South Tyrone (UK Parliament constituency)

South Tyrone
Former County constituency
for the House of Commons
1885 (1885)–1922 (1922)
Number of members	One
Replaced by	Fermanagh and Tyrone
Created from	Dungannon and Tyrone

South Tyrone was a UK Parliament constituency in Ireland.

1 Boundaries and Boundary Changes
2 Politics
3 The First Dáil
4 Members of Parliament
5 Elections
6 References
7 External links
8 See also

Boundaries and Boundary Changes

This county constituency comprised the southern part of County Tyrone.

It returned one Member of Parliament 1885–1922.

Prior to the 1885 redistribution the area was part of the Tyrone (UK Parliament constituency). From 1922 it formed part of the Fermanagh and Tyrone (UK Parliament constituency).

Politics

The constituency was a majority unionist area. Sinn Féin and the Independent Nationalist candidate together polled about 2,500 votes less than the Unionist received in 1918.

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.

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

Members of Parliament

From	To	Name	Party
1885	1886	William O'Brien	Nationalist
1886	1910	Thomas Wallace Russell	Liberal Unionist¹
1910	1916	Andrew Long Horner	Liberal Unionist
1916	1922	William Coote	Ulster Unionist

¹Russellite Unionist/Liberal from 1906

Elections

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

General Election 14 December 1918: South Tyrone
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Irish Unionist	William Coote	10,616		N/A
	Sinn Féin	Denis McCullagh	5,437		N/A
	Independent Nationalist	John Skeffington	2,602		N/A
Majority					N/A
Turnout			22,465		N/A
	Irish Unionist hold		Swing	N/A

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 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 "T" (part 2)