Talk:Belfast Central (Northern Ireland Parliament constituency)

Boundaries

The article states that "The constituency consisted of inner city areas of Belfast equivalent to the modern areas of Unity, Brown Square, John Street and Lancaster Street". Yet then goes on to say: "The constituency is now part of Belfast North and Belfast West with most of the former seat now part of the New Lodge ward. Surely this cannot be right. Mooretwin (talk) 09:08, 17 October 2008 (UTC)

The Unity and Lancaster Street parts are now part of New Lodge ward (Belfast North) and would have most of the voters if the seat were to exist today. "Unity" in this context includes Carrick Hill and the flats at the back of the central library. The minority of voters would be in West Belfast. Valenciano (talk) 11:51, 17 October 2008 (UTC)

Thanks. Was put off by Brown Square, and didn't realise Unity was now in New Lodge ward. It must have been physically a very small constituency. Do you have a map? Mooretwin (talk) 13:32, 17 October 2008 (UTC)

The closest I have to a map is the undetailed one here while on the same site there's a description of boundaries. From that it's easy enough to work out on Google maps (though convoluted). Basically starting from the Lagan, west up Great Georges's Street, along the westlink, west along clifton street and from carlisle circus south down denmark st, boundary st, north boundary st to Divis st. East from there along castle st and castle pl south across corn market and down arthur st to may street and then east from there back to the lagan. Phew. Weirdly that meant that it included Saint Anne's cathedral which another seat was named after.

From calculations I did about 10 years back the electorate had fallen from 6000 at the last Stormont election to 3500 at dissolution in mid 1973 and was about 800 voters in 1998. Due to redevelopment it's probably around 700-800 voters today. All that of course is original research. Valenciano (talk) 18:46, 17 October 2008 (UTC)

Thanks, I've looked at those maps/descriptions before, but it's quite a job to work out the boundaries. Would love to see an actual contemporary map with the boundaries. Have you worked out the boundaries of the Oldpark and Clifton constituencies, by the way? I'm interested to know which constituency the Ballysillan Road/Ballysillan Park/top of Oldpark Road area was in. Mooretwin (talk) 09:08, 20 October 2008 (UTC)