Belfast Falls (UK Parliament constituency)

Belfast Falls
Former borough constituency
for the House of Commons
1918–1922
Seats 1
Created from Belfast West
Replaced by Belfast West

Falls, a division of Belfast, was a UK parliamentary constituency in Ireland. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom from 1918 to 1922, using the first past the post electoral system.

Boundaries and Boundary Changes

The constituency was created by the Redistribution of Seats (Ireland) Act 1918 from an area which had been in the Belfast West constituency. It comprised the central third of West Belfast, and contained the then Falls and Smithfield wards of Belfast City Council. The streets in Falls Ward in 1911 are listed here and here, and the streets in Smithfield Ward in 1911 are listed here and here.

It was in use at the 1918 general election only, and under the Government of Ireland Act 1920 its area was again part of the Belfast West constituency, with effect at the 1922 general election.

Politics

The constituency was a nationalist area. Joe Devlin defeated Sinn Féin by better than 2 to 1. The Unionists did not contest the seat.

First Dáil

After the 1918 election, Sinn Féin invited all those elected for constituencies in Ireland to sit as TDs in Dáil Éireann rather than in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. All those elected for Irish constituencies were included in the roll of the Dáil but only those elected for Sinn Féin sat in the First Dáil. In May 1921, the Dáil passed a resolution declaring that elections to the House of Commons of Northern Ireland and the House of Commons of Southern Ireland would be used as the election for the Second Dáil and that the First Dáil would be dissolved on the assembly of the new body. The area of Belfast Falls would then have been represented in the Dáil by the four-seat constituency of Belfast West, which also returned no representatives for Sinn Féin.

Members of Parliament

Election Member Party
1918 Joseph Devlin Nationalist
1922 constituency abolished

Election

General Election 14 December 1918: Belfast Falls
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Irish Nationalist Joseph Devlin 8,488 72.3
Sinn Féin Éamon de Valera 3,245 27.7
Majority 5,243 44.6
Turnout 11,733 74.5
Irish Nationalist win (new seat)