South Down was a constituency of the Parliament of Northern Ireland.
Boundaries South Down was a county constituency comprising part of southern County Down. It was created when the House of Commons (Method of Voting and Redistribution of Seats) Act (Northern Ireland) 1929 introduced first-past-the-post elections throughout Northern Ireland. South Armagh was created by the division of Down into eight new constituencies. The constituency survived unchanged, returning one Member of Parliament until the Parliament of Northern Ireland was temporarily suspended in 1972, and then formally abolished in 1973.
The seat was centred on the towns of Newry and Warrenpoint, and also included certain district electoral divisions of the rural districts of Kilkeel and Newry No. 1.Northern Ireland Parliamentary Election results: Constituency BoundariesA list of the townlands comprising each of those divisions is in the Belfast Gazette Publication date:22 June 1923 Issue:104 Page:260 (Newry No. 1 RD) and the Belfast Gazette Publication date:22 June 1923 Issue:104 Page:241 (Kilkeel RD)
Politics The seat had a substantial nationalist majority, with nationalist candidates winning every election, excepting 1938, when no nationalist stood.Northern Ireland Parliamentary Election Results: Counties: Down In 1933 it elected Irish Prime Minister Éamon de Valera, though he did not sit in the Stormont Parliament.
Members of Parliament ElectedPartyName1929 John Henry Collins1933 Éamon de Valera1938 James Brown1938 1945 Peter Murnoy1949 Joe Connellan1967 Max Keogh
Election results
At the 1962 Northern Ireland general election, Joe Connellan was elected unopposed.
References