Leinster (European Parliament constituency)

Leinster
European Parliament constituency

Shown within Ireland
Member state Ireland
Created 1979
Dissolved 2004
MEPs 3 (1979–94)
4 (1994–2004)
Sources

Leinster was a constituency of the European Parliament in Ireland between 1979 and 2004. It elected 3 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) in the 1979, 1984 and 1989 elections and 4 MEPs in the elections of 1994 and 1999 using the single transferable vote form of proportional representation (PR-STV).

History and boundaries

The constituency was created in 1979 for the first direct elections to the European Parliament. It comprised the counties of Carlow, Kildare, Kilkenny, Laois, Longford, Louth, Meath, Offaly, Westmeath, Wexford and Wicklow from the historic province of Leinster excluding the County Dublin area.[1] It was abolished under the European Parliament Elections (Amendment) Act 2004 and succeeded by the new East constituency.[2]

MEPs

Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) for Leinster 19792009
Parl.ElectionMember
(Party)
Member
(Party)
Member
(Party)
Member
(Party)
1st 1979[3] Mark Clinton
(FG)
Patrick Lalor
(FF)
Liam Kavanagh
(Lab)
3 seats
until 1994
1981[4] Séamus Pattison
(Lab)
1983[4] Justin Keating
(Lab)
2nd 1984[5] Jim Fitzsimons
(FF)
3rd 1989[6] Patrick Cooney
(FG)
4th 1994[7] Alan Gillis
(FG)
Liam Hyland
(FF)
Nuala Ahern
(GP)
5th 1999[8] Avril Doyle
(FG)
6th 2004 Constituency abolished. See East

Note: The columns in this table are used only for presentational purposes, and no significance should be attached to the order of columns. For details of the order in which seats were won at each election, see the detailed results of that election.

1999 election

1999 European Parliament election: Leinster[8]
Party Candidate % 1st Pref Count 1 Count 2Count 3
Fine Gael Avril Doyle 19.8 67,881 69,495  
Green Party Nuala Ahern 13.8 47,184 52,618 66,808
Fianna Fáil Jim Fitzsimons 17.2 58,750 61,439 66,117
Fianna Fáil Liam Hyland 17.1 58,477 61,931 65,496
Fine Gael Alan Gillis 14.2 48,729 50,040 56,881
Labour Party Seán Butler 11.1 38,112 40,849  
Sinn Féin Arthur Morgan 5.9 20,015    
Natural Law Desmond Garrett 0.9 3,191    
Electorate: 706,200   Valid: 342,339   Spoilt: 14,725 (4.1%)   Quota: 68,468   Turnout: 357,064 (50.6%)

    Alan Gillis lost his seat to his party running mate Avril Doyle.

    1994 election

    1994 European Parliament election: Leinster[7]
    Party Candidate 1st Pref % Seat Count
    Fianna Fáil Liam Hyland 46,448 17.7 1 7
    Fine Gael Alan Gillis 42,826 16.3 2 7
    Fianna Fáil Jim Fitzsimons 41,375 15.8 3 7
    Green Party Nuala Ahern 30,997 11.8 4 7
    Fine Gael Monica Barnes 29,958 11.4
    Labour Party Michael Bell 22,987 8.8
    Labour Party Séamus Pattison 17,580 6.7
    Progressive Democrats John Dardis 12,591 4.8
    Independent Jack Fitzsimons 6,752 2.6
    Sinn Féin Lucilita Bhreatnach 6,523 2.5
    Independent Peter Sweetman 3,228 1.2
    Natural Law Tom Mullins 1,180 0.5
    Electorate: 624,561   Valid: 262,445   Spoilt: 6,599 (2.5%)   Quota: 52,490   Turnout: 269,044 (43.1%)

    Alan Gillis replaced his party colleague Patrick Cooney who had stepped down. The Green Party gained the additional seat.

    1989 election

    1989 European Parliament election: Leinster[6]
    Party Candidate 1st Pref % Seat Count
    Fine Gael Patrick Cooney 65,775 17.4 3 7
    Fianna Fáil Patrick Lalor 75,627 20.0 3 7
    Fianna Fáil Jim Fitzsimons 63,797 16.9 3 11
    Labour Party Michael Bell 49,766 13.2
    Fine Gael Charles McDonald 35,792 9.5
    Progressive Democrats John Dardis 31,623 8.4
    Green Party Seán English 23,724 6.3
    Workers' Party Michael Enright 9,451 2.5
    Workers' Party Catherine Murphy 7,089 1.9
    Sinn Féin Kevin Dunphy 4,534 1.2
    Sinn Féin Pearse McGeough 3,001 0.8
    Independent Kevin Boland 3,362 0.9
    Sinn Féin Terry Moore 2,424 0.6
    Independent Cornelius de Groot 1,626 0.4
    Electorate: 571,694   Valid: 377,591   Spoilt: 14,106 (3.6%)   Quota: 94,398   Turnout: 391,697 (68.5%)

    Mark Clinton stepped down and was replaced by his party colleague Patrick Cooney.

    1984 election

    1984 European Parliament election: Leinster[5]
    Party Candidate 1st Pref % Seat Count
    Fine Gael Mark Clinton 61,669 23.8 1 2
    Fianna Fáil Jim Fitzsimons 57,321 22.1 2 4
    Fianna Fáil Patrick Lalor 56,191 21.7 3 4
    Labour Party Justin Keating 30,773 11.9
    Fine Gael Deirdre Bolger 33,208 12.8
    Workers' Party Liz McManus 8,943 3.5
    Sinn Féin Martin Sharkey 4,548 1.8
    Sinn Féin John Carroll 4,396 1.7
    Sinn Féin James Dwyer 2,245 0.9
    Electorate: 545,878   Valid: 259,294   Spoilt: 9,197 (3.4%)   Quota: 64,824   Turnout: 268,491 (49.2%)

    Justin Keating lost his seat to Jim Fitzsimmons of Fianna Fáil.

    1979 election

    1979 European Parliament election: Leinster[3]
    Party Candidate 1st Pref % Seat Count
    Fine Gael Mark Clinton 78,762 25.7 1 1
    Fianna Fáil Patrick Lalor 62,094 20.2 2 4
    Labour Party Liam Kavanagh[4] 40,072 13.1 3 5
    Fianna Fáil Tom Nolan 34,210 11.2
    Fine Gael Charles McDonald 24,875 8.1
    Fianna Fáil Paddy Power 31,023 10.1
    Fine Gael Monica Barnes 21,384 7.0
    Sinn Féin (Workers' Party) Donnchadha MacRaghnaill 8,414 2.7
    Sinn Féin (Workers' Party) Sean Walsh 6,062 2.0
    Electorate: 486,248   Valid: 306,896   Spoilt: 15,416 (4.8%)   Quota: 61,380   Turnout: 322,312 (66.3%)

    See also

    References

    1. "European Assembly Elections Act, 1977: Schedule (Constituencies)". Irish Statute Book database. Retrieved 22 November 2011.
    2. "European Parliament Elections (Amendment) Act 2004: Schedule (Constituencies)". Irish Statute Book database. Retrieved 22 November 2011.
    3. 1 2 "1979 European Parliament election – Leinster constituency". ElectionsIreland.org. Retrieved 22 March 2009.
    4. 1 2 3 Liam Kavanagh resigned on 7 July 1981 after becoming Minister for Labour and was substituted by Séamus Pattison (LAB / PES) on 9 July 1981. Séamus Pattison resigned on 15 December 1983 and was substituted by Justin Keating (LAB / PES) on 8 February 1984.
    5. 1 2 "1984 European Parliament election – Leinster constituency". ElectionsIreland.org. Retrieved 22 March 2009.
    6. 1 2 "1989 European Parliament election – Leinster constituency". ElectionsIreland.org. Retrieved 22 March 2009.
    7. 1 2 "1994 European Parliament election – Leinster constituency". ElectionsIreland.org. Retrieved 22 March 2009.
    8. 1 2 "1999 European Parliament election – Leinster constituency". ElectionsIreland.org. Retrieved 22 March 2009.

    External links

    This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/5/2014. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.