South Londonderry was a

UK Parliament constituency The Parliament of the United Kingdom currently has 650 parliamentary constituencies across the constituent countries (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland), each electing a single member of parliament (MP) to the House of Commons by th ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. It returned 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

British House of Commons The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the upper house, the House of Lords, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. The House of Commons is an elected body consisting of 650 mem ...

from 1885 until it was abolished in 1922.

Boundaries and boundary changes

This

county constituency 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 ...

comprised the southern part of

County Londonderry County Londonderry ( Ulster-Scots: ''Coontie Lunnonderrie''), also known as County Derry ( ga, Contae Dhoire), is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the thirty two counties of Ireland and one of the nine counties of Ulster. B ...

. Its official title was the South Derry division of county Londonderry. 1885–1922: The barony of Loughinsholin, and that part of the barony of Coleraine not contained within the Division of North Derry. Prior to the

1885 United Kingdom general election The 1885 United Kingdom general election was held from 24 November to 18 December 1885. This was the first general election after an Representation of the People Act 1884, extension of the franchise and Redistribution of Seats Act 1885, redistri ...

and after the dissolution of Parliament in 1922 the area was part of the Londonderry constituency.

Politics

The constituency was a majority unionist area. All three candidates in 1918 were Roman Catholics. Had the

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 Gri ...

candidate won, then instead of taking up the Westminster seat he would have participated in the revolutionary

First Dáil The First Dáil ( ga, An Chéad Dáil) was Dáil Éireann as it convened from 1919 to 1921. It was the first meeting of the unicameral parliament of the revolutionary Irish Republic. In the December 1918 election to the Parliament of the Unite ...

Members of Parliament

Elections

The elections in this constituency took place using the

first past the post In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast their ...

electoral system.

Elections in the 1880s

Elections in the 1890s

Elections in the 1900s

Elections in the 1910s

Gordon is appointed a judge, prompting a by-election.

Elections in the 1920s

Henry is appointed

Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland The Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland is a judge who is the appointed official holding office as President of the Courts of Northern Ireland and is head of the Judiciary of Northern Ireland. The present Lord Chief Justice of Northern Irela ...

, prompting a by-election. Chichester dies, causing a by-election.

References

* * * *''Redistribution of Seats Act, Seventh Schedule, Part III - Ireland'', in ''The Public General Acts of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland passed in the forty-eighth and forty-ninth years of Her Majesty Queen Victoria'' *

External links

Dáil Éireann Members Database
Houses of the Oireachtas

Houses of the Oireachtas
Redistribution of Seats Act, Seventh Schedule - Part III - Ireland, County of Londonderry
Redistribution of Seats Act, 1885 (from Internet Archive)