South Fermanagh (UK Parliament constituency)

UK former constituency infobox
Name = South Fermanagh
Type = County
Year = 1885
Abolition = 1922
members = One

South Fermanagh was a UK Parliament constituency in Ireland.

Boundaries and Boundary Changes

This county constituency comprised the southern part of County Fermanagh.

It returned one Member of Parliament 1885-1922.

Prior to the United Kingdom general election, 1885 the area was part of the Fermanagh constituency. After the dissolution of Parliament in 1922 the constituency was incorporated in the new seat of Fermanagh and Tyrone

Politics

The constituency was a nationalist inclined one, but with a significant unionist minority. The Irish Parliamentary Party held the seat from 1885 to 1918.

In 1918 Sinn Féin had a limited electoral pact with the Nationalists to avoid seriously splitting the vote in seats Unionists might win. In this constituency Sinn Féin benefited from the pact, as nationalists were advised to vote for John O'Mahoney (otherwise known as Seán O'Mahony) rather than their own candidate (the incumbent MP).

O'Mahony was a prisoner interned in Lincoln Jail at the time of the election. He was the only Sinn Féin candidate elected in the six counties that became Northern Ireland who was not also returned for a seat in the rest of Ireland. After being released in 1919 he did not take his seat in the UK Parliament but served in the First Dáil instead.

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 Fermanagh and Tyrone.

Members of Parliament

"Key to parties: N Nationalist, SF Sinn Féin."

¹Anti-Parnellite (until 1900).

Elections

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

Election box begin
title=General Election 14 December 1918: South FermanaghElection box candidate with party link
party = Sinn Féin
candidate = Seán O'Μahony
votes = 6,673
percentage =
change = "N/A"Election box candidate with party link
party = Irish Unionist Party
candidate = James Cooper
votes = 4,524
percentage =
change = "N/A"Election box candidate with party link
party = Irish Parliamentary Party
candidate = Patrick Crumley
votes = 132
percentage =
change = "N/A"Election box majority
votes = 532
percentage =
change = "N/A"Election box turnout
votes = 14,496
percentage =
change = "N/A"Election box gain with party link
winner = Sinn Féin
loser = Irish Parliamentary Party
swing = "N/A"

References

*"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

ee 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