The seat was made up from parts of the rural districts of Cookstown, Omagh, Clogher and Strabane.

Unionists contested the constituency three times with varying degrees of success.

At the first attempt in 1949, the Nationalist outpolled them two to one; in 1958 on a relatively low turn-out they came through the middle to win the seat with 48.7% of the vote.

Defending the seat in 1962, this fell back to 38.6% (although the overall unionist vote numerically rose by 8), and the then Nationalist Tom Gormley was elected.

[2] The remainder of contested elections involved candidates of different nationalist persuasions.