# 1986 Northern Ireland by-elections

The 1986 Northern Ireland by-elections were fifteen by-elections held on 23 January 1986, to fill vacancies in the Parliament of the United Kingdom caused by the resignation in December 1985 of all sitting Unionist Members of Parliament (MPs). The MPs, from the Ulster Unionist Party, Democratic Unionist Party and Ulster Popular Unionist Party, did this to highlight their opposition to the Anglo-Irish Agreement, signed the month before.
Each of the Unionist parties agreed not to contest seats previously held by the others, and each outgoing MP stood for re-election. 14 of the 15 were re-elected, often with large margins. The sole exception was in the Newry and Armagh by-election, where Seamus Mallon of the Social Democratic and Labour Party unseated Jim Nicholson (UUP).

## Other candidates

Of the two Northern Ireland seats not held by unionists, Foyle was held by the nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), while Belfast West was held by the republican party Sinn Féin. These MPs did not resign and their seats were not contested.
The SDLP and Sinn Féin regarded the resignations as a publicity stunt, and were reluctant to take part in the resulting by-elections. In the event, they contested only the seats which they believed to have an anti-unionist majority.
The Alliance Party of Northern Ireland instructed its branches to nominate a candidate for each by-election, but many were reluctant, and ultimately, the party stood in only five seats. The small Workers' Party stood in nine seats.
It appeared that the incumbent would be the only candidate in four constituencies. This would have produced the first uncontested elections for the House of Commons since the Armagh by-election of 1954. In order to ensure that there was a contest and that the Unionists would be able to demonstrate their point, Wesley Robert Williamson changed his name by deed poll to "Peter Barry", Peter Barry being Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Ireland. "Peter Barry" stood in these four constituencies under the label "For the Anglo-Irish Agreement", allowing a contest, but did not campaign.
The unusual circumstances led this to be the greatest number of UK parliamentary by-elections held on a single day.

## Results
### Aggregate results

The aggregated results for all constituencies are shown below. Changes are compared to those for the 15 constituencies in the 1983 general election.
Results of the 1986 Northern Ireland by-elections :
| Political party | Political party | Leader | Position | Candidates | MPs | MPs | MPs | MPs | MPs | Votes | Votes | Votes |
| Political party | Political party | Leader | Position | Candidates | Total | Gained | Lost | Net | Of total (%) | Total | Of total (%) | Change (%) |
| | UUP | James Molyneaux | Anti-agreement | 11 | 10 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 66.7 | 302,198 | 51.7 | 13.1 |
| | DUP | Ian Paisley | Anti-agreement | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | | 20.0 | 85,239 | 14.6 | 5.5 |
| | SDLP | John Hume | Pro-agreement | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 6.7 | 70,917 | 12.1 | 3.1 |
| | Sinn Féin | Gerry Adams | Anti-agreement | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | | 0.0 | 38,848 | 6.6 | 4.7 |
| | Alliance | John Cushnahan | Pro-agreement | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | | 0.0 | 32,095 | 5.5 | 3.5 |
| | UPUP | James Kilfedder | Anti-agreement | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | | 6.7 | 30,793 | 5.3 | 1.3 |
| | Workers' Party | Tomás Mac Giolla | Pro-agreement | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | | 0.0 | 18,148 | 3.1 | 1.3 |
| | For the Anglo-Irish Agreement | Wesley Robert Williamson running as 'Peter Barry' | Pro-agreement | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | | 0.0 | 6,379 | 1.1 | N/A |
| Blank and invalid votes | Blank and invalid votes | Blank and invalid votes | Blank and invalid votes | | | | | | | | — | — |
| Total | Total | Total | Total | 41 | 15 | | | 0 | 100 | 584,617 | 100 | 0.0 |
| Registered voters, and turnout | Registered voters, and turnout | Registered voters, and turnout | Registered voters, and turnout | | | | | | | 951,571 | 61.44 | |
Vote share by party position on Anglo-Irish Agreement
Anti-Agreement Unionists
71.6%
Pro-Agreement candidates
21.8%
Anti-Agreement Republicans (Sinn Féin)
6.6% :
All but one of the Unionists were re-elected, many with extremely large majorities. The largest of all went to Ian Paisley in North Antrim. He won 97.4% of the vote, the highest percentage polled by any candidate in a UK by-election since the 1940 Middleton and Prestwich by-election.
The sole exception to this pattern was the Newry and Armagh by-election, where Seamus Mallon of the SDLP was able to take the seat. Former Cabinet Minister Enoch Powell was able to narrowly survive a strong challenge from the SDLP in South Down and was subsequently defeated at the following year's general election. In the western constituencies of Mid Ulster and Fermanagh and South Tyrone, the Unionist candidates were able to survive with less than 50% of the vote due to a split Nationalist vote. Both seats were gained by Sinn Féin in later elections.
The results of the fifteen by-elections were cited by Unionists as a rejection of the Agreement by the Northern Irish electorate, but did not succeed in repealing it.

### Antrim

1986 East Antrim by-election :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| | UUP | Roy Beggs | 30,386 | 84.9 | +47.5 |
| | Alliance | Seán Neeson | 5,405 | 15.1 | −4.9 |
| Majority | Majority | Majority | 24,981 | 69.8 | +68.9 |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 24,981 | 59.2 | −5.9 |
| | UUP hold | UUP hold | Swing | N/A | |
1986 North Antrim by-election :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| | DUP | Ian Paisley | 33,937 | 97.4 | +43.2 |
| | For the Anglo-Irish Agreement | Peter Barry | 515 | 2.6 | N/A |
| Majority | Majority | Majority | 33,024 | 94.8 | |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 34,452 | 54.7 | |
| | DUP hold | DUP hold | Swing | N/A | |
1986 South Antrim by-election :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| | UUP | Clifford Forsythe | 30,087 | 94.1 | +48.4 |
| | For the Anglo-Irish Agreement | Peter Barry | 1,870 | 5.9 | N/A |
| Majority | Majority | Majority | 28,217 | 88.3 | +70.8 |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 31,957 | 53.5 | −12.0 |
| | UUP hold | UUP hold | Swing | N/A | |

### Belfast

1986 Belfast East by-election :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| | DUP | Peter Robinson | 27,607 | 81.0 | +35.7 |
| | Alliance | Oliver Napier | 5,917 | 17.4 | −6.7 |
| | Workers' Party | Frank Cullen | 578 | 1.7 | +0.6 |
| Majority | Majority | Majority | 21,690 | 63.6 | |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 34,102 | 60.2 | |
| | DUP hold | DUP hold | Swing | | |
1986 Belfast North by-election :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| | UUP | Cecil Walker | 21,649 | 71.5 | +35.3 |
| | Alliance | Paul Maguire | 5,072 | 16.7 | +7.6 |
| | Workers' Party | Seamus Lynch | 3,563 | 11.8 | +6.1 |
| Majority | Majority | Majority | 16,577 | 54.8 | |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 30,284 | 51.5 | −17.9 |
| | UUP hold | UUP hold | Swing | | |
1986 Belfast South by-election :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| | UUP | Martin Smyth | 21,771 | 71.3 | +21.3 |
| | Alliance | David Cook | 7,635 | 25.0 | +1.1 |
| | Workers' Party | Gerry Carr | 1,109 | 3.6 | |
| Majority | Majority | Majority | 14,136 | 46.3 | +1.3 |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 30,515 | 56.9 | |
| | UUP hold | UUP hold | Swing | | |

### Down

1986 North Down by-election :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| | UPUP | James Kilfedder | 30,793 | 79.2 | +23.1 |
| | Alliance | John Cushnahan | 8,066 | 20.8 | −1.3 |
| Majority | Majority | Majority | 22,727 | 58.4 | +24.4 |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 38,859 | 62.8 | −3.4 |
| | UPUP hold | UPUP hold | Swing | | |
1986 South Down by-election :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| | UUP | Enoch Powell | 24,963 | 48.4 | +8.1 |
| | SDLP | Eddie McGrady | 23,121 | 44.8 | +5.5 |
| | Sinn Féin | Hugh McDowell | 2,963 | 5.7 | −2.2 |
| | Workers' Party | Sean Magee | 522 | 1.0 | −0.7 |
| Majority | Majority | Majority | 1,842 | 3.6 | |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 51,569 | 73.8 | −3.9 |
| | UUP hold | UUP hold | Swing | | |

### Newry and Armagh

1986 Newry and Armagh by-election :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| | SDLP | Seamus Mallon | 22,694 | 45.5 | +8.7 |
| | UUP | Jim Nicholson | 20,111 | 40.3 | +0.2 |
| | Sinn Féin | Jim McAllister | 6,609 | 13.2 | −7.7 |
| | Workers' Party | Patrick McCusker | 515 | 1.0 | −1.2 |
| Majority | Majority | Majority | 2,583 | 5.2 | N/A |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 49,929 | 76.9 | +0.9 |
| Registered electors | Registered electors | Registered electors | 65,142 | | |
| | SDLP gain from UUP | SDLP gain from UUP | Swing | | |

### Other constituencies

1986 Fermanagh and South Tyrone by-election :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| | UUP | Ken Maginnis | 27,857 | 49.7 | +2.1 |
| | Sinn Féin | Owen Carron | 15,278 | 27.2 | −7.6 |
| | SDLP | Austin Currie | 12,081 | 21.5 | +5.0 |
| | Workers' Party | David Kettyles | 864 | 1.5 | −0.4 |
| Majority | Majority | Majority | 12,579 | 22.5 | +9.7 |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 56,080 | 80.4 | −8.2 |
| | UUP hold | UUP hold | Swing | | |
1986 Lagan Valley by-election :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| | UUP | Jim Molyneaux | 32,514 | 90.7 | +31.5 |
| | Workers' Party | John Lowry | 3,328 | 9.3 | +7.0 |
| Majority | Majority | Majority | 29,186 | 81.4 | +39.0 |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 35,842 | 57.8 | −9.8 |
| | UUP hold | UUP hold | Swing | | |
1986 East Londonderry by-election :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| | UUP | William Ross | 30,922 | 93.9 | +56.0 |
| | For the Anglo-Irish Agreement | Peter Barry | 2,001 | 6.1 | N/A |
| Majority | Majority | Majority | 28,921 | 87.8 | +73.7 |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 32,923 | 46.8 | –29.5 |
| | UUP hold | UUP hold | Swing | | |
1986 Mid Ulster by-election :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| | DUP | William McCrea | 23,695 | 46.1 | +16.4 |
| | Sinn Féin | Danny Morrison | 13,998 | 27.2 | −2.8 |
| | SDLP | Adrian Colton | 13,021 | 25.3 | +2.8 |
| | Workers' Party | Thomas Owens | 691 | 1.3 | ±0.0 |
| Majority | Majority | Majority | 6,967 | 19.3 | |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 51,405 | 77.6 | −6.7 |
| | DUP hold | DUP hold | Swing | | |
1986 Strangford by-election :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| | UUP | John David Taylor | 32,627 | 94.2 | +45.4 |
| | For the Anglo-Irish Agreement | Peter Barry | 1,993 | 5.8 | N/A |
| Majority | Majority | Majority | 30,634 | 88.5 | +69.7 |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 34,620 | 55.0 | −9.9 |
| Registered electors | Registered electors | Registered electors | 62,854 | | |
| | UUP hold | UUP hold | Swing | | |
1986 Upper Bann by-election :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| | UUP | Harold McCusker | 29,311 | 80.8 | +23.9 |
| | Workers' Party | Tom French | 6,978 | 19.2 | +13.7 |
| Majority | Majority | Majority | 22,333 | 61.4 | +20.4 |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 36,861 | 57.2 | −14.8 |
| Registered electors | Registered electors | Registered electors | 63,4854 | | |
| | UUP hold | UUP hold | Swing | | |