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This rural seat is one of the most interesting and controversial in Northern Ireland, with an electoral history marked by factionalism, abstentionism, disqualification and general controversy. When the Sinn Fein winner of 1955, Tom Mitchell, was disqualified in 1955 (as a convicted felon) a split in the nationalist vote allowed Unionist George Forrest to take the seat. He died in 1969, and the seat was won by Bernadette Devlin (now McAliskey) who stood as a Nationalist Unity candidate.
The unity did not last, and the Ulster Unionists took the seat back in 1974, after which it passed to the DUP in 1983. Since then, the nationalist split has ensured continued unionist dominance, and although there was a brief possibility that Bernadette McAliskey's daughter, who is in prison awaiting trial over alleged terrorist offences, would stand for the seat unopposed by Sinn Fein and the SDLP, the latter refused to stand down. It therefore looks like another term in parliament for Democratic Unionist William McCrea.
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