Ninth
Seán T O’Kelly (1945-59)
O’Kelly was a senior Fianna Fáil politician – he had served as tánaiste and minister for finance – when he won the first presidential election in 1945.
He was only 63 when he first became president, but his two terms helped to establish the perception of the office as a place of retirement for elderly politicians.
O’Kelly said that his job as president was “mainly signing on the dotted line”. Like many of the early presidents, he promoted the Irish language and spoke in favour of Irish unity. He was also the first president to address a joint meeting of the US Congress.
RM Block
Eighth
Paddy Hillery (1976-90)
Hillery had been reluctant to become president when the position was offered to him, but he still served two terms (unopposed both times). His inauguration in December 1976 was the third in as many years and, in The Irish Times, it was reported that the ceremony was met by “international indifference” with no heads of state in attendance.
Hillery had been a senior Fianna Fáil minister and the State’s first European commissioner. As such, he was seen as someone to restore stability to the office after the death of Erskine Childers (in 1974) and Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh’s resignation.
Yet, over 14 years in the Áras, he showed little ambition to move the office beyond a narrow understanding of presidency activity.
Seventh
Éamon de Valera (1959-73)
De Valera never managed to fully shed his Fianna Fáil background, despite the non-political nature of the presidency. He was the party’s founding leader and held the position for 33 years (spending most of that time as taoiseach).
From the Áras, he maintained a watchful eye on internal Fianna Fáil politics and remained a sounding board for senior party figures. He positioned the presidency at the centre of big State occasions, most notably events to mark the 50th anniversary of the 1916 Rising. As president, an elderly De Valera was increasingly out of step with a State embarking upon significant societal change in the 1960s.
He spoke at the opening night of the Republic’s new television station (now RTÉ) in 1961 and warned that “never before was there in the hands of men an instrument so powerful to influence the thoughts and actions of the multitude”.
Sixth
Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh (1974-76)
Ó Dálaigh had a distinguished legal career before he became president following the death of Childers. Taoiseach and Fine Gael leader Liam Cosgrave only accepted the Fianna Fáil proposal for Ó Dálaigh so as to avoid an election. He had a highly visible diary of public engagements and also had a strong international profile, visiting France and Spain.
Cosgrave’s dismissive attitude was evident with infrequent contact, despite the constitutional requirement that the taoiseach keep the president generally information of domestic and international policy. Tensions increased further when Ó Dálaigh – as was his right – referred legislation to the Supreme Court to test its constitutionality.
A cabinet minister said the president was a “thundering disgrace”. Cosgrave declined to sack his minister and he did little to deal with the controversy. Ó Dálaigh resigned on October 22nd, 1976, saying he needed “to protect the dignity and independence of the presidency as an institution”.
Fifth
Erskine Childers (1973-74)
Childers was born in London in 1905, but came from a republican family (his father was executed during the Civil War). He was a veteran Fianna Fáil politician when he contested the 1973 presidential election. He pledged to identify new themes for the office while accepting the limitations of the presidency’s powers.
His inauguration took place in June, 1973, but there was insufficient time to deliver on the promise to redefine the presidency as he died suddenly in November, 1974.
Nevertheless, Childers was a popular and visible president who, even in a short time, helped to reconnect the office with the wider public.
Fourth
Michael D Higgins (2011-25)
President Higgins followed the energetic terms of Mary Robinson and Mary McAleese, and, like those two presidents, he expanded the conventional understanding of presidential behaviour, primarily with his speeches and the causes endorsed through invitations accepted and visitors received at the Áras.
Higgins was a senator, TD and minister before he was elected President. Over these two terms as President, he has remained consistent with his previous political views, in particular, speaking out on international events as well as the future direction of Irish defence policy.
His public contributions have sometimes been considered unwelcome by the government, but there has been little public conflict, in part explained by Higgins’s consistently high approval ratings.
Third
Mary McAleese (1997-2011)
McAleese was the first nationalist from Northern Ireland to hold the office of President. She was a surprise choice by Fianna Fáil in 1997, but she had had a stellar career with significant public experience. She had been a broadcaster with RTÉ, had been an unsuccessful Dáil candidate in 1987 and later built a substantial academic career at Queen’s University in Belfast.
The 1997 campaign was hugely divisive, but McAleese proved to be a tough campaigner. Her slogan was “building bridges” and as president she actively promoted reconciliation between the different communities on the island.
As a two-term president, she visited Northern Ireland more than 100 times and hosted groups from unionist and republican communities in the Áras.
Second
Douglas Hyde (1938-45)
Hyde was the agreed choice by the main political parties to be the first president. He took office in June, 1938, without an election. He had enjoyed a long career as an advocate for cultural nationalism and the restoration of the Irish language. His wife, Lucy, died six months after he became president, and Hyde himself suffered a stroke in 1940.
Yet, without a high public profile, he succeeded in establishing the presidency as a non-political office. He also faced down GAA opposition to his attendance at an international soccer match between Ireland and Poland. Hyde was patron of the GAA. The organisation said attending the match would be inappropriate given its rule prohibiting members from playing or attending “foreign” games (which soccer was deemed to be).
Hyde declined to bow to the pressure. He said that as president he was the representative of all the people, and not just one group or sector.
First
Mary Robinson (1990-97)
Robinson was the first woman to become president and the first non-Fianna Fáil candidate to win a presidential contest when she was elected in 1990.
In her inaugural speech, she pledged to promote a new pluralist country and she proactively used the “soft power” of the office at home and abroad. High-profile visits brought international attention to humanitarian disasters in Somalia and Rwanda. Her engagements in Northern Ireland were important to the emerging peace process, including an event in Belfast also attended by Gerry Adams before the IRA’s ceasefire was called.
She also faced down government opposition when making a personal visit to Queen Elizabeth in 1993. It was the first meeting between an Irish president and a British monarch, and was a significant moment of reconciliation between the two islands.
- Kevin Rafter is full professor of political communication at DCU and editor (with John Coakley) of The Irish Presidency.
