Belfast St Anne's (UK Parliament constituency) explained

Belfast St Anne's
Type:	borough
Parliament:	uk
Year:	1918
Abolished:	1922
Seats:	1
Previous:	Belfast West
Next:	Belfast West

St Anne's, a division of Belfast, was a UK parliamentary constituency in Ireland. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom from 1918 to 1922, using the first past the post electoral system.

Boundaries and boundary changes

The constituency was created by the Redistribution of Seats (Ireland) Act 1918 from an area which had been in the Belfast West constituency. It the southern third of West Belfast, and contained the then St Anne's and St George's wards of Belfast City Council.^[1] The streets in St Anne's ward in 1911 are listed here and here, and the streets in St George's ward in 1911 are listed here. Between them, those wards contained the area between the Falls Road and the railway to Lisburn.

It was in use at the 1918 general election only, and under the Government of Ireland Act 1920 its area was again part of the Belfast West constituency, with effect at the 1922 general election.

Politics

The constituency was strongly unionist. The unionists ran a candidate from the Ulster Unionist Labour Association, a group affiliated with the Unionist Party, as a Labour Unionist. He easily won the seat. An Independent Unionist candidate was in second place. Sinn Féin was third with eleven per cent of the vote.

First Dáil

After the 1918 election, Sinn Féin invited all those elected for constituencies in Ireland to sit as TDs in Dáil Éireann rather than in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom.^[2] All those elected for Irish constituencies were included in the roll of the Dáil but only those elected for Sinn Féin sat in the First Dáil.^[3] In May 1921, the Dáil 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 and that the First Dáil would be dissolved on the assembly of the new body.^[4] The area of Belfast St Anne's would then have been represented in the Dáil by the four-seat constituency of Belfast West, which also returned no representatives for Sinn Féin.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	1918	Thomas Henry Burn	Labour Unionist
1922			constituency abolished

See also

• List of United Kingdom Parliament constituencies in Ireland and Northern Ireland
• List of MPs elected in the 1918 United Kingdom general election
• Historic Dáil constituencies

References

• Book: Parliamentary Election Results in Ireland, 1801–1922. Brian M.. Walker. Royal Irish Academy. 1978. Dublin. 0901714127. 384.
• Book: 'Who's Who of British members of parliament: Volume III 1919–1945. M.. Stenton. S.. Lees. The Harvester Press. 1979.
• (Information about boundaries of the constituency derived from the map of Northern Ireland Parliament constituencies (in force from 1921) and the wards included in the Belfast UK Parliament seats (in force 1922) for which see Northern Ireland Parliamentary Election Results 1921–1972, by Sydney Elliott (Political Reference Publications 1973) and Boundaries of Parliamentary Constituencies 1885–1972, compiled and edited by F.W.S. Craig (Political Reference Publications 1972) respective

External links

• The Irish General Election of 1918

Notes and References

1. Redistribution of Seats (Ireland) Act 1918, Second Schedule, Part I
2. Web site: The inaugural public meeting of Dáil Éireann. 22 February 2019. Dáil 100.
3. Web site: 3. AN ROLLA.. Houses of the Oireachtas . 21 January 1919. 23 February 2019.
4. Web site: Dáil Éireann debate - Tuesday, 10 May 1921 - PRESIDENT'S STATEMENT. - ELECTIONS.. Houses of the Oireachtas. 23 February 2019.