# 1979 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland

The 1979 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland was held on 3 May with 12 MPs elected in single-seat constituencies using first-past-the-post as part of the wider general election in the United Kingdom.

## Results

The election was after Labour Party prime minister James Callaghan lost a vote of confidence by 311 votes to 310. The election was won by the Conservative Party led by Margaret Thatcher, and began a period of 18-year government by the party.
Ulster Unionist leader Harry West failed to win a seat for the second time, and would resign later that year after failing to win a seat at the first European Parliament election. The Democratic Unionist Party increased its representation, and the Vanguard Unionist Progressive Party had disbanded.
Frank Maguire was re-elected as an Independent Nationalist, beating the leaders of both the UUP and the new United Ulster Unionist Party, as well as Austin Currie, a member of the SDLP standing without the support of the party. Maguire's death on 5 March 1981 led to a by-election won by Bobby Sands, an IRA prisoner who died later that year as a result of a hunger strike. The Representation of the People Act 1981 disqualified prisoners detained for more than a year from membership of the House of Commons, so the resulting by-election was contested by Sands's election agent Owen Carron, rather than by another prisoner on hunger strike.
Results :
| Party | Party | MPs | MPs | Votes | Votes | Votes |
| Party | Party | No. | Change | No. | % | Change |
| | UUP | 5 | 1 | 254,578 | 36.6% | 0.1 |
| | DUP | 3 | 2 | 70,795 | 10.2% | 1.7 |
| | SDLP | 1 | 1 | 126,235 | 18.2% | 4.2 |
| | UUUP | 1 | New | 39,856 | 5.7% | 5.7 |
| | Ind. Unionist | 1 | 1 | 36,989 | 5.3% | 4.6 |
| | Ind. Nationalist | 1 | | 22,398 | 3.2% | 1.5 |
| | Alliance | 0 | | 82,892 | 11.9% | 5.5 |
| | Irish Independence | 0 | New | 23,086 | 3.3% | 3.3 |
| | Republican Clubs | 0 | | 12,098 | 1.7% | 1.3 |
| | Independent SDLP | 0 | | 10,795 | 1.6% | 1.6 |
| | Unionist Party NI | 0 | | 8,021 | 1.2% | 1.9 |
| | NI Labour | 0 | | 4,411 | 0.6% | 1.0 |
| | United Labour | 0 | | 1,895 | 0.3% | 0.3 |
| | Independent or other | 0 | | 1,578 | 0.2% | 0.3 |
| Total | Total | 12 | | 695,627 | 100 | |

## MPs elected

| Constituency | Party | MP |
| Antrim North | DUP | Ian Paisley |
| Antrim South | UUP | James Molyneaux |
| Armagh | UUP | Harold McCusker |
| Belfast East | DUP | Peter Robinson |
| Belfast North | DUP | John McQuade |
| Belfast South | UUP | Robert Bradford |
| Belfast West | SDLP | Gerry Fitt |
| Down North | Ind. Unionist | Jim Kilfedder |
| Down South | UUP | Enoch Powell |
| Fermanagh and South Tyrone | Ind. Nationalist | Frank Maguire |
| Londonderry | UUP | William Ross |
| Mid Ulster | UUUP | John Dunlop |

### By-elections

| Constituency | Date | Incumbent | Party | Winner | Party | Cause |
| Fermanagh and South Tyrone | 9 April 1981 | Frank Maguire | Ind. Nationalist | Bobby Sands | Anti H-Block | Death |
| Fermanagh and South Tyrone | 20 August 1981 | Bobby Sands | Anti H-Block | Owen Carron | Anti H-Block | Death from hunger strike |
| Belfast South | 4 March 1982 | Robert Bradford | UUP | Martin Smyth | UUP | Killed by the IRA |