Mid Armagh (UK Parliament constituency)

Mid Armagh was a constituency in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was created by the Redistribution of Seats Act for the 1885 general election and returned one Member of Parliament (MP) until it was abolished with effect from the 1922 general election.

Boundaries and Boundary Changes

This county constituency comprised the central part of County Armagh. To the north was North Armagh, to the west were South Tyrone and North Monaghan, to the south were South Monaghan and South Armagh and to the east was West Down.

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

Politics

The constituency was a predominantly Conservative then Unionist area, although not as strongly so as some other parts of Northern Ireland. There were few contested elections and no instance of the same two parties contending against each other more than once.

In 1918 the Unionists defeated Sinn Féin by a solid margin. This was the first contested election for the seat since a 1900 by-election.

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. Armagh Mid, in republican theory, was incorporated in a four-member Dáil constituency of Armagh.

Members of Parliament

• Constituency created (1885)

• Constituency abolished (1922)

Elections

1920s

1910s

1900s

1890s

1880s

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)
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "A" (part 2)

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