The by-election held in Fermanagh and South Tyrone on 9 April 1981 is considered by many to be the most significant

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...

held in

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

during

the Troubles The Troubles ( ga, Na Trioblóidí) were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it is sometimes described as an " ...

. It saw the first electoral victory for militant

Irish republicanism Irish republicanism ( ga, poblachtánachas Éireannach) is the political movement for the unity and independence of Ireland under a republic. Irish republicans view British rule in any part of Ireland as inherently illegitimate. The develop ...

, which the following year entered electoral politics in full force as

Sinn Féin Sinn Féin ( , ; en, " eOurselves") is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active throughout both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The original Sinn Féin organisation was founded in 1905 by Arthur G ...

. The successful candidate was the

IRA Ira or IRA may refer to: *Ira (name), a Hebrew, Sanskrit, Russian or Finnish language personal name *Ira (surname), a rare Estonian and some other language family name *Iran, UNDP code IRA Law *Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, US, on status of ...

hunger striker A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance in which participants fast as an act of political protest, or to provoke a feeling of guilt in others, usually with the objective to achieve a specific goal, such as a policy change. Most ...

Bobby Sands Robert Gerard Sands ( ga, Roibeárd Gearóid Ó Seachnasaigh; 9 March 1954 – 5 May 1981) was a member (and leader in the Maze prison) of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) who died on hunger strike while imprisoned at HM Prison M ...

, who died twenty-six days later. The by-election was caused by the death of the sitting MP, Frank Maguire.

Background of the constituency

The constituency, based on the districts of

Fermanagh Historically, Fermanagh ( ga, Fir Manach), as opposed to the modern County Fermanagh, was a kingdom of Gaelic Ireland, associated geographically with present-day County Fermanagh. ''Fir Manach'' originally referred to a distinct kin group of a ...

and Dungannon, was created in 1950 and had seen a series of closely fought elections between unionist and

Irish nationalist Irish nationalism is a nationalist political movement which, in its broadest sense, asserts that the people of Ireland should govern Ireland as a sovereign state. Since the mid-19th century, Irish nationalism has largely taken the form of c ...

candidates, with several elections being won due to the absence of competing candidates on one side or the other. Nationalists of various hues had won the constituency in the

1950 Events January * January 1 – The International Police Association (IPA) – the largest police organization in the world – is formed. * January 5 – Sverdlovsk plane crash: ''Aeroflot'' Lisunov Li-2 crashes in a snowstorm. All 19 ...

1951 Events January * January 4 – Korean War: Third Battle of Seoul – Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul for the second time (having lost the Second Battle of Seoul in September 1950). * January 9 – The Government of the United ...

and 1955 general elections, while the

Ulster Unionist Party The Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) is a unionist political party in Northern Ireland. The party was founded in 1905, emerging from the Irish Unionist Alliance in Ulster. Under Edward Carson, it led unionist opposition to the Irish Home Rule m ...

had won in

1959 Events January * January 1 - Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance. * January 2 - Lunar probe Luna 1 was the first man-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reached the vicinity of E ...

1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 - In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patriarc ...

and 1966. As

gathered pace, nationalists agreed the

Unity Unity may refer to: Buildings * Unity Building, Oregon, Illinois, US; a historic building * Unity Building (Chicago), Illinois, US; a skyscraper * Unity Buildings, Liverpool, UK; two buildings in England * Unity Chapel, Wyoming, Wisconsin, US; ...

pact to run agreed candidates in border seats, with Frank McManus capturing Fermanagh and South Tyrone in the 1970 general election. The February 1974 general election was the first to take place after several major political realignments in Northern Ireland. Opposition to the

Sunningdale Agreement The Sunningdale Agreement was an attempt to establish a power-sharing Northern Ireland Executive and a cross-border Council of Ireland. The agreement was signed at Sunningdale Park located in Sunningdale, Berkshire, on 9 December 1973. Unioni ...

led to an alliance of unionist parties under the label of the United Ulster Unionist Coalition running agreed candidates in all constituencies, here putting forward the new leader of the Ulster Unionists,

Harry West Henry William West (27 March 1917 – 5 February 2004) was a politician in Northern Ireland who served as leader of the Ulster Unionist Party from 1974 until 1979. Career to Stormont West was born in County Fermanagh and educated at Portora R ...

. Although unionist supporters of Sunningdale ran

Hubert Brown Hubert Brown may refer to: * Hubert G. Brown (born 1943), American civil rights leader * Hubie Brown (born 1933), former American basketball coach *Hubert Brown (politician) The by-election held in Fermanagh and South Tyrone on 9 April 1981 is ...

, West garnered 26,858 votes (43.8%) to Brown's 3,157 (5.1%). The nationalist vote was evenly split with McManus gaining 16,229 votes (26.3%) and

Denis Haughey Denis Haughey (born 3 October 1944) is a former Irish nationalist politician in Northern Ireland. Born in Coalisland, Haughey studied politics at Queens University, Belfast,

, standing for the new

Social Democratic and Labour Party The Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) ( ga, Páirtí Sóisialta Daonlathach an Lucht Oibre) is a social-democratic and Irish nationalist political party in Northern Ireland. The SDLP currently has eight members in the Northern Ireland ...

(SDLP), winning 15,410 votes (25.0%). Many believed that an agreed single nationalist candidate could have won the seat. When a second general election was held in October Frank Maguire stood as an Independent Republican with backing from all nationalists, while West was the sole unionist. Maguire gained 32,795 votes (51.8%) to West's 30,285 (47.9%) and 185 (0.3%) for Alan Evans, standing for the Communist Party of Ireland (Marxist–Leninist). The fine balance of the seat continued in the 1975 elections to the

Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention The Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention (NICC) was an elected body set up in 1975 by the United Kingdom Labour government of Harold Wilson as an attempt to deal with constitutional issues surrounding the status of Northern Ireland. F ...

when UUC gained 52% of the vote (with the small

Unionist Party of Northern Ireland The Unionist Party of Northern Ireland was a political party founded by Brian Faulkner in September 1974. Formation The party emerged following splits in the Ulster Unionist Party in 1973 and 1974 over the British government's white paper ''Nor ...

gaining an additional 2.3%). In the 1979 general election neither side fielded sole candidates. Maguire was challenged by

Austin Currie Joseph Austin Currie (11 October 1939 – 9 November 2021) was an Irish politician who served as a Minister of State for Justice with responsibility for Children's Rights from 1994 to 1997. He served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin Wes ...

, a local SDLP activist (and later official candidate) who disagreed with the party's decision to give Maguire a clear run, while the new Ulster Unionist candidate, Raymond Ferguson, was challenged by

Ernest Baird Ernest Baird (1930 – September 2003) was a politician in Northern Ireland. Baird was born in County Donegal in the Irish Free State but moved with his family to Belfast at an early age. A pharmacist and political unionist, Baird became the de ...

, leader of the

United Ulster Unionist Party The United Ulster Unionist Party (UUUP) was a unionist political party which existed in Northern Ireland between 1975 and 1984. It emerged from a division in the Vanguard Unionist Progressive Party in the late 1970s. Vanguard had traditional ...

, who sought to cement his new party's electoral position. Additionally the

Alliance Party of Northern Ireland The Alliance Party of Northern Ireland (APNI), or simply Alliance, is a liberal and centrist political party in Northern Ireland. As of the 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election, it is the third-largest party in the Northern Ireland Assembl ...

ran Peter Acheson. The results were: Maguire 22,398 (36.0%), Ferguson 17,411 (28.0%), Currie 10,785 (17.3%), Baird 10,607 (17.0%) and Acheson 1,070 (1.7%).

Candidates in the 1981 by-election

Maguire's death led to a by-election in early 1981, when the

1981 Irish hunger strike The 1981 Irish hunger strike was the culmination of a five-year protest during the Troubles by Irish republican prisoners in Northern Ireland. The protest began as the blanket protest in 1976, when the British government withdrew Special C ...

was underway. The by-election was seized on by supporters of the hunger strike as a way to register a protest and the leader of the hunger strikers,

, was nominated on the label " Anti-H-Block/Armagh Political Prisoner".

Owen Carron Owen Gerard Carron (born 9 February 1953) is an Irish republican activist who was Member of Parliament (MP) for Fermanagh and South Tyrone from 1981 to 1983. Early life Carron was born in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh. He qualified as a teach ...

served as his agent and Danny Morrison organised the campaign. The

nominated

, who had by now stood down as leader. The

had already selected

as prospective candidate for the seat before a by-election was in prospect.Sydney Elliott, W. D. Flackes, "Northern Ireland: A Political Directory 1968–1999", Blackstaff Press, 1999, p. 552. When Sands' candidacy was announced the party came under pressure to withdraw in his favour, as putative candidates Bernadette Devlin-McAliskey and Noel Maguire had done, although initially it was said that the mainstream of the party was resistant. On the last day for nominations the party executive decided not to stand, explaining that they wished to concentrate on local government elections which would take place in May; there was speculation that the executive did not share the local party's confidence and feared a poor result.Christopher Thomas, "Maze hunger striker is favourite for Ulster by-election", ''The Times'', 31 March 1981, p. 4. The SDLP decision not to stand in the by-election caused a great deal of dissent within the party. No other candidates contested the seat, making it one of the last occasions when a Westminster constituency by-election had only two candidates. Currie railed against the SDLP's decision not to stand, but the result was a highly polarised contest between unionism and

Results

There were 3,280 spoilt ballot papers.

Consequences

Sands died only twenty-six days later, precipitating a second by-election. New legislation was passed by Parliament to bar "convicted felons" from standing for election; as a result another hunger striker could not be nominated, so

stood as "

Anti-H-Block Proxy Political Prisoner Anti H-Block was the political label used in 1981 by supporters of the Irish republican hunger strike who were standing for election in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. "H-Block" was a metonym for the Maze Prison, within whos ...

". The following year saw

begin to contest elections in both Northern Ireland and the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern ...

References

External links

British Parliamentary By Elections: Campaign literature from the by-election
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fermanagh And South Tyrone By-Election, April 1981 By-elections to the Parliament of the United Kingdom in County Fermanagh constituencies By-elections to the Parliament of the United Kingdom in County Tyrone constituencies 1981 elections in the United Kingdom April 1981 events in the United Kingdom 20th century in County Fermanagh 20th century in County Tyrone 1981 elections in Northern Ireland 1981 Irish hunger strike