Newry and Armagh (UK Parliament constituency)

Newry and Armagh
Newry and Armagh
county constituency; for the House of Commons
	Boundary of Newry and Armagh in Northern Ireland
Current constituency
Created	1983
Member of Parliament	Mickey Brady (Sinn Féin)
Created from	Armagh and South Down

Newry and Armagh is a parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom House of Commons. The current MP is Mickey Brady of Sinn Féin.

Boundaries

Map of current boundaries

1983–1997: The District of Armagh, and the District of Newry and Mourne wards of Ballybot, Belleek, Bessbrook, Camlough, Creggan, Crossmaglen, Daisy Hill, Derrymore, Drumalane, Drumgullion, Fathom, Forkhill, Newtownhamilton, St Mary's, St Patrick's, Tullyhappy, and Windsor Hill.

1997–present: The District of Armagh, and the District of Newry and Mourne wards of Ballybot, Bessbrook, Camlough, Creggan, Crossmaglen, Daisy Hill, Derrymore, Drumgullion, Drumalane, Fathom, Forkhill, Newtownhamilton, Silver Bridge, St Mary's, St Patrick's, Tullyhappy, and Windsor Hill.

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 and Mourne constituency. This was strongly opposed during the local enquiries and the eventual boundary review did not implement it. The constituency contains the entirety of the former Armagh district and the Newry half of the former Newry and Mourne district.

History

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

The constituency is majority 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 main attention has been upon the rise of the Sinn Féin vote. In the 2001 election 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 fearing the loss of his seat as was widely predicted among political pundits, the seat subsequently fell to Sinn Féin with Murphy out polling the SDLP by almost 8000 votes.

Newry is overwhelmingly nationalist, and was one of two districts in Northern Ireland to return a numerical majority of people identifying themselves as "Irish" at the 2011 census at 52.1% Irish. Armagh is more unionist, though it does have a larger proportion of people identifying as "Irish" in comparison to the Northern Ireland average at 44.4% "British" 32.4% "Irish".^[2]

Members of Parliament

The Member of Parliament since the 2015 general election is Mickey Brady of Sinn Féin. He succeeded his party colleague, Conor Murphy who had gained the seat from the SDLP in 2005.

	Member^[3]	Party	Notes
1983	Jim Nicholson	Ulster Unionist	Resigned December 1985 in protest at the Anglo-Irish Agreement; defeated at subsequent by-election
1986 by-election	Seamus Mallon	SDLP	Deputy Leader of the SDLP 1979–2001; Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland 1998–2001
2005	Conor Murphy	Sinn Féin
2015	Mickey Brady	Sinn Féin

Election results

Elections in the 2020s

Next general election: Newry and Armagh
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%

Majority
Turnout
Registered electors
			Swing

Elections in the 2010s

General election 2019: Newry and Armagh^[4]^[5]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Sinn Féin	Mickey Brady	20,287	40.0	―7.9
	DUP	William Irwin	11,000	21.7	―2.9
	SDLP	Pete Byrne	9,449	18.6	+1.7
	Alliance	Jackie Coade	4,211	8.3	+6.0
	Ulster Unionist	Sam Nicholson	4,204	8.3	±0.0
	Aontú	Martin Kelly	1,628	3.2	New
Majority			9,287	18.3	―5.0
Turnout			50,779	62.5	―6.0
Registered electors			81,246
	Sinn Féin hold		Swing

General election 2017: Newry and Armagh^[6]^[7]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Sinn Féin	Mickey Brady	25,666	47.9	+6.8
	DUP	William Irwin	13,177	24.6	New
	SDLP	Justin McNulty	9,055	16.9	―7.2
	Ulster Unionist	Sam Nicholson	4,425	8.3	―24.4
	Alliance	Jackie Coade	1,256	2.3	+0.6
Majority			12,489	23.3	+14.9
Turnout			53,579	68.5	+4.3
Registered electors			78,266
	Sinn Féin hold		Swing

General election 2015: Newry and Armagh^[8]^[9]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Sinn Féin	Mickey Brady	20,488	41.1	―0.9
	Ulster Unionist	Danny Kennedy^[10]	16,312	32.7	+13.6
	SDLP	Justin McNulty	12,026	24.1	+0.7
	Alliance	Kate Nicholl	841	1.7	+0.5
	NI Conservatives	Robert Rigby	210	0.4	New
Majority			4,176	8.4	―10.2
Turnout			49,877	64.2	+3.8
Registered electors			77,633
	Sinn Féin hold		Swing	―7.2

General election 2010: Newry and Armagh^[11]^[12]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Sinn Féin	Conor Murphy	18,857	42.0	+0.6
	SDLP	Dominic Bradley	10,526	23.4	―1.8
	UCU-NF	Danny Kennedy	8,558	19.1	+5.2
	DUP	William Irwin	5,764	12.8	―5.6
	Independent	Willie Frazer	656	1.5	New
	Alliance	Andrew Muir	545	1.2	New
Majority			8,331	18.6	+2.4
Turnout			44,906	60.4	―9.6
Registered electors			74,308
	Sinn Féin hold		Swing	+1.2

Elections in the 2000s

General election 2005: Newry and Armagh^[13]
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
	Ulster Unionist	Danny Kennedy	7,025	13.9	+1.6
	Independent	Gerry Markey	625	1.2	New
Majority			8,195	16.2	N/A
Turnout			50,696	70.0	―6.8
Registered electors			71,771
	Sinn Féin gain from SDLP		Swing	+11.3

General election 2001: Newry and Armagh^[14]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	SDLP	Seamus Mallon	20,784	37.4	―5.6
	Sinn Féin	Conor Murphy	17,209	30.9	+9.8
	DUP	Paul Berry	10,795	19.4	New
	Ulster Unionist	Sylvia McRoberts	6,833	12.3	―21.5
Majority			3,575	6.5	―2.7
Turnout			55,621	76.8	+1.4
Registered electors			72,466
	SDLP hold		Swing	―7.8

Elections in the 1990s

General election 1997: Newry and Armagh^[15]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	SDLP	Seamus Mallon	22,904	43.0	―6.3
	Ulster Unionist	Danny Kennedy	18,015	33.8	―2.5
	Sinn Féin	Patrick McNamee	11,218	21.1	+8.6
	Alliance	Peter Whitcroft	1,015	1.9	0.0
	Natural Law	David Evans	123	0.2	New
Majority			4,889	9.2	―3.9
Turnout			53,275	75.4	―2.5
Registered electors			70,807
	SDLP hold		Swing	―1.9

1997 Changes are compared to the 1992 notional results shown below.^[16]

Notional 1992 UK General Election Result: Newry and Armagh
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	SDLP	N/A	25,740	49.3	N/A
	Ulster Unionist	N/A	18,930	36.3	N/A
	Sinn Féin	N/A	6,530	12.5	N/A
	Alliance	N/A	972	1.9	N/A
Majority			6,810	13.1	N/A

General election 1992: Newry and Armagh^[17]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	SDLP	Seamus Mallon	26,073	49.6	+1.5
	Ulster Unionist	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	13.5	+3.3
Turnout			52,574	77.9	―1.3
Registered electors			67,531
	SDLP hold		Swing	+1.7

Elections in the 1980s

General election 1987: Newry and Armagh^[18]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	SDLP	Seamus Mallon	25,137	48.1	+11.3
	Ulster Unionist	Jim Nicholson	19,812	37.9	―2.1
	Sinn Féin	Jim McAllister	6,173	11.8	―9.1
	Alliance	William Henry Jeffrey	664	1.3	New
	Workers' Party	Gerard O'Hanlon	482	0.9	―1.4
Majority			5,325	10.2	N/A
Turnout			52,268	79.2	+3.2
Registered electors			66,027
	SDLP gain from Ulster Unionist		Swing	+6.7

By-election 1986: Newry and Armagh^[19]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	SDLP	Seamus Mallon	22,694	45.5	+8.7
	Ulster Unionist	Jim Nicholson	20,111	40.3	+0.3
	Sinn Féin	Jim McAllister	6,609	13.2	―7.7
	Workers' Party	Patrick McCusker	515	1.0	―1.3
Majority			2,583	5.2	N/A
Turnout			49,929	76.9	+0.9
Registered electors			65,142
	SDLP gain from Ulster Unionist		Swing	+4.2

General election 1983: Newry and Armagh^[20]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Ulster Unionist	Jim Nicholson	18,988	40.0
	SDLP	Seamus Mallon	17,434	36.8
	Sinn Féin	Jim McAllister	9,928	20.9
	Workers' Party	Thomas Moore	1,070	2.3
Majority			1,554	3.2
Turnout			47,420	76.0
Registered electors			62,298
	Ulster Unionist win (new seat)