Belfast Shankill (UK Parliament constituency)

Shankill, 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.

Belfast Shankill
Former Borough constituency
for the House of Commons
1918–1922
Number of membersone
Replaced byBelfast North
Created fromBelfast North

Boundaries and Boundary Changes

The constituency was created by the Redistribution of Seats (Ireland) Act 1918 from an area which had been in the Belfast North constituency. It comprised the western half of North Belfast, and contained the then Shankill ward and the south-western part of the then Clifton ward of Belfast Corporation not contained within the Belfast Duncairn constituency.[1]

It was in use at the 1918 general election only, and under the Government of Ireland Act 1920 its area was again part of the Belfast North constituency, with effect at the 1922 general election.

Politics

The constituency was strongly unionist, but with significant labour support. The unionists ran a candidate from the Ulster Unionist Labour Association, a group affiliated with the Unionist Party, as a Labour Unionist. He easily won the seat. Sam Kyle, the Belfast Labour Party candidate, came in second place. Sinn Féin demonstrated republican weakness in the seat by receiving only 534 votes at the 1918 election.

First Dáil

After the 1918 election, Sinn Féin invited all those elected for constituencies in Ireland to sit as TDs in Dáil Éireann rather than in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom.[2] All those elected for Irish constituencies were included in the roll of the Dáil but only those elected for Sinn Féin sat in the First Dáil.[3] In May 1921, the Dáil passed a resolution declaring that elections to the House of Commons of Northern Ireland and the House of Commons of Southern Ireland would be used as the election for the Second Dáil and that the First Dáil would be dissolved on the assembly of the new body.[4] The area of Belfast Shankill would then have been represented in the Dáil by the four-seat constituency of Belfast North, which also returned no representatives for Sinn Féin.

Members of Parliament
ElectionMemberParty
1918 Samuel McGuffin Labour Unionist
1922 constituency abolished

Election
1918 general election: Belfast Shankill
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Labour Unionist Samuel McGuffin 11,840 73.8 N/A
Belfast Labour Sam Kyle 3,674 22.9 N/A
Sinn Féin Michael Carolan 534 3.3 N/A
Majority 8,166 50.9 N/A
Turnout 16,048 69.9 N/A
Labour Unionist win (new seat)

See also

Notes
  1. Redistribution of Seats (Ireland) Act 1918, Second Schedule, Part I
  2. "The inaugural public meeting of Dáil Éireann". Dáil 100. Retrieved 22 February 2019.
  3. "3. AN ROLLA". Houses of the Oireachtas. 21 January 1919. Retrieved 23 February 2019.
  4. "Dáil Éireann debate - Tuesday, 10 May 1921 - PRESIDENT'S STATEMENT. - ELECTIONS". Houses of the Oireachtas. Retrieved 23 February 2019.

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)
  • (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


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