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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 ...
is divided into 18
parliamentary constituencies An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative district, voting district, constituency, riding, ward, division, or (election) precinct is a subdivision of a larger state (a country, administrative region, or other poli ...
: 4
borough constituencies In the United Kingdom (UK), each of the electoral areas or divisions called constituencies elects one member to the House of Commons. Within the United Kingdom there are five bodies with members elected by electoral districts called "constituenc ...
in
Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...
and 14
county constituencies In the United Kingdom (UK), each of the electoral areas or divisions called constituencies elects one member to the House of Commons. Within the United Kingdom there are five bodies with members elected by electoral districts called " constitue ...
elsewhere. Section 33 of the
Northern Ireland Act 1998 __NOTOC__ The Northern Ireland Act 1998 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which allowed Westminster to devolve power to Northern Ireland, after decades of direct rule. It renamed the New Northern Ireland Assembly, established b ...
provides that the constituencies for the Northern Ireland Assembly are the same as the constituencies that are used for the United Kingdom Parliament. Parliamentary constituencies are not used for
local government Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-loca ...
, which is instead carried out by 11 district councils; these often have different boundaries.


Constituencies

Each constituency returns one
Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...
(MP) to the
House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...
at
Westminster Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster. The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Bu ...
and five
Members of the Legislative Assembly A member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) is a representative elected by the voters of a constituency to a legislative assembly. Most often, the term refers to a subnational assembly such as that of a state, province, or territory of a country. ...
(MLAs) to the devolved Northern Ireland Assembly at Stormont. Six MLAs were returned per constituency until the
Assembly Members (Reduction of Numbers) Act (Northern Ireland) 2016 The Assembly Members (Reduction of Numbers) Act (Northern Ireland) 2016 is a 2016 Act of the Northern Ireland Assembly. It provided for a reduction of Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) in the Assembly from 108 to 90 for the first electi ...
reduced the number to five, effective from the 2017 Assembly election. * Belfast East * Belfast North * Belfast South * Belfast West * East Antrim * East Londonderry * Fermanagh & South Tyrone * Foyle *
Lagan Valley The Lagan Valley (, Ulster Scots: ''Glen Lagan'') is an area of Northern Ireland between Belfast and Lisburn. The River Lagan rises on Slieve Croob in County Down and flows generally northward discharging into Belfast Lough. For a section, the ...
* Mid Ulster * Newry & Armagh * North Antrim * North Down * South Antrim * South Down * Strangford * Upper Bann * West Tyrone


2019 general election

''Data from th
BBC Election Website
For full official results see th
Electoral Office of Northern Ireland
''


Historical representation by party

Where a cell is marked → (with a different colour of frame to the preceding cell) it indicates that the previous MP continued to sit under a new party affiliation. Changes are dated in the header row: either a general election (four-figure year, bold, link) or by-election or change in affiliation (two-figure year, italic, link or details appear on hover).


1801 to 1832 (22 MPs)


Antrim


Londonderry

*
Sir George Hill, 2nd Baronet Sir George FitzGerald Hill, 2nd Baronet (1 June 1763 – 8 March 1839) was an Irish politician. Family and early life He was the oldest son of Sir Hugh Hill, 1st Baronet of Brook Hall, County Londonderry, who had been a member of the Parli ...
, was elected to sit as MP for both Coleraine and Londonderry City in the 1806 general election and chose to continue to sit for Londonderry City, hence the 1807 by-election, in which Walter Jones was restored to his seat.


Tyrone

* At both the 1802 and 1806 elections,
George Knox The Honourable George Knox PC, FRS (14 January 1765 – 13 June 1827), was an Irish Tory politician. Knox was the fifth son of Thomas Knox, 1st Viscount Northland. In 1790, Knox entered the Irish House of Commons for Dungannon. Subsequently, ...
was returned for both Dungannon and
Dublin University The University of Dublin ( ga, Ollscoil Átha Cliath), corporately designated the Chancellor, Doctors and Masters of the University of Dublin, is a university located in Dublin, Ireland. It is the degree-awarding body for Trinity College Dubl ...
and chose to sit for the university seat.


Armagh

* Charles Brownlow was initially elected as a Tory but at some point changed his affiliation to sit with the Whigs.


Down

* ''The Parliaments of England'' by Henry Stooks Smith suggests that after the 1806 election there was a
petition A petition is a request to do something, most commonly addressed to a government official or public entity. Petitions to a deity are a form of prayer called supplication. In the colloquial sense, a petition is a document addressed to some offi ...
, which led to Edward Southwell Ruthven (Whig) being unseated and John Wilson Croker (Tory) being declared duly elected. ''Parliamentary Election Results in Ireland, 1801–1922'', edited by BM Walker, does not make any reference to such a petition.


Fermanagh


1832 to 1885 (29 MPs)


Antrim


Londonderry

*unseated on petition


Tyrone


Armagh


Down


Fermanagh


1885 to 1918 (25 MPs)


Antrim


Armagh


Belfast


Down


Fermanagh


Londonderry


Tyrone


1918 to 1922 (30 MPs)


1922 to 1950 (13 MPs)


1950 to 1983 (12 MPs)

Periodic boundary reviews commenced in 1947. The elections at which these were implemented are tagged with diamond suit characters, ♦. ''The 1st Periodic Review boundary map can be viewed on th
ARK elections website
Changes in the 2nd review were relatively minor.
'' Notes: # The constituency was won by Philip Clarke of
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 ...
, but he was unseated on petition on the basis that his criminal conviction (for
Irish Republican Army The Irish Republican Army (IRA) is a name used by various paramilitary organisations in Ireland throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Organisations by this name have been dedicated to irredentism through Irish republicanism, the belief tha ...
activity) made him ineligible. Instead, the seat was awarded to 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 ...
(UUP) candidate. # The seat was originally won by Tom Mitchell of
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 ...
, but Mitchell was subsequently unseated upon petition, on the grounds that his terrorist convictions made him ineligible to sit in Parliament. The seat was awarded to Charles Beattie of the UUP. However, Beattie in turn was also found ineligible to sit due to holding an office of profit under the crown, triggering a further by-election. # Original winner of the 1950 election in that seat,
James Godfrey MacManaway James Godfrey MacManaway, MBE (22 April 1898 – 3 November 1951) was a British Unionist politician and Church of Ireland cleric, notable for being disqualified as a Member of Parliament, owing to his status as a priest. Early life James Godf ...
(UUP), disqualified due to being a clergyman. Teevan won the subsequent by-election


1983 to present (17, then 18 MPs)

''3rd and 4th Review boundary maps can be viewed on the ARK elections website
1983
'' 1Paisley Jr was suspended from the DUP between July and November 2018.


Seats by political alignment (1983–present)


Proposed boundary changes

''See 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies for further details.'' Following the abandonment of the Sixth Periodic Review (the 2018 review), the
Boundary Commission for Northern Ireland The boundary commissions in the United Kingdom are non-departmental public bodies responsible for determining the boundaries of Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, constituencies for elections to the House of Commons of the Un ...
formally launched the 2023 Review on 5 January 2021. In accordance with the provisions of the
Parliamentary Constituencies Act 2020 The 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies is the current cycle of the process to redraw the constituency map for the House of Commons. The process for periodic reviews of parliamentary constituencies in the United Kingdom is gover ...
, the number of constituencies allocated to Northern Ireland is unchanged, at 18. Initial proposals were published on 20 October 2021 and, following two periods of public consultation, revised proposals were published on 17 November 2022. Final proposals will be published by 1 July 2023. Under the revised proposals, the following constituencies for Northern Ireland would come into effect at the next general election:


See also

*
Politics of Northern Ireland Since 1998, Northern Ireland has devolved government within the United Kingdom. The government and Parliament of the United Kingdom are responsible for reserved and excepted matters. Reserved matters are a list of policy areas (such as civil av ...


External links

* List of changes to constituency boundaries: section 6 o
Parliamentary constituency boundaries: the Fifth Periodical Review
''House of Commons Library''


References

{{Constituencies in Northern Ireland
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 ...
Parliamentary constituencies An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative district, voting district, constituency, riding, ward, division, or (election) precinct is a subdivision of a larger state (a country, administrative region, or other poli ...