Created 1929 Election method First past the post | Abolished 1972 Founded 1929 | |
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South Tyrone was a constituency of the Parliament of Northern Ireland.
Contents
Boundaries
South Tyrone was a county constituency comprising the central part of County Tyrone. It was created when the House of Commons (Method of Voting and Redistribution of Seats) Act (Northern Ireland) 1929 introduced first-past-the-post elections throughout Northern Ireland. South Tyrone was created by the division of Fermanagh and Tyrone into eight new constituencies, of which five were in County Tyrone. The constituency survived unchanged, returning one member of Parliament, until the Parliament of Northern Ireland was temporarily suspended in 1972 and then formally abolished in 1973.
The seat was made up from parts of the rural districts of Clogher and Dungannon as well as the town of Dungannon.
Politics
County Tyrone had five Stormont MPs from 1929 until 1972. The seats in the North and South of the county were Unionist, the constituency covering the East could be considered marginal, whilst those in the West and centre of the county were nationalist.
South Tyrone was contested by the Nationalist Party once, in 1949. All other contests were triggered by either an independent unionist or member of the Northern Ireland Labour Party standing against the Ulster Unionist Party, which consistently held the seat.
MPs for the area included Stormont's last Minister of State for Home Affairs, John Taylor, and William Frederick McCoy who served briefly as Speaker to the House of Commons of Northern Ireland from 25 January 1956 until 23 April 1956.