Post by therealriga on Dec 23, 2023 18:17:53 GMT
By name alone West Tyrone is Northern Ireland’s 18th and newest constituency, though it includes more of the pre-1997 Mid Ulster than the constituency which maintained the name. Its history has been very similar to Mid Ulster: a close result in 1997 before becoming a safe Sinn Féin seat thereafter, though with a couple of bumps on the road.
The constituency was created for the 1997 election and has been unchanged since then. It is mainly rural except for the two large towns of Omagh and Strabane. It was formed from the whole of the former Omagh and Strabane councils which, since 2014, have formed part of Fermanagh & Omagh and Derry City and Strabane councils respectively. The constituency is mainly Catholic, with 68.0% having a Catholic community background in 2011, the fourth highest. The Protestant population has concentrations north of Strabane town and in the southern part of Omagh and surrounding areas.
In socio-economic terms the constituency is one of the poorest, behind only Foyle, Belfast West and Belfast North in most indicators. Strabane town has long had a grim reputation for poverty and unemployment and northern parts of Omagh and the rural areas south of Strabane around Castlederg and Newtownstewart also suffer from deprivation. Perhaps in reaction to this, the constituency has the 2nd highest percentage of people enrolled in higher education in NI.
In the 2011 census, 11.55% lived in households of social grade AB (18th of the 18 constituencies), 21.58% in C1 households (17th), 32.42% C2 (4th) and 34.44% DE (3rd). In 2017, four of the 42 Super Output areas were ranked in the 10% most deprived wards in Northern Ireland including the East and Ballycolman wards of Strabane and Omagh’s Lisanelly. At 4.5% in December 2015, the unemployment claimant count was the fourth highest and this rose to 17% and 12% respectively in Strabane’s Ballycolman and East wards.
When West Tyrone was first created, 29 of the 37 wards (all of Omagh district and half of Strabane district) had previously been in Mid Ulster. The remaining 8 wards around the town of Strabane had previously been associated with Derry city in the Foyle constituency.
The first elections in the new constituency were to the regional forum in May 1996 and made grim reading for Unionists: SDLP 28.4%, Sinn Féin 28.1%, UUP 17.9%, DUP 16.4%, with 3% split between smaller Unionist groups. Talks of pacts began in advance of the following year’s general election. The SDLP rejected a Sinn Féin suggestion that they stand down in neighbouring Mid Ulster in return for Sinn Féin withdrawing in West Tyrone. Unionist talks proved more fruitful, with the UUP agreeing to stand down in favour of the DUP’s William McCrea in Mid Ulster, with the DUP also withdrawing their candidate here. Capturing the seat still looked a tall order for Unionism and depended on an even split. In 1997 that was exactly what happened. The SDLP received 32.1% of the vote and Sinn Féin 30.9%. This allowed the sole Unionist, William Thompson of the UUP, to come through the middle to win with 34%.
After the near miss, the SDLP attempted to capture the constituency in 2001 by parachuting in veteran activist and deputy leader Brid Rogers, who represented Upper Bann in the NI Assembly. However, Sinn Féin had also benefitted from the peace process and IRA ceasefires and emerged victorious, with Pat Doherty beating Thompson by over 5,000 votes. This was the end of Unionist hopes in the constituency, ending the Unionist pact as both the DUP and UUP have stood candidates since.
The NI Assembly elections two years later produced a shock, as Independent Kieran Deeny topped the poll running on a single-issue ticket of retaining the Tyrone County Hospital. For the 2005 election he unsuccessfully sought the backing of other parties in an attempt to replicate the success of Richard Taylor in Wyre Forest. Though Deeny took a strong second place with nearly 12,000 votes (27.4% of the total) he was still over 5,000 votes behind Doherty. Doherty managed to double his majority to just over 10,000 votes for the 2010 and 2015 elections and his successor Barry McElduff received an almost identical result in 2017.
It seemed that McElduff would have a safe seat for as long as he wished however, he was soon unseated by self-inflicted controversy. On 5 January 2018 McElduff posted a video of himself on social media with a loaf of Kingsmill bread on his head. As this date coincided with the 42nd anniversary of the Kingsmill massacre, when 10 Protestant workmen were gunned down in cold blood by an IRA unit, McElduff was criticised by both Unionists and Nationalists for mocking the massacre. His protests that he was just a practical joker unaware of the link and the significance of the date were not believed. Sinn Féin suspended him and he resigned his seat the following week.
The resulting by-election in May 2018 was won by Sinn Féin’s Órfhlaith Begley with a reduced majority of 7,956 votes. Her majority had another slight decline in the 2019 general election: to 7,478 votes. After being unchanged for over a quarter of a century West Tyrone will see minor changes next time to bring it within quota range. The Pomeroy ward is added from Mid Ulster and most of the divided Slievekirk ward from Foyle. Sinn Féin won 47% of the vote in the 2022 Assembly election and gained seats in 4 of the 5 electoral areas making up the constituency in the 2023 locals so the only question is whether Begley can win an absolute majority or not next time. Either way, she has a safe seat for the foreseeable future.
The constituency was created for the 1997 election and has been unchanged since then. It is mainly rural except for the two large towns of Omagh and Strabane. It was formed from the whole of the former Omagh and Strabane councils which, since 2014, have formed part of Fermanagh & Omagh and Derry City and Strabane councils respectively. The constituency is mainly Catholic, with 68.0% having a Catholic community background in 2011, the fourth highest. The Protestant population has concentrations north of Strabane town and in the southern part of Omagh and surrounding areas.
In socio-economic terms the constituency is one of the poorest, behind only Foyle, Belfast West and Belfast North in most indicators. Strabane town has long had a grim reputation for poverty and unemployment and northern parts of Omagh and the rural areas south of Strabane around Castlederg and Newtownstewart also suffer from deprivation. Perhaps in reaction to this, the constituency has the 2nd highest percentage of people enrolled in higher education in NI.
In the 2011 census, 11.55% lived in households of social grade AB (18th of the 18 constituencies), 21.58% in C1 households (17th), 32.42% C2 (4th) and 34.44% DE (3rd). In 2017, four of the 42 Super Output areas were ranked in the 10% most deprived wards in Northern Ireland including the East and Ballycolman wards of Strabane and Omagh’s Lisanelly. At 4.5% in December 2015, the unemployment claimant count was the fourth highest and this rose to 17% and 12% respectively in Strabane’s Ballycolman and East wards.
When West Tyrone was first created, 29 of the 37 wards (all of Omagh district and half of Strabane district) had previously been in Mid Ulster. The remaining 8 wards around the town of Strabane had previously been associated with Derry city in the Foyle constituency.
The first elections in the new constituency were to the regional forum in May 1996 and made grim reading for Unionists: SDLP 28.4%, Sinn Féin 28.1%, UUP 17.9%, DUP 16.4%, with 3% split between smaller Unionist groups. Talks of pacts began in advance of the following year’s general election. The SDLP rejected a Sinn Féin suggestion that they stand down in neighbouring Mid Ulster in return for Sinn Féin withdrawing in West Tyrone. Unionist talks proved more fruitful, with the UUP agreeing to stand down in favour of the DUP’s William McCrea in Mid Ulster, with the DUP also withdrawing their candidate here. Capturing the seat still looked a tall order for Unionism and depended on an even split. In 1997 that was exactly what happened. The SDLP received 32.1% of the vote and Sinn Féin 30.9%. This allowed the sole Unionist, William Thompson of the UUP, to come through the middle to win with 34%.
After the near miss, the SDLP attempted to capture the constituency in 2001 by parachuting in veteran activist and deputy leader Brid Rogers, who represented Upper Bann in the NI Assembly. However, Sinn Féin had also benefitted from the peace process and IRA ceasefires and emerged victorious, with Pat Doherty beating Thompson by over 5,000 votes. This was the end of Unionist hopes in the constituency, ending the Unionist pact as both the DUP and UUP have stood candidates since.
The NI Assembly elections two years later produced a shock, as Independent Kieran Deeny topped the poll running on a single-issue ticket of retaining the Tyrone County Hospital. For the 2005 election he unsuccessfully sought the backing of other parties in an attempt to replicate the success of Richard Taylor in Wyre Forest. Though Deeny took a strong second place with nearly 12,000 votes (27.4% of the total) he was still over 5,000 votes behind Doherty. Doherty managed to double his majority to just over 10,000 votes for the 2010 and 2015 elections and his successor Barry McElduff received an almost identical result in 2017.
It seemed that McElduff would have a safe seat for as long as he wished however, he was soon unseated by self-inflicted controversy. On 5 January 2018 McElduff posted a video of himself on social media with a loaf of Kingsmill bread on his head. As this date coincided with the 42nd anniversary of the Kingsmill massacre, when 10 Protestant workmen were gunned down in cold blood by an IRA unit, McElduff was criticised by both Unionists and Nationalists for mocking the massacre. His protests that he was just a practical joker unaware of the link and the significance of the date were not believed. Sinn Féin suspended him and he resigned his seat the following week.
The resulting by-election in May 2018 was won by Sinn Féin’s Órfhlaith Begley with a reduced majority of 7,956 votes. Her majority had another slight decline in the 2019 general election: to 7,478 votes. After being unchanged for over a quarter of a century West Tyrone will see minor changes next time to bring it within quota range. The Pomeroy ward is added from Mid Ulster and most of the divided Slievekirk ward from Foyle. Sinn Féin won 47% of the vote in the 2022 Assembly election and gained seats in 4 of the 5 electoral areas making up the constituency in the 2023 locals so the only question is whether Begley can win an absolute majority or not next time. Either way, she has a safe seat for the foreseeable future.
