Lagan Valley was a single-member

county constituency In the United Kingdom (UK), each of the electoral areas or divisions called constituencies elects one member to the House of Commons. Within the United Kingdom there are five bodies with members elected by electoral districts called " constituen ...

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 and Boundary Changes

Before 1969, the area formed part of the Northern Ireland Parliament constituencies of Mid Down and

Iveagh Iveagh ( ; ) is the name of several historical territorial divisions in what is now County Down, Northern Ireland. Originally it was a Gaelic Irish territory, ruled by the ''Uí Echach Cobo'' and part of the overkingdom of Ulaid. From the 12th ...

. Lagan Valley was created by the Electoral Law Act (Northern Ireland) 1968 as a division of

County Down County Down () is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It covers an area of and has a population of 552,261. It borders County Antrim to the ...

. It was located to the south of

Belfast Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...

. The seat included Hillsborough,

Drumbo Drumbo () is a small village, townland and Civil parishes in Ireland, civil parish in County Down, Northern Ireland. It is about south of Belfast city centre, east of Lisburn and west of Carryduff. It is in the historic Barony (Ireland), baro ...

and

Carryduff Carryduff ()Northern Ireland Placenames Project
is a small ...

as well as the sprawling rural area of Ballymacbrennan, which are split between the

Lagan Valley The Lagan Valley (, Ulster Scots: ''Glen Lagan'') is an area of Northern Ireland between Belfast and Lisburn. The River Lagan rises on Slieve Croob in County Down and flows generally northward discharging into Belfast Lough. For a section, the ...

and South Belfast and Mid Down constituencies. The constituency sent one MP to the

House of Commons of Northern Ireland The House of Commons of Northern Ireland was the lower house of the Parliament of Northern Ireland created under the Government of Ireland Act 1920. The upper house in the bicameral parliament was called the Senate. It was abolished with the ...

at the

1969 Northern Ireland general election The 1969 Northern Ireland general election was held on Monday 24 February 1969. It was the last election to the Parliament of Northern Ireland before its abolition by the Northern Ireland Constitution Act 1973. This was the first (and only) el ...

. The Parliament was

prorogued A legislative session is the period of time in which a legislature, in both parliamentary and presidential systems, is convened for purpose of lawmaking, usually being one of two or more smaller divisions of the entire time between two elections. ...

on 30 March 1972, under the terms of the

Northern Ireland (Temporary Provisions) Act 1972 The Northern Ireland (Temporary Provisions) Act 1972 (c. 22) was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that introduced direct rule in Northern Ireland with effect from 30 March 1972. The act, which took effect immediately on receiving ...

. It was formally abolished in 1973 when the

Northern Ireland Constitution Act 1973 The Northern Ireland Constitution Act 1973 (c. 36) is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which received royal assent on 18 July 1973. The act abolished the suspended Parliament of Northern Ireland and the post of Governor and mad ...

received

Royal Assent Royal assent is the method by which a monarch formally approves an act of the legislature, either directly or through an official acting on the monarch's behalf. In some jurisdictions, royal assent is equivalent to promulgation, while in othe ...

on 18 July 1973. The Parliamentary representative of the division was elected using the

first-past-the-post First-past-the-post (FPTP)—also called choose-one, first-preference plurality (FPP), or simply plurality—is a single-winner voting rule. Voters mark one candidate as their favorite, or First-preference votes, first-preference, and the cand ...

system.

Member of Parliament

Porter joined the Alliance Party in June 1972, the Parliament having been suspended in March. As a result, he never sat as an Alliance member in the Northern Ireland House of Commons.

Election result

* ''Parliament

30 March 1972 and abolished 18 July 1973''

References

* ''Northern Ireland Parliamentary Election Results 1921-1972'', compiled and edited by Sydney Elliott (Political Reference Publications 1973)
Northern Ireland House of Commons, 1921 - 1972

External links

* For more information about the Northern Ireland House of Commons, see http://www.election.demon.co.uk/stormont/stormont.html {{Authority control Constituencies of the Northern Ireland Parliament Northern Ireland Parliament constituencies established in 1969 Historic constituencies in County Down Northern Ireland Parliament constituencies disestablished in 1973