South Armagh was a

UK Parliament The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, and may also legislate for the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of ...

constituency An electoral (congressional, legislative, etc.) district, sometimes called a constituency, riding, or ward, is a geographical portion of a political unit, such as a country, state or province, city, or administrative region, created to provi ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

which returned one Member of Parliament from 1885 to 1922, 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 ...

electoral system.

Boundaries and boundary changes

This constituency comprised the southern part of

County Armagh County Armagh ( ) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It is located in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster and adjoins the southern shore of Lough Neagh. It borders t ...

. From 1885 to 1918 the constituency was bounded to the north and north-west by Mid Armagh, to the south-west by South Monaghan, to the south by North Louth, to the south-east by the Borough of Newry and to the east by South Down. In 1918, that part of the constituency in the urban district of Newry was added to the South Down constituency. Between 1918 and 1922 the neighbouring seats were the same except that Louth was an undivided county constituency and Newry had been absorbed into South Down. 1885–1918: The barony of Orior Upper, and those parts of the baronies of Fews Lower, Fews Upper and Orior Lower not contained within the constituency of Mid Armagh. 1918–1922: That part of the existing South Armagh constituency comprised in the administrative county of Armagh. Prior to the

1885 United Kingdom general election The 1885 United Kingdom general election was held from 24 November to 18 December 1885. The first general election after an Representation of the People Act 1884, extension of the franchise and Redistribution of Seats Act 1885, redistribution of ...

and from the dissolution of Parliament in 1922 the area was part of the

Armagh Armagh ( ; , , " Macha's height") is a city and the county town of County Armagh, in Northern Ireland, as well as a civil parish. It is the ecclesiastical capital of Ireland – the seat of the Archbishops of Armagh, the Primates of All ...

constituency.

Politics

The constituency was a predominantly

Nationalist Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation,Anthony D. Smith, Smith, A ...

area. In 1918 the Nationalists heavily defeated

Sinn Féin Sinn Féin ( ; ; ) is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The History of Sinn Féin, original Sinn Féin organisation was founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffit ...

The First Dáil

contested the general election of 1918 on the platform that instead of taking up any seats they won in the

United Kingdom Parliament The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, and may also legislate for the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of ...

, they would establish a revolutionary assembly in Dublin. In republican theory every MP elected in Ireland was a potential Deputy to this assembly. In practice only the Sinn Féin members accepted the offer. The revolutionary

First Dáil First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...

assembled on 21 January 1919 and last met on 10 May 1921. The First Dáil, according to a resolution passed on 10 May 1921, was formally dissolved on the assembling of the

Second Dáil The second (symbol: s) is a unit of time derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes, and finally to 60 seconds each (24 × 60 × 60 = 86400). The current and formal definition in the International System of Un ...

. This took place on 16 August 1921. In 1921 Sinn Féin decided to use the UK authorised elections for the

Northern Ireland House of Commons 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 p ...

and the

House of Commons of Southern Ireland The Parliament of Southern Ireland was a Home Rule legislature established by the British Government during the Irish War of Independence under the Government of Ireland Act 1920. It was designed to legislate for Southern Ireland,Order in Coun ...

as a poll for the

Irish Republic The Irish Republic ( or ) was a Revolutionary republic, revolutionary state that Irish Declaration of Independence, declared its independence from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in January 1919. The Republic claimed jurisdict ...

. This constituency, in republican theory, was incorporated in a four-member Dáil constituency of

Members of Parliament

Elections

Elections in the 1880s

Elections in the 1890s

Elections in the 1900s

*''Seat vacant on dissolution due to the death of McHugh'' *''Death of McKillop''

Elections in the 1910s

*''Death of O'Neill''

References

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