Analysis: A miscellany of what happened when Ireland previously went to the polls to elect a president
Almost 90 years ago, Douglas Hyde was elected Ireland’s first president. Hyde was the only candidate nominated for the office and was thus declared elected. Undoubtedly, the winner of the 2025 Irish presidential election will have faced more hurdles and a more competitive route to Áras an Uachtaráin than An Craoibhin Aoibhinn, Ireland’s first poet President.
The number of times we've elected a president
Including this election, Ireland has had 15 presidential elections. On six occasions, there has only been one candidate nominated and thus deemed elected. This was the case with Hyde in 1938, Sean T. O’Kelly in 1952, Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh in 1974, Patrick Hillery in 1976 and 1983 and Mary McAleese in 2004.
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From RTÉ Archives, Charlie Bird reports on the election of Mary McAleese in 1997
Where there has been a contested election, the most common form of contest has been a binary election. This has previously occurred on three occasions. In the 1959 Presidential election, Fianna Fáil’s Eamon de Valera defeated Fine Gael’s General Sean MacEoin. In 1966, de Valera, again nominated by Fianna Fáil, defeated Fine Gael’s Tom O’Higgins. In 1973, Fianna Fáil’s Erskine Childers defeated Tom O’Higgins.
The number of names on the ballot paper
The electorate in 2018 had a choice of six candidates (Peter Casey, Gavan Duffy, Joan Freeman, Sean Gallagher, Michael D. Higgins and Liadh Ni Riada) on the ballot paper. However, in terms of candidate numbers, this is not Ireland’s most competitive presidential election. This distinction belongs to 2011 when there were seven candidates were on the ballot paper. In 1997, five candidates were on the ballot paper. Prior to this, the most candidates on a presidential ballot paper was three, in both 1945 and 1990. In 2025, there are again three candidates on the presidential ballot paper, however, in unprecedented circumstances, one of these candidates withdrew from the election campaign prior to polling.
The county council route to the ballot paper
The trend towards larger fields of candidates in modern presidential elections is explained by the increased willingness of county councils to bestow a nomination on prospective candidates. This power was actually first exercised in 1945 when an Independent Republican, Pat McCartan, secured a nomination from four county councils, thus, ensuring, his name appeared on the ballot paper. McCartan’s candidacy impinged on what would have been a two-horse between Fianna Fáil’s Sean T. O’Kelly and Fine Gael’s General Seán Mac Eoin. McCartan polled very respectably securing just short of 20 percent of the vote. His presence in the race prevented O’Kelly from winning on the first count and McCartan also took votes from Fine Gael.
As Irish politics has become increasingly fragmented post the recession, councillors have flexed their muscles and availed of their nomination power
The dominant position that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael held in Irish politics from 1945 on, particularly in the field of local government, ensured that the respective HQs of both parties saw it in their best interests not to allow independent candidates enter the field by way of a council nomination. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael councillors were regularly instructed to follow their party whip in not facilitating the nomination of independent candidates. It was not until 1997 that another independent candidate secured a nomination via the county councils when both Dana Rosemary Scallon and Derek Nally won the support of four county councils.
As Irish politics has become increasingly fragmented post the recession and the dominant position of the big two of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael has ebbed, councillors have flexed their muscles and availed of their nomination powers. In 2011, four candidates were nominated by way of the councils (Mary Davis, Sean Gallagher, David Norris and Dana Rosemary Scallon) and this was repeated in the 2018 presidential election with Peter Casey, Gavan Duffy, Joan Freeman and Sean Gallagher all obtaining council backing. In 2025, Independent candidate Gareth Sheridan secured the support of two county councils and put in a strong campaign. However, his efforts to get his name on the ballot paper were ultimately thwarted by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael councillors not supporting his candidacy.
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From RTÉ Archives, Martina Fitzgerald reports for RTÉ News on the election of Michael D Higgins as president in 2011
Counting the votes
This weekend, amateur and professional psephologists will pour over the figures from previous presidential elections. No candidate will want to achieve the dubious distinction of recording the lowest number of first preference votes ever received in a contested Irish presidential election. The figure to beat is 32,198, which was the number of first preferences obtained by Gavin Duffy in 2018. 2011 candidate Mary Davis was the candidate who previously held the record of lowest first preference votes ever received (48,657). Dana obtained just 51,220 votes in 2011 and the next worst performance in a presidential election is 59,529 votes obtained by Derek Nally in 1997.
At the other end of the scale, is Michael D. Higgins’s performance in 2018. He broke his own 2011 record by securing 822,566 first-preference votes to win his second term.
The person with the distinction for having obtained the second highest number of first preference votes in an Irish presidential election to date is currently Fianna Fáil's Brian Lenihan Senior. Despite his campaign becoming immersed in controversy, Lenihan actually topped the poll in the 1990 election, obtaining an impressive 694,484 first preference votes. In this election, the elimination of the third-placed candidate, Fine Gael’s Austin Currie, strongly benefitted Mary Robinson, who had been nominated by the Labour Party and the Workers’ Party. She received an overwhelming 76.7 percent of Currie’s transfers to outpoll Lenihan and to be elected the first female president of Ireland.
With the exception of the Independent Douglas Hyde, all Irish presidents prior to Mary Robinson's victory had strong links with Fianna Fáil
Fianna Fáil and the Áras
Robinson’s victory was seen as groundbreaking, not just because of her gender. With the exception of the Independent Douglas Hyde, all Irish presidents prior to her victory had strong links with Fianna Fáil. Ireland’s second president, Sean T. O’Kelly, was previously a Fianna Fáil Tanaiste. Eamon de Valera was the party’s founder and leader for 33, while Erskine Childers was a former Fianna Fáil minister. Cearbhall O Dalaigh was a former Fianna Fáil Attorney-General and general election candidate; and Patrick Hillery was a former Fianna Fáil minister.
But Robinson did not completely break the mould. In 1997, former Fianna Fáil general election candidate Mary McAleese, who was nominated by Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats, was elected Ireland’s eighth president. It is a measure of how much Fianna Fáil’s political fortunes have slipped that the party chose not to contest the presidency in both 2011 and 2018, with their candidate Jim Gavin withdrawing from the 2025 race.
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From RTÉ Archives Mary Robinson becomes the first female president of Ireland in a ceremony at Dublin Castle in 1990
The independents
When McAleese sought re-election in 2004, she did so as an independent rather than as a Fianna Fáil candidate by making use of the provisions of Article 12.4.4 of the 1937 Constitution. This allows a serving president to become a candidate on his or her own nomination and thereby maintain political independence. In 1952, President Sean T. O’Kelly’s use of this constitutional provision, rather than seeking a nomination from his former party colleagues in Fianna Fáil, ensured that he was not opposed by Fine Gael for a second term.
In 1983, a very reluctant President Hillery was prevailed upon by then Taoiseach Garret Fitzgerald, Fianna Fáil leader Charles Haughey and Labour Party leader Dick Spring to use this constitutional provision to re-nominate himself. Hillery was re-elected unopposed, delaying his plans for retirement and saving the political parties the expense of a General Election. In different political circumstances in 2018, President Michael D Higgins’ willingness to nominate himself as a candidate was not enough to prevent a presidential election.
Re-elect the president
The omens for Higgins' re-election in 2018 were strong from the outset. A siting Irish president seeking re-election had never failed to be returned to Áras an Uachtaráin. With 55.8% of the vote in 2018, Higgins became the first president since Éamon de Valera to win a second term in a contested election. Seán T. O'Kelly in 1952, Patrick Hillery in 1983 and Mary McAleese in 2004 were all re-elected unopposed.
Prior to 2018, Eamon de Valera was the only sitting Irish president to face a re-election campaign. De Valera was ultimately victorious but, to use the words of his opponent Fine Gael’s Tom O’Higgins, it was "a close-run thing."
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From RTÉ Archives, RTÉ News footage of Eamon de Valera's inauguration in 1966
This election took place in 1966, the Golden Jubilee of the Easter Rising. As the last surviving commandant from the 1916 rebellion, De Valera was seen as unbeatable, but his youthful opponent ran a dynamic and vigorous campaign. De Valera, who was 83 years old at the time of the election, chose to completely sit out the election campaign on the basis he was above politics and, unlike President Higgins, did not participate in any election debates.
Tom O’Higgins came within a half a percent (one extra vote in each ballot box in the country, as Fine Gael leader Liam Cosgrave put it) of beating de Valera in 1966, the undisputed electoral giant of 20th century Irish politics. Against a backdrop of a valid poll of just over 1.1 million people, de Valera won by a mere 10,717 votes.
The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ
