Newry and Armagh (UK Parliament constituency)

For other constituencies of the same name, see Newry and Armagh.

{{{name}}}
[[{{{type}}} constituency]] for the House of Commons
Current constituency
Created	{{{year}}}
Member of Parliament	None

Newry and Armagh is a Parliamentary Constituency in the United Kingdom House of Commons.

Boundaries

The seat was created in boundary changes in 1983, as part of an expansion of Northern Ireland's constituencies from 12 to 17, and was predominantly made up from the old Armagh constituency with the addition of Newry town from the old South Down constituency. In 1995, the Boundary Commission originally proposed to abolish the seat with the Armagh district joining most of Dungannon in a new 'Blackwater' constituency with the rest becoming part of a new Newry & Mourne constituency. This was strongly opposed during the local enquiries and the eventual boundary review left the seat unchanged. It contains the entirety of Armagh district and the Newry half of Newry and Mourne district.

Proposed boundary changes

At the time of writing the Boundary Commission has published provisional recommendations for modifying the boundaries of constituencies in Northern Ireland. For Newry and Armagh, it proposes to transfer part of Newry to South Down. The division of Newry has been opposed in written representations by Newry&Mourne council, the SDLP, UUP and Alliance with only Sinn Féin supporting. (The DUP did not submit a Northern Ireland wide scheme and failed to comment on this aspect of the commission's proposals.) One suggestion pointed out that if the division went ahead then West Newry & Armagh would be a better name.

The Commission's revised recommendations, published in May 2006, have left the seat unchanged. As revised recommendations are rarely changed it is likely that these boundaries will be the final recommendations.

History

For the history of the equivalent constituency prior to 1983, please see Armagh (constituency).

The constituency is overwhelmingly nationalist, though initially on its creation in 1983 Jim Nicholson of the Ulster Unionist Party won the seat due to the nationalist vote being divided between the Social Democratic and Labour Party and Sinn Féin. In 1986 Nicholson, along with all the other unionist MPs, resigned his seat in protest over the Anglo Irish Agreement and stood in a by-election to provide voters the opportunity to decide on it. However the nationalist parties contested the seat and Seamus Mallon of the SDLP gained sufficient votes to outpoll Nicholson and win the seat. Mallon held it until his retirement in 2005.

The unionist vote in the constituency has declined somewhat in recent years, with the shift being more marked as both the Ulster Unionist Party and the Democratic Unionist Party now stand. The main attention has been upon the rise of the Sinn Féin vote. In the 2001 they surged forward, cutting Mallon's majority drastically, as well as heavily outpolling the SDLP in the equivalent area local elections held on the same day. Then in the 2003 Assembly election Sinn Féin won three seats to the SDLP's one. Mallon stood down at the 2005 general election and, as widely predicted, the seat fell to Sinn Féin.

Members of Parliament

The Member of Parliament since the 2005 general election is Conor Murphy of Sinn Féin. He succeeded Seamus Mallon of the Social Democratic and Labour Party, who stood down at that election, having represented the seat since a by-election in 1986.

• Constituency created (1983)
• 1983 — 1986: Jim Nicholson, Ulster Unionist
• 1986 — 2005: Seamus Mallon, Social Democratic and Labour
• 2005 — present: Conor Murphy, Sinn Féin

Election results

General Election 2005: Newry and Armagh

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Sinn Féin	Conor Murphy	20,965	41.4	+10.5
	SDLP	Dominic Bradley	12,770	25.2	−12.2
	DUP	Paul Berry	9,311	18.4	−1.0
	UUP	Danny Kennedy	7,025	13.9	+1.6
	Independent (politician)	Gerry Markey	625	1.2	+1.2
Majority			8,195	16.2
Turnout			50,696	70.0	−6.8
	Sinn Féin gain from SDLP		Swing	+11.3

General Election 2001: Newry and Armagh

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	SDLP	Seamus Mallon	20,784	37.4	−5.6
	Sinn Féin	Conor Murphy	17,209	30.9	+9.9
	DUP	Paul Berry	10,795	19.4
	UUP	Sylvia McRoberts	6,833	12.3	−21.5
Majority			3,575	6.5
Turnout			55,621	76.8	+1.3
	SDLP hold		Swing

General Election 1997: Newry and Armagh

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	SDLP	Seamus Mallon	22,094	36.0	−13.6
	UUP	Danny Kennedy	18,015	33.8	−2.3
	Sinn Féin	Pat McNamee	11,218	21.1	+8.6
	Alliance	P. Whitcroft	1,015	1.9	+0.1
	Natural Law	D. Evans	123	0.2	N/A
Majority			4,889
Turnout				75.4	−2.5
	SDLP hold		Swing

General Election 1992: Newry and Armagh

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	SDLP	Seamus Mallon	26,073	49.6	+1.5
	UUP	Jim Speers	18,982	36.1	−1.8
	Sinn Féin	Brendan Curran	6,547	12.5	+0.7
	Alliance	Eileen Bell	972	1.8	+0.5
Majority			7,091
Turnout				77.9	−1.3
	SDLP hold		Swing

General Election 1987: Newry and Armagh

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	SDLP	Seamus Mallon	25,137	48.1	+11.7
	UUP	Jim Nicholson	19,812	37.9	−2.1
	Sinn Féin	James McAllister	6,173	11.8	−9.1
	Alliance	W. H. Jeffrey	664	1.3	N/A
	Workers' Party	J. O'Hanlon	482	0.9	−1.4
Majority			5,325	10.2	+6.9
Turnout				79.2	+3.2
	SDLP gain from UUP		Swing

Newry and Armagh by-election, 1986

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	SDLP	Seamus Mallon	22,694
	UUP	Jim Nicholson	20,111
	Sinn Féin	James McAllister	6,609
	Workers' Party	Patrick McCusker	515
Majority			2,583
Turnout
	SDLP gain from UUP		Swing

General Election 1983: Newry and Armagh

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	UUP	Jim Nicholson	18,988	40.0	N/A
	SDLP	Seamus Mallon	17,434	36.8	N/A
	Sinn Féin	James McAllister	9,928	20.9	N/A
	Workers' Party	T. Moore	1,070	2.3	N/A
Majority			1,554	3.3	N/A
Turnout				76.0	N/A
	UUP hold		Swing	N/A

See also

• List of Parliamentary constituencies in Northern Ireland