South Down
Notional 2005 Results:
SDLP: 20753 (47.8%)
SF: 12109 (27.9%)
DUP: 6176 (14.2%)
UUP: 3806 (8.8%)
Alliance: 565 (1.3%)
Majority: 8644 (19.9%)
2005 Result:
SDLP: 21557 (44.7%)
SF: 12417 (25.8%)
DUP: 8815 (18.3%)
UU: 4775 (9.9%)
Alliance: 613 (1.3%)
Majority: 9140 (18.9%)
Boundary Changes: Loses three wards, covering the town of Ballynahinch and the rural area to the south of Strangford town to Stangford constituency.
Profile: This is a large and mainly rural seat. The largest town is Downpatrick, with other significant towns being Newcastle, Kilkeel and Warrenpoint. The electorate is varied, from the affluent suburban areas on the fringes of Newry at the far south-west of the seat and the growing residential areas in the north of the seat around Crossgar, to the isolated traditional communities within the Mountains of Mourne that cover much of the south of the seat and the deprived Flying Horse estate in the largely Catholic town of Downpatrick.
For mainland observers of politics South Down is best known as the Ulster bolthole of Enoch Powell after his resignation from the Conservative party. Powell represented the seat for 13 years, but demographic change and retreating boundaries as the population grew have gradually made the seat more Catholic. Where once it was evenly split, it is now two-thirds Catholic and a safe nationalist seat, held by the veteran SDLP politician Eddie McGrady. At the 2007 Assembly election it returned 2 SDLP, 2 Sinn Fein, 1 DUP and 1 UUP assemblymen.
Current MP: Eddie McGrady (SDLP) born 1935, Downpatrick. Educated at St. Patricks Grammar School and Belfast Technical College. Chartered accountant. First elected as MP for South Down in 1987.
32 Responses
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Methinks Mussen was an SDLP councillor back in the ’80s, he definitely was an Ind Nat at one point. He might be looking to build for future elections but I honestly don’t know wheter he will throw his hat into the ring.
The will stay SDLP.
Why I hear you cry ?
1 Unionist tactical votes
2 Contest will be Ruane v Ritchie (DED v DSD)
One an indecisive tennis player who is presiding over unrest in her department, the other a palatable minister with generall good media coverage and seen to have backbone when she withdrew money the UDA was getting when it missed its ceasefire deadline.
May 13th, 2008 at 10:43 pmRuane appears to be a woman nobody likes. The DUP accuse her of ethnic cleansing by her policy of closing Protestant schools in Catholic-majority areas while some Dublin newspapers allege her policy of support for Irish language education is a front for giving money to hardline IRA elements ( ie criminals and gangsters .) Her attempt to close grammar schools has upset everyone and again has been seen as ethnic cleansing.
June 13th, 2008 at 12:41 pmPages: « 1 2 [3] Show All