Northern Ireland (European Parliament constituency)

Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
European Parliament constituency
	Location among the 2014 constituencies
Member state	United Kingdom
Created	1979
Dissolved	31 January 2020
MEPs	3
Sources
	[2][3]

Northern Ireland (Irish: Tuaisceart Éireann [ˈt̪ˠuəʃcəɾˠt̪ˠ ˈeːɾʲən̪ˠ] ^ⓘ;^[1] Ulster-Scots: Norlin Airlann) was a constituency of the European Parliament from 1979 until the UK exit from the European Union on 31 January 2020. It elected three MEPs using the single transferable vote, making it the only constituency in the United Kingdom which did not use first-past-the-post or party-list proportional representation.

Boundaries

The constituency covered the entirety of Northern Ireland, a constituent country of the United Kingdom. It was the only constituency in the United Kingdom the boundaries of which remained unchanged from the first direct election in 1979 until the UK left the European Union in 2020.

Members of the European Parliament

Year		Party		Party		Party
1979	Ian Paisley	Democratic Unionist	John Hume	SDLP	John Taylor	Ulster Unionist
1984					John Taylor
1989					Jim Nicholson
1994
1999
2004	Jim Allister		Bairbre de Brún	Sinn Féin
2007	Jim Allister	Traditional Unionist Voice
2009	Diane Dodds	Democratic Unionist				Conservatives and Unionists
2012			Martina Anderson			Ulster Unionist
2014						Ulster Unionist
2019					Naomi Long	Alliance

Note: The columns in this table are used only for presentational purposes, and no significance should be attached to the order of columns. For details of the order in which seats were won at each election, see the detailed results of that election.

Elections

2019

2019 European Parliament election: Northern Ireland^[2]
Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
Party		Candidate	FPv%	1	2	3	4	5
	Sinn Féin	Martina Anderson	22.17	126,951	128,117	128,190	128,200.50	152,436.50
	DUP	Diane Dodds	21.83	124,991	127,291	155,422
	Alliance	Naomi Long	18.50	105,928	115,327	122,263	123,917.00	170,370.00
	SDLP	Colum Eastwood	13.72	78,589	80,949	82,101	82,413.50
	TUV	Jim Allister	10.83	62,021	63,872	79,540	89,854.00	90,079.00
	UUP	Danny Kennedy	9.26	53,052	54,736
	Green (NI)	Clare Bailey	2.18	12,471
	UKIP	Robert Hill	0.89	5,115
	Independent	Jane Morrice	0.30	1,719
	Independent	Neil McCann	0.17	948
	NI Conservatives	Amandeep Singh Bhogal	0.12	662
Electorate: 1,278,951 Valid: 572,447 Spoilt: 4,649 (0.81%) Quota: 143,112 Turnout: 577,275 (45.14%)

2014

Ten candidates stood in the election.^[3]^[4]

2014 European Parliament election: Northern Ireland^[5]^[6]
Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
Party		Candidate	FPv%	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
	Sinn Féin	Martina Anderson	25.5	159,813
	DUP	Diane Dodds	20.9	131,163	131,831	131,845	133,465	139,791	143,009	179,302
	UUP	Jim Nicholson	13.3	83,438	84,418	84,426	86,672	92,301	99,260	135,993	158,212
	SDLP	Alex Attwood	13.0	81,594	81,790	83,845	87,028	88,147	112,822	114,981	115,273
	TUV	Jim Allister	12.1	75,806	76,182	76,195	77,065	84,438	86,020
	Alliance	Anna Lo	7.1	44,432	44,978	45,292	53,953	55,347
	UKIP	Henry Reilly	3.9	24,584	24,914	24,945	26,017
	Green (NI)	Ross Brown	1.7	10,598	10,923	11,038
	NI21	Tina McKenzie	1.7	10,553	10,823	10,862
	NI Conservatives	Mark Brotherston	0.7	4,144
Electorate: 1,226,771 Valid: 626,125 Spoilt: 9,968 (1.6%) Quota: 156,532 Turnout: 635,927

2009

2009 European Parliament election: Northern Ireland^[7]
Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
Party		Candidate	FPv%	1	2	3
	Sinn Féin	Bairbre de Brún	26.0	126,184
	DUP	Diane Dodds	18.2	88,346	91,260	115,722
	UCU-NF	Jim Nicholson	17.1	82,893	94,285	132,227
	SDLP	Alban Maginness	16.2	78,489	94,814	97,428
	TUV	Jim Allister	13.7	66,197	70,481
	Alliance	Ian Parsley	5.5	26,699
	Green (NI)	Steven Agnew	3.3	15,764
Electorate: 1,141,979 Valid: 484,572 Spoilt: 4,319 (0.9%) Quota: 121,144 Turnout: 488,891

2004

2004 European Parliament election: Northern Ireland^[8]
Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
Party		Candidate	FPv%	1	2	3
	DUP	Jim Allister	32.0	175,761
	Sinn Féin	Bairbre de Brún	26.3	144,541
	UUP	Jim Nicholson	16.6	91,164	124,646	147,058
	SDLP	Martin Morgan	15.9	87,559	88,010	108,531
	Independent	John Gilliland	6.6	36,270	39,390
	Socialist Environmental	Eamonn McCann	1.6	9,172	9,268
	Green (NI)	Lindsay Whitcroft	0.9	4,810	5,134
Electorate: 1,072,669 Valid: 549,277 Spoilt: 5,467 (1.0%) Quota: 137,320 Turnout: 554,744

Gilliland's candidacy was supported by Alliance, Workers' Party, Labour and others.^[9]

1999

1999 European Parliament election: Northern Ireland^[10]
Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
Party		Candidate	FPv%	1	2	3
	DUP	Ian Paisley	28.4	192,762
	SDLP	John Hume	28.1	190,731
	UUP	Jim Nicholson	17.6	119,507	162,627	184,739
	Sinn Féin	Mitchel McLaughlin	17.3	117,643	119,352	119,384
	PUP	David Ervine	3.31	22,494
	UK Unionist	Robert McCartney	2.98	20,283
	Alliance	Seán Neeson	2.12	14,391
	Natural Law	James Anderson	0.15	998
Electorate: 1,191,307 Valid: 678,809 Spoilt: 8,764 Quota: 169,703 Turnout: 687,573

1994

1994 European Parliament election: Northern Ireland - 3 seats^[11]^[12]
Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
Party		Candidate	FPv%	1	2
	DUP	Ian Paisley	29.2	163,246
	SDLP	John Hume	28.9	161,992
	UUP	Jim Nicholson	23.8	133,459	149,541.25
	Alliance	Mary Clark-Glass	4.1	23,157	23,375.55
	Sinn Féin	Tom Hartley	3.8	21,273	21,278.10
	Sinn Féin	Dodie McGuinness	3.1	17,195	17,238.95
	Sinn Féin	Francie Molloy	3.0	16,747	16.756.60
	Ulster Independence	Hugh Ross	1.4	7,858	12,575.05
	NI Conservatives	Myrtle Boal	1.0	5,583	6,106.95
	Workers' Party	John Lowry	0.5	2,543	2,579.00
	Labour Party NI	Niall Cusack	0.4	2,464	2,518.90
	Natural Law	James Anderson	0.2	1,418	1,492.70
	Independent	June Campion	0.2	1,088	1,127.15
	Independent	David Kerr	0.1	571	877.15
	Natural Law	Susannah Thompson	0.1	454	534.40
	Natural Law	Michael Kennedy	0.1	419	443.90
	Independent	Robert Mooney	0.1	400	455.95
Electorate: 1,151,389 Valid: 559,867 Spoilt: 9,234 Quota: 139,967 Turnout: 49.4%

Note 1: Campion's candidacy, with the ballot paper description 'Peace Coalition', was supported by Democratic Left, the Greens and some Labour groups.
Note 2: Kerr appeared on the ballot paper with the description Independence for Ulster.
Note 3: Mooney appeared on the ballot paper with the description Constitutional Independent Northern Ireland.

1989

1989 European Parliament election: Northern Ireland^[13]
Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
Party		Candidate	FPv%	1	2
	DUP	Ian Paisley	29.9	160,110
	SDLP	John Hume	25.5	136,335
	UUP	Jim Nicholson	22.2	118,785	141,583
	Sinn Féin	Danny Morrison	9.1	48,914	48,987
	Alliance	John Alderdice	5.2	27,905	28,633
	NI Conservatives	Laurence Kennedy	4.8	25,789	26,872
	Green (NI)	Malcolm Samuel	1.2	6,569	6,876
	Workers' Party	Seamus Lynch	1.0	5,590	5,668
	Labour	Mark Langhammer	0.7	3,540	3,661
	Labour Party NI	Brian Caul	0.2	1,274	1,304
Electorate: 1,106,852 Valid: 534,811 Spoilt: 5,356 Quota: 133,703 Turnout: 540,167

Langhammer appeared on the ballot as the 'Labour Representation' candidate – the Campaign for Labour Representation aimed to persuade the British Labour Party to organise in Northern Ireland.

Caul appeared on the ballot as the candidate of Labour '87, a merger of the Labour Party of Northern Ireland, Northern Ireland Labour Party, Ulster Liberal Party and United Labour Party.

1984

1984 European Parliament election: Northern Ireland^[14]
Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
Party		Candidate	FPv%	1	2	3	4
	DUP	Ian Paisley	33.6	230,251
	SDLP	John Hume	22.1	151,399	151,664	156,310	183,256
	UUP	John Taylor	21.5	147,169	185,714
	Sinn Féin	Danny Morrison	13.3	91,476	91,525	92,644	93,079
	Alliance	David Cook	5.0	34,046	34,892	37,401
	UPUP	James Kilfedder	2.9	20,092	38,293	38,854
	Workers' Party	Seamus Lynch	1.3	8,712	8,813
	Ecology	Colin McGuigan	0.3	2,172	2,236
Electorate: 1,065,363 Valid: 685,317 Spoilt: 11,654 Quota: 171,330 Turnout: 696,994

1979

1979 European Parliament election: Northern Ireland^[15]
Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
Party		Candidate	FPv%	1	2	3	4	5	6
	DUP	Ian Paisley	29.8	170,688
	SDLP	John Hume	24.5	140,622	140,676	146,072
	UUP	John Taylor	11.9	68,185	77,228	80,207	80,405	96,407	153,466
	UUP	Harry West	10.0	56,984	61,163	61,952	62,140	65,915
	Alliance	Oliver Napier	6.8	39,026	39,404	45,702	51,263
	Ind. Unionist	James Kilfedder	6.7	38,198	50,622	53,986	54,623	69,383	72,557
	Ind. Republican	Bernadette McAliskey	5.9	33,969	33,975	36,105
	Independent	David Bleakley	1.6	9,383	9,600
	United Labour	Paddy Devlin	1.1	6,122	6,146
	Unionist Party NI	Eddie Cummings	0.6	3,712	3,836
	Republican Clubs	Brian Brennan	0.6	3,258	3,263
	Republican Clubs	Francis Donnelly	0.2	1,160	1,164
	Ulster Liberal	James Murray	0.2	932	948
Electorate: 1,029,490 Valid: 572,239 Spoilt: 13,773 Quota: 143,060 Turnout: 586,059

Bleakley appeared on the ballot paper with the description 'United Community'.

References

^ Tuaisceart Éireann. DFA.ie. Retrieved 27 March 2016.
^ NI, Electoral Office (27 May 2019). "Updated Stage 1 resultspic.twitter.com/Ii6oAVzWP5".
^ Purdy, Martina (24 April 2014). "Ten candidates for NI Euro seats" – via www.bbc.co.uk.
^ Shields, Graham (25 April 2014). "Statement of Persons Nominated". Electoral Office for Northern Ireland. Retrieved 3 May 2014.
^ The 2014 European Elections, Northern Ireland Elections
^ BBC News - Vote 2014, Northern Ireland European election count
^ The 2009 European Election, Northern Ireland Elections
^ The 2004 European Election, Northern Ireland Elections
^ "Independent Candidate John Gilliland". BBC News. 18 May 2004.
^ The 1999 European Election, Northern Ireland Elections
^ The 1994 European Election, Northern Ireland Elections
^ [1], Northern Ireland Social and Political Archive
^ The 1989 European Election, Northern Ireland Elections
^ The 1984 European Election, Northern Ireland Elections
^ The 1979 European Election, Northern Ireland Elections

[1] Tuaisceart Éireann. DFA.ie. Retrieved 27 March 2016.

[2] NI, Electoral Office (27 May 2019). "Updated Stage 1 resultspic.twitter.com/Ii6oAVzWP5".

[3] Purdy, Martina (24 April 2014). "Ten candidates for NI Euro seats" – via www.bbc.co.uk.

[4] Shields, Graham (25 April 2014). "Statement of Persons Nominated". Electoral Office for Northern Ireland. Retrieved 3 May 2014.

[5] The 2014 European Elections, Northern Ireland Elections

[6] BBC News - Vote 2014, Northern Ireland European election count

[7] The 2009 European Election, Northern Ireland Elections

[8] The 2004 European Election, Northern Ireland Elections

[9] "Independent Candidate John Gilliland". BBC News. 18 May 2004.

[10] The 1999 European Election, Northern Ireland Elections

[11] The 1994 European Election, Northern Ireland Elections

[12] [1], Northern Ireland Social and Political Archive

[13] The 1989 European Election, Northern Ireland Elections

[14] The 1984 European Election, Northern Ireland Elections

[15] The 1979 European Election, Northern Ireland Elections

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v t e Elections to the European Parliament in the United Kingdom (1979–2019)
Elections in the United Kingdom
Legislation	European Assembly Elections Act 1978 European Parliamentary Elections Act 1993 European Parliamentary Elections Act 1999 European Parliamentary Elections Act 2002
Elections	1979 1984 1989 1994 1999 Results 2004 (Gibraltar) 2009 (Gibraltar) 2014 (Gibraltar) 2019 (Results) (Gibraltar)
Members	1973–79 1979–84 1984–89 1989–94 1994–99 1999–2004 2004–09 2009–14 2014–19 2019–20 Women
Constituencies (1999–2020)	East Midlands East of England London North East England Northern Ireland North West England Scotland South East England South West England (including Gibraltar) West Midlands Yorkshire and the Humber Wales
Voting systems	D'Hondt (Great Britain, 1999–2019) Single Transferable Vote (STV) (Northern Ireland, 1979–2019) First-past-the-post (FPTP) (Great Britain, 1979–1994)
Repealing legislation	European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018
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