Unionist dominance in Belfast confirmed by Municipal elections

Belfast, 17 January 1923 - Unionists are set to dominate the incoming Belfast Corporation following the announcement of results of the Municipal elections.

Of the sixty members of the new Corporation, 43 are designated as Official Unionists and 7 as Independent Unionists. The remaining ten seats will be occupied by 8 Nationalists and 2 Labour representatives.

Just over half - 32 - of the successful candidates in the Municipal elections were members of the outgoing Corporation, while 28 members of the new Corporation were newcomers, albeit many with experience of Municipal work. 

Perhaps the most notable result was the heavy defeat suffered by the Lord Mayor of Belfast and official Unionist candidate, Sir William Coates, who trailed by 1,165 votes behind Independent Unionist candidate, Dr. J.W. Williamson, in Ormeau. In Duncairn, Alderman Mercier, an ex-high Sheriff with eighteen years service on the Corporation, was defeated by 722 votes by ex-serviceman Captain Crichton, a political unknown.

Not all defeated outgoing Councilors accepted the results with good grace. In the race for the aldermanship of the Victoria ward, Mr. Thompson Donald lost out to Mr. J.A. Duff.  Both candidates are members of the Six counties, Northern Ireland parliament, but the latter complained that though he had been selected as a candidate by the Unionist association, he had received no support from the official party. As Mr. Duff was moving a vote of thanks to the presiding officer, Mr. Donald, who had mounted a chair, declared the election in the Victoria ward to have been invalid and urged Mr. Duff to seek the services of a solicitor.

Soon after, when he had stepped off the chair,  Mr. Donald confronted Mr. Duff and, waving a fist in his face, said to him: ‘If you were a man I would give you this. You are a dirty scab, although a Scotchman, and if you were in the Free State and issued the same document you would have got a bullet in you.’ An unmoved Mr. Duff simply smiled in response and continued smoking his cigarette. 

[Editor's note: This is an article from Century Ireland, a fortnightly online newspaper, written from the perspective of a journalist 100 years ago, based on news reports of the time.]