Everything Ulster - Election 2005

Welcome to Everything Ulster's Election 2005 mini-site. Everything Ulster is a news blog run by me, Beano, a simple Belfast man, in my spare time. The site began with a view to covering the Westminster (and local government) elections in Northern Ireland in 2005.

Everything Ulster has now grown beyond that, and as part of this process, I've registered the domain EverythingUlster.com - and that's where you'll find the main site with all today's news.

The Election 2005 site is being kept online as an archive for posterity and if all goes to plan this will be the last post made in it. So for all your Northern Ireland Election needs, hunt through the stories here (there's a search button on the left) and for up to date news from my wee country, check out the Everything Ulster home page at www.EverythingUlster.com.

Everything Ulster's Election 2005 coverage comes to an official end today with the launch of the new site at www.EverythingUlster.com where I've just set up a new hosting account.

At the new site, Everything Ulster will continue be a home for my own personal slant on happenings in Northern Ireland and I hope the site continues to grow the way it has done up until now. I couldn't have done it without the support of the commentators, so a big 'Thank you' to everyone who has contributed so far. I'll see you all at the new site.

It's been an interesting experience for me, this election. Despite the decline of the Ulster Unionists, it hasn't been an unmitigated disaster. I've learned quite a lot about blogging and about the different candidates through the Westminster Focus posts, taking a look at each constituency in turn.

I always said that once the election was over I'd continue and try to maybe grow the site. In that spirit, I'll be relaunching it and all the Election 2005 posts (any post up to now) will be moved, so you'll need to update your bookmarks. There'll also be new RSS feeds for the new site.

Read more!

While 9 DUP MPs made the journey to Westminster for the opening of the new Parliament today, Lady Sylvia Hermon returned alone. Re-elected as MP for North Down, she's the only Ulster Unionist elected to this Parliament. Lady Hermon still hasn't decided whether or not to stand for the Ulster Unionist Party leadership and seems to be genuinely having trouble weighing the responsibility of caring for her husband, who suffers from Alzheimers, with an apparent "sense of duty".

She was interviewed by the BBC today and took the opportunity to say (much to the disgust, I'm sure, of my friends over at A Tangled Web) that the Ulster Unionist party must become more liberal and 'put water between' themselves and the DUP.

Read more!

Finally, all the results from Northern Ireland's council elections are in. I have to admit that despite the DUP's successes on Friday, I wasn't expecting them to do quite so well as they did in the local government election! But fair play to them, congratulations. Now lets take a look at what it really means...

Read more!