North Belfast (UK Parliament constituency)
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Belfast North Borough constituency
Belfast North shown within Northern Ireland
Created:	1885, 1922
MP:	Nigel Dodds
Party:	Democratic Unionist
Type:	House of Commons
Districts:	Belfast City Council, Newtownabbey
EP constituency:	Northern Ireland

Belfast North is a Parliamentary Constituency in the United Kingdom House of Commons.

Boundaries

The seat was created in 1922 when, as part of the establishment of the devolved Stormont Parliament for Northern Ireland, the number of MPs in the Westminster Parliament was drastically cut. The seat is centred on the north section of Belfast, though at times the area around the Docks on the north side of the Lagan Estuary has instead been part of variously Belfast East and Belfast West. Belfast North also contains part of the district of Newtownabbey.

Belfast North contains 14 wards of Belfast City Council and 5 of Newtownabbey Borough Council. The constituency suffered the highest level of violence in Northern Ireland during The Troubles and covers many areas synonymous with the conflict – the New Lodge, Ardoyne, Rathcoole, Ballysillan and Woodvale. The overall tenor of the constituency is working-class, with a high proportion of residents in public housing, and concentrations of low-income single people in the middle Antrim Road and Cliftonville areas. There are some upscale residential areas around Belfast Castle and on the slopes of Cavehill. Sectarian divisions are stark, with a number of Peace Lines cutting through the constituency and, as of 2005, occasional outbursts of sectarian street violence, and was the focus for ugly post-ceasefire incidents such as the Holy Cross dispute.

Proposed boundary changes

Initially the Northern Ireland Boundary Commission proposed alterations for the boundaries of Belfast North proposing to expand it further into Newtownabbey, taking in areas currently contained in both East Antrim and South Antrim.

Not included in the proposals is a common suggestion to reunite the five wards centred on the Shankill Road which are currently split between Belfast West and Belfast North. At the boundary commission hearings in September 2005, the SDLP proposed extending the seat to Cloughfern and Jordanstown. The DUP supported the addition of Cloughfern option. Sinn Féin had little to say at the enquiry and were generally supportive of the commission's proposals.

Following the revised recommondations, the Commission proposals were finalised and accepted by Parliament through the Northern Ireland Parliamentary Constituencies Order ¹. The modified Belfast North constituency will be formed by the following electoral wards:

• From the Belfast government area, Ardoyne, Ballysillan, Bellevue, Castleview, Cavehill, Chichester Park, Cliftonville, Crumlin, Duncairn, Fortwilliam, Legoniel, New Lodge, Water Works, and Woodvale
• From the Newtownabbey district, Abbey, Ballyhenry, Cloughfern, Collinbridge, Coole, Dunanney, Glebe, Glengormley, Hightown, Valley, and Whitehouse

History

Belfast North has a unionist majority though the nationalist vote is considerable. It has generated particular interest for a number of highly unusual elections results, as well as for several candidates and MPs prominently disagreeing with their parties.

Of the five main political parties in Northern Ireland, four (the Ulster Unionist Party, the Democratic Unionist Party, the Social Democratic and Labour Party and Sinn Féin) all have relatively strong support bases and routinely poll similar results. Other parties such as the Alliance, Progressive Unionist Party, Unionist Party of Northern Ireland, Conservatives and the Workers' Party have at times polled significantly, as have independent candidates, with the result that many elections have been won on comparatively low shares of the vote. The elections to the various assemblies have often seen the seats for the constituency heavily split - in 1998 no party won more than one Assembly seat.

The area saw a steady out movement of Protestants during the Troubles, to some degree replaced by a growing Catholic population, although the overall population of the area fell sharply. However, all the inner-city communities in the constituency are now haemorrhaging electors, and the overall ethnic composition of the constituency now seems stable.

The seat was consistently held by the Ulster Unionist Party from its creation until the 1970s. In 1972 the first notable dissent occurred when the sitting MP, Stratton Mills, dissented from the UUP's decision to withdraw from the Conservative whip at Westminster over the suspension of the Stormont Parliament. Mills remained as a Conservative MP, but the following year Mills joined the Alliance, giving them their only Westminster representation to date.

In the February 1974 general election the seat was won by John Carson of the Ulster Unionist Party with backing by the Vanguard Progressive Unionist Party and the Democratic Unionist Party on a united slate in opposition to the Sunningdale Agreement. Carson's victory came despite a majority of votes being cast for pro-Sunningdale candidates, albeit split between the Pro-Assembly Unionists, the Social Democratic and Labour Party and the Northern Ireland Labour Party. Carson held his seat in the October 1974 election but was deselected by the local Ulster Unionists over his support for the minority Labour government.

The 1979 general election saw one of the most dramatic results of all when Johnny McQuade of the Democratic Unionist Party won the seat with a mere 27.6% of the vote - the third lowest total for a successful candidate in a UK general election in the twentieth century. This came about due to the strong showing of several other parties, dividng the vote strongly. McQuade also had the distinction of being the oldest person to be initially elected to Westminster in the 20th century and did not restand at the next general election.

In 1983, Cecil Walker regained the seat for the UUP, beating Scotsman George Seawright of the DUP. In the 1987 general election the UUP and DUP agreed a pact in opposition to the Anglo Irish Agreement. Seawright had been expelled from the DUP and stood in the election, reviving the Protestant Unionist Party label, but was unsuccessful.

Walker continued to hold the seat until 2001 but gained a reputation for inactivity. In the 2001 general election the DUP contested the seat for the first time since 1983, with their candidate Nigel Dodds campaigning heavily on both their opposition to the Good Friday Agreement and Walker's record. Walker also suffered from a disastrous television interview during the campaign. In the election Walker's vote collapsed to a mere 12%, coming fourth whilst Dodds won the seat. The UUP vote fell even further in both the 2003 Assembly election and the 2005 general election and it seems extremely doubtful that they will retake the seat at the next general election. Much of the attention now focuses on the growth of the Sinn Féin vote.

Members of Parliament

The Member of Parliament since the 2001 general election is Nigel Dodds of the Democratic Unionist Party. He defeated Cecil Walker of the Ulster Unionist Party who had sat for the seat since 1983.

Monuments at Belfast City Hall - MP's Belfast North

Edward James Harland MP, Lord Mayor of Belfast

James Horner Haslett MP, Mayor of Belfast

Sir Daniel Dixon MP, Lord Mayor of Belfast

Elections

Elections in the 2000s

Elections in the 1990s

1997 Changes are compared to the 1992 notional results shown below ².

Elections in the 1980s

Elections in the 1970s

Elections in the 1960s

Elections in the 1950s

Elections in the 1940s

Elections in the 1930s

• In the 1931 and 1935 UK general elections, Thomas Somerset was elected unopposed.

Elections in the 1920s

In the 1922 UK general election, Thomas McConnell was elected unopposed.

Elections in the 1900s