Boundary Review: Fermanagh and the two Tyrones…

So, partly at a suggestion of Andrew and Drumlin’s on the previous thread we’re starting way out west with a less politicially controversial pair of constituencies than those which have already featured in the news. So we begin by looking at Fermanagh and South Tyrone with the new constituency of Mid Tyrone.

FST first (map). Here’s the Commission’s notes:

The electorate of the Fermanagh and South Tyrone constituency at the review date was 68,979,
which is more than 7,000 below the quota. The Commission accordingly proposes the transfer of
the 6 wards of Drumquin, Dromore, Trillick, Fintona, Newtownsaville and Sixmilecross fromWest
Tyrone. This would bring the electorate to 78,664, which is 2.6% above the quota.

And then, Mid Tyrone (map):

The proposed transfer of 19 wards from Mid Ulster to the new constituency of Glenshane would
reduce the electorate of Mid Ulster by 35,343 to 30,312 which is considerably below the quota. This
points to a reconfiguration of theWest Tyrone and Mid Ulster constituencies in a new constituency
of Mid Tyrone. The Commission proposes (see above) the transfer of 3 wards fromWest Tyrone to
Foyle and, as will be seen below, it proposes to transfer 6 wards fromWest Tyrone to Fermanagh
and South Tyrone to enable that constituency to come within the quota range. The combination of
these proposed changes would give an electorate for the proposed new Mid Tyrone constituency
of 77,713, which is 1.4% above the quota.

The Commission also have an outline of the populations involved in each ward, which you can combine with the NISRA figures based on the 2001 census. Be careful in extrapolating too religiously from these since, they are out of date by more than ten years now.

Remember, we’re interested in the gritty detail here, not who is up or down (we can get to that later). We’re inviting you to think in those terms set by the Act. It’s an opportunity to make an intelligent impact on the Commission during their 12 week consultation process.

If we get enough good solid suggestions we may even make a more formal submission on your behalf…

Mick Fealty

Mick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty