East Tyrone (Northern Ireland Parliament constituency)

East Tyrone
Former County constituency for the Parliament of Northern Ireland
East Tyrone shown within Northern Ireland
Former constituency
Created	1929
Abolished	1973
Election method	First past the post

East Tyrone was a constituency of the Parliament of Northern Ireland.

Boundaries

East Tyrone was a county constituency comprising the eastern part of County Tyrone. It was created in 1929, 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. East Tyrone was created by the division of Fermanagh and Tyrone into eight new constituencies, of which five were in County Tyrone. 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 main town in the area was Cookstown. The seat was bordered by Mid Tyrone to the west, South Tyrone to the south, South Londonderry to the north and Lough Neagh to the east.

Politics

County Tyrone had five Stormont MPs between 1929 and 1972. Mid Tyrone and West Tyrone were strongly nationalist, while the constituencies covering the north and south of the county were consistently won by unionists. East Tyrone was marginal between the two traditions, with nationalists just outnumbering unionists.

Nationalists consistently won the seat, with majorities around 1,000. In the 1958 election, however, the sitting Nationalist MP, Joseph Francis Stewart, was run close by the area's Westminster MP George Forrest (Ulster Unionist MP for Mid Ulster 1956–1969).

Members of Parliament

Year		Member	Party
	1929	Joseph Francis Stewart	Nationalist
	1964	Austin Currie	Nationalist
	1970		Social Democratic and Labour Party

Election results

At the 1929, 1933 general elections, Joseph Francis Stewart was elected unopposed.

General Election 1938: East Tyrone

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Nationalist	Joseph Francis Stewart	7,942	54.0	N/A
	UUP	D. G. Kennedy	6,764	46.0	New
Majority			1,178	8.0	N/A
Turnout			14,706	89.5	N/A
	Nationalist hold		Swing	N/A

At the 1945 election J F Stewart was elected unopposed.

General Election 1949: East Tyrone

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Nationalist	Joseph Francis Stewart	7,443	54.9	N/A
	UUP	S. Miller	6,122	45.1	New
Majority			1,321	9.8	N/A
Turnout			13,565	86.1	N/A
	Nationalist hold		Swing	N/A

At the 1953 election, Joseph Francis Stewart was elected unopposed.

General Election 1958: East Tyrone

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Nationalist	Joseph Francis Stewart	7,336	50.8	N/A
	UUP	George Forrest	7,100	49.2	New
Majority			236	1.6	N/A
Turnout			14,436	89.1	N/A
	Nationalist hold		Swing	N/A

General Election 1962: East Tyrone

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Nationalist	Joseph Francis Stewart	7,768	52.8	+2.0
	UUP	R. Vaughan	6,953	47.2	−2.0
Majority			815	5.6	+4.0
Turnout			14,721	88.0	−1.1
	Nationalist hold		Swing	+2.0

Stewart died on 6 May 1964.

East Tyrone by-election, 30 May 1964

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Nationalist	Austin Currie	8,223	54.3	+1.5
	UUP	Alexander Blevins	6,927	45.7	−1.5
Majority			1,296	8.6	+3.0
Turnout			15,150	89.7	+1.7
	Nationalist hold		Swing	+1.5

At the 1965 election, Austin Currie was elected unopposed.

General Election 1969: East Tyrone

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Nationalist	Austin Currie	9,065	58.2	N/A
	UUP	E. R. Curran	6,501	41.8	New
Majority			2,564	16.4	N/A
Turnout			14,721	88.0	N/A
	Nationalist hold		Swing	N/A

The Northern Ireland Parliament was prorogued in 1972 and formally abolished in 1973.