Newry, Mourne and Down District Council (

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

: ''Comhairle Ceantair an Iúir, Mhúrn agus an Dúin'') is a local authority 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 ...

that was established on 1 April 2015. It replaces

Down District Council Down District Council was a Local Council in County Down in Northern Ireland. It merged with Newry and Mourne District Council in April 2015 under local government reorganisation in Northern Ireland to become Newry, Mourne and Down District C ...

and

Newry and Mourne District Council Newry and Mourne District Council ( ga, Comhairle an Iúir agus Mhúrn) was a local council in Northern Ireland. It merged with Down District Council in May 2015 under local government reorganisation in Northern Ireland to become Newry, Mourne a ...

and covers most of the southeast of Northern Ireland. The first elections to the authority were on 22 May 2014. At the 2019 Northern Ireland local elections,

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 ...

became the largest party with 16 seats.

Chairpersonship

Chairperson

Deputy Chairperson

Councillors

For the purpose of elections the council is divided into seven district electoral areas (DEA):

Party strengths

Councillors by electoral area

†'' Co-opted to fill a vacancy since the election.''
‡'' New party affiliation since the election.
Last updated 22 December 2022.'' ''For further details see 2019 Newry, Mourne and Down District Council election.''

Bilingualism policy

The former Newry & Mourne District Council, uniquely among local authorities in Northern Ireland, has a bilingual policy which sets out the Council’s commitment to facilitate and encourage the promotion and use of both the

Irish language Irish ( Standard Irish: ), also known as Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Insular Celtic branch of the Celtic language family, which is a part of the Indo-European language family. Irish is indigenous to the island of Ireland and was ...

and the English language in the Council area. In order to ensure that the new administrative division does not constitute an obstacle to the promotion of the Irish language, Newry, Mourne and Down District Council was obliged under the terms of Article 7.1 (b) of the

European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (ECRML) is a European treaty (CETS 148) adopted in 1992 under the auspices of the Council of Europe to protect and promote historical regional and minority languages in Europe. However, th ...

, to progressively implement the bilingual policy throughout the whole of the newly enlarged district.

Population

The area covered by the new Council has a population of 171,533 residents according to the 2011 Northern Ireland census.

References

6. https://www.newrymournedown.org/new-council-chairperson-appointed-at-2021-agm {{Northern Ireland districts 2015 establishments in Northern Ireland District councils of Northern Ireland Government agencies established in 2015 Politics of County Armagh Politics of County Down