Belfast Central was a constituency of the
Parliament of Northern Ireland
The Parliament of Northern Ireland was the home rule legislature of Northern Ireland, created under the Government of Ireland Act 1920, which sat from 7 June 1921 to 30 March 1972, when it was suspended because of its inability to restore ord ...
.
Boundaries
Belfast Central was a
borough constituency comprising part of central
Belfast
Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdom ...
. It was created in 1929, when the
introduced
first-past-the-post
In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast thei ...
elections throughout Northern Ireland.
Belfast Central was created by the division of
Belfast West into four new constituencies. It survived unchanged, returning one member of Parliament, until the
Parliament of Northern Ireland
The Parliament of Northern Ireland was the home rule legislature of Northern Ireland, created under the Government of Ireland Act 1920, which sat from 7 June 1921 to 30 March 1972, when it was suspended because of its inability to restore ord ...
was
temporarily suspended in 1972, and then
formally abolished in 1973.
[The Northern Ireland House of Commons, 1921-1972](_blank)
Northern Ireland Elections
The constituency consisted of inner city areas of Belfast equivalent to the modern areas of Unity, Brown Square, John Street and Lancaster Street. Residential redevelopment caused the electorate to fall sharply from 20,399 in 1929 to 6,384 in 1969. By the time of the dissolution of the Stormont Parliament, it had just over 2,500 voters.
The constituency is now part of
Belfast North and
Belfast West with most of the former seat now part of the
New Lodge ward.
Politics
The constituency was one of the most staunchly
nationalist
Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Th ...
in Belfast. It was initially held by
Nationalist Party members, then later by a variety of labour movement activists and members of smaller nationalist parties.
In 1953, a split between three Labour candidates led to the Unionist candidate finishing just 576 votes behind the victor.
Members of Parliament
Election results
References
{{Authority control
Central
Northern Ireland Parliament constituencies established in 1929
Northern Ireland Parliament constituencies disestablished in 1973