Belfast West (Northern Ireland Parliament constituency)

For other constituencies of the same name, see Belfast West (disambiguation).

Belfast West
Former Borough constituency for the Parliament of Northern Ireland
Belfast West shown within Northern Ireland
Former constituency
Created	1921
Abolished	1929
Election method	Single transferable vote

Belfast West was a borough constituency of the Parliament of Northern Ireland from 1921 to 1929. It returned four MPs, using proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote.

Boundaries

Belfast West was created by the Government of Ireland Act 1920 and contained the Court, Falls, St Anne's, St George's, Smithfield and Woodvale wards of the County Borough of Belfast. The House of Commons (Method of Voting and Redistribution of Seats) Act (Northern Ireland) 1929 divided the constituency into four constituencies elected under first past the post: Belfast Central, Belfast Falls, Belfast St Anne's and Belfast Woodvale.

Second Dáil

In May 1921, Dáil Éireann, the parliament of the self-declared Irish Republic run by Sinn Féin, passed a resolution declaring that elections to the House of Commons of Northern Ireland and the House of Commons of Southern Ireland would be used as the election for the Second Dáil. All those elected were on the roll of the Second Dáil, but as no Sinn Féin MP was elected for Belfast West, it was not represented there.

Politics

Belfast West was a predominantly Unionist area with some pockets of Nationalist strength, electing three Unionists and one Nationalist in 1921 and one Unionist, one Independent Unionist, one Nationalist and one Labour Party member in 1925.

Members of Parliament

Election	MP (Party)		MP (Party)		MP (Party)		MP (Party)
1921		William J. Twaddell (UUP)		Robert John Lynn (UUP)		Thomas Henry Burn (UUP)		Joseph Devlin (Nationalist)
1923 by		Philip James Woods Independent Unionist
1925						Billy McMullen (Labour)

Election results

24 May 1921 General Election: Belfast West (4 seats)

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4
	UUP	Thomas Henry Burn	24.88	13,298
	Nationalist	Joseph Devlin	19.87	10,621	10,628	10,629	10,632
	UUP	William Twaddell	19.30	10,316	10,558	11,509
	UUP	Robert John Lynn	17.43	9,315	11,646
	Sinn Féin	Denis McCullough	11.73	6,270	6,272	6,274	6,274
	Sinn Féin	Seán MacEntee	5.53	2,954	2,954	2,955	2,955
	Belfast Labour	John Hanna	0.69	367	380	380	383
	Nationalist	Richard Byrne	0.58	311	323	323	323
Electorate: 57,914   Valid: 53,452   Quota: 10,691   Turnout: 92.3%

Devlin did not take his seat.

Twaddell was assassinated on 22 May 1922:

1923 Belfast West by-election

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Ind. Unionist	Philip James Woods	25,761	55.3	New
	UUP	Joseph Davison	19,360	41.6	−20.0
Majority			7,859	13.7	N/A
Turnout			46,597	69.3	−23.0
	Ind. Unionist gain from UUP		Swing

1925 General Election: Belfast West (4 seats)

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6
	Nationalist	Joseph Devlin	35.48	17,558
	Ind. Unionist	Philip James Woods	19.40	9,599	11,071
	UUP	Robert John Lynn	16.92	8,371	8,507	8,599	10,437
	UUP	Thomas Henry Burn	9.80	4,808	4,878	4,921	5,989	6,509	6,515
	Republican	J. McConville	6.78	3,146	4,456	4,511	4,545	4,552
	UUP	R. Dickson	6.33	3,133	3,438	3,623
	NI Labour	Billy McMullen	5.80	2,869	7,237	7,795	8,002	8,015	10,345
Electorate: 65,550   Valid: 49,484   Quota: 9,897   Turnout: 75.5%

Devlin did not take his seat.