East Antrim (UK Parliament constituency)

For other constituencies of the same name, see East Antrim (disambiguation).

East Antrim
County constituency for the House of Commons
Boundary of East Antrim in Northern Ireland.
Districts of Northern Ireland	Larne, Carrickfergus, Newtownabbey, Moyle
Electorate	61,745 (March 2011)
Current constituency
Created	1983
Member of parliament	Sammy Wilson (DUP)
Number of members	One
Created from	North Antrim and South Antrim
1885–1922
Number of members	One
Type of constituency	County constituency
Replaced by	Antrim, Carrickfergus
Created from	Antrim
Overlaps
European Parliament constituency	Northern Ireland

East Antrim is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2005 by Sammy Wilson, a member of the Democratic Unionist Party. The constituency has voted for unionist candidates since its re-creation in 1983.

A constituency with identical boundaries is also used for elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Boundaries

Carrickfergus Castle

The original county constituency comprised the eastern part of County Antrim, being carved out of the former Antrim constituency. From 1885, East Antrim consisted of the baronies of Belfast Lower and Glenarm Upper, and parts of the baronies of Antrim Upper, Antrim Lower and Belfast Upper, and the town of Carrickfergus.

It returned one Member of Parliament 1885–1922.

The current seat was created in boundary changes in 1983, as part of an expansion of Northern Ireland's constituencies from 12 to 17, and was predominantly made up from parts of North Antrim and South Antrim. Since further revisions in 1995 (when it lost part of the district of Newtownabbey to the North Belfast constituency) it now covers the entirety of the districts of Larne and Carrickfergus, as well as part of Newtownabbey and Moyle.

Prior to the 2010 general election the Boundary Commission originally proposed two significant changes for East Antrim. In the south of the constituency it was proposed to transfer a further part of Newtownabbey to the North Belfast constituency whilst in the north the seat would have gained the Glens and Ballycastle in Moyle district from North Antrim. East Antrim would have been renamed 'Antrim Coast & Glens'. However this latter part of the proposal raised many questions, with some already arguing that the Glens have no natural ties to Jordanstown (and in 1995 the previous Boundary Commission cited this very reason when rejecting such a proposal).

Following consultation and revising the recommondations, the new boundaries for East Antrim were confirmed and passed through Parliament by the Northern Ireland Parliamentary Constituencies Order as follows:

• The whole district of Carrickfergus
• The whole district of Larne
• Glenaan, Glenariff, and Glendun from the Moyle district
• From Newtownabbey, the wards of Jordanstown, Monkstown, and Rostulla

History

1885 until 1922

The constituency was a strongly conservative then unionist area. There was not the slightest chance of a republican or nationalist candidate being elected.

From 1886 to 1974 the Conservative and Unionist members of the United Kingdom House of Commons formed a single Parliamentary party.

From 1905 there was an Ulster Unionist organisation, but MPs sponsored by it are classified as Irish Unionists until the Northern Ireland general election, 1921 made the partition of Ireland effective so that Irish Unionism ceased to be a realistic objective.

A victory for the Unionist candidate in 1918 by 15,206 votes to Sinn Féin's 861 votes demonstrated the virtual unanimity of the unionist support.

Consequently Sinn Féin did not contest the 1919 by-election in the constituency.

In 1922, the constituency was incorporated into the Antrim constituency, which from 1950 until 1983 was divided into the North Antrim and South Antrim constituencies.

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. This area, in republican theory, was incorporated in a seven-member Dáil constituency of Antrim.

Constituency since 1983

The constituency is overwhelmingly unionist, with the combined votes for nationalist parties rarely exceeding 10%. However there have been above average votes for parties outside the traditional unionist block, such as the Alliance and the Conservatives. In the local government elections for the equivalent area many votes often go to independent candidates or groups such as the Newtownabbey Ratepayers Association. While the SDLP sprung a surprise in 1998 by overtaking a DUP candidate to win the final seat due to Ulster Unionist transfers – the first time that any nationalist candidate has benefited in this way.

The main interest in Westminster Elections has been the contest between the Ulster Unionist Party and the Democratic Unionist Party. In 1983 the UUP were only 367 votes ahead of the DUP. As part of a pact to oppose the Anglo-Irish Agreement the DUP did not contest the seat until 1992 but they still failed to come close, though in the 1996 elections to the Northern Ireland Forum they were only slightly behind the UUP. But in the 2001 general election they achieved an astonishing result when they came with 128 votes of winning the Westminster seat, despite not having targeted it. In the 2003 Assembly election they followed this up by gaining two additional MLAs and outpolling the UUP for the first time.

The DUP remained eager to take the Westminster seat and in the 2005 general election they did so.

Members of Parliament

The Member of Parliament since the 2005 general election is Sammy Wilson of the Democratic Unionist Party. In that election he defeated Roy Beggs of the Ulster Unionist Party, who had sat for the seat since it was created at the 1983 general election.

Election		Member	Party
	1885	James Martin McCalmont	Irish Unionist
	1913	Robert Chaine Alexander McCalmont	Irish Unionist
	1919	George Boyle Hanna	Independent Unionist
1922		constituency abolished
1983		constituency recreated
	1983	Roy Beggs	Ulster Unionist
	2005	Sammy Wilson	Democratic Unionist

Election results

Elections in the 2010s

General Election 2015: East Antrim

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	DUP	Sammy Wilson	12,103	46.1	+0.2
	UUP	Roy Beggs Jnr	6,308	18.8	-4.9
	Alliance	Stewart Dickson	5,021	10.9	+3.9
	TUV	Ruth Wilson	3,660	6.9	+0.9
	UKIP	Ruth Wilson	2,314	5.0	+5.0
	Sinn Féin	Paddy McGuinness	1,903	5.7	-1.1
	SDLP	Margaret Anne McKillop	1,639	1.9	-4.7
	NI Conservatives	Alex Wilson	549	1.6	+1.6
Majority			5,795	27.3	+5.1
Turnout			33,497	53.3	+2.6
	DUP hold		Swing	-2.4

General Election 2010: East Antrim

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	DUP	Sammy Wilson	13,993	45.9	−1.0
	UCU-NF	Rodney McCune	7,223	23.7	−1.4
	Alliance	Gerry Lynch	3,377	11.1	−3.6
	Sinn Féin	Oliver McMullan	2,064	6.8	+1.4
	SDLP	Justin McCamphill	2,019	6.6	−0.8
	TUV	Sammy Morrison	1,826	6.0	N/A
Majority			6,770	22.2
Turnout			30,502	50.7
	DUP hold		Swing	0.2

Elections in the 2000s

General Election 2005: East Antrim

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	DUP	Sammy Wilson	15,766	49.6	+13.6
	UUP	Roy Beggs	8,462	26.6	−9.8
	Alliance	Séan Neeson	4,869	15.3	+2.8
	SDLP	Danny O'Connor	1,695	5.3	−2.0
	Sinn Féin	James McKeown	828	2.6	+0.1
	Rainbow Dream Ticket	David Kerr	147	0.5	+0.5
Majority			7,304	23.0
Turnout			31,767	54.5
	DUP gain from UUP		Swing	11.7

General Election 2001: East Antrim

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	UUP	Roy Beggs	13,101	36.4	−2.4
	DUP	Sammy Wilson	12,973	36.0	+16.6
	Alliance	John Mathews	4,483	12.5	−7.7
	SDLP	Danny O'Connor	2,641	7.3	+2.7
	Independent	Lindsay Mason	1,092	3.0	−0.3
	Sinn Féin	Janette Graffan	903	2.5	+0.9
	Conservative	Alan Greer	807	2.2	−4.6
Majority			128	0.4
Turnout			36,000	59.1	+0.9
	UUP hold		Swing

Elections in the 1990s

General Election 1997: East Antrim

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	UUP	Roy Beggs	13,318	38.8
	Alliance	Sean Neeson	6,929	20.2
	DUP	Jack McKee	6,682	19.5
	Conservative	Terence Dick	2,334	6.8
	PUP	Billy Donaldson	1,757	5.1
	SDLP	Danny O'Connor	1,576	4.6
	Independent	Lindsay Mason	1,145	3.3
	Sinn Féin	Chrissie McAuley	543	1.6
	Natural Law	Maura McCann	69	0.2
Majority			6,389	18.6
Turnout				58.3
	UUP hold		Swing

General Election 1992: East Antrim

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	UUP	Roy Beggs	16,966	43.2
	DUP	Nigel Dodds	9,544	24.3
	Alliance	Sean Neeson	9,132	23.3
	Conservative	Myrtle Boal	3,359	8.6
	Natural Law	Andrea Palmer	250	0.6
Majority			7,422	18.9
Turnout				62.4
	UUP hold		Swing

Elections in the 1980s

General Election 1987: East Antrim

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	UUP	Roy Beggs	23,942	71.6
	Alliance	Seán Neeson	8,582	25.6
	Workers' Party	Austin Kelly	936	2.8
Majority			15,360	46.0
Turnout				55.2
	UUP hold		Swing

East Antrim by-election, 1986

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	UUP	Roy Beggs	30,386	84.9
	Alliance	Seán Neeson	5,405	15.1
Majority			24,981
Turnout				59.2
	UUP hold		Swing	N/A

General Election 1983: East Antrim

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	UUP	Roy Beggs	14,293	37.4	N/A
	DUP	Jim Allister	13,926	36.5	N/A
	Alliance	Seán Neeson	7,620	20.0	N/A
	SDLP	Michael O'Cleary	1,047	2.7	N/A
	Independent	William Cunning	741	1.9	N/A
	Workers' Party	Austin Kelly	581	1.5	N/A
Majority			367	0.9	N/A
Turnout			38,154	65.1	N/A
	UUP win (new seat)

Elections in the 1910s

East Antrim by-election, 1919

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Independent Unionist	George Boyle Hanna	8,714	48.30	+48.30
	Irish Unionist	William Agnew Moore	7,549	41.84	-52.80
	Independent	Charles McFerran Legg	1,778	9.86	+9.86
Majority			1,165	6.46	N/A
Turnout			24,798	72.75	N/A
	Independent Unionist gain from Irish Unionist		Swing	N/A

General Election 1918: East Antrim

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Irish Unionist	Robert McCalmont	15,206	94.6	N/A
	Sinn Féin	Daniel Dumigan	861	5.4	N/A
Majority			14,345	89.3	N/A
Turnout			16,067	64.8	N/A
	Irish Unionist hold		Swing	N/A

East Antrim by-election, 1913: East Antrim

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Irish Unionist	Robert McCalmont	Unopposed	N/A	N/A
	Irish Unionist hold		Swing	N/A

General Election Dec 1910: East Antrim

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Irish Unionist	James McCalmont	Unopposed	N/A	N/A
	Irish Unionist hold		Swing	N/A

Elections in the 1900s

General Election 1906: East Antrim

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Irish Unionist	James McCalmont	4,496	67.70	+10.25
	Russellite Unionist	Henry Rosere Beddoes	2,145	32.30	+32.30
Majority			2,351	35.40	+20.50
Turnout			8,606	77.17	+7.00
	Irish Unionist hold		Swing	N/A

General Election 1900: East Antrim

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Irish Unionist	James McCalmont	3,582	57.45	N/A
	Independent Unionist	James King-Kerr	2,653	42.55	N/A
Majority			929	14.90	N/A
Turnout			8,886	70.17	N/A
	Irish Unionist hold		Swing	N/A

Elections in the 1890s

General Election 1895: East Antrim

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Irish Unionist	James McCalmont	Unopposed	N/A	N/A
	Irish Unionist hold		Swing	N/A

General Election 1892: East Antrim

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Irish Unionist	James McCalmont	Unopposed	N/A	N/A
	Irish Unionist hold		Swing	N/A

Elections in the 1880s

General Election 1886: East Antrim

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Irish Unionist	James McCalmont	Unopposed	N/A	N/A
	Irish Unionist hold		Swing	N/A

General Election 4 December 1885: East Antrim

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	James McCalmont	4,180	66.51	N/A
	Liberal	Marriott Robert Dalway	2,105	33.49	N/A
Majority			2,075	33.02	N/A
Turnout			8,773	71.64	N/A
	Conservative gain from new seat		Swing	N/A

See also

• List of Parliamentary constituencies in Northern Ireland

Bibliography

• Parliamentary Election Results in Ireland, 1801–1922, edited by B.M. Walker (Royal Irish Academy 1978)
• Who's Who of British members of parliament: Volume II 1886–1918, edited by M. Stenton and S. Lees (The Harvester Press 1978)