Foyle (UK Parliament constituency)

Foyle is a Parliamentary Constituency in the House of Commons and also an Assembly constituency in the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Boundaries

The seat was created in boundary changes in 1983, as part of an expansion of Northern Ireland's constituencies from 12 to 17, and was predominantly made up from the old Londonderry constituency. Since further revisions in 1995 (when it lost parts of the district of Strabane to the West Tyrone constituency) it now covers exactly the same area as Derry city.

The name comes from the River Foyle which the city lies on and is used to avoid the contentious names of Derry or Londonderry, as well as to cover the areas of County Tyrone that were originally in the constituency.

Proposed Boundary changes

At the time of writing, the Boundary Commission has published provisional recommendations for modifying the boundaries of constituencies in Northern Ireland. It proposes to transfer two rural wards in Derry to the East Londonderry constituency. However the proposals are likely to come under public scrutiny and it is possible that arguments will be successfully made for maintaining co-terminous boundaries with local government districts.

Westminster elections

Member of Parliament

The Member of Parliament since the 2005general election is Mark Durkan of the Social Democratic and Labour Party. He succeeded John Hume, also of the SDLP, who had represent the seat since 1983.

Election results

Assembly and Forum elections

The six MLAs for the constituency elected in the 2003 election are:

• Mary Bradley – Social Democratic and Labour Party
• Mark Durkan – Social Democratic and Labour Party
• William Hay – Democratic Unionist Party
• Mitchel McLaughlin – Sinn Féin
• Mary Nelis – Sinn Féin
• Pat Ramsay – Social Democratic and Labour Party

In the 1998 election the six MLAs elected were:

• Mark Durkan – Social Democratic and Labour Party
• William Hay – Democratic Unionist Party
• John Hume – Social Democratic and Labour Party
• Mitchel McLaughlin – Sinn Féin
• Mary Nelis – Sinn Féin
• John Tierney – Social Democratic and Labour Party

Changes 1998-2003

• On December 1 2000, John Hume resigned from the assembly and his seat was filled by Annie Courtney, also Social Democratic and Labour Party.
• Annie Coutney failed to be selected by the Social Democratic and Labour Party in the 2003 election and so stood unsuccessfully as an independent.

In the 1996 election to the Northern Ireland Peace Forum, 5 Forum members were elected from Foyle. They were as follows:

• Mark Durkan – Social Democratic and Labour Party
• John Hume – Social Democratic and Labour Party
• Martin McGuinness – Sinn Féin
• Mitchel McLaughlin – Sinn Féin
• John Tierney – Social Democratic and Labour Party

Politics and History of the constituency

For the history of the equivalent constituency prior to 1983, please see Londonderry (constituency).

The constituency is overwhelming nationalist and in many elections has often had the strongest vote for the SDLP in the entire of Northern Ireland. Unionists of various parties routinely poll around 20%-25% in elections.

There had been much speculation that with the gradual retirement of John Hume from politics, the SDLP vote might collapse. In the Northern Ireland Assembly Election, 2003 the SDLP lost 11.5% of the vote and were only narrowly ahead of Sinn Féin. Hume's retirment led to many questioning whether Mark Durkan, Hume's successor as leader, could hold onto the seat. However in the 2005 general election he did so. The decline in the Unionist vote suggests that some Unionist voters tactically voted for Durkan, however his lead was sufficient to have not been caused by this alone.