Belfast Falls (Northern Ireland Parliament constituency)

Belfast Falls
Former Borough constituency for the Parliament of Northern Ireland
Belfast Falls shown within Belfast and Belfast shown within Northern Ireland
Former constituency
Created	1929
Abolished	1973
Election method	First past the post

Belfast Falls was a constituency of the Parliament of Northern Ireland.

Boundaries

Belfast Falls was a borough constituency comprising part of western Belfast. It was created in 1929, when the House of Commons (Method of Voting and Redistribution of Seats) Act (Northern Ireland) 1929 introduced first-past-the-post elections throughout Northern Ireland.

Belfast Falls was created by the division of Belfast West into four new constituencies. It was formed from the Falls ward and included the Falls Road. It survived unchanged, returning one member of Parliament, until the Parliament of Northern Ireland was temporarily suspended in 1972, and then formally abolished in 1973.

Politics

The constituency was the most staunchly nationalist in Belfast. It was initially held by Nationalist Party members, then later by a variety of labour movement activists and members of smaller nationalist parties.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	1929	Richard Byrne	Nationalist Party
	1933
	1938
	1942	Eamon Donnelly	Independent Republican
	1945	Harry Diamond	Socialist Republican Party
	1949
	1953
	1958		Republican Labour Party
	1962
	1965
	1969	Paddy Devlin	Northern Ireland Labour Party
	1970		Social Democratic and Labour Party
	1973	Constituency abolished

Election results

General Election 22 May 1929: Belfast Falls

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Nationalist	Richard Byrne	6,941	55.8
	NI Labour	Billy McMullen	5,509	44.2
Majority			1,432	11.6
Turnout			12,450
	Nationalist win (new seat)

General Election 30 November 1933: Belfast Falls

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Nationalist	Richard Byrne	Unopposed	N/A	N/A
	Nationalist hold		Swing	N/A

General Election 9 February 1938: Belfast Falls

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Nationalist	Richard Byrne	5,334	53.3	N/A
	NI Labour	John Glass	4,667	46.7	New
Majority			667	6.6	N/A
Turnout			10,001
	Nationalist hold		Swing	N/A

• Death of Byrne

By-election 2 April 1942: Belfast Falls

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Ind. Republican	Eamon Donnelly	4,595	54.8	New
	Nationalist	George McGouran	1,971	23.5	−29.8
	NI Labour	John Glass	1,821	21.7	−25.0
Majority			2,623	31.3	N/A
Turnout			8,387
	Ind. Republican gain from Nationalist		Swing

General Election 14 June 1945: Belfast Falls

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Socialist Republican	Harry Diamond	5,016	42.9	New
	Federation of Labour	John Collins	3,912	33.5	New
	Nationalist	James McGlade	2,766	23.6	+0.1
Majority			1,104	9.4	N/A
Turnout			11,694
	Socialist Republican gain from Ind. Republican		Swing

General Election 10 February 1949: Belfast Falls

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Socialist Republican	Harry Diamond	Unopposed	N/A	N/A
	Socialist Republican hold		Swing	N/A

General Election 22 October 1953: Belfast Falls

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Republican Labour	Harry Diamond	7,510	73.1	N/A
	Independent Irish Labour	Seamus MacKearney	2,761	26.9	New
	Irish Labour	Jack MacGougan	1,361	11.8	New
Majority			4,749	46.2	N/A
Turnout			11,632
	Republican Labour gain from Socialist Republican		Swing	N/A

General Election 20 March 1958: Belfast Falls

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Republican Labour	Harry Diamond	7,510	73.1	0.0
	Independent Irish Labour	Seamus MacKearney	2,761	26.9	0.0
Majority			4,749	46.2	0.0
Turnout			10,271
	Republican Labour hold		Swing

General Election 31 May 1962: Belfast Falls

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Republican Labour	Harry Diamond	7,662	76.6	+3.5
	Ind. Labour Group	John Joseph Brennan	2,343	23.4	New
Majority			5,319	53.2	+7.0
Turnout			10,005
	Republican Labour hold		Swing

General Election 25 November 1965: Belfast Falls

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Republican Labour	Harry Diamond	Unopposed	N/A	N/A
	Republican Labour hold		Swing	N/A

General Election 24 February 1969: Belfast Falls

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	NI Labour	Paddy Devlin	6,275	53.1	New
	Republican Labour	Harry Diamond	5,549	46.9	N/A
Majority			726	6.2	N/A
Turnout			11,824		N/A
	NI Labour gain from Republican Labour		Swing	N/A