Belfast East (Northern Ireland Parliament constituency)

For other constituencies of the same name, see Belfast East (disambiguation).

54.604°N 5.876°W / 54.604; -5.876

Belfast East
Former Borough constituency for the Parliament of Northern Ireland
Belfast East shown within Northern Ireland
Former constituency
Created	1921
Abolished	1929
Election method	Single transferable vote

Belfast East was a borough constituency of the Parliament of Northern Ireland from 1921 to 1929. It returned four MPs, using proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote.

Boundaries

Belfast East was created by the Government of Ireland Act 1920 and contained the Dock, Pottinger and Victoria wards of the County Borough of Belfast. The House of Commons (Method of Voting and Redistribution of Seats) Act (Northern Ireland) 1929 divided the constituency into four constituencies elected under first past the post: Belfast Bloomfield, Belfast Dock, Belfast Pottinger and Belfast Victoria constituencies.^[1]

Second Dáil

In May 1921, Dáil Éireann, the parliament of the self-declared Irish Republic run by Sinn Féin, passed a resolution declaring that elections to the House of Commons of Northern Ireland and the House of Commons of Southern Ireland would be used as the election for the Second Dáil.^[2] All those elected were on the roll of the Second Dáil, but as no Sinn Féin MP was elected for Belfast East, it was not represented there.^[3]

Politics

Belfast East was a predominantly Unionist area with some pockets of labour strength, returning four Unionists in 1921 and 2 Unionists, 1 Independent Unionist and a Northern Ireland Labour Party MP in 1925.

Members of Parliament

Election	Member (Party)		Member (Party)		Member (Party)		Member (Party)
MPs (1921)		Dawson Bates (Ulster Unionist Party)		Herbert Dixon (Ulster Unionist Party)		Thompson Donald (Ulster Unionist Party)		James Augustine Duff (Ulster Unionist Party)
MPs (1925)						Jack Beattie (Northern Ireland Labour Party)		James Woods Gyle (Independent Unionist)

Election results

24 May 1921 General Election: Belfast East (4 seats)

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4
	UUP	Sir Dawson Bates	27.9	10,026
	UUP	Herbert Dixon	24.6	8,849
	UUP	Thompson Donald	19.1	6,856	9,262
	UUP	James Augustine Duff	10.0	3,585	3,956	6,027	7,662
	Sinn Féin	Archibald Savage	10.0	3,573	3,575	3,576	3,577
	Nationalist	Thomas Joseph Campbell	6.6	2,373	2,435	2,439	2,464
	Belfast Labour	Harry Midgley	1.8	645	648	652	658
Electorate: 40,198   Valid: 35,907   Quota: 7,182   Turnout: 89.3%

1925 General Election: Belfast East (4 seats)

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3
	NI Labour	Jack Beattie	28.6	9,330
	UUP	Herbert Dixon	26.1	8,508
	Ind. Unionist	James Woods Gyle	18.4	5,997	8,394
	UUP	Sir Dawson Bates	17.6	5,744	5,816	6,581
	UUP	Thompson Donald	5.8	1,900	2,119	2,898
	UUP	James Augustine Duff	3.5	1,142	1,259	1,698
Electorate: 44,400   Valid: 32,621   Quota: 6,525   Turnout: 73.5%

References

1. "Northern Ireland Parliamentary Election results: Constituency Boundaries". Archived from the original on 25 December 2005. Retrieved 20 March 2007.
2. "Dáil Éireann debate - Tuesday, 10 May 1921 - PRESIDENT'S STATEMENT. - ELECTIONS". Houses of the Oireachtas. Retrieved 20 February 2019.
3. "APPENDIX 19 DÁIL ÉIREANN". Houses of the Oireachtas. 16 August 1921. Retrieved 20 February 2019.