Castle (District Electoral Area)

Castle
Castle
Belfast City Council DEA Constituency
	Castle DEA marked on a map of Belfast City Council and its wards
Current constituency
Created	2014
Seats	6 (2014–)
Councillors	Fred Cobain (DUP); Mal O'Hara (Green Party); Conor Maskey (SF; Dean McCullough (DUP); Sam Nelson (APNI); Carl Whyte (SDLP);

Castle is one of the ten district electoral areas in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Located in the north of the city, the district elects six members to Belfast City Council and contains the wards of Bellevue, Cavehill, Chichester Park, Duncairn, Fortwilliam and Innisfayle. Castle, along with Oldpark district and parts of the Court district and Newtownabbey Borough Council, forms the Belfast North constituency for the Northern Ireland Assembly and UK Parliament. The district is bounded to the east by the Victoria Channel, to the north by Newtownabbey Borough Council and Belfast Lough, to the south by North Street and to the west by the Cavehill Road.

The district takes its name from the current Belfast Castle, which is located on Cave Hill in the north of the district, while the southern section of the district is part of the city centre and forms one of Belfast's main cultural areas, known as the Cathedral Quarter. The east of the area also contains the Port of Belfast. Castle is served by the M2 and M5 motorways and the Yorkgate railway station.

Castle is one of the most mixed areas in the city, with just over half of the district's population being Protestant at the 2001 Census. There are a number of peace lines in the district, for example along the Whitewell Road.

History

Castle was created for the 1985 local elections. All six wards came from the former Area H, with only the Cliftonville ward and northern section of the Waterworks ward omitted from the new district. One of the district's six wards, Castleview, was renamed Innisfayle in 2014.

Amenities

Cavehill

Sport

Seaview, Crusaders F.C. home ground
Skegoneill Avenue, Brantwood F.C. home ground

Education

Wards

Belfast Castle

Map	Ward	Population (2011 Census)	Catholic	Protestant	Other	No Religion	Area	Density	NI Assembly	UK Parliament	Ref
1	Bellevue	4,910	63.7%	29.3%	1.1%	6%	2.96 km²	1,659/km²	Belfast North	Belfast North	^[1]
2	Castleview	4,722	38.1%	54.2%	1.2%	6.5%	1.41 km²	3,349/km²	Belfast North	Belfast North	^[2]
3	Cavehill	4,820	57.1%	37.7%	0.9%	4.3%	3.41 km²	1,413/km²	Belfast North	Belfast North	^[3]
4	Chichester Park	5,452	74.3%	17.2%	1.6%	6.9%	0.95 km²	5,739/km²	Belfast North	Belfast North	^[4]
5	Duncairn	4,901	23.6%	63.9%	2.2%	10.3	9.24 km²	530/km²	Belfast North	Belfast North	^[5]
6	Fortwilliam	4,561	41.3%	50.3%	1.2%	7.2%	1.03 km²	4,428/km²	Belfast North	Belfast North	^[6]
Castle		29,366	50.3%	41.5%	1.4%	6.9%	19 km²	1,546/km²

Councillors

The Big Fish sculpture

Election
May 2022 Co-Option	Sam Nelson (Alliance)	Carl Whyte (SDLP)	Fred Cobain (DUP)	Mal O'Hara (Green)	Conor Maskey (Sinn Féin)	Dean McCullough (DUP)
April 2020 co-option	Nuala McAllister (Alliance)					Dean McCullough (DUP)
January 2020 co-option						Guy Spence (DUP)
2019					John Finucane (Sinn Féin)
June 2017 defection		Pat Convery (SDLP/Independent)	Lydia Patterson (DUP)	David Browne (UUP)	Mary Campbell (Sinn Féin)
2014		Pat Convery (SDLP/Independent)	Lydia Patterson (DUP)	David Browne (UUP)	Mary Campbell (Sinn Féin)

2019 Results

2014: 2 x DUP, 1 x Sinn Fein, 1 x Alliance, 1 x SDLP, 1 x UUP

2019: 2 x DUP, 1 x Sinn Fein, 1 x Alliance, 1 x SDLP, 1 x Green

2014-2019 Change: Green gain from UUP

Castle - 6 seats^[7]
Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
Party		Candidate	FPv%	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
	Alliance	Nuala McAllister* †	15.81%	1,787
	Sinn Féin	John Finucane †	14.60%	1,650
	DUP	Fred Cobain	12.73%	1,439	1,440.35	1,440.35	1,443.34	1,446.44	1,458.44	1,460.53	1,939.53
	DUP	Guy Spence* †	12.45%	1,407	1,408.08	1,408.08	1,412.17	1,418.26	1,425.26	1,426.35	1,783.35
	Green (NI)	Mal O'Hara	7.80%	882	939.51	967.67	1,031.82	1,174.86	1,277.64	1,350.6	1,423.01	1,493.01
	SDLP	Carl Whyte	5.76%	651	680.61	690.51	709.32	727.04	835.2	1,365.4	1,397.65	1,432.65
	Sinn Féin	Mary Ellen Campbell*	9.76%	1,103	1,109.66	1,111.93	1,128.29	1,145.56	1,183.92	1,212.91	1,200	1,223
	Ulster Unionist	David Browne*	8.97%	1,014	1,022.46	1,024.64	1,027	1,033.27	1,042.72	1,049.35
	SDLP	Heather Wilson	4.87%	551	572.78	586.23	604.31	614.58	686.57
	Independent	Patrick Convery*	3.33%	377	384.47	398.19	406.46	426.18
	People Before Profit	Riley Johnston	1.80%	204	211.83	215.83	245.46
	Workers' Party	Gemma Weir	1.38%	156	166.92	171.32
	Independent	Cathal Mullaghan	0.67%	76	81.49
Electorate: 22,262 Valid: 11,300 (50.76%) Spoilt: 136 Quota: 1,615 Turnout: 11,436 (51.37%)

2014 Results

2014: 2 x DUP, 1 x Sinn Féin, 1 x SDLP, 1 x UUP, 1 x Alliance

Castle - 6 seats^[7]
Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
Party		Candidate	FPv%	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
	Sinn Féin	Mary Ellen Campbell*	15.31%	1,619
	SDLP	Patrick Convery* ‡	11.32%	1,197	1,206.6	1,229.66	1,335.9	1,756.9
	Alliance	Nuala McAllister	9.64%	1,020	1,021.8	1,064.86	1,261.1	1,388.58	1,410.58	1,549.18
	DUP	Guy Spence*	12.66%	1,339	1,339.12	1,340.12	1,356.12	1,357.12	1,493.12	1,493.89
	DUP	Lydia Patterson*	12.06%	1,276	1,276.18	1,277.18	1,287.18	1,295.18	1,463.18	1,467.03
	Ulster Unionist	David Browne*	10.71%	1,133	1,133.12	1,136.12	1,158.12	1,163.12	1,459.12	1,465.28
	Sinn Féin	Tierna Cunningham*	9.81%	1,038	1,117.14	1,144.38	1,216.4	1,258.48	1,259.48	1,352.65
	PUP	William McQuade	6.21%	657	657	659	673	677
	SDLP	Cathal Mullaghan	5.24%	554	555.98	596.98	651.28
	NI21	Alison Crawford	3.18%	336	337.08	343.08
	Independent	Fra Hughes	2.06%	218	219.02	245.02
	Workers' Party	Gemma Weir	1.81%	191	191.48
Electorate: 20,977 Valid: 10,578 (50.43%) Spoilt: 175 Quota: 1,512 Turnout: 10,753 (51.26%)

References

^ "Ward Information for Bellevue ward 95GG08". NISRA. Retrieved 22 December 2013.
^ "Ward Information for Castleview ward 95GG13". NISRA. Retrieved 22 December 2013.
^ "Ward Information for Cavehill ward 95GG14". NISRA. Retrieved 22 December 2013.
^ "Ward Information for Chichester Park ward 95GG16". NISRA. Retrieved 22 December 2013.
^ "Ward Information for Duncairn ward 95GG20". NISRA. Retrieved 22 December 2013.
^ "Ward Information for Fortwilliam ward 95GG24". NISRA. Retrieved 22 December 2013.
^ ^a ^b Cite error: The named reference Belfast was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[1] "Ward Information for Bellevue ward 95GG08". NISRA. Retrieved 22 December 2013.

[2] "Ward Information for Castleview ward 95GG13". NISRA. Retrieved 22 December 2013.

[3] "Ward Information for Cavehill ward 95GG14". NISRA. Retrieved 22 December 2013.

[4] "Ward Information for Chichester Park ward 95GG16". NISRA. Retrieved 22 December 2013.

[5] "Ward Information for Duncairn ward 95GG20". NISRA. Retrieved 22 December 2013.

[6] "Ward Information for Fortwilliam ward 95GG24". NISRA. Retrieved 22 December 2013.

[Belfast-7] Cite error: The named reference Belfast was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

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[6]

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v t e Belfast
General	Belfast Belfast City Hall Coat of Arms and Motto
People	Councillors Aldermen Lord Mayor Deputy Lord Mayor High Sheriff Lord Lieutenant
District Electoral Areas	Balmoral Black Mountain Botanic Castle Collin Court Lisnasharragh Oldpark Ormiston Titanic
Amenities	Belfast Castle Belfast Zoo St George's Market Ulster Hall Waterfront Hall
Parks and gardens	Botanic Gardens Cave Hill Country Park Musgrave Park Ormeau Park Sir Thomas and Lady Dixon Park Victoria Park
Cemeteries	Balmoral Cemetery Belfast City Cemetery Clifton Street Cemetery Friar's Bush Graveyard Milltown Cemetery Roselawn Cemetery Shankill Graveyard
Elections	2019 2014 2011 2005 2001 1997 1993 1989 1985 1981 1977 1973 1955 1920 1914 1897
See also: Local government in Northern Ireland Category

Castle (District Electoral Area)

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