Queen's University, Belfast (constituency)
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Queen's University, Belfast was a university constituency in both the United Kingdom Parliament (from 1918 until 1950) and the Parliament of Northern Ireland (from 1921 until 1969).
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Boundaries
The constituency was not a physical area but was rather elected by the graduates of Queen's University, Belfast.
The constituency returned one member to Westminster and four to Stormont, with the latter elected by Single Transferable Vote.
Westminster elections
MPs from 1918 until 1950
- 1918 - 1940 (resignation) T. Sinclair Ulster Unionist Party
- 1940 (by-election) - 1950 Professor D.L. Savory Ulster Unionist Party
Northern Ireland Parliamentary Elections
Members of the Northern Ireland Parliament elected between 1921 and 1969.
- 1921 - 1929 Dr. J. Campbell Ulster Unionist Party
- 1921 - 1938 (resignation) J.H. Robb Ulster Unionist Party
- 1921 - 1938 (death) Professor R.J. Johnstone Ulster Unionist Party
- 1921 - 1929 Dr. H.S. Morrison Ulster Unionist Party
- 1929 - 1943 (resignation] Rev. Prof. R. Corkey Ulster Unionist Party
- 1929 - 1935 (resignation) R.N. McNeill Independent Unionist
- 1935 (by-election) - 1942 (death) Dr. A.B. Mitchell Ulster Unionist Party
- 1938 - 1943 (resignation) - J.C. MacDermott Ulster Unionist Party
- 1938 (by-election) - 1949 - H. Stevenson Ulster Unionist Party
- 1942 (by-election) - 1945 - Dr W. Lyle Ulster Unionist Party
- 1943 (by-election) - 1945 - Dr J.W. Renshaw Ulster Unionist Party
- 1944 (by-election) - 1949 - H. Quin Ulster Unionist Party
- 1948 (by-election) - 1961 (death) - S.T. Irwin Ulster Unionist Party
- 1949 - 1958 - Dr. Eileen M. Hickey Independent
- 1949 - 1953 - E.B. Wallace Ulster Unionist Party
- 1949 (by-election) - 1962 - Professor F.T. Lloyd-Dodd Ulster Unionist Party
- 1953 - 1969 E.H. Maconachie Ulster Unionist Party
- 1961 (by-election) - 1969 Miss S.M. Murnaghan Liberal Party
- 1962 - 1969 - Dr. H.I. McClure Ulster Unionist Party
Politics and History of the constituency
University constituencies had existed in the United Kingdom Parliament and its predecessors since 1603 and in 1918 Queen's was enfranchised as such. When the Parliament of Northern Ireland was established, the same franchise was preserved.
As with most other Northern Ireland seats in this period, the electorate was heavily inclined towards the Ulster Unionists, with no contests for the Westminster seat taking place at all in the interwar years.
In the late 1940s legislation was passed to abolish the university constituencies at Westminster. The constituency survived in the Stormont Parliament but increasingly there were demands to abolish the second votes for graduates and introduce "One Person, One Vote". By the 1960s only two of the four seats were regularly won by Ulster Unionists, with one being won by the Liberal Party. In 1969 the seat was abolished under reforms carried out by the Prime Minister of Northern Ireland Terence O'Neill.
