The 1921 Northern Ireland general election was held on Tuesday, 24 May 1921. It was the first election to the Parliament of Northern Ireland. Ulster Unionist Party members won two-thirds of votes cast and more than three-quarters of the seats in the assembly. Sinn Féin in particular was shocked at the scale of the Unionist victory, having spent considerable resources on the campaign, and had expected to win between 1/3 and 1/2 of the seats. Sinn Féin and Nationalist Party candidates were successful in the joint County Tyrone/Fermanagh constituency with 54.71 percent of the vote. The election was conducted using the single transferable vote system.

The election took place during the Irish War of Independence, on the same day as the election to the parliament of Southern Ireland. As the election in Southern Ireland was merely a formality, with all candidates being returned unopposed (and therefore guaranteeing Sinn Féin complete dominance), Sinn Féin was able to focus its resources entirely on the election in Northern Ireland. The Sinn Féin campaign focused on the issue of partition implemented by the Government of Ireland Act 1920, with Sinn Féin and the Nationalist party running on a combined anti-partition ticket.

Despite the scale and organisation of the campaign, its arguments failed to resonate with voters, with the party's chief organiser Eamon Donnelly claiming on the day of the election that all Sinn Féin's efforts had achieved was assuring a high Unionist turnout.

Sinn Féin treated the two elections north and south as combined elections to the Second Dáil. Five of the six successful Sinn Féin candidates in Northern Ireland were also elected for constituencies in Southern Ireland; Seán O'Mahony was the only Sinn Féin success solely elected in Northern Ireland.

Results

{| style="width:83%; text-align:center;"

|+ ↓

|- style="color:white;"

| style="background:; width:76.92%;" | 40

| style="background:; width:11.54%;" | 6

| style="background:; width:11.54%;" | 6

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| <span style="color:;">UUP</span>

| <span style="color:;">Sinn Fein</span>

| <span style="color:;">Nationalist </span>

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Total electorate: 582,464; turnout: 88.0% (512,842).

Votes summary

Seats summary

See also

  • List of members of the 1st Parliament of Northern Ireland

Footnotes

References

  • Northern Ireland Parliamentary Election Results