North Antrim (UK Parliament Constituency) - History

History

North Antrim is an overwhelmingly unionist seat. It first existed from 1885 to 1922. From 1886 to 1974 the Conservative and Unionist members of the United Kingdom House of Commons formed a single Parliamentary party.

Unusually for Ireland, the Liberal Party retained significant strength in this constituency after the split over Home Rule in 1886. The Irish Parliamentary Party never contested the seat.

In 1906 the constituency was won by a Russellite Unionist, at least somewhat linked to the Liberal Party. Although the Unionists regained the seat when the sitting MP retired, the constituency was one of very few Unionist/Liberal marginals in Ireland at both 1910 elections.

A victory for the Unionist candidate in 1918 by 9,621 votes to Sinn Féin's 2,673 votes demonstrated the strength of the unionist support in the area.

In 1922, the constituency reverted to being part of the two member Antrim seat (as it had been before 1885). North Antrim was re-created in 1950 as a larger seat than it had been in its first incarnation. County Antrim, excluding the parts in the Belfast constituencies, was split into two divisions instead of four as previously. The 1950 North Antrim was comparable to the North and Mid Antrim divisions which had existed from 1885 to 1922.

Since 1950 the Westminster elections have been relatively uncompetitive. In 1951, it was one of the last four seats to be uncontested in a UK general election. More recently, one man has repeatedly won by a large majority. The Reverend Ian Richard Kyle Paisley was first elected as a Protestant Unionist Party candidate in the 1970 general election. The following year that party changed to the Democratic Unionist Party and Paisley has held the seat ever since. This is the longest continuous period for which the current holding party has held any Northern Irish seat. In elections at all levels, the DUP have frequently had their highest share of the vote in North Antrim and have rarely been seriously challenged.

In March 2010 Ian Paisley announced that he will step down at the 2010 UK General Election. His son Ian Paisley, Jr. was selected by the DUP to replace him as candidate. Former DUP MEP Jim Allister has announced that he will contest the constituency for the Traditional Unionist Voice.

According to straw polls, the constituency was alone in Northern Ireland in voting against the Belfast Agreement.