Fermanagh and South Tyrone
County constituency for theHouse of Commons
Interactive map of boundaries from 2024
Location within Northern Ireland
Districts of Northern Ireland	Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Fermanagh and Omagh Mid Ulster
Electorate	77,828 (July 2024)
Major settlements	Enniskillen Dungannon
Current constituency
Created	1950
Member of Parliament	Pat Cullen (Sinn Féin)
Seats	1
Created from	Fermanagh and Tyrone

Fermanagh and South Tyrone is a Northern Irelandparliamentary constituency in theHouse of Commons of the United Kingdom. It has been represented byPat Cullen ofSinn Féin since the2024 general election. The same area is also theNorthern Ireland Assembly constituency ofFermanagh and South Tyrone.

Fermanagh and South Tyrone was created in 1950 when the two-memberFermanagh and Tyrone was divided.

Throughout its existence, there has been a rough balance betweenunionist andnationalist voters, though in recent years the nationalists have had a slight majority. Many elections have seen a candidate from one community triumph due to multiple candidates from the other community splitting the vote. Perhaps because of this balance between the communities, Fermanagh and South Tyrone has on multiple occasions had the highest turnout and the smallest winning margin of any constituency in Northern Ireland.

The seat was won by theNationalist Party in1950 and1951, the closely contested 1951 election seeing a 93.4% turnout – a UK record for any election.

In1955 the constituency was won byPhilip Clarke ofSinn Féin, but he was unseated onpetition on the basis that his criminal conviction (forIrish Republican Army activity) made him ineligible. Instead, the seat was awarded to theUlster Unionist Party (UUP) candidate.

In1970 the seat was won byFrank McManus, standing on theUnity ticket that sought to unite nationalist voters behind a single candidate. In theFebruary 1974 general election, however, theSocial Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) contested the seat, dividing the nationalist vote and allowingHarry West of the UUP to win with the support of theVanguard Progressive Unionist Party and theDemocratic Unionist Party.

In theOctober 1974 general election, a nationalist pact was agreed andFrank Maguire won, standing as anIndependent Republican. He retained his seat in the1979 general election, when both the unionist and nationalist votes were split, the former by the intervention ofErnest Baird, leader of the short-livedUnited Ulster Unionist Party, and the latter byAustin Currie, who defied the official SDLP decision to not contest the seat. Maguire died in early 1981.

Theensuing by-election took place amidst the1981 Irish Hunger Strike. As part of the campaign for the five demands of the prisoners, theProvisional Irish Republican Army Officer Commanding in theMaze prison,Bobby Sands, was nominated as anAnti-H-Block/Armagh Political Prisoner candidate.Harry West stood for the UUP, but no other candidates contested the by-election. On 9 April 1981, Sands won with 30,492 votes against 29,046 for West. 26 days later Sands died on hunger strike. Speedy legislation barred prisoners serving a sentence of 12 months or longer from standing for Parliament, and so in the second by-election Sands's agentOwen Carron stood as a "Proxy Political Prisoner". The UUP nominatedKen Maginnis. Thesecond by-election in August was also contested by theAlliance Party of Northern Ireland, theWorkers' Party Republican Clubs, a candidate standing on a label of General Amnesty and another as The Peace Lover. The turnout was even higher, with most of the additional votes going to the additional parties standing, and Carron was elected. Inthe 1982 election for the Northern Ireland Assembly, Carron headed the Sinn Féin slate for the constituency and was elected.

Republicans suffered a reversal in the1983 general election, when the SDLP contested the seat. Maginnis won and held the seat for the UUP for the next eighteen years until he retired. By this point boundary changes had resulted in a broad 50:50 balance between unionists and nationalists and it was expected that a single unionist candidate would hold the seat in the2001 general election.James Cooper was nominated by the UUP. On this occasion, however, both the nationalist and unionist votes were to be split. Initially,Maurice Morrow of the DUP was nominated to stand, with the DUP fiercely opposing the UUP's support for theGood Friday Agreement. Morrow then withdrew in favour of Jim Dixon, a survivor of theEnniskillen bombing who stood as an Independent Unionist opposed to the Agreement.Tommy Gallagher of the SDLP ran, but his intervention did not do enough damage to Sinn Féin. Sinn Féin'sMichelle Gildernew won by 53 votes over Cooper. Subsequently, the result was challenged amid allegations that a polling station had been kept open by force for longer than the deadline, allowing more people to vote, but the courts—while conceding that this happened—did not uphold the challenge, because it held that the votes cast after the legal closing time would not have affected the outcome.^[1]

Ahead of the2005 general election, there was speculation that a single unionist candidate could retake the seat. The UUP and DUP, however, ran opposing candidates and in the event Gildernew held her seat. She kept the seat at the2010 general election by four votes over the Unionist candidate,Rodney Connor.^[2] Following the election, Connor lodged an election petition challenging the result, based on a dispute about differences in the number of ballot papers recorded at polling stations and those subsequently recorded at the count centre.^[3] The petition was rejected after it was found that only three extra votes remained unaccounted for. The judge ruled that "even if those votes were introduced in breach of the rules and if they had all been counted in favour of the first respondent their exclusion would still have given the first respondent (Ms Gildernew) a majority of one vote and the result would not have been affected."^[4]

In the2015 general election Sinn Féin's Michelle Gildernew lost the seat to the UUP's candidateTom Elliott. Although Elliott was running for the UUP, he was also being actively supported by the DUP, theTraditional Unionist Voice and theUK Independence Party. TheConservative Party also refused to run a candidate in Fermanagh and South Tyrone, despite running in 16 out of the other 17 constituencies.^[5] Just as in theFebruary 1974 and1983 elections, faced with a single Unionist candidate, the SDLP refused to discuss a nationalist pact with Sinn Féin.

Gildernew re-captured her seat in the2017 general election. In the2019 general election she was re-elected with a majority of just 57 votes (the narrowest result in the UK), despite the DUP withdrawing and the SDLP standing a candidate. This made the 2019 election the second time in under ten years that Fermanagh and South Tyrone has been the seat with the smallest winning majority in the UK.

In the 2024 general election, Royal College of Nursing chief Pat Cullen announced that she would contest the seat representing Sinn Féin. Cullen won the seat, with a majority of 4,486 votes despite being against single unionist candidate, Diana Armstrong of the UUP. Cullen increased Sinn Féin's vote share in Fermanagh South Tyrone by 6.7%, securing the largest Nationalist majority since the 2005 general election.

Under theRepresentation of the People Act 1948, all two-member constituencies were divided. The old two-memberFermanagh and Tyrone was replaced by Fermanagh and South Tyrone andMid Ulster (which also took territory from the oldLondonderry constituency. These changes took effect at the1950 general election. On its establishment, it included all ofCounty Fermanagh and the southern part ofCounty Tyrone. Of thepost-1973 districts, it contained all ofFermanagh andDungannon. In boundary changes resulting from areview in 1995, a section of the Dungannon district, around the town ofCoalisland, was transferred toMid Ulster.

1950–1983:County Fermanagh; the urban district ofDungannon; the rural districts of Clogher and Dungannon, and that part of the rural district of Omagh consisting of thedistrict electoral divisions of Aghafad, Dervaghroy, Dromore, Drumharvey, Ecclesville, Fallaghearn,Fintona, Greenan, Killskerry, Lifford, Moorfield, Rahoney, Seskinore, Tattymoyle and Trillick.^[6]

1983–1997: The district of Fermanagh; and the district ofDungannon.^[7]

1997–2024: The district of Fermanagh; and in the district of Dungannon (Dungannon and South Tyrone Borough from 1999), the wards of Augher, Aughnacloy, Ballygawley, Ballysaggart, Benburb, Caledon, Castlecaulfield, Clogher, Coolhill, Drumglass, Fivemiletown, Killyman, Killymeal, Moy, Moygashel, and Mullaghmore.^[8][9]

2024–present: InArmagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon, the ward of Blackwatertown; inFermanagh and Omagh, the wards of Ballinamallard, Belcoo and Garrison, Belleek and Boa, Boho, Cleenish and Letterbreen, Brookeborough, Castlecoole, Derrygonnelly, Derrylin, Donagh, Ederney and Kesh, Erne, Florence Court and Kinawley, Irvinestown, Lisbellaw, Lisnarrick, Lisnaskea, Maguiresbridge, Newtownbutler, Portora, Rosslea, Rossorry, and Tempo; and inMid Ulster, the wards of Augher and Clogher, Aughnacloy, Ballygawley, Ballysaggart, Caledon, the part of the Castlecaulfield ward lies to the south of the northern boundary of the 1997–2024 Fermanagh and South Tyrone constituency, Fivemiletown, Killymeal, Moy, Moygashel, and Mullaghmore.^[10]

Caroline Wheeler is a member of the United KingdomLabour Party who ran as an independent in the seat as the Labour Party do not run in Northern Ireland.^[17][18]

This was the smallest majority at the 2019 general election.^[19]

Rodney Connor had the support of theDemocratic Unionist Party and theUlster Conservatives and Unionists.^[27] Following the close result, Connor lodged anelection petition against Gildernew alleging irregularities in the counting of the votes had affected the result. However the High Court found that there were only three ballot papers which could not be accounted for, and even if they were all votes for Connor, Gildernew would have had a plurality of one. The election was therefore upheld.^[28]

Boundary changes took effect from the1997 general election. The projections of what the 1992 result would have been if fought on 1997 boundaries are shown below^[32]

Minor boundary changes took effect from the1983 general election.

After the election, Philip Clarke was found ineligible by anelection court, andLord Robert Grosvenor was declared elected in his place.

On census day 2021 there were 111,790 people living in the Fermanagh and South Tyrone constituency.^[38] Of these:

• 60.4% (67,560) belong to or were brought up in the Catholic Christian faith and 33.7% (37,711) belong to or were brought up in various 'Protestant and Other Christian (including Christian related)' denominations. 1.0% (1,107) belong to other religions and 4.8% (5,412) had no religious background.
• 24.4% (27,263) indicated that they had a British-only identity, 37.1% (41,447) had an Irish-only identity and 19.2% (21,439) had a Northern Irish–only identity (respondents could indicate more than one national identity).^[39]

• F. W. S. Craig,British Parliamentary Election Results 1918–1949
• F. W. S. Craig,British Parliamentary Election Results 1950–1970

• 2017 Election House Of Commons Library 2017 Election report
• "Fermanagh & South Tyrone". Ask Aristotle (Election results from 1992).Guardian Unlimited. Guardian Media Group. Archived fromthe original on 10 August 2004. Retrieved20 May 2022.
• "Political Science Resource". Keele University. 2 July 2009. Archived fromthe original on 2 July 2009. (Election results from 1951 to present)
• Fermanagh and South Tyrone ARK – Access Research Knowledge – (Election results 1983 – 1992)
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "F"
• Fermanagh and South Tyrone UK Parliament constituency (boundaries April 2010 – May 2024) atMapIt UK
• Fermanagh and South Tyrone UK Parliament constituency (boundaries from June 2024) atMapIt UK

54°32′31″N7°18′32″W / 54.542°N 7.309°W /54.542; -7.309

• Westminster Parliamentary constituencies in Northern Ireland
• Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 1950
• Politics of County Fermanagh
• Politics of County Tyrone

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