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Fermanagh and South Tyrone parliamentary seat | |||||||||||||||||||
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The1981 by-election held in Fermanagh and South Tyrone on 9 April 1981 is considered by many to be the most significantby-election held inNorthern Ireland duringthe Troubles.[1][2][3][4][5] It saw the first electoral victory for militantIrish republicanism, which the following year entered electoral politics in full force asSinn Féin. The successful candidate was theIRAhunger strikerBobby Sands, who died twenty-six days later.
The by-election was caused by the death of the sitting MP,Frank Maguire.[5]
The constituency, based on the districts ofFermanagh andDungannon, was created in 1950 and had seen a series of closely fought elections betweenunionist andIrish nationalist candidates, with several elections being won due to the absence of competing candidates on one side or the other. Nationalists of various hues had won the constituency in the1950,1951 and1955 general elections, while theUlster Unionist Party had won in1959,1964 and1966. Asthe Troubles gathered pace, nationalists agreed theUnity pact to run agreed candidates in border seats, withFrank McManus capturing Fermanagh and South Tyrone in the1970 general election.
TheFebruary 1974 general election was the first to take place after several major political realignments in Northern Ireland. Opposition to theSunningdale Agreement led to an alliance of unionist parties under the label of theUnited Ulster Unionist Coalition running agreed candidates in all constituencies, here putting forward the new leader of the Ulster Unionists,Harry West. Although unionist supporters of Sunningdale ranHubert Brown, West garnered 26,858 votes (43.8%) to Brown's 3,157 (5.1%). The nationalist vote was evenly split with McManus gaining 16,229 votes (26.3%) andDenis Haughey, standing for the newSocial Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), winning 15,410 votes (25.0%).[5] Many believed that an agreed single nationalist candidate could have won the seat. When asecond general election was held in OctoberFrank Maguire stood as anIndependent Republican with backing from all nationalists, while West was the sole unionist. Maguire gained 32,795 votes (51.8%) to West's 30,285 (47.9%) and 185 (0.3%) for Alan Evans, standing for theCommunist Party of Ireland (Marxist–Leninist).[5]
The fine balance of the seat continued in the 1975 elections to theNorthern Ireland Constitutional Convention when UUC gained 52% of the vote (with the smallUnionist Party of Northern Ireland gaining an additional 2.3%).[5] In the1979 general election neither side fielded sole candidates. Maguire was challenged byAustin Currie, a local SDLP activist (and later official candidate) who disagreed with the party's decision to give Maguire a clear run, while the new Ulster Unionist candidate,Raymond Ferguson, was challenged byErnest Baird, leader of theUnited Ulster Unionist Party, who sought to cement his new party's electoral position. Additionally theAlliance Party of Northern Ireland ranPeter Acheson. The results were: Maguire 22,398 (36.0%), Ferguson 17,411 (28.0%), Currie 10,785 (17.3%), Baird 10,607 (17.0%) and Acheson 1,070 (1.7%).[5]
Maguire's death led to a by-election in early 1981, when the1981 Irish hunger strike was underway. The by-election was seized on by supporters of the hunger strike as a way to register a protest and the leader of the hunger strikers,Bobby Sands, was nominated on the label "Anti-H-Block/Armagh Political Prisoner".Owen Carron served as his agent andDanny Morrison organised the campaign.
TheUlster Unionist Party nominatedHarry West, who had by now stood down as leader.
TheSocial Democratic and Labour Party had already selectedAustin Currie as prospective candidate for the seat before a by-election was in prospect.[6] When Sands' candidacy was announced the party came under pressure to withdraw in his favour, as putative candidatesBernadette Devlin-McAliskey and Noel Maguire had done, although initially it was said that the mainstream of the party was resistant.[7] On the last day for nominations the party executive decided not to stand, explaining that they wished to concentrate on local government elections which would take place in May; there was speculation that the executive did not share the local party's confidence and feared a poor result.[8] The SDLP decision not to stand in the by-election caused a great deal of dissent within the party.[6]
No other candidates contested the seat, making it one of the last occasions when a Westminster constituency by-election had only two candidates. Currie railed against the SDLP's decision not to stand, but the result was a highly polarised contest between unionism andIrish republicanism.
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anti H-Block | Bobby Sands | 30,493 | 51.2 | New | |
| UUP | Harry West | 29,046 | 48.8 | +20.8 | |
| Majority | 1,447 | 2.4 | N/A | ||
| Turnout | 59,538 | 86.9 | −0.2 | ||
| Registered electors | 72,349 | ||||
| Anti H-Blockgain fromInd. Republican | Swing | ||||
There were 3,280 spoilt ballot papers.[5]
Sands died only twenty-six days later, precipitating asecond by-election.New legislation was passed by Parliament to bar "convicted felons" from standing for election; as a result another hunger striker could not be nominated, soOwen Carron stood as "Anti-H-Block Proxy Political Prisoner".[5] The following year sawSinn Féin begin to contest elections in both Northern Ireland and theRepublic of Ireland.
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