Belfast Falls (UK Parliament constituency)
| Belfast Falls | |
|---|---|
|
Former Borough constituency for the House of Commons | |
| 1918–1922 | |
| Number of members | one |
| Replaced by | Belfast West |
| Created from | Belfast West |
Falls, a division of Belfast, was a UK parliamentary constituency in Ireland. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom from 1918 to 1922, using the first past the post electoral system.
Boundaries and Boundary Changes
This constituency comprised the central third of West Belfast, and contained the then Falls and Smithfield wards of Belfast City Council.[1] The streets in Falls Ward in 1911 are listed here and here, and the streets in Smithfield Ward in 1911 are listed here and here. Prior to the 1918 general election and after the dissolution of Parliament in 1922 the area was part of the Belfast West constituency.
Politics
The constituency was a nationalist area. Joe Devlin defeated Sinn Féin by better than 2 to 1. The Unionists did not contest the seat.
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 constituency was, in republican theory, incorporated in a four-member Dáil constituency of Belfast West.
Members of Parliament
| Election | Member | Party | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1918 | Joseph Devlin | Nationalist | |
| 1922 | constituency abolished | ||
Election
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ± | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Irish Nationalist | Joseph Devlin | 8,488 | 72.3 | N/A | |
| Sinn Féin | Éamon de Valera | 3,245 | 27.7 | N/A | |
| Majority | 5,243 | 44.7 | N/A | ||
| Turnout | 11,733 | 74.5 | N/A | ||
| Irish Nationalist gain from new seat | Swing | N/A | |||
References
- ↑ Redistribution of Seats (Ireland) Act 1918, Second Schedule, Part I
- 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)
- (Information about boundaries of the constituency derived from the map of Northern Ireland Parliament constituencies (in force from 1921) and the wards included in the Belfast UK Parliament seats (in force 1922) for which see Northern Ireland Parliamentary Election Results 1921–1972, by Sydney Elliott (Political Reference Publications 1973) and Boundaries of Parliamentary Constituencies 1885–1972, compiled and edited by F.W.S. Craig (Political Reference Publications 1972) respective
- Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "F"