1955 General Election
Mid Ulster was represented from the 1951 general election by Michael O'Neill, who ran as an 'Anti-Partition' candidate associated with the Irish Anti-Partition League. However at a Nationalist convention on 8 May 1955, O'Neill's supporters were outnumbered by supporters of Sinn Féin who had picked Tom Mitchell, forcing O'Neill to stand down in his favour. Mitchell was in HM Prison Belfast serving a sentence of ten years' imprisonment after he was caught during an Irish Republican Army raid on Omagh barracks. Although Mitchell as a Sinn Féin candidate did not have access to Nationalist halls to hold meetings, nor to those run by the Roman Catholic Church, he was still regarded as the favourite.
The Mid Ulster Unionist Association had a meeting on 15 April 1955, the day the 1955 general election was announced, but the news had not reached Omagh and so the association did not make any decision about whether to fight the seat. A meeting to select the Unionist candidate was held on Saturday 14 May; among the other names considered were Charles A. Beattie (of Kingarrow), William J. Hamilton, Lt-Col. Alexander, Thomas Lyons (Stormont MP for North Tyrone), and J. P. Duff OBE. Beattie won the selection.
The election was held on 26 May 1955 with nearly one in ten of the votes cast by post. After a recount, Mitchell was declared the winner by 260 votes.
Read more about this topic: Charles Beattie
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