Belfast Falls (Northern Ireland Parliament constituency)

Belfast Falls was a constituency of the Northern Ireland Parliament.

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 Northern Ireland Parliament was prorogued in 1972 and 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
rowspan="3" style="background-color: Template:Nationalist Party (Northern Ireland)/meta/color" |	1929	Richard Byrne	Nationalist Party
1933
1938
rowspan="1" style="background-color: Template:Independent Republican (Ireland)/meta/color" |	1942	Eamon Donnelly	Independent Republican
rowspan="3" style="background-color: Template:Socialist Republican Party (Ireland)/meta/color" |	1945	Harry Diamond	Socialist Republican Party
1949
1953
rowspan="3" style="background-color: Template:Republican Labour Party/meta/color" |	1958		Republican Labour Party
1962
1965
style="background-color: Template:Northern Ireland Labour Party/meta/color" |	1969	Paddy Devlin	Northern Ireland Labour Party (1969-1970) Social Democratic and Labour Party(1970- )
	1973	Constituency abolished

Election results

Template:Election box gain from new with party link

General Election 22 May 1929: Belfast Falls

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Nationalist	Richard Byrne	6,941	55.8	N/A
	NI Labour	Billy McMullen	5,509	44.2	N/A
Majority			1,432	11.6	N/A

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	N/A
Majority			667	6.6
	Nationalist hold		Swing	N/A

• Death of Byrne

By-election 02 April 1942: Belfast Falls

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

General Election 14 June 1945: Belfast Falls

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Socialist Republican	Harry Diamond	5,016	42.9	N/A
	Federation of Labour	J. H. Collins	3,912	33.5	N/A
	Nationalist	J. McGlade	2,766	23.6	N/A
Majority			1,104	9.4	N/A
	Socialist Republican gain from Fianna Fáil		Swing

General Election 10 February 1949: Belfast Falls

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

General Election 22 October 1953: Belfast Falls

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Republican Labour	Harry Diamond	7,510	73.1
	Independent Irish Labour	J. G. MacKearney	2,761	26.9
	Irish Labour	J. Macgougan	1,361	11.8
Majority			4,749	46.2
	Republican Labour gain from Socialist Republican		Swing

General Election 20 March 1958: Belfast Falls

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Republican Labour	Harry Diamond	7,510	73.1
	Independent Irish Labour	J. G. MacKearney	2,761	26.9
Majority			4,749	46.2
	Republican Labour hold		Swing

General Election 31 May 1962: Belfast Falls

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

General Election 25 November 1965: Belfast Falls

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

General Election 24 February 1969: Belfast Falls

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