Munster (European Parliament constituency)

Munster was a constituency of the European Parliament in Ireland between 1979 and 2004. It elected 5 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) in the elections of 1979, 1984 and 1989 and 4 MEPs in the 1994 and 1999 elections using the single transferable vote form of proportional representation (PR-STV).

Munster
European Parliament constituency
Shown within Ireland
Member state	Ireland
Created	1979
Dissolved	2004
MEPs	5 (1979–1994) 4 (1994–2004)
Sources

History and boundaries

The constituency was created in 1979 for the first direct elections to the European Parliament. It comprised County Clare, County Cork, County Kerry, County Limerick, County Tipperary and County Waterford from the historic province of Munster including the cities of Cork, Limerick and Waterford.[1] It was abolished under the European Parliament Elections (Amendment) Act 2004 and succeeded by the new South constituency.[2]

MEPs

Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) for Munster 1979–2009
Key to parties   FF = Fianna Fáil   FG = Fine Gael   Ind = Independent   Lab = Labour Party   PD = Progressive Democrats
Parl.	Election	Member (Party)		Member (Party)		Member (Party)		Member (Party)		Member (Party)
1st	1979[3]		T. J. Maher (Ind)		Tom O'Donnell (FG)		Eileen Desmond (Lab)		Jerry Cronin[4] (FF)		Noel Davern (FF)
	1981[5]						Seán Treacy (Lab)
2nd	1984[6]						Tom Raftery (FG)		Sylvester Barrett (FF)		Gene Fitzgerald (FF)
3rd	1989[7]				John Cushnahan (FG)		Pat Cox (PD)		Paddy Lane (FF)
4th	1994[8]		Brian Crowley (FF)				Pat Cox (Ind)		Gerry Collins (FF)	4 seats from 1994
5th	1999[9]
6th	2004	Constituency abolished. See South.

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.

Elections

1999 election

1999 European Parliament election: Munster[9]
Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count 1	Count 2	Count 3	Count 4	Count 5	Count 6
	Fianna Fáil	Brian Crowley	34.4	154,195
	Fianna Fáil	Gerry Collins	18.5	83,106	117,783
	Independent	Pat Cox	14.3	63,954	76,203	85,257	88,357	95,004
	Fine Gael	John Cushnahan	10.3	46,100	49,009	50,496	51,483	53,497	78,232
	Fine Gael	Jim Corr	7.0	31,363	35,026	37,556	38,693	40,669
	Sinn Féin	Martin Ferris	6.5	29,060	31,783	34,435	36,534
	Labour Party	Paula Desmond	6.3	28,270	34,002	36,884	40,746	46,887	52,831
	Green Party	Ben Nutty	2.3	10,257	12,330	13,643
	Natural Law	Stewart Luck	0.3	1,267	1,602	1,897
	Independent	Denis Riordan	0.2	1,007	1,125	1,268
Electorate: 823,008   Valid: 448,579   Spoilt: 13,724 (2.9%)   Quota: 89,716   Turnout: 462,303 (56.2%)

All sitting MEPs were re-elected.

1994 election

1994 European Parliament election: Munster[10][11]
Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count 1	Count 2	Count 3	Count 4	Count 5	Count 6	Count 7	Count 8	Count 9	Count 10	Count 11	Count 12
	Fianna Fáil	Brian Crowley	23.2	84,463
	Fianna Fáil	Gerry Collins	13.6	49,677	54,399	54,530	55,047	55,522	56,246	57,264	70,834	75,527
	Fine Gael	John Cushnahan	10.1	36,906	37,319	37,448	37,553	37,836	38,488	39,331	40,444	42,726	43,115	46,889	72,018
	Progressive Democrats	Desmond O'Malley	8.7	31,674	32,287	32,440	32,596	32,928	33,916	35,957	37,178	39,165	39,516	45,371	49,655
	Fine Gael	Tom Raftery	8.6	31,250	31,896	32,012	32,130	32,398	32,923	34,632	35,434	37,718	38,032	40,681
	Independent	Pat Cox	7.7	27,920	29,069	29,333	29,741	30,400	31,905	33,888	35,791	39,766	40,675	48,533	52,495
	Labour Party	Jim Kemmy	7.0	25,486	26,102	26,259	26,703	27,842	29,448	33,155	33,927	36,124	36,533
	Fianna Fáil	Paddy Lane	5.3	19,369	21,050	21,131	21,430	21,642	22,014	22,348
	Independent	Nora Bennis	5.1	18,424	18,971	19,292	19,805	20,265	21,863	24,237	24,982
	Democratic Left	Kathleen Lynch	4.3	15,573	16,127	16,282	16,610	17,316	18,948
	Green Party	Dan Boyle	2.8	10,033	10,322	10,661	11,395	11,971
	Workers' Party	Martin O'Regan	1.7	6,270	6,367	6,524	6,981
	Sinn Féin	Kieran McCarthy	1.4	5,171	5,285	5,391
	Natural Law	Stewart Luck	0.2	890	934
	Independent	Conor Moloney	0.2	858	901
	Independent	Denis Riordan	0.2	607	627
Electorate: 755,176   Valid: 364,571   Spoilt: 5,319 (1.4%)   Quota: 72,915   Turnout: 369,890 (49.0%)

The constituency lost a seat and T. J. Maher and Gene Fitzgerald retired. Pat Cox resigned from the Progressive Democrats (PD) but succeeded in narrowly beating the PD leader Desmond O'Malley for the last seat.

1989 election

1989 European Parliament election: Munster[12][13]
Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count 1	Count 2	Count 3	Count 4	Count 5	Count 6	Count 7	Count 8	Count 9	Count 10
	Progressive Democrats	Pat Cox	17.3	85,558
	Fianna Fáil	Gene Fitzgerald	13.0	64,139	64,350	64,731	65,277	66,591	68,988	72,389	92,491
	Independent	T. J. Maher	11.2	55,499	55,972	56,653	58,324	60,851	63,515	68,895	71,223	71,738	79,107
	Fine Gael	Tom Raftery	8.8	43,528	43,925	44,497	44,923	46,681	48,651	49,971	50,516	50,637
	Fine Gael	John Cushnahan	8.8	43,326	44,208	45,104	46,036	47,191	48,738	50,397	51,444	51,608	79,058
	Fianna Fáil	Paddy Lane	8.3	41,152	41,351	41,558	42,024	42,516	43,542	46,303	55,224	64,287	65,671
	Fianna Fáil	Jackie Fahey	7.5	37,290	37,430	37,919	38,992	39,417	40,370	42,611
	Independent	Patrick Ryan	6.3	30,934	31,005	31,356	32,021	33,029	35,619
	Labour Party	Eileen Desmond	6.1	29,979	30,355	30,830	35,709	38,051	45,684	49,435	51,112	51,334	55,407
	Workers' Party	Joe Sherlock	5.4	26,828	27,000	27,382	28,221	30,710
	Independent	Joe Noonan	3.2	15,975	16,076	16,466	16,662
	Labour Party	Michael Ferris	2.8	13,843	13,927	14,150
	Independent	George Salter Townshend	0.5	2,577	2,595
	Independent	William O'Shea	0.4	2,011	2,021
	Independent	Abbey of the Holy Cross Fitzsimons	0.4	1,794	1,812
Electorate: 703,913   Valid: 494,433   Spoilt: 10,786 (2.1%)   Quota: 82,406   Turnout: 505,219 (71.8%)

Tom Raftery of Fine Gael lost his seat to Pat Cox of the Progressive Democrats.

1984 election

1984 European Parliament election: Munster[14][15]
Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count 1	Count 2	Count 3	Count 4	Count 5	Count 6	Count 7
	Independent	T. J. Maher	16.1	55,079	56,840	60,138
	Fine Gael	Tom O'Donnell	15.7	53,832	54,313	55,689	55,923	66,537
	Fianna Fáil	Sylvester Barrett	13.9	47,622	48,947	49,995	50,183	52,019	52,363	53,008
	Fine Gael	Tom Raftery	12.9	44,236	44,401	45,806	46,069	52,653	59,968
	Fianna Fáil	Gene Fitzgerald	12.6	43,036	43,987	46,179	46,498	49,456	49,729	50,578
	Fianna Fáil	Noel Davern	12.5	42,863	44,100	45,397	45,703	47,644	47,999	48,694
	Labour Party	Eileen Desmond	7.6	26,162	27,080	31,374	32,160
	Workers' Party	Joe Sherlock	5.1	17,304	19,945
	Sinn Féin	Richard Behal	3.7	12,829
Electorate: 691,076   Valid: 342,963   Spoilt: 6,216 (1.8%)   Quota: 57,161   Turnout: 349,179 (50.5%)

Eileen Desmond (substituted by Seán Treacy in 1981) lost the Labour Party seat to Fine Gael, while Noel Davern lost his seat to his Fianna Fáil running mates.

1979 election

1979 European Parliament election: Munster[16][17]
Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count 1	Count 2	Count 3	Count 4	Count 5	Count 6	Count 7	Count 8	Count 9
	Independent	T. J. Maher	20.0	86,208
	Labour Party	Eileen Desmond[5]	12.5	53,614	54,530	57,822	58,711	62,941	67,191	69,055	72,600
	Fine Gael	Tom O'Donnell	10.9	46,820	49,909	50,837	50,994	54,582	65,528	67,004	92,475
	Fianna Fáil	Jerry Cronin[4]	10.1	43,439	44,424	45,123	51,065	52,751	53,624	60,649	61,422	62,312
	Fianna Fáil	Noel Davern	8.7	37,647	39,143	40,106	42,705	43,362	43,799	48,332	49,465	50,192
	Fianna Fáil	Michael Herbert	7.9	34,034	35,213	35,730	38,645	38,852	39,184	46,311	47,000	47,754
	Fianna Fáil	Timothy O'Connor	6.9	29,595	30,524	31,010	32,915	33,201	33,856
	Fine Gael	Jim O'Keeffe	6.0	25,664	27,203	27,483	27,667	29,973
	Fine Gael	John Blair	5.0	21,615	22,217	22,695	23,219
	Fine Gael	Alan Dukes	5.0	21,510	24,666	25,525	25,656	33,172	39,519	40,085
	Fianna Fáil	Seán French	3.9	16,655	16,951	17,327
	Sinn Féin - The Workers' Party	Michael Dunphy	2.7	11,526	11,701
	Independent	Michael B Crowe	0.5	2,268	2,348
Electorate: 641,625   Valid: 430,595   Spoilt: 14,597 (3.3%)   Quota: 71,766   Turnout: 445,192 (69.4%)

See also

• European Parliament constituencies in the Republic of Ireland

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. "1979 European Parliament election – Munster constituency". ElectionsIreland.org. Retrieved 22 March 2009.
4. Jerry Cronin resigned on 23 May 1984 and his seat was vacant at dissolution.
5. Eileen Desmond resigned on 7 July 1981 and was substituted by Seán Treacy (LAB / PES) on 9 July 1981.
6. "1984 European Parliament election – Munster constituency". ElectionsIreland.org. Retrieved 22 March 2009.
7. "1989 European Parliament election – Munster constituency". ElectionsIreland.org. Retrieved 22 March 2009.
8. "1994 European Parliament election – Munster constituency". ElectionsIreland.org. Retrieved 22 March 2009.
9. "1999 European Parliament election – Munster constituency". ElectionsIreland.org. Retrieved 22 March 2009.
10. https://www.europarl.europa.eu/ireland/en/your-meps/1994-european-elections-results
11. http://irelandelection.com/electiondetail.php?elecid=216&constitid=477&electype=7
12. https://www.europarl.europa.eu/ireland/en/your-meps/1989-european-elections-results
13. http://irelandelection.com/electiondetail.php?elecid=215&constitid=477&electype=7
14. https://www.europarl.europa.eu/ireland/en/your-meps/1984-european-elections-results
15. http://irelandelection.com/electiondetail.php?elecid=214&constitid=477&electype=7
16. https://www.europarl.europa.eu/ireland/en/your-meps/1979-european-elections-results
17. http://irelandelection.com/electiondetail.php?elecid=213&constitid=477&electype=7