Created from Belfast North Replaced by Belfast North | Number of members 1 | |
Duncairn, a division of Belfast, was a UK parliamentary constituency in Ireland. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom from 1918 to 1922, using the first past the post electoral system.
Contents
Boundaries and boundary changes
This constituency comprised the eastern half of North Belfast, and contained the then Duncairn ward and the north-eastern part of the then Clifton ward of Belfast Corporation.
Prior to the 1918 general election and after the dissolution of Parliament in 1922, the area was part of the Belfast North constituency.
Politics
The constituency was a strongly unionist area. There was no real chance of a republican or nationalist candidate being elected. Carson was the Unionist leader in the House of Commons. His chief opponent was Major William Hamilton Davey, recently returned from France following the armistice. A barrister in civilian life, Major Davey stood for Home Rule and retained his deposit. During the course of the campaign Carson mistakenly referred to Major Davey as a 'Sinn Féiner' which led to damages being awarded to Major Davey in his subsequent legal action for slander.
The First Dáil
Sinn Féin contested the general election of 1918 on the platform that instead of taking up any seats they won in the United Kingdom Parliament, they would establish a revolutionary assembly in Dublin. In republican theory every MP elected in Ireland was a potential Deputy to this assembly. In practice only the Sinn Féin members accepted the offer.
The revolutionary First Dáil assembled on 21 January 1919 and last met on 10 May 1921. The First Dáil, according to a resolution passed on 10 May 1921, was formally dissolved on the assembling of the Second Dáil. This took place on 16 August 1921.
In 1921, Sinn Féin decided to use the UK-authorised elections for the Northern Ireland House of Commons and the House of Commons of Southern Ireland as a poll for the Irish Republic's Second Dáil. Duncairn was, in republican theory, incorporated in a four-member Dáil constituency of Belfast North.