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- For other constituencies of the same name, see Newry and Armagh.
Newry and Armagh is a Parliamentary Constituency in the United Kingdom House of Commons.
[edit] Boundaries
The seat was created in boundary changes in 1983, as part of an expansion of Northern Ireland's constituencies from 12 to 17, and was predominantly made up from the old Armagh constituency with the addition of Newry town from the old South Down constituency. In 1995, the Boundary Commission originally proposed to abolish the seat with the Armagh district joining most of Dungannon in a new 'Blackwater' constituency with the rest becoming part of a new Newry & Mourne constituency. This was strongly opposed during the local enquiries and the eventual boundary review left the seat unchanged. It contains the entirety of Armagh district and the Newry half of Newry and Mourne district.
[edit] Boundary changes
Following their most recent review of parliamentary boundaries in Northern Ireland, the modified Newry and Armagh seat to be fought at the next UK general election will be formed from the following electoral districts [1]
- The entire Armagh government district
- The ward of Ballybot, Bessbrook, Camlough, Creggan, Crossmaglen, Daisy Hill, Derrymore, Drumalane, Drumgullion, Fathom, Forkhill, Newtownhamilton, St Mary’s, St Patrick’s, Silver Bridge, Tullyhappy, and Windsor Hill, from Newry and Mourne district.
[edit] History
For the history of the equivalent constituency prior to 1983, please see Armagh (UK Parliament constituency).
The constituency is overwhelmingly nationalist, though initially on its creation in 1983 Jim Nicholson of the Ulster Unionist Party won the seat due to the nationalist vote being divided between the Social Democratic and Labour Party and Sinn Féin. In 1986 Nicholson, along with all the other unionist MPs, resigned his seat in protest over the Anglo Irish Agreement and stood in a by-election to provide voters the opportunity to decide on it. However the nationalist parties contested the seat and Seamus Mallon of the SDLP gained sufficient votes to outpoll Nicholson and win the seat. Mallon held it until his retirement in 2005.
The unionist vote in the constituency has declined somewhat in recent years, with the shift being more marked as both the Ulster Unionist Party and the Democratic Unionist Party now stand. The main attention has been upon the rise of the Sinn Féin vote. In the 2001 they surged forward, cutting Mallon's majority drastically, as well as heavily outpolling the SDLP in the equivalent area local elections held on the same day. Then in the 2003 Assembly election Sinn Féin won three seats to the SDLP's one. Mallon stood down at the 2005 general election and, as widely predicted, the seat fell to Sinn Féin.
[edit] Members of Parliament
The Member of Parliament since the 2005 general election is Conor Murphy of Sinn Féin. He succeeded Seamus Mallon of the Social Democratic and Labour Party, who stood down at that election, having represented the seat since a by-election in 1986.
[edit] Election results
1997 Changes are compared to the 1992 notional results shown below [2].
[edit] See also
