1979 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland

← Oct. 1974 3 May 1979 1983 →
12 seats in Northern Ireland of the 635 seats in theHouse of Commons
First party Second party   Leader Harry West Ian Paisley Party UUP DUP Leader since Jan. 1974 1971 Leader's seat Fermanagh and South Tyrone defeated Antrim North Seats won 5 3 Seat change 1 2 Popular vote 254,578 70,795 Percentage 36.6% 10.2%   Third party Fourth party   Leader Gerry Fitt Ernest Baird Party SDLP UUUP Leader since 1970 1975 Leader's seat Belfast West Fermanagh and South Tyrone defeated Seats won 1 1 Seat change New Popular vote 126,235 39,856 Percentage 18.2% 5.7%

The1979 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland was held on 3 May with 12 MPs elected in single-seat constituencies usingfirst-past-the-post as part of the widergeneral election in the United Kingdom.

The election was afterLabour Partyprime ministerJames Callaghan lost avote of confidence by 311 votes to 310. The election was won by theConservative Party led byMargaret Thatcher, and began a period of 18-year government by the party.

Ulster Unionist leaderHarry West failed to win a seat for the second time, and would resign later that year after failing to win a seat at the firstEuropean Parliament election. TheDemocratic Unionist Party increased its representation, and theVanguard Unionist Progressive Party had disbanded.

Frank Maguire was re-elected as an Independent Nationalist, beating the leaders of both the UUP and the newUnited Ulster Unionist Party, as well asAustin Currie, a member of theSDLP standing without the support of the party. Maguire's death on 5 March 1981 led to a by-election won byBobby Sands, anIRA prisoner who died later that year as a result of ahunger strike. TheRepresentation of the People Act 1981 disqualified prisoners detained for more than a year from membership of theHouse of Commons, so the resulting by-election was contested by Sands's election agentOwen Carron, rather than by another prisoner on hunger strike.

Results^[1][2]

Party		Seats					Aggregate Votes
		Total	Gains	Losses	Net +/-	Of all (%)	Total	Of all (%)	Difference
	UUP	5	0	1	1	41.7	254,578	36.6	0.1
	DUP	3	2	0	2	25.0	70,795	10.2	1.7
	SDLP	1	0	0		8.3	126,235	18.2	4.2
	UUUP	1	1	0	1	8.3	39,856	5.7	New
	Ind. Unionist	1	1	0	1	8.3	36,989	5.3	4.6
	Ind. Nationalist	1	0	0		8.3	22,398	3.2	1.5
	Alliance	0	0	0		0.0	82,892	11.9	5.5
	Irish Independence	0	0	0		0.0	23,086	3.3	New
	Republican Clubs	0	0	0		0.0	12,098	1.7	1.3
	Independent SDLP	0	0	0		0.0	10,795	1.6	New
	Unionist Party NI	0	0	0		0.0	8,021	1.2	1.9
	NI Labour	0	0	0		0.0	4,411	0.6	1.0
	United Labour	0	0	0		0.0	1,895	0.3	0.3
	Independent or other	0	0	0		0.0	1,578	0.2	0.3
Total		12					695,627

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