918. The Unionists had significant but minority support. There was little chance of a Sinn Féin candidate being elected.

[edit] The First Dáil

Sinn Féin contested the general election of 1918 on the 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.

The revolutionary First Dáil assembled on 21 January 1919 and last met on 10 May 1921. The First Dáil, according to a resolution passed on 10 May 1921, was formally dissolved on the assembling of the Second Dáil. This took place on 16 August 1921.

A letter from Thomas Harbison MP was read to the revolutionary Dáil Éireann on 22 January 1919. The entry in the official report was:-

"Mr. T.J. HARBISON, teachta for N.E. Tyrone, wrote acknowledging invitation to attend the Dáil, which invitation he stated he should decline for obvious reasons. He expressed his entire sympathy with the demand of Ireland for a hearing of her just Cause at the Congress of the Nations. The contents of the letter were ordered to be published".

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. Tyrone North-East, in republican theory, was incorporated in an eight-member Dáil constituency of Fermanagh and Tyrone.

[edit] Member of Parliament 1918-1922

Key to party: N Nationalist.

From To Name (Party) Born Died
1918 1922 Thomas James Stanislaus Harbison (N) 1864 22 November 1930

[edit] Election

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

General Election 14 December 1918: North-East Tyrone
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Irish Parliamentary T.J.S. Harbison 11,605 63.27 N/A
Irish Unionist King Houston 6,681 36.42 N/A
Sinn Féin Sean Milroy 56 0.31 N/A
Majority 4,924 26.85 N/A
Turnout 23,023 79.67 N/A

[edit] References

  • 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 III 1919-1945, edited by M. Stenton and S. Lees (The Harvester Press 1979)

[edit] External links

[edit] See also