August 1981 Fermanagh and South Tyrone by-election

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Fermanagh and South Tyrone constituency

Turnout

88.6%

1.7pp

	First party	Second party
	AHB	UUP
Candidate	Owen Carron	Ken Maginnis
Party	Anti H-Block	Ulster Unionist
Popular vote	31,278	29,048
Percentage	49.1%	45.6%
Swing	2.1 pp	3.2 pp

MP before election

Bobby Sands
Anti H-Block

Subsequent MP

Owen Carron
Anti H-Block

The August 1981 Fermanagh and South Tyrone by-election was the second by-election in the same year, held in Fermanagh and South Tyrone on 20 August 1981. It was seen by many as a rerun of the earlier contest in April. The by-election was caused by the death of the IRA hunger striker and MP Bobby Sands.

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Background of the constituency

The constituency, based on the districts of Fermanagh and Dungannon, was created in 1950 and had seen a series of closely fought elections between unionist and Irish nationalist candidates, with several elections being won due to the absence of competing candidates on one side or the other.^[1]

The April by-election was a straight contest between Sands, standing as "Anti-H-Block/Armagh Political Prisoner" and the former Ulster Unionist Party MP and leader Harry West, with no other candidates standing. Sands won with a majority of 1446 (with 3280 spoilt ballot papers).^[2]

Candidates in the 1981 by-election

Following Sands' victory and death shortly afterwards, the British government passed the Representation of the People Act barring prisoners from standing for Parliament.^[2]^[3] As a result, another prisoner on hunger strike could not be nominated. Instead Owen Carron, who had served as Sands' agent in the earlier election, was nominated as an "Anti-H-Block Proxy Political Prisoner".^[2]

The Ulster Unionists nominated a new candidate, Ken Maginnis, who had recently retired from the Ulster Defence Regiment with the rank of Major, who was on the liberal wing of the party. Maginnis was unusual amongst Ulster Unionist candidates as he had never been a member of the Orange Order.

The new by-election also saw four additional candidates stand. Seamus Close stood for the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland even though this was traditionally one of their weakest areas. Tom Moore stood for the Workers Party Republican Clubs who were associated with the Official IRA. Two fringe candidates also stood: Martin Green on a "General Amnesty" ticket and Simon Hall-Raleigh as "The Peace Lover."^[2]

Results

August 1981 Fermanagh and South Tyrone by-election^[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Anti H-Block	Owen Carron	31,278	49.1	−2.1
	Ulster Unionist	Ken Maginnis	29,048	45.6	−3.2
	Alliance	Seamus Close	1,930	3.0	N/A
	Republican Clubs	Tom Moore	1,132	1.8	N/A
	General Amnesty	Martin Green	249	0.4	N/A
	The Peace Lover	Simon Hall-Raleigh	90	0.1	N/A
Majority			2,230	3.5	-4.5
Turnout			63,727	88.6	+1.7
Registered electors			73,161
	Anti H-Block hold		Swing

There were 804 spoilt votes.^[2]

Compared to the April election, turnout rose by 1.7%, whilst there were over two and a half thousand fewer spoilt papers. Most of these additional votes went to the additional parties standing.^[2]

References

^ Whyte, Nicholas (12 May 2004). "Westminster elections in Northern Ireland since 1920". Northern Ireland Elections. ARK - Queen's University Belfast and Ulster University.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Whyte, Nicholas (3 April 2003). "Fermanagh and South Tyrone 1973-1982". Northern Ireland Elections. ARK - Queen's University Belfast and Ulster University.
^ Brent, Harry (5 May 2021). "IRA prisoner Bobby Sands died following 66 days on hunger strike on this day in 1981". The Irish Post.

External links

Campaign literature from the by-election

v t e By-elections in Northern Ireland to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom
1920s	June 1921: Mid Armagh Belfast Duncairn North Down July 1921: Mid Down West Down August 1921: South Londonderry January 1922: South Londonderry February 1922: West Down North Down June 1922: North Londonderry July 1922: North Down January 1929: Londonderry
1930s	March 1931: Fermanagh and Tyrone June 1934: Fermanagh and Tyrone May 1939: Down
1920s	February 1940: Belfast East November 1940: Queen's University of Belfast February 1943: Belfast West Antrim June 1946: Down March 1948: Armagh
1950s	November 1950: Belfast West May 1951: Londonderry October 1952: North Antrim November 1952: Belfast South April 1953: North Down November 1954: Armagh August 1955: Mid Ulster May 1956: Mid Ulster March 1959: Belfast East
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1970s	None
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1979	September: Manchester Central December: South West Hertfordshire
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v t e 1981 Irish hunger strike
Participants who died	Bobby Sands Francis Hughes Raymond McCreesh Patsy O'Hara Joe McDonnell Martin Hurson Kevin Lynch Kieran Doherty Thomas McElwee Michael Devine	Northern Ireland portal
Participants who survived	Brendan McLaughlin Paddy Quinn Laurence McKeown Pat McGeown Matt Devlin Liam McCloskey Patrick Sheehan Jackie McMullan Bernard Fox Hugh Carville John Pickering Gerard Hodgkins James Devine
Political and religious figures	Margaret Thatcher Garret FitzGerald Charles Haughey Humphrey Atkins Jim Prior Bernadette Devlin McAliskey Owen Carron Tomás Ó Fiaich Basil Hume Denis Faul John Magee
Key events	Blanket protest Dirty protest April 1981 Fermanagh and South Tyrone by-election June 1981 Irish general election August 1981 Fermanagh and South Tyrone by-election

This page was last edited on 14 April 2024, at 16:16