Armagh (UK Parliament Constituency) - Politics and History of The Constituency

Politics and History of The Constituency

The union took effect on 1 January 1801. There was no new election for the members of the 1st Parliament of the United Kingdom, as the House of Commons was composed of members elected to the previous Parliaments of Ireland and Great Britain. The constituencies consisted of the whole of County Armagh, excluding the part in the Parliamentary borough constituency of Armagh City.

Catholics were excluded from taking Irish seats in Parliament from 1691 until 1829. See Catholic emancipation for further details.

Catholics, who were otherwise qualified to vote, had to take various oaths before doing so; under Acts of 1691 and 1703. An Act of 1727 prohibited "papists" from voting at all. They were not again permitted to qualify to vote until 1793.

Before 1885 there was a restrictive property based franchise. In 1829 the traditional county 40 shilling freehold landowning qualification was changed to a £10 qualification (which was an increase to five times the previous level). It was not until the householder franchise was introduced for county elections, in the electoral reforms which took effect in 1885, that most (but not all) adult males became voters.

In these circumstances most Members of Parliament came from a limited number of Protestant aristocratic and gentry families. There were few contested elections.

In the first half century or so after the union this constituency was fairly evenly balanced between Whig/Liberal and Tory/Conservative parties. Thereafter the area became more Conservative.

The constituency was represented by two MPs from 1801 until 1885, and by one MP from 1922 until 1983. In 1885, it was split into Mid Armagh, North Armagh and South Armagh.

A new 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 consisted of the entirety of County Armagh. In 1983 most of it became part of the Newry and Armagh constituency, with part going to Upper Bann.

From its inception Armagh had a unionist majority, though by the 1970s the nationalist vote was in the mid 30s%.

In 1951, it was one of the last four seats to be uncontested in a UK general election, and in 1954 it saw the last uncontested by-election in the UK.

In 1974 the Ulster Unionist Party repudiated the Sunningdale Agreement and so did not reselect the pro Sunningdale MP, John Maginnis. Instead they ran Harold McCusker, who held the seat until 1983. He was then elected for Upper Bann, which contained part of Armagh.

For the history of the area post 1983, please see Newry and Armagh and Upper Bann.