Connacht–Ulster (European Parliament constituency)

Connacht–Ulster was a constituency of the European Parliament in Ireland between 1979 and 2004. Throughout its history, it elected 3 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) using the single transferable vote (STV) system.

Connacht–Ulster
European Parliament constituency
Shown within Ireland
Member state	Ireland
Created	1979
Dissolved	2004
MEPs	3
Sources

Although the constituency was abolished in 2004, Connacht-Ulster is still often used when analysing election results by region, as in this analysis of the results by region of the 2018 referendum to legalise abortion.[1]

History and boundaries

The constituency was created in 1979 for the first direct elections to the European Parliament. It comprised the counties of Galway, Leitrim, Mayo, Roscommon and Sligo from the historic province of Connacht together with the Ulster counties of Cavan, Donegal, and Monaghan.[2] It was abolished under the European Parliament Elections (Amendment) Act 2004 and succeeded by the new North-West constituency.[3]

MEPs

Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) for Connacht–Ulster 1979–2009
Key to parties   FF = Fianna Fáil   FG = Fine Gael   IFF = Independent Fianna Fáil   Ind = Independent
Parl.	Election	Member (Party)		Member (Party)		Member (Party)
1st	1979[4]		Neil Blaney (IFF)		Seán Flanagan (FF)		Joe McCartin (FG)
2nd	1984[5]		Ray MacSharry (FF)
	1987[6]		Mark Killilea (FF)
3rd	1989[7]				Neil Blaney (IFF)
4th	1994[8]				Pat "the Cope" Gallagher (FF)
5th	1999[9]		Dana Rosemary Scallon (Ind)
	2002[10]				Seán Ó Neachtain (FF)
6th	2004	Constituency abolished. See North-West.

Note: The columns in this table are used only for presentational purposes, and no significance should be attached to the order of columns. For details of the order in which seats were won at each election, see the detailed results of that election.

Elections

1999 election

1999 European Parliament election: Connacht–Ulster[9]

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6
	Fianna Fáil	Pat "the Cope" Gallagher[10]	20.6	66,055	66,381	66,902	72,673	98,258
	Fine Gael	Joe McCartin	19.9	63,632	63,811	64,506	68,388	72,764	75,275
	Independent	Dana Rosemary Scallon	16.0	51,086	51,366	52,802	59,444	67,887	72,855
	Fianna Fáil	Noel Treacy	15.0	47,933	48,060	48,470	51,544
	Independent	Marian Harkin	14.8	47,372	47,712	48,632	56,141	60,316	64,152
	Sinn Féin	Seán MacManus	6.4	20,457	20,571	20,801
	Labour	Gerard Gibbons	3.3	10,522	10,827	10,972
	Independent	Liam Sharkey	1.7	5,334	5,404
	Independent	Luke 'Ming' Flanagan	1.6	5,000	5,539	5,650
	Natural Law	Paul Campbell	0.6	1,920
	Independent	Paul Raymond	0.3	840
Electorate: 541,552   Valid: 320,151   Spoilt: 12,085 (3.6%)   Quota: 80,038   Turnout: 332,236 (61.4%)

Mark Killilea retired and his seat was gained by Independent Dana Rosemary Scallon.

1994 election

1994 European Parliament election: Connacht–Ulster[11] [12]

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5
	Fianna Fáil	Pat "the Cope" Gallagher	22.9	53,171	54,122	57,657	59,372
	Fianna Fáil	Mark Killilea	19.6	45,638	46,445	47,500	53,030	59,773
	Fine Gael	Joe McCartin	16.4	38,039	38,861	39,461	43,896	49,371
	Fine Gael	Jim Higgins	13.3	30,947	32,100	32,768	37,135	42,153
	Progressive Democrats	Bobby Molloy	9.1	21,219	22,784	23,538
	Labour	Ann Gallagher	8.5	19,826	22,195	25,303	27,875
	Sinn Féin	Pat Doherty	6.0	13,939	14,665
	Green	Richard Douthwaite	3.7	8,628
	Natural Law	Mary Louise Lacey	0.5	1,223
Electorate: 496,352   Valid: 232,630   Spoilt: 4,971 (2.1%)   Quota: 58,158   Turnout: 237,601 (47.9%)

Pat "the Cope" Gallagher of Fianna Fáil gained the seat vacated by Neil Blaney.

1989 election

1989 European Parliament election: Connacht–Ulster[13][14]

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
	Fianna Fáil	Mark Killilea	17.2	53,842	53,950	54,122	54,395	54,668	55,095	57,686	58,795	67,246
	Independent Fianna Fáil	Neil Blaney	16.9	52,852	53,075	53,922	54,425	55,981	56,940	59,954	63,193	69,857
	Fianna Fáil	Seán Doherty	15.5	48,288	48,367	48,569	48,725	49,186	49,474	50,694	51,562	53,641
	Fine Gael	Joe McCartin	14.9	46,523	46,579	46,694	47,045	47,328	47,589	52,737	71,091	84,697
	Progressive Democrats	Bobby Molloy	13.0	40,476	40,564	40,754	41,613	41,804	43,254	45,621	48,227
	Fine Gael	Paddy Harte	9.8	30,745	30,798	31,225	31,559	31,715	32,137	34,663
	Fine Gael	Angela Lupton	3.3	10,165	10,212	10,254	10,553	10,615	11,154
	Sinn Féin	Pat Doherty	2.5	7,716	8,119	8,237	8,315	10,668	11,094
	Sinn Féin	Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin	2.0	6,173	6,441	6,553	6,656
	Labour	Ivan McPhillips	1.6	4,969	5,012	5,306
	Workers' Party	Jimmy Brick	1.5	4,759	4,840	5,333	6,710	6,841
	Workers' Party	Seamus Rodgers	1.3	4,097	4,112
	Sinn Féin	Dermot Guy	0.5	1,697
Electorate: 464,661   Valid: 312,302   Spoilt: 10,362 (3.2%)   Quota: 78,076   Turnout: 322,664 (69.4%)

Neil Blaney regained his seat at the expense of Fianna Fáil.

1984 election

1984 European Parliament election: Connacht–Ulster[15] [16]

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
	Fianna Fáil	Ray MacSharry[6]	24.1	56,803	56,955	57,252	57,718	57,896	58,740	59,448
	Fine Gael	Joe McCartin	21.7	51,164	51,293	51,545	51,752	54,991	57,247	57,761	76,674
	Fianna Fáil	Seán Flanagan	17.3	40,760	41,017	41,424	41,615	41,788	42,657	43,021	43,915	46,010
	Independent Fianna Fáil	Neil Blaney	13.8	32,504	32,875	33,622	35,379	35,610	37,340	40,415	42,324	44,430
	Fine Gael	Joseph Murrin	8.5	20,107	20,204	20,415	20,568	23,190	25,154	25,459
	Labour	Michael D. Higgins	3.5	8,337	9,205	9,401	9,587	9,988
	Fine Gael	Pól Ó Foighil	3.0	7,144	7,214	7,282	7,323
	Sinn Féin	Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin	2.6	6,103	6,158	7,167	10,043	10,159	10,417
	Sinn Féin	Eddie Fullerton	2.5	5,771	5,896	6,706
	Sinn Féin	Mary McGing	1.8	4,176	4,294
	Workers' Party	Jimmy Brick	1.1	2,612
Electorate: 471,577   Valid: 235,481   Spoilt: 5,763 (2.4%)   Quota: 58,871   Turnout: 241,244 (51.2%)

Neil Blaney lost his seat to Ray MacSharry of Fianna Fáil.

1979 election

1979 European Parliament election[17]

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7
	Independent Fianna Fáil	Neil Blaney	26.6	81,522
	Fine Gael	Joe McCartin	15.5	47,519	47,989	49,697	50,474	51,696	65,471	66,901
	Fianna Fáil	Seán Flanagan	12.5	38,233	38,653	39,478	40,732	52,409	54,826	82,209
	Fine Gael	Patrick Cooney	10.9	33,360	34,142	36,596	37,281	38,006	50,025	51,267
	Fine Gael	Myles Staunton	10.6	32,485	32,773	35,343	35,746	36,189
	Fianna Fáil	Jim Doolan	9.1	27,739	28,263	29,781	30,606	37,781	38,576
	Fianna Fáil	Sean McEniff	8.4	25,774	26,267	26,782	27,818
	Labour	Michael D. Higgins	4.3	13,062	14,013
	Sinn Féin – The Workers' Party	Tony Coffey	1.1	3,329
	Sinn Féin – The Workers' Party	Séamus Rodgers	0.9	2,696
	Independent	Christopher Morris	0.2	447
Electorate: 442,471   Valid: 306,166   Spoilt: 14,547 (4.5%)   Quota: 76,542   Turnout: 320,713 (72.5%)

See also

• European Parliament constituencies in the Republic of Ireland

References

1. "Referendum 2018". Raidió Teilifís Éireann. May 2018. Retrieved 31 May 2018.
2. "European Assembly Elections Act, 1977: Schedule (Constituencies)". Irish Statute Book database. Retrieved 22 November 2011.
3. "European Parliament Elections (Amendment) Act 2004: Schedule (Constituencies)". Irish Statute Book database. Retrieved 22 November 2011.
4. "1979 European Parliament election result – Connacht–Ulster constituency". ElectionsIreland.org. Retrieved 22 March 2009.
5. "1984 European Parliament election result – Connacht–Ulster constituency". ElectionsIreland.org. Retrieved 22 March 2009.
6. Ray MacSharry resigned on 10 March 1987 and was substituted by Mark Killilea (FF / EDA) on 24 March 1987.
7. "1989 European Parliament election result – Connacht–Ulster constituency". ElectionsIreland.org. Retrieved 22 March 2009.
8. "1994 European Parliament election result – Connacht–Ulster constituency". ElectionsIreland.org. Retrieved 22 March 2009.
9. "1999 European Parliament election result – Connacht–Ulster constituency". ElectionsIreland.org. Retrieved 22 March 2009.
10. Pat "the Cope" Gallagher was substituted by Seán Ó Neachtain (FF / UEN) on 2 July 2002, following the 2002 general election.
11. http://irelandelection.com/electiondetail.php?elecid=216&constitid=478&electype=7
12. https://www.europarl.europa.eu/ireland/en/your-meps/1994-european-elections-results
13. https://www.europarl.europa.eu/ireland/en/your-meps/1989-european-elections-results
14. http://irelandelection.com/electiondetail.php?elecid=215&constitid=478&electype=7
15. https://www.europarl.europa.eu/ireland/en/your-meps/1984-european-elections-results
16. http://irelandelection.com/electiondetail.php?elecid=214&constitid=478&electype=7
17. https://www.europarl.europa.eu/ireland/en/your-meps/1979-european-elections-results

• https://www.europarl.europa.eu/ireland/en/your-meps/european-elections