1997 Newry and Mourne District Council election

Main article: Northern Ireland local elections, 1997

1997 Newry and Mourne District Council election

←  1993 21 May 1997 (1997-05-21) 2001  →
All 30 seats to Newry and Mourne District Council 16 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party Third party   Party SDLP Sinn Féin UUP Seats won 12 8 5 Seat change 3 3 1   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Party Ind. Nationalist DUP Independent Seats won 3 1 1 Seat change 1 0 0
Results by district electoral area, shaded by First Preference Votes.

Elections to Newry and Mourne District Council were held on 21 May 1997 on the same day as the other Northern Irish local government elections. The election used five district electoral areas to elect a total of 30 councillors.

Election results

Newry and Mourne District Council Election Result 1997 ^[1]

Party		Seats	Gains	Losses	Net gain/loss	Seats %	Votes %	Votes	+/−
	SDLP	12	0	3	3	40.0	39.5	14,590	8.4
	Sinn Féin	8	3	0	3	26.7	26.7	9,874	8.6
	UUP	5	0	1	1	16.7	19.2	7,080	1.7
	Ind. Nationalist	3	1	0	1	10.0	6.9	2,542	1.4
	Independent	1	0	0	0	3.3	3.1	1,132	0.5
	DUP	1	0	0	0	3.3	2.5	907	0.2
	Alliance	0	0	0	0	0.0	2.0	753	2.0
	Workers' Party	0	0	0	0	0.0	0.2	78	0.8

Note: "Votes" are the first preference votes.

Districts summary

^[1]

Results of the Newry and Mourne District Council election, 1997
by district

Ward	%	Cllrs	%	Cllrs	%	Cllrs	%	Cllrs	%	Cllrs	Total Cllrs
	SDLP		Sinn Féin		UUP		DUP		Others
Crotlieve	51.0	4	16.8	1	10.6	0	0.0	0	21.6	2	7
Newry Town	32.1	2	32.4	2	9.1	1	0.0	0	26.4	2	7
Slieve Gullion	46.3	2	53.7	3	0.0	0	0.0	0	0.0	0	5
The Fews	37.1	2	27.5	2	35.4	2	0.0	0	0.0	0	6
The Mournes	30.4	2	6.8	0	42.0	2	13.1	1	7.7	0	5
Total	39.5	12	26.7	8	19.2	5	2.5	1	12.1	4	30

District results

Crotlieve

1993: 4 x SDLP, 2 x Independent Nationalist, 1 x UUP
1997: 4 x SDLP, 2 x Independent Nationalist, 1 x Sinn Féin
1993–1997 Change: Sinn Féin gain from UUP

Crotlieve - 7 seats ^[2]

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7
	SDLP	P. J. Bradley *	17.77%	1,503
	Sinn Féin	Mick Murphy	16.82%	1,423
	SDLP	Hugh Carr*	11.52%	975	1,154.4
	Ind. Nationalist	Anthony Williamson*	10.18%	861	873.6	965.67	1,034.45	1,116.45
	SDLP	Josephine O'Hare	9.01%	762	837.6	891.85	914.54	1,058.97
	SDLP	Jim McCart*	8.46%	716	775.7	817.86	852.06	1,059.15
	Ind. Nationalist	Ciaran Mussen*	8.89%	752	770.3	857.1	885.49	909.15	955.65	977.65
	UUP	Gordon Heslip*	10.56%	893	894.2	895.13	920.75	925.35	930.75	932.75
	SDLP	Marietta Farrell	4.21%	356	437.3	503.02	536.97
	Alliance	Lindsay Whitcroft	2.59%	219	226.2	239.22
Electorate: 14,584  Valid: 8,460 (58.01%)  Spoilt: 210  Quota: 1,058  Turnout: 8,670 (59.45%)

Newry Town

1993: 3 x SDLP, 2 x Sinn Féin, 1 x UUP, 1 x Independent
1997: 2 x SDLP, 2 x Sinn Féin, 1 x UUP, 1 x Independent, 1 x Independent Nationalist
1993–1997 Change: Independent Nationalist gain from SDLP

Newry Town - 7 seats ^[2]

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5
	Sinn Féin	Davy Hyland *	13.53%	1,095
	Independent	Jack Patterson*	12.73%	1,030
	Sinn Féin	Brendan Curran*	12.36%	1,000	1,004	1,024.93
	SDLP	Frank Feely *	9.57%	774	795	796.05	1,034.05
	Ind. Nationalist	Eugene Markey	11.48%	929	948	951.5	976.78	1,061.78
	SDLP	Patrick McElroy*	9.97%	807	830	833.15	979.22	1,012.22
	UUP	William McCaigue*	8.99%	727	763	763.35	768.35	771.98
	SDLP	Arthur Ruddy*	6.53%	528	555	556.05	633.26	654.13
	Sinn Féin	Anne Marie Willis	6.54%	529	530	572.7	578.98
	SDLP	Mary McKeown	6.07%	491	521	522.33
	Alliance	Pete Whitcroft	2.24%	181
Electorate: 14,036  Valid: 8,091 (57.64%)  Spoilt: 213  Quota: 1,012  Turnout: 8,304 (59.16%)

Slieve Gullion

1993: 3 x SDLP, 2 x Sinn Féin
1997: 3 x Sinn Féin, 2 x SDLP
1993–1997 Change: Sinn Féin gain from SDLP

Slieve Gullion - 5 seats ^[2]

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2
	SDLP	John Fee *	22.51%	1,412
	Sinn Féin	Patrick Brennan	18.30%	1,148
	Sinn Féin	Patrick McDonald*	17.76%	1,114
	Sinn Féin	Patrick McNamee	17.66%	1,108
	SDLP	Pat Toner*	13.47%	845	1,043.8
	SDLP	Dessie McDonnell	10.31%	647	804.36
Electorate: 9,847  Valid: 6,274 (63.71%)  Spoilt: 174  Quota: 1,046  Turnout: 6,448 (65.48%)

The Fews

1993: 3 x SDLP, 2 x UUP, 1 x Sinn Féin
1997: 2 x SDLP, 2 x UUP, 2 x Sinn Féin
1993–1997 Change: Sinn Féin gain from SDLP

The Fews - 6 seats ^[2]

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3
	UUP	Danny Kennedy *	22.27%	1,610
	Sinn Féin	Brendan Lewis	15.25%	1,103
	UUP	Andy Moffett	13.17%	952	1,510.72
	SDLP	Stephen McGinn*	14.08%	1,018	1,022.68	1,055.8
	SDLP	Charlie Smyth*	13.48%	975	976.44	1,035.84
	Sinn Féin	Jimmy McCreesh	12.21%	883	884.08	885.52
	SDLP	James Savage*	6.69%	690	691.44	746.88
Electorate: 10,907  Valid: 7,231 (66.30%)  Spoilt: 219  Quota: 1,034  Turnout: 7,450 (68.30%)

The Mournes

1993: 2 x UUP, 2 x SDLP, 1 x DUP
1997: 2 x UUP, 2 x SDLP, 1 x DUP
1993–1997 Change: No change

The Mournes - 5 seats ^[2]

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7
	UUP	Isaac Hanna*	23.12%	1,595
	UUP	Henry Reilly *	18.88%	1,303
	SDLP	Emmett Haughian*	17.33%	1,196
	DUP	William Burns*	13.14%	907	1,266.89
	SDLP	Michael Cunningham	12.97%	895	898.48	901.47	903.99	931.28	939.18	1,193.18
	Alliance	Anne Marie Cunningham	5.12%	353	390.7	423.82	449.65	470.61	569.66	657.95
	Sinn Féin	Paul Lawless	6.83%	471	471.58	471.58	471.58	481.58	482.58
	Independent	Cecil Atkinson	1.48%	102	133.9	238.09	321.25	326.95
	Workers' Party	Charles Cunningham	1.13%	78	81.77	89.59	93.37
Electorate: 10,084  Valid: 6,900 (68.43%)  Spoilt: 127  Quota: 1,151  Turnout: 7,027 (69.68%)

References

1. "Newry and Mourne Council Elections, 1993-2011". www.ark.ac.uk.
2. "Local Government Results 1997". EONI. Retrieved 29 July 2021.