Parliamentary Boundary Post outside 97 Knockbreda Road, Belfast

A cast iron boundary marker embedded in the footpath on the south side of Knockbreda Road outside number 97. The post marks the outer extent of the administrative jurisdiction of Belfast Corporation (as Belfast City Council was then known) and of Ormeau District Electoral Division and Ward.

The post is of slightly tapered cylindrical profile, measuring 3 feet high by 1 foot in diameter. It features a banded octagonal base, an oversailing octagonal collar supported on a splayed dentil casting, and a slightly smaller spoked cap. The front bears the shield of Belfast Corporation's coat of arms, below which is an attached plaque reading "PARLIAMENTARY AND MUNICIPAL BOUNDARY OF BELFAST ORMEAU DIVISION ORMEAU WARD 1918". The plaque is secured to the post with four countersunk screws. The post is unaltered and remains in its original location.

Although dated 1918, a boundary post is marked in this vicinity on the 1901 Ordnance Survey map, indicating that the post is probably earlier—possibly 1898—and was merely adapted in 1918 by bolting a new plaque over the original legend. The design of all Belfast's existing posts is very similar to a post dated 1858 which survives on the west side of High Street in Holywood, County Down, suggesting continuity in local design if not the reuse of earlier posts, as in this case.

The County of the Borough of Belfast was created under the Local Government Act 1898 and enacted the following year. The new borough was initially divided into four constituencies for Westminster parliamentary elections: North, East, West and South. Under the Redistribution of Seats (Ireland) Act 1918, these four constituencies were abolished and increased to nine—Cromac, Duncairn, Falls, Ormeau, Pottinger, St Anne's, Shankill, Victoria, and Woodvale. The post marks the boundary of the parliamentary division of Ormeau and of Ormeau ward within it. These new constituencies were first used in the General Election of 14 December 1918, held under the Representation of the People Act 1918, just over a month after the cessation of the First World War. This election was of special significance as it was the first at which all men over 21 years of age and all women over 30 could vote, and the first election to be completed within one day. Previously, only male property owners had the vote, and elections were spread over several weeks. With the inception of the devolved parliament for Northern Ireland in 1922, the number of Westminster MPs was greatly reduced. The Ormeau parliamentary constituency, created only four years before, was abolished and the previous Belfast seats restored, though municipal wards continued to be used for local elections for some time thereafter.

The post is of historic importance as a remnant of the first election in Britain and Ireland when nearly everyone bar women under 30 had the right to vote, and marks the short-lived period in the province's political development up to the formation of Northern Ireland and the Stormont administration in 1922. It is relatively rare as many of these posts have succumbed to road widening and removal. It has group value with four similar posts demarcating the Ormeau Electoral Division. A corresponding boundary post on the opposite side of the road has been removed.