Mid Down (UK Parliament constituency)

Mid Down
Former County constituency for the House of Commons
1918–1922
Number of members	One
Replaced by	Down
Created from	East Down, North Down and West Down

Mid Down was a UK parliamentary constituency in Ireland. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the British House of Commons from 1918 to 1922, using the first past the post electoral system .

This county constituency comprised the central northern part of County Down, to the south-east of the city of Belfast.

Prior to the 1918 parts of the area were included in East Down, West Down and North Down constituencies. After the dissolution of Parliament in 1922 Mid Down became part of the two-member Down constituency.

The constituency was a strongly unionist area, as demonstrated by the small Sinn Féin vote in 1918.

The MP elected in 1918, Sir James Craig, became the Ulster Unionist leader and the first Prime Minister of Northern Ireland in 1921. Having accepted his new office from the Crown on 7 June 1921, Craig's Westminster seat was automatically vacated. He did not seek re-election and a new Unionist MP was elected unopposed.

Sinn Féin contested the general election of 1918 on the platform that instead of taking up any seats they won in the United Kingdom Parliament, they would establish a revolutionary assembly in Dublin. In republican theory every MP elected in Ireland was a potential Deputy to this assembly. In practice only the Sinn Féin members accepted the offer.

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