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South Down (Assembly constituency)

Northern Ireland Assembly constituency

Summary

Northern Ireland Assembly constituency

Field	Value
name	South Down
type	Northern Ireland Assembly
Parliamentary
year	1973
image	[[Image:SouthDownConstituency.svg	250px]]
caption	South Down shown within Northern Ireland
members_label	MLAs
members	{{unbulleted list
	border	darkgray}} Sinéad Ennis (SF)
	border	darkgray}} Diane Forsythe (DUP)
	border	darkgray}} Cathy Mason (SF)
	border	darkgray}} Colin McGrath (SDLP)
	border	darkgray}} Andrew McMurray (APNI)
seats	6 (1996–2016)
5 (2017–)
local_council_label	Districts
local_council	Newry, Mourne and Down District Council and small portion of ABC council
blank1_name	Boundaries
blank1_info

South Down is an electoral constituency for the Northern Ireland Assembly. It lies in the southern portion of County Down.

The seat was first used for a Northern Ireland-only election for the Northern Ireland Assembly in 1973. It usually shares the same boundaries as the South Down UK Parliament constituency, however the boundaries of the two constituencies were slightly different from 1983 to 1986 as the Assembly boundaries had not caught up with Parliamentary boundary changes and from 1996 to 1997 when members of the Northern Ireland Forum had been elected from the newly drawn Parliamentary constituencies but the 51st Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected in 1992 under the 1983–95 constituency boundaries, was still in session.

Members were then elected from the constituency to the 1975 Constitutional Convention, the 1982 Assembly, the 1996 Forum and then to the current Assembly from 1998.

Some of the most high-profile MLAs for the constituency have included Caitríona Ruane, Margaret Ritchie, and John McCallister.

For further details on the history and boundaries of the constituency, see South Down (UK Parliament constituency).

Members

Election	MLA
(party)	MLA
(party)	MLA
(party)	MLA
(party)	MLA
(party)	MLA
(party)	MLA
(party)	Social Democratic and Labour Party}}" rowspan=4	Social Democratic and Labour Party}}" rowspan=6	Social Democratic and Labour Party}}" rowspan=16	Ulster Unionist Party}}"	Ulster Unionist Party}}" rowspan=11	Ulster Unionist Party}}" rowspan=2	Vanguard Progressive Unionist Party}}" rowspan=2	Unionist Party of Northern Ireland}}"	Ulster Unionist Party}}" rowspan=2	Democratic Unionist Party}}" rowspan=2	Sinn Féin}}" rowspan=12	Social Democratic and Labour Party}}" rowspan=10	Democratic Unionist Party}}" rowspan=8	Sinn Féin}}" rowspan=10	Colin McGrath
(SDLP)	Sinéad Ennis
(Sinn Féin)	Independent Unionist}}"	Cathy Mason
(Sinn Féin)	Alliance Party of Northern Ireland}}"	Democratic Unionist Party}}"	Diane Forsythe
(DUP)	Andrew McMurray
(Alliance)
1973	Patrick O'Donoghue
(SDLP)	Eddie McGrady
(SDLP)	Frank Feely
(SDLP)	Brian Faulkner
(UUP/UPNI)	Herbert Heslip
(UUP)	Ronald Broadhurst
(UUP)	Cecil Harvey
(Vanguard)
1975	Peter Brush
(UUP)
1982	Raymond McCullough
(UUP)	William Brown
(UUP)	Jim Wells
(DUP)	Democratic Unionist Party}}" rowspan=2	George Graham
(DUP)
**1985
by-election**	Jeffrey Donaldson
(UUP)
1996	Mick Murphy
(Sinn Féin)	Margaret Ritchie
(SDLP)	Hugh Carr
(SDLP)	Dermot Nesbitt
(UUP)	*5 seats
1996–1998*
1998	Eamon O'Neill
(SDLP)	P. J. Bradley
(SDLP)	Jim Wells
(DUP/Independent Unionist)	*6 seats
1998–2017*
2003	Caitríona Ruane
(Sinn Féin)	Willie Clarke
(Sinn Féin)	Margaret Ritchie
(SDLP)
2007	John McCallister
(UUP/Independent)
2011	Karen McKevitt
(SDLP)
**April 2012
co-option**	Chris Hazzard
(Sinn Féin)	Seán Rogers
(SDLP)
2016	Sinéad Bradley
(SDLP)	Harold McKee
(UUP)
2017	*5 seats
2017–present*	*5 seats
2017–present*
**June 2017
co-option**	Emma Rogan
(Sinn Féin)
**May 2018
defection**
2022	Patrick Brown
(Alliance)
**April 2024
co-option**

Note: The columns in this table are used only for presentational purposes, and no significance should be attached to the order of columns. For details of the order in which seats were won at each election, see the detailed results of that election.

Elections

Northern Ireland Assembly

2022

2017

2016

2011

2007

2003

1998

1996 forum

Successful candidates are shown in bold.

Party	Candidate(s)	Votes
	Eddie McGrady
Hugh Carr
Margaret Ritchie
Marietta Farrell
John Doris	20,220	43.2
	Dermot Nesbitt
Frederick Wharton
Gerry Douglas
Albert Colmer
William Martin	10,379	22.2
	Mick Murphy
Frank McDowell
Martin Gough
Deidre Clark	6,142	13.1
	William Alexander
John Finlay
William Burns	5,060	10.8
	Julian Crozier
Michael Healy	1,685	3.6
	Malachi Curran
Patrick O'Connor
Edna Furey
James Masson
Michael Kearney	927	2.0
	George Graham
James McDonald	497	1.1
	Bronagh Lawson
Claire Hannah
Lynn Carvill
Ursula Leahy	464	1.0
	Norma Coulter
Denis Paisley	404	0.9
	Maggie Burch
Eugene O'Shea
Christopher Busby	251	0.6
	Paul Megarity
Michael Henderson	197	0.4
	Marie O'Hagan
Eddie O'Hagan	162	0.4
	Samuel Pollock
Stanley Watson
James McElrath	130	0.3
	William Leneghan
Sean O'Baoill	117	0.2
	Veronica McEneaney
Jim Ryan	65	0.1
	Desmond Garrett
William McCarthy	30	0.1
Chambers	George Chambers
Doreen Larmour	18	0.0

1985 by-election

1982

1975 Constitutional Convention

1973

References

"Statement of Persons Nominated – South Down".
"NI Assembly Election 2017".
"NI Assembly Election 2016".
"NI Assembly Election 2011".
"NI Assembly Election 2007".
"NI Assembly Election 2003".
"NI Assembly Election 1998".
[http://www.ark.ac.uk/elections/96sd.htm 1996 Candidates – South Down], Northern Ireland Elections
Morton, Robin. (1985-10-18). "Easy election victory for OUP candidate". Belfast Telegraph.
"NI Assembly Election 1982".
"NI Convention Election 1975".
"NI Assembly Election 1973".

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

constituencies-of-the-northern-ireland-assembly politics-of-county-down 1973-establishments-in-northern-ireland constituencies-established-in-1973

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