Northern Ireland local elections, 1985

Northern Ireland local elections, 1985

← 1981 15 May 1985 1989 →
All council seats
First party Second party Third party   Party UUP DUP SDLP Seats won 189 142 102 Seat change 37 2   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Party Sinn Féin Alliance Independent Seats won 59 34 9 Seat change 59 4 28
Colours denote the winning party with outright control
Colours denote the party with the most seats

Elections for local government were held in Northern Ireland on 15 May 1985, contesting 565 seats in all.

The previous elections had been fought in the middle of the hunger strike and the H-Block Prison Protest. Those elections had shown changes in party representation, with three parties, namely the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), winning 75% of the seats. On the Unionist side, the DUP arrived at a position of near parity with the UUP, outpolling the latter by 851 votes, although the UUP managed to win more seats overall. Other changes on the Unionist side saw the disbandment of two smaller Unionist parties: the Unionist Party of Northern Ireland in September 1981 and the United Ulster Unionist Party in May 1984. On the nationalist side, while the SDLP maintained its dominant position, a greater number of elected candidates supporting the H-Block protest were elected. In total 36 candidates endorsed by the H-Block committee were elected of whom 21 belonged to the IIP. The representation of the centrist APNI was almost halved as their number of seats was reduced from 70 in 1977 to 38 in 1981.

Following the end of the Hunger Strike, attention focused on attempts by the new Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Jim Prior, to restore devolution. This eventually led to the establishment of the Northern Ireland Assembly which was elected in October 1982. However nationalist parties boycotted the forum and the SDLP instead threw its efforts into the New Ireland Forum. This forum, established in May 1983, reported in May 1984 and represented the combined efforts of the nationalist parties to obtain a solution to the constitutional issue. However the report was rejected by British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher who rejected each of the three proposals with the words “that is out” in a response that became known as the "out, out, out" speech.