Catherine Connolly is 68 years old - two years younger than Michael D Higgins when he first entered office.
It's also 22 years older than Mary Robinson - Ireland's youngest president - who was 46 when she became the first woman President of Ireland.
Ms Connolly has been serving her third term as an Independent TD for Galway West, having first entered the Dáil in 2016.
She grew up in Shantalla, a suburb of Galway, as one of 14 children (seven boys and seven girls), her father was a carpenter and boat-builder, and she has been pictured alongside striking examples of his work in her constituency office.
Ms Connolly received a master's degree in clinical psychology from the University of Leeds in 1981, and in 1989 she earned a Law degree from the University of Galway and became a Barrister-at-Law in 1991.
She is married to Brian McEnery and they have two adult sons.
During the campaign, Ms Connolly revealed to RTÉ's Katie Hannon that she has two cats, named Cat One and Cat Two.
It's not clear if they'll want to live in Áras an Uachtaráin as cats are notoriously territorial.
Ms Connolly first entered local politics in 1999 as a Labour councillor in Galway city, becoming Mayor of Galway five years later.
However, she left the Labour Party in 2006 after it decided not to run a second candidate alongside Michael D Higgins for the Dáil elections the following year.
Ms Connolly unsuccessfully ran for election in 2007, polling just 2,000 votes, but she ran again in 2011, polling higher, but ultimately losing out to Fine Gael's Sean Kyne by just 17 votes.
In 2016, she was elected as an Independent TD for Galway West, going on to nominate People Before Profit-Solidarity's Richard Boyd Barrett as Taoiseach.
In her maiden Dáil speech, she criticised then housing minister Alan Kelly's record on homelessness.
Ms Connolly sat on the Public Accounts Committee and was Chair of the Committee on the Irish Language, the Gaeltacht and the Islands.
After her re-election in 2020, she went on to be elected as Leas Ceann Comhairle, the first woman to hold the position.
She first confirmed her intention to run for president last July, telling RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta that she believed she had the necessary support.
She was backed by all the left-leaning parties in the Oireachtas for her presidential run; the Social Democrats, Labour, People Before Profit-Solidarity, the Green Party and Sinn Féin, who called their intention to back her a "game changer".
A number of issues dogged Ms Connolly's campaign - a trip she took to Syria with then-TDs Clare Daly, Mick Wallace and Maureen O'Sullivan in 2018, her hiring of a woman convicted of arms offences as a parliamentary assistant and the process of signing her in to Leinster House and also her role as a barrister acting for financial institutions.
She has been asked repeatedly about these issues, eventually telling RTÉ's This Week programme that it was "certainly" a mistake to meet a supporter of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad during the trip.
However, she defended the context of the trip, saying it was a fact-finding mission and pointed to the fact that Micheál Martin had met Assad.
Regarding her decision to hire a former convict and Éirigí activist, Ms Connolly said she was horrified the privacy of the woman was being violated.
She said the woman had impeccable credentials, was recommended to her by Éamon Ó Cuív and was deserving of rehabilitation, having served her time in prison.
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Throughout the campaign, Ms Connolly was repeatedly asked if she had acted on behalf of banks in repossession cases, with Fine Gael posting online that she had.
Ms Connolly confirmed on the final debate of the campaign, on RTÉ's Prime Time, that she had acted as a barrister for financial institutions, without going into specifics about the outcome of the cases.
Ahead of the Family and Care referendums, Ms Connolly said she would support the Family referendum, but voted against the Care referendum, telling the Dáil that the proposed new article had "no enforceable rights".
She said: "It confines caring to within the family and it seeks to recognise the care that family members give to one another by reason of the bonds that exist between them.
"I cannot describe anything weaker or worse."
One recurring theme in Catherine Connolly's political career had been her commitment to neutrality.
Last April, she joined members of People Before Profit and the Social Democrats under the umbrella of the Irish Neutrality League, calling for the preservation of the Triple Lock.
She said she was "sick, sore and tired" of the prevailing commentary that Ireland was freeloading on other EU member states when it came to defence.
She said: "I don't look on the world through that lens.
"Yes, we have wars that shouldn't be happening. We have had a tradition of neutrality and there's an onus on all of us ... to question, what is happening? How are we going this direction? How are we now getting ready in the Dáil to pass legislation that will get rid of the Triple Lock?
"The Triple Lock that's been part of our policy of neutrality for a very long time?"
She has long been a staunch supporter of Palestine, and recently said she would visit Palestine as president, if elected.
"We are witnessing a genocide. I hoped I would never have to say such words in my lifetime," she said.
"As president I would travel to Palestine to show my support and solidarity and that of the Irish people to the people of Palestine," she added.
Speaking to the BBC, Ms Connolly criticised British Prime Minister Keir Starmer's comment that Hamas should have no role in a future Palestinian state, saying the militant group is "part of the fabric of the Palestinian people".
She later moved to clarify the statement, saying "[Hamas] were elected by the people the last time there was an election, overwhelming support for them back in 2006 or 2007. And they are part of the civil society of Palestine".
She added: "What they did was absolutely unacceptable. Both sides have committed war crimes and hopefully both sides will be held to account.
"But history did not start on the 7 October and at some stage parties outside of Palestine and Israel must begin to look at what has led to this conflict and how it can be resolved and resolved it must."
According to a spokesperson for her campaign: "Catherine wants to be a president for all the people, especially for those often excluded and silenced.
"She wants to be a voice for equality and justice and for the defence of neutrality as an active, living tradition of peace-making, bridge-building, and compassionate diplomacy."
Now that Ms Connolly has been elected to become the 10th President of Ireland, she will have a more limited scope to express her opinions, something she herself has acknowledged.
She has repeatedly spoken of how she was able to successfully fill the role of Leas Ceann Comhairle that required she be a neutral chairperson in the Dáil chamber.
The next president has also said she would have no difficulty meeting with heads of state who she has previously criticised, including US President Donald Trump.
On 11 November in Dublin Castle, Ms Connolly will be inaugurated as the tenth President of Ireland, following in the footsteps of Douglas Hyde, Seán T O'Kelly, Éamon de Valera, Erskine Childers, Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh, Patrick Hillery, Mary Robinson, Mary McAleese and Michael D Higgins.
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