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April 1981 Fermanagh And South Tyrone By-election
The by-election held in Fermanagh and South Tyrone on 9 April 1981 is considered by many to be the most significant by-election held in Northern Ireland during the Troubles. It saw the first electoral victory for militant Irish republicanism, which the following year entered electoral politics in full force as Sinn Féin. The successful candidate was the IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands, who died twenty-six days later. The by-election was caused by the death of the sitting MP, Frank Maguire. Background of the constituency The constituency, based on the districts of Fermanagh and Dungannon, was created in 1950 and had seen a series of closely fought elections between unionist and Irish nationalist candidates, with several elections being won due to the absence of competing candidates on one side or the other. Nationalists of various hues had won the constituency in the 1950, 1951 and 1955 general elections, while the Ulster Unionist Party had won in 1959, 1964 and 1966. As t ...
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Fermanagh And South Tyrone (UK Parliament Constituency)
Fermanagh and South Tyrone is a parliamentary constituency in the British House of Commons. The current MP is Michelle Gildernew of Sinn Féin. Boundaries 1950–1983: The county of Fermanagh, the Urban District of Dungannon, the Rural Districts of Clogher and Dungannon, and that part of the Rural District of Omagh consisting of the district electoral divisions of Aghafad, Dervaghroy, Dromore, Drumharvey, Ecclesville, Fallaghearn, Fintona, Greenan, Killskerry, Lifford, Moorfield, Rahoney, Seskinore, Tattymoyle and Trillick. 1983–1997: The District of Fermanagh, and the District of Dungannon. 1997–present: The District of Fermanagh, and the District of Dungannon wards of Augher, Aughnacloy, Ballygawley, Ballysaggart, Benburb, Caledon, Castlecaulfield, Clogher, Coolhill, Drumglass, Fivemiletown, Killyman, Killymeal, Moy, Moygashel, and Mullaghmore. The constituency was created in 1950 when the old Fermanagh and Tyrone two-member constituency was abolished as part of the ...
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1950 United Kingdom General Election
The 1950 United Kingdom general election was the first ever to be held after a full term of Labour government. The election was held on Thursday 23 February 1950, and was the first held following the abolition of plural voting and university constituencies. The government's 1945 lead over the Conservative Party shrank dramatically, and Labour was returned to power but with an overall majority reduced from 146 to just 5. There was a 2.8% national swing towards the Conservatives, who gained 90 seats. Labour called another general election in 1951, which the Conservative Party won. Turnout increased to 83.9%, the highest turnout in a UK general election under universal suffrage, and representing an increase of more than 11% in comparison to 1945. It was also the first general election to be covered on television, although the footage was not recorded. Richard Dimbleby hosted the BBC coverage of the election, which he would later do again for the 1951, 1955, 1959 and the 1 ...
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Hubert Brown (politician)
The by-election held in Fermanagh and South Tyrone on 9 April 1981 is considered by many to be the most significant by-election held in Northern Ireland during the Troubles. It saw the first electoral victory for militant Irish republicanism, which the following year entered electoral politics in full force as Sinn Féin. The successful candidate was the IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands, who died twenty-six days later. The by-election was caused by the death of the sitting MP, Frank Maguire. Background of the constituency The constituency, based on the districts of Fermanagh and Dungannon, was created in 1950 and had seen a series of closely fought elections between unionist and Irish nationalist candidates, with several elections being won due to the absence of competing candidates on one side or the other. Nationalists of various hues had won the constituency in the 1950, 1951 and 1955 general elections, while the Ulster Unionist Party had won in 1959, 1964 and 1966. As t ...
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United Ulster Unionist Coalition
The United Ulster Unionist Council (also known as the United Ulster Unionist Coalition) was a body that sought to bring together the Unionists opposed to the Sunningdale Agreement in Northern Ireland. Formation The UUUC was established in January 1974. It was organised by Harry West and constituted a formal electoral pact between his Ulster Unionist Party, the Democratic Unionist Party and the Vanguard Unionist Progressive Party. West arranged the movement, having gained control of the UUP from Brian Faulkner, to galvanise opposition to power sharing arrangements that were being put in place and to run against Faulkner's Pro-Assembly Unionists who later formed themselves into the Unionist Party of Northern Ireland.W.D. Flackes & Sydney Elliott, ''Northern Ireland: A Political Directory 1968–1993'', Blackstaff Press, 1994, p. 346 Development The UUUC first tested its political credentials in the 1974 general election and the party captured 11 out of 12 Northern Irish seats (7 ...
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Sunningdale Agreement
The Sunningdale Agreement was an attempt to establish a power-sharing Northern Ireland Executive and a cross-border Council of Ireland. The agreement was signed at Sunningdale Park located in Sunningdale, Berkshire, on 9 December 1973. Unionist opposition, violence and general strike caused the collapse of the agreement in May 1974. Northern Ireland Assembly On 20 March 1973, the British government published a white paper which proposed a 78-member Northern Ireland Assembly, to be elected by proportional representation. The British government would retain control over law, order and finance, while a Council of Ireland composed of members of the executive of the Republic of Ireland, Dáil Éireann, the Northern Ireland Executive and the Northern Ireland Assembly would act in a consultative role. The assembly was to replace the suspended Stormont Parliament, but it was hoped that it would not be dominated by the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) in the same way, and would thus be ac ...
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February 1974 United Kingdom General Election
February is the second month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars. The month has 28 days in common years or 29 in leap years, with the 29th day being called the ''leap day''. It is the first of five months not to have 31 days (the other four being April, June, September, and November) and the only one to have fewer than 30 days. February is the third and last month of meteorological winter in the Northern Hemisphere. In the Southern Hemisphere, February is the third and last month of meteorological summer (being the seasonal equivalent of what is August in the Northern Hemisphere). Pronunciation "February" is pronounced in several different ways. The beginning of the word is commonly pronounced either as or ; many people drop the first "r", replacing it with , as if it were spelled "Febuary". This comes about by analogy with "January" (), as well as by a dissimilation effect whereby having two "r"s close to each other causes one to change. The ending of t ...
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1970 United Kingdom General Election
The 1970 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 18 June 1970. It resulted in a surprise victory for the Conservative Party under leader Edward Heath, which defeated the governing Labour Party under Harold Wilson. The Liberal Party, under its new leader Jeremy Thorpe, lost half its seats. The Conservatives, including the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), secured a majority of 30 seats. This general election was the first in which people could vote from the age of 18, after passage of the Representation of the People Act the previous year, and the first UK election where party, and not just candidate names were allowed to be put on the ballots. Most opinion polls prior to the election indicated a comfortable Labour victory, and put Labour up to 12.4% ahead of the Conservatives. On election day, however, a late swing gave the Conservatives a 3.4% lead and ended almost six years of Labour government, although Wilson remained leader of the Labour Party in opposition. Writi ...
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Frank McManus (Irish Politician)
Frank McManus (born 16 August 1942) is an Irish nationalist activist and former Member of Parliament in the British House of Commons. Born in Kinawley, County Fermanagh, he is a brother of Father Seán McManus, the Irish-American lobbyist and Catholic priest, and Pat McManus, a member of the Irish Republican Army killed in an explosion in 1958. He received his secondary education at St. Michael's College, Enniskillen; he later attended Queen's University, Belfast before becoming a solicitor. In the late 1960s, he became the chair of the Fermanagh Civil Rights Association.''Who's Who of British MPs: Volume IV, 1945-1979'' by Michael Stenton and Stephen Lees (Harvester, Brighton, 1979) McManus was elected at the 1970 general election, as the Unity candidate for Fermanagh and South Tyrone. On 3 July 1970 he swore the Oath of Allegiance to Queen Elizabeth II. Following the introduction of internment, he chaired the meeting on 17 October 1971 where the Northern Resistance M ...
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Unity (Northern Ireland)
"Unity" was the political label for a series of electoral pacts by Irish nationalist, Irish Republican and socialist candidates in Northern Ireland elections in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It also contested elections as a party in its own right, electing six councillors in the 1973 local council elections in the Fermanagh and Dungannon areas, although this was reduced to two members of Fermanagh council in the next election in 1977. The first victory came in 1969 in the Mid Ulster by-election which was won by 21-year old student Bernadette Devlin. She held her seat in the 1970 general election, when Fermanagh and South Tyrone was won by her colleague Frank McManus. Due to realignments in nationalist politics and opposition to Devlin's radical political and social views, both lost their seats in the February 1974 general election. Bernadette would later go on to join the IRSP In the October 1974 general election the spirit of Unity was revived, if not the name, when ...
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1966 United Kingdom General Election
The 1966 United Kingdom general election was held on 31 March 1966. The result was a landslide victory for the Labour Party led by incumbent Prime Minister Harold Wilson. Wilson decided to call a snap election since his government, elected a mere 17 months previously, in 1964, had an unworkably small majority of only four MPs. The Labour government was returned following this snap election with a much larger majority of 98 seats. This was the last general election in which the voting age was 21; Wilson's government passed an amendment to the Representation of the People Act in 1969 to include eligibility to vote at age 18, which was in place for the next general election in 1970. Background Prior to the 1966 general election, Labour had performed poorly in local elections in 1965, and lost a by-election, cutting their majority to just two. Shortly after the local elections, the leader of the Conservative Party Alec Douglas-Home was replaced by Edward Heath in the 1965 lea ...
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1964 United Kingdom General Election
The 1964 United Kingdom general election was held on 15 October 1964, five years after the previous election, and thirteen years after the Conservative Party, first led by Winston Churchill, had regained power. It resulted in the Conservatives, led by the incumbent Prime Minister Alec Douglas-Home, narrowly losing to the Labour Party, led by Harold Wilson; Labour secured a parliamentary majority of four seats and ended its thirteen years in opposition. Wilson became (at the time) the youngest Prime Minister since Lord Rosebery in 1894. To date, this is also the most narrow majority obtained in the House of Commons with just 1 seat clearing labour for Majority Government. Background Both major parties had changed leadership in 1963. Following the sudden death of Hugh Gaitskell early in the year, Labour had chosen Harold Wilson (at the time, thought of as being on the party's centre-left), while Alec Douglas-Home (at the time the Earl of Home) had taken over as Conservativ ...
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1959 United Kingdom General Election
The 1959 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday, 8 October 1959. It marked a third consecutive victory for the ruling Conservative Party, now led by Harold Macmillan. For the second time in a row, the Conservatives increased their overall majority in Parliament, this time to a landslide majority of 100 seats, having gained 20 seats for a return of 365. The Labour Party, led by Hugh Gaitskell, lost 19 seats and returned 258. The Liberal Party, led by Jo Grimond, again returned only six MPs to the House of Commons, but managed to increase its overall share of the vote to 5.9%, compared to just 2.7% four years earlier. The Conservatives won the largest number of votes in Scotland, but narrowly failed to win the most seats in that country. They have not made either achievement ever since. Both Jeremy Thorpe, a future Liberal leader, and Margaret Thatcher, a future Conservative leader and eventually Prime Minister, first entered the House of Commons after this elec ...
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