1985 Northern Ireland local elections

Elections for local government were held in Northern Ireland on 15 May 1985, contesting 565 seats in all.

1985 Northern Ireland local elections

15 May 1985
All council seats
Leader James Molyneaux Ian Paisley John Hume Party UUP DUP SDLP Seats won 189 142 102 Seat change 37 2 Popular vote 188,497 155,297 113,967 Percentage 29.5% 24.3% 17.8% Swing 3.1% 2.3% 0.3%   Leader Gerry Adams John Cushnahan N/A Party Sinn Féin Alliance Independent Seats won 59 34 9 Seat change 59 4 28 Popular vote 75,686 45,038 10,297 Percentage 11.8% 7.0% 1.6% Swing New party 1.9% 5.1%
Colours denote the winning party with outright control
Colours denote the party with the most seats

Background

1981 elections

The previous elections had been fought in the middle of the hunger strike and the H-Block Prison Protest.[1] Those elections had shown changes in party representation, with three parties, namely the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), winning 75% of the seats.[2] On the Unionist side, the DUP arrived at a position of near parity with the UUP, outpolling the latter by 851 votes,[2] although the UUP managed to win more seats overall. Other changes on the Unionist side saw the disbandment of two smaller Unionist parties: the Unionist Party of Northern Ireland in September 1981 and the United Ulster Unionist Party in May 1984. On the nationalist side, while the SDLP maintained its dominant position, a greater number of elected candidates supporting the H-Block protest were elected. In total 36 candidates endorsed by the H-Block committee were elected of whom 21 belonged to the IIP. The representation of the centrist APNI was almost halved as their number of seats was reduced from 70 in 1977 to 38 in 1981.[2]

Northern Ireland Assembly and New Ireland Forum

Following the end of the Hunger Strike, attention focused on attempts by the new Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Jim Prior, to restore devolution. This eventually led to the establishment of the Northern Ireland Assembly which was elected in October 1982. However nationalist parties boycotted the forum and the SDLP instead threw its efforts into the New Ireland Forum. This forum, established in May 1983, reported in May 1984 and represented the combined efforts of the nationalist parties to obtain a solution to the constitutional issue. However the report was rejected by British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher who rejected each of the three proposals with the words "that is out" in a response that became known as the "out, out, out" speech.[3]

Sinn Féin

The entry into electoral politics of Sinn Féin (SF) became a significant issue in the run up to the elections. SF polled over 10% in the 1982 Assembly election, winning five seats. At the 1983 Westminster election, the party increased their vote share to 13.4% and maintained that level of support in the 1984 European election. The party won their first council seat in a by-election in March 1983, with Seamus Kerr polling 60% in Omagh 'Area D' This was followed by the election of Alex Maskey and Sean McKnight to Belfast City Council in June 1983 and February 1984 respectively. In Dungannon and Fermanagh, independent councillors Seamus Cassidy and John Joe McCusker joined SF.

Prior's successor as Secretary of State, Douglas Hurd, refused to ban SF and also rejected calls by unionists for an anti-violence declaration to be signed by all candidates.[4]^:5

Rates

The expansion of services, particularly leisure began to have an impact in rates at a time when the Rate Support Grant was being cut. The grant was reduced by 1% in 1985. Belfast Leisure Services in particular accounted for 22.7% of the City budget.[4]^:5 Rates overall had risen by 8% in the financial year from 1984 to 1985, a figure above the rate of inflation and resulted in the cancellation of a proposed ice rink in Belfast, while that in Bangor had to receive private funding. Since the 1980–1981 financial year, rates had risen by 51.7%[4]^:6 ranging from a 17.9% rise in Castlereagh to 80% rises in Omagh and Newry and Mourne.[4]^:6

Legislation

Boundaries

The Local Government (N.I.) Act 1972, Section 50 (1) required a review of local government boundaries and electoral areas in 1981, however it was not until 28 October 1982 that Prior reappointed Sir F. Harrison, who had conducted the previous review in 1971 and 1972. Provisional recommendations were published on 20 May 1983. These led to additional representations and nineteen public hearings before revised recommendations were published on 18 January 1984. Following six further public hearings, the final report was sent to the Secretary of State on 29 May 1984.[4]^:9

The report recommended no change in the number of councils or their names. The number of wards was increased from 526 to 566. Moyle was the only council to lose a ward.

With the wards drawn the government decided that a new procedure would be used to group them together to form District Electoral Areas (DEA). In 1972 the wards had been grouped together into areas of four to eight wards with each area electing a number of councillors equal to the number of wards that it contained. This had been done by the Chief Electoral Officer, a fact that had been criticised for potentially affecting his impartiality.

The District Electoral Areas Commissioner (N.I.) Order was laid before Parliament on 15 December 1983. This provided for the appointment of a commissioner and set him the task of creating electoral areas containing five to seven members. These were to have names rather than an alphabetic designation as before. The debate over the Order in January and February 1984 centred on the merits of STV, the narrower number of councillors in each DEA and the names issue. Unionists argued for DEAs electing four to six councillors.

Results

Overall

Party[5]		Councillors		Votes
		Total	+/-	% share	Total
	UUP	189	+37	29.5	188,497
	DUP	142	0	24.3	155,297
	SDLP	102	-2	17.8	113,967
	Sinn Féin	59	N/A	11.8	75,686
	Alliance	34	-4	7.0	45,038
	Independent	9	-28	1.6	10,297
	Independent Unionist	8	+6	1.3	8,780
	Independent Nationalist	6	+6	1.2	7,597
	Workers' Party	4	+1	1.6	10,415
	Irish Independence	4	-17	1.2	7,459
	UPUP	3	-2	0.5	3,139
	PUP	2	+1	0.6	3,612
	Protestant Unionist	1	+1	0.5	2,970
	NI Labour	1	0	0.2	1,285
	Labour Party NI	0	N/A	0.2	1,029
	Newtownabbey Labour	1	0	0.1	792
	Ulster Democratic	0	N/A	0.1	782
	Labour and Trade Union	0	N/A	0.1	556
	Independent Democratic Unionist	0	N/A	0.1	429
	Ecology	0	0	0.1	387
	Irish Republican Socialist	0	-2	0.0	276
	Communist Party	0	0	0.0	245
	All Night Party	0	N/A	0.0	235
	Independent Republican	0	0	0.0	187
	People's Democracy	0	-2	0.0	131
	Independent Workers' Party	0	N/A	0.0	113
	Ulster Liberal	0	N/A	0.0	35
	Independent Labour	0	-1	0.0	30

Belfast

Court[6]
Party		Candidate	1st Pref
	Independent Unionist	George Seawright	2,970
	PUP	Hugh Smyth	1,761
	DUP	Ted Ashby	1,420
	UUP	Herbert Ditty	1,197
	Independent Unionist	Joe Coggle	894
	UUP	Fred Cobain	804
	Alliance	W. J. Dukelow	626
	UUP	J. B. Sands	624
	DUP	W. Baxter	572
	Ulster Democratic	S. Doyle	536
	Sinn Féin	H. Fitzsimmons	432
	DUP	R. Morrow	182
	Workers' Party	Peter Cullen	157
Turnout			12,547
New area

Pottinger[6]
Party		Candidate	1st Pref
	DUP	Sammy Wilson	2,454
	DUP	F. Leslie	2,224
	UUP	Margaret Clarke	1,999
	DUP	Jim Walker	1,153
	UUP	Reg Empey	1,117
	Alliance	Mervyn Jones	1,019
	Sinn Féin	Joe O'Donnell	566
	UUP	H. Fletcher	431
	PUP	David Ervine	394
	SDLP	C. Maginnis	340
	Workers' Party	Frank Cullen	303
	Labour and Trade Union	S. J. Dempsey	218
	Communist Party	James Stewart	61
Turnout			12,785
New area

Victoria[6]
Party		Candidate	1st Pref
	DUP	Wallace Browne	3,447
	UUP	Tommy Patton	2,390
	Alliance	Oliver Napier	2,309
	UUP	William Corry	1,838
	UUP	Dorothy Dunlop	1,365
	Alliance	G. P. C. Thompson	1,278
	DUP	S. J. Walker	1,131
	UUP	J. McCrea	1,002
	DUP	Robin Newton	564
	SDLP	M. F. Gilheany	188
Turnout			15,939
New area

Balmoral[6]
Party		Candidate	1st Pref
	UUP	Margaret Crooks	2,438
	UUP	Jim Kirkpatrick	1,820
	DUP	Billy Dickson	1,638
	SDLP	Dorita Field	1,332
	Alliance	John Montgomery	1,326
	UUP	James Stewart	1,071
	Alliance	David Cook	1,042
	DUP	Joan Parkes	998
	DUP	C. K. Gibson	620
	Labour Party NI	S. S. Graham	186
	Workers' Party	Shaun McKeown	133
	Independent	Victor Brennan	127
	Independent Unionist	W. S. Stevenson	56
Turnout			13,102
New area

Castle[6]
Party		Candidate	1st Pref
	UUP	John Carson	3,153
	SDLP	Alban Maginness	1,977
	Independent Unionist	Frank Millar	1,623
	DUP	Nigel Dodds	1,502
	UUP	Alfie Redpath	1,107
	Alliance	Tom Campbell	799
	DUP	M. Whittley	706
	Independent Unionist	William Gault	674
	SDLP	J. G. Murphy	579
	Alliance	R. O. Jamison	449
	Workers' Party	K. Johnston	444
Turnout			13,391
New area

Oldpark[6]
Party		Candidate	1st Pref
	UUP	Fred Proctor	1,800
	Sinn Féin	Bobby Lavery	1,752
	Sinn Féin	Gerard McGuigan	1,570
	SDLP	Brian Feeney	1,516
	Workers' Party	Seamus Lynch	1,344
	DUP	Peter Lunn	958
	SDLP	P. Hunter	787
	Sinn Féin	Paddy McManus	774
	Independent Unionist	Nelson McCausland	717
	UUP	David Smylie	707
	DUP	P. Whittley	604
	Alliance	A. J. Carton	535
	Labour Party NI	Paddy Devlin	472
	PUP	Paddy Bird	433
	Ecology	Peter Emerson	308
Turnout			14,748
New area

Laganbank[6]
Party		Candidate	1st Pref
	UUP	B. Blair	1,969
	Alliance	W. F. McDowell	1,425
	DUP	Rhonda Paisley	1,325
	SDLP	Alasdair McDonnell	1,175
	DUP	R. S. McCrea	1,102
	SDLP	G. McGettrick	833
	UUP	J. J. Dixon Gilmore	727
	Sinn Féin	Mick Conlon	614
	UUP	R. J. Wilson	604
	Workers' Party	G. Carr	550
	Alliance	Dan McGuinness	434
	Labour and Trade Union	R. G. Millar	100
	NI Labour	J. King	73
	Communist Party	M. J. Morrissey	57
Turnout			11,285
New area

Upper Falls[6]
Party		Candidate	1st Pref
	SDLP	Alex Attwood	2,461
	Sinn Féin	Alex Maskey	2,329
	Sinn Féin	T. M. Holland	2,256
	SDLP	Cormac Boomer	1,655
	Sinn Féin	Máirtín Ó Muilleoir	1,031
	Alliance	Pip Glendinning	931
	Workers' Party	G. A. McCann	386
	DUP	I. Lewis	372
	Labour and Trade Union	Micky Duffy	238
	People's Democracy	John McAnulty	131
	SDLP	Peter Prendiville	72
	Communist Party	K. McCorry	60
Turnout			13,052
New area

Lower Falls[6]
Party		Candidate	1st Pref
	SDLP	Joe Hendron	2,606
	Sinn Féin	Seán McKnight	1,939
	Sinn Féin	S. Keenan	1,752
	Sinn Féin	E. Fitzsimons	1,595
	Sinn Féin	Fra McCann	1,467
	Workers' Party	Mary McMahon	1,115
	Alliance	Will Glendinning	1,113
	SDLP	S. Mullen	159
	Communist Party	D. Murray	67
Turnout			12,263
New area

References

1. "1981 Northern Ireland Chronology". CAIN Web Service. Retrieved 10 April 2009.
2. "1981 local government election result". ark.ac.uk. Retrieved 10 April 2009.
3. Irish Times, 20 November 1984, p1 accessed 10 April 2009
4. Northern Ireland: The District Council Elections of 1985, S Elliott and FJ Smith, Queens University 1986, ISBN 0-85389-287-3
5. Local Government Elections 1985, Northern Ireland Elections
6. Belfast City Council Elections 1985–1989, Northern Ireland Elections