Northern Ireland general election, 1949

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Northern Ireland general election, 1949 was held on 19 February 1949. The election became known as the Chapel-gate election because collections were held at churches in Eire to support the Nationalist Party (Ireland) campaign.

The election was held just after the Republic of Ireland's declaration of a republic. The Unionists were able to use their majority in the Parliament of Northern Ireland to schedule the election at a time when many Protestants felt uneasy about development south of the border and as a result might be more likely to vote Unionist than for Labour candidates. This appears to have been bourne out in the collapse of the Labour vote.

[edit] Results

Northern Ireland General Election 1949
Party Seats Gains Losses Net Gain/Loss Seats % Votes % Votes +/-
  Ulster Unionist 37 4 0 + 4 71.2 62.7 237,411 +12.3
  Irish Nationalist 9 0 1 - 1 17.3 26.8 101,445 +17.6
  Labour (NI) 0 0 2 - 2 7.1 26,831 -11.4
  Independent Labour 1 1 1 0 1.9 2.1 7,970 -0.7
  Independent Unionist 2 0 0 0 3.8 0.6 2,150 -4.4
  Independent 2 0 0 0 3.8 0.5 2,028 +0.2
  Communist (NI) 0 0 0 0 0.2 623 -2.6
  Socialist Republican 1 0 0 0 1.9 0.0 0 -1.5

All parties shown. The only Socialist Republican Party candidate was elected unopposed.

Northern Irish elections
v  d  e
1921 | 1925 | 1929 | 1933 | 1938 | 1945 | 1949 | 1953 | 1958 | 1962 | 1965 | 1969 | 1973 | 1975 | 1982 | 1996 | 1998 | 2003 | 2007
Northern Irish referenda
1973 | 1998


[edit] References