Boundaries
The seat was created in 1922 when, as part of the establishment of the devolved Stormont Parliament for Northern Ireland, the number of MPs in the Westminster Parliament was drastically cut. The seat is centred on the north section of Belfast, though at times the area around the Docks on the north side of the Lagan Estuary has instead been part of variously Belfast East and Belfast West. Belfast North also contains part of the district of Newtownabbey.
Belfast North contains 14 wards of Belfast City Council and 5 of Newtownabbey Borough Council. The constituency suffered the highest level of violence in Northern Ireland during The Troubles and covers many areas synonymous with the conflict – the New Lodge, Ardoyne, Rathcoole, Ballysillan and Woodvale. The overall tenor of the constituency is working-class, with a high proportion of residents in public housing, and concentrations of low-income single people in the middle Antrim Road and Cliftonville areas. There are some upscale residential areas around Belfast Castle and on the slopes of Cavehill. Sectarian divisions are stark, with a number of Peace Lines cutting through the constituency and, as of 2005, occasional outbursts of sectarian street violence, and was the focus for ugly post-ceasefire incidents such as the Holy Cross dispute.
At the boundary commission hearings in September 2005 prior to the United Kingdom general election, 2010, the SDLP proposed extending the seat to Cloughfern and Jordanstown. The DUP supported the addition of Cloughfern. Sinn Féin were generally supportive of the commission's proposals.
Following the revised recommondations, the Commission proposals were finalised and accepted by Parliament through the Northern Ireland Parliamentary Constituencies Order. The modified Belfast North constituency contested at the 2010 General Election was formed by the following electoral wards:
- From the Belfast government area, Ardoyne, Ballysillan, Bellevue, Castleview, Cavehill, Chichester Park, Cliftonville, Crumlin, Duncairn, Fortwilliam, Legoniel, New Lodge, Water Works, and Woodvale
- From the Newtownabbey district, Abbey, Ballyhenry, Cloughfern, Collinbridge, Coole, Dunanney, Glebe, Glengormley, Hightown, Valley, and Whitehouse
Read more about this topic: Belfast North (UK Parliament Constituency)
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