Armagh 1973-1983

	DUP	V/UUUP	UUP	U(P)/UPNI	A	NILP	WP/RC	Ind	SDLP	Unity	SF
83ab			84.5%				15.5%
82a	10.8%*	3.3%	39.9%***		2.9%		4.6%		25.2%**		13.3%*
79w	8.6%		48.5%		3.2%		3.5%		36.1%
75cc	13.0%*	19.2%**	23.0%**	4.7%	5.1%		6.3%		28.6%**
74wo			60.0%				8.2%		31.8%
74wf			53.7%		8.1%		6.7%		29.3%	2.2%
73a	11.7%*	18.5%*		26.8%**	6.9%	1.7%		0.4%	34.1%***

See spreadsheets for 1973 Assembly, February 1974 Westminster, October 1974 Westminster, 1975 Convention, 1979 Westminster and 1982 Assembly.

Assembly by-election, 20 April 1983 (one seat)

Jim Speers (UUP) 26,907 (84.5%)
Tom French (WP) 4,920 (15.5%)

Electorate: 95,100
Spoiled votes: 575 (1.8%)
Percentage turnout: 34.07
Quota: 15,914

The by-election was caused by the disqualification of Seamus Mallon (SDLP), because at the time of the Assembly election in 1982 he had been a member of Seanad Eireann. The turnout was the lowest of any of the elections of this period.

Assembly election, 20 October 1982 (7 seats)

Harold McCusker MP (UUP) 19,547
*Seamus Mallon (SDLP) 8,528
James McAllister (SF) 5,182
Paddy O'Hanlon (SDLP) 4,231
Joseph O'Hagan (SF) 3,042
*Hugh News (SDLP) 2,871
Tom French (WP) 2,826
David Calvert (DUP) 2,661
Jim Nicholson (UUP) 2,590
*Douglas Hutchinson (DUP) 2,333
*Alister Black (UUUP) 2,014
Jim Speers (UUP) 1,836
William Jeffrey (Alliance) 1,806
Woolsey Smith (DUP) 1,716
Mary Simpson (UUP) 721

Votes by party:
UUP 24,694 (39.9%) 3 seats (3.2 quotas)
SDLP 15,630 (25.2%) 2 seats (2.0 quotas)
SF 8,224 (13.3%) 1 seat (1.1 quotas)
DUP 6,710 (10.84%) 1 seat (0.9 quotas)
WP 2,826 (4.6%, 0.4 quotas)
UUUP 2,014 (3.3%, 0.3 quotas)
Alliance 1,806 (2.9%, 0.2 quotas)

Electorate: 95,610
Votes cast: 63,982 (66.9%); spoilt votes: 2,078 (3.2%)
Valid votes: 61,904; quota 7,739

* Elected to the 1975 Constitutional Convention

Vanguard's two seats of 1975 (one of which had been gained from the SDLP compared with 1973) effectively went one to the UUP and one to Sinn Fein. The runner-up was O'Hanlon (SDLP) who on the last count had 5289 votes to 5607 for News (also SDLP). David Calvert effectively took the seat previously won by his DUP colleague Douglas Hutchinson.

Westminster Election, 3 May 1979 (one seat)

*Harold McCusker (UUP) 31,668 (48.5%)
Seamus Mallon (SDLP) 23,545 (36.1%)
David Calvert (DUP) 5,634 (8.6%)
Thomas Moore (Rep Clubs) 2,310 (3.5%)
William Ramsay (Alliance) 2,074 (3.2%)

Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) majority: 8,123; Electorate: 93,097; Turnout: (70.9%)

* sitting MP

A good result for Mallon; a disappointing result for the DUP (who were compensated elsewhere).

Constitutional Convention election, 1 May 1975 (7 seats)

*Seamus Mallon (SDLP) 8,999
Michael Armstrong (UUP - UUUC) 8,802
*Douglas Hutchinson (DUP - UUUC) 7,746
*Thomas Carson (VUPP - UUUC) 5,974
Alister Black (VUPP - UUUC) 5,435
*Herbert Whitten (UUP - UUUC) 4,843
*Paddy O'Hanlon (SDLP) 4,710
*Hugh News (SDLP) 3,303
John Maginnis (UPNI) 2,797
Malachy McGurran (Rep Clubs) 2,577
Michael Connolly (Alliance) 1,742
Brian English (Alliance) 1,307
Patrick Houlahan (Rep Clubs) 617
Thomas Moore (Rep Clubs) 536

Votes by party:
[UUUC got 32,800 votes (55.2%) and won 5 seats (4.4 quotas)]
SDLP 17,012 (28.6%) 2 seats (2.3 quotas)
UUP 13,645 (23.0%) 2 seats (1.8 quotas)
VUPP 11,409 (19.2%) 2 seats (1.5 quotas)
DUP 7,746 (13.0%) 1 seat (1.0 quotas)
Rep Clubs 3,730 (6.3%, 0.5 quotas)
Alliance 3,049 (5.1%, 0.4 quotas)
UPNI 2,797 (4.7%, 0.4 quotas)

Electorate: 90,640
Votes cast: 61,399 (67.7%); spoilt votes: 2,011 (3.3%)
Valid votes: 59,388; quota: 7,424

* Member of the 1973 Assembly

The SDLP effectively lost a seat to Vanguard, in comparison with 1973, part of their net loss of two seats overall. This was at least partly because in comparison to 1973 they got far fewer transfers from Alliance (and also very few from Republican Clubs). The runner-up was O'Hanlon (SDLP) who on the last count had 6361 votes to 6457 for News (also SDLP). (They were destined to repeat this in 1982.)

Westminster election, 10 October 1974 (one seat)

*Harold McCusker (UUP - UUUC) 37,518 (60.0%)
@ Seamus Mallon (SDLP) 19,855 (31.8%)
Malachy McGurran (Rep Clubs) 5,138 (8.2%)

Ulster Unionist Party (UUP - UUUC) majority: 17,663; Electorate: 91,085

* sitting MP
@ Member of Assembly (which by this time had been prorogued)

Little change from eight months before, except that the SDLP swept up the remnants of the Nationalist vote.

Westminster election, 28 February 1974 (one seat)

Harold McCusker (UUP - UUUC) 33,194 (53.7%)
@ Paddy O'Hanlon (SDLP) 18,090 (29.3%)
Robin Glendinning (Alliance) 4,983 (8.1%)
Thomas Moore (Rep Clubs) 4,129 (6.7%)
Hugh Lewis (Unity) 1,364 (2.2%)

Ulster Unionist Party (UUP - UUUC) majority: 15,104; Electorate: 92,800

@ Member of Assembly

The outgoing Unionist MP, John Maginnis, was pro-Faulkner; McCusker got the Unionist nomination and won the seat. Lewis had been the Unity candidate in 1970 and had got 21,696 votes to Maginnis' 37,667; he now saw most of his votes heading to the SDLP.

Assembly election, 28 June 1973 (seven seats)

*Paddy O'Hanlon (SDLP) 8,219
Seamus Mallon (SDLP) 7,995
*Herbert Whitten (UUP, pro-White Paper) 6,891
Thomas Carson (Vanguard) 6,866
Hugh News (SDLP) 4,731
Douglas Hutchinson (DUP) 4,552
*James Stronge (UUP, pro-White Paper) 4,355
Alexander Greer (UUP, pro-White Paper) 2,630
Thomas Willey (DUP) 2,616
Michael Connolly (Alliance) 2,572
*Robert Mitchell (UUP, pro-White Paper) 2,571
Frederick Crowe (Vanguard) 2,465
Samuel McCammick (Vanguard) 2,018
Howard McNally (Alliance) 1,637
Thomas Newell (NILP) 1,044
Robert Murphy (Ind) 238

Votes by party:
SDLP 20,945 (34.1%) 3 seats (2.7 quotas)
UUP (pro) 16,447 (26.8%) 2 seats (2.1 quotas)
Vanguard 11,349 (18.5%) 1 seat (1.5 quotas)
DUP 7,168 (11.7%) 1 seat (0.9 quotas)
Alliance 4,209 (6.9%, 0.5 quotas)
NILP 1,044 (1.7%, 0.1 quotas)
Ind 238 (0.4%, 0.03 quotas)

Electorate: 89,056
Votes cast 63,355 (71.1%); spoilt votes 1,955 (3.1%)
Valid votes: 61,400; quota: 7,676

* Member of the Northern Ireland House of Commons when it was dissolved.

All four of the MPs elected for Armagh in the 1968 Stormont election stood again, and three were elected. The runner-up was Crowe (Vanguard) with 5093 votes on the last count, a long way behing Hutchinson (DUP) who was the last elected.

Stronge and Mitchell had been elected in 1968 as anti-O'Neill Official Unionists in Armagh Mid and Armagh North respectively; Whitten as a pro-O'Neill Official Unionist in Armagh Central. O'Hanlon had been elected as an Independent in Armagh South and was one of the founder members of the SDLP. Although both Stronge and Whitten were elected in 1973 on the basis that they supported the White Paper, Stronge changed his mind after Sunningdale and Whitten also changed his mind and voted against the Executive in the February 1974 vote of confidence.

See also:

Other sites based at ARK: ORB (Online Research Bank) | CAIN (Conflict Archive on the INternet) | Northern Ireland Life and Times Survey

Your comments, please! Send an email to me at nicholas.whyte@gmail.com.

Nicholas Whyte, 25 March 2003.

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