East Down (UK Parliament constituency)

East Down
Former County constituency
for the House of Commons
1885 (1885)–1922 (1922)
Replaced by	Down
Created from	Down, Downpatrick

East Down was a UK Parliament constituency in Ireland.

Boundaries and Boundary Changes

This county constituency comprised the eastern part of County Down. There was a boundary change reducing the size of this division in 1918, when the new Mid Down constituency was created.

It returned one Member of Parliament 1885–1922.

Prior to the United Kingdom general election, 1885 and after the dissolution of Parliament in 1922 the area was part of the Down constituency.

Politics

The constituency had an anti-unionist majority in 1918, but its support was split fairly evenly between Nationalist and Sinn Féin candidates. An attempt at a limited electoral pact broke down in this constituency. In a first past the post election this situation produced a minority Unionist win.

The First Dáil

Sinn Féin contested the general election of 1918 on the platform that instead of taking up any seats they won in the United Kingdom Parliament, they would establish a revolutionary assembly in Dublin. In republican theory every MP elected in Ireland was a potential Deputy to this assembly. In practice only the Sinn Féin members accepted the offer.

The revolutionary First Dáil assembled on 21 January 1919 and last met on 10 May 1921. The First Dáil, according to a resolution passed on 10 May 1921, was formally dissolved on the assembling of the Second Dáil. This took place on 16 August 1921.

In 1921 Sinn Féin decided to use the UK authorised elections for the Northern Ireland House of Commons and the House of Commons of Southern Ireland as a poll for the Irish Republic's Second Dáil. This area, in republican theory, was incorporated in an eight-member Dáil constituency of Down.

Members of Parliament

Key to parties: U Irish Unionist 1886–1921 and Ulster Unionist 1921–1922.

Election		Member	Party
	1885	Richard William Blackwood Ker	Conservative
	1886		Unionist
	1890 by-election	James Alexander Rentoul	Unionist
	1902 by-election	James Wood	Russellite Unionist
	1906	James Craig	Unionist
	1918	David Douglas Reid	Unionist
1922		constituency abolished

Elections

The elections in this constituency took place using the first past the post electoral system.

General Election 14 December 1918: East Down
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Irish Unionist	David Douglas Reid	6,007		N/A
	Irish Parliamentary	Michael J. Johnston	4,362		N/A
	Sinn Féin	Dr Russell McNabb	3,876		N/A
Majority					N/A
Turnout			17,846		N/A
	Irish Unionist hold		Swing	N/A

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

References

• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "D" (part 3)
• Parliamentary Election Results in Ireland, 1801–1922, edited by B.M. Walker (Royal Irish Academy 1978)
• Who's Who of British Members of Parliament: Volume II 1886–1918, edited by M. Stenton and S. Lees (The Harvester Press 1978)
• Who's Who of British Members of Parliament: Volume III 1919–1945, edited by M. Stenton and S. Lees (The Harvester Press 1979)

External links

• http://www.oireachtas.ie/members-hist/default.asp?housetype=0
• http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/en.toc.dail.html

See also

• List of UK Parliament Constituencies in Ireland and Northern Ireland
• Redistribution of Seats (Ireland) Act 1918
• MPs elected in the UK general election, 1918
• List of Dáil Éireann constituencies in Ireland (historic)
• Members of the 1st Dáil