1974 Irish presidential election

17 November 1974 (Unopposed)

Nominee Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh Party Fianna Fáil

President before election Erskine H. Childers Fianna Fáil Elected President Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh Independent

The 1974 Irish presidential election resulted from the sudden death in office of President Erskine H. Childers. Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh was elected unopposed as the fifth president of Ireland.

Nomination process

Under Article 12 of the Constitution of Ireland, a candidate for president could be nominated by:

• at least twenty of the 204 serving members of the Houses of the Oireachtas, or
• at least four of 31 councils of the administrative counties, including county boroughs.

Agreed candidate

Initially all parties privately agreed to nominate the late president's widow, Rita Childers.^[1] Before she was informed of the plan, however, a mix-up led to the collapse of the arrangement.^[2] A partially deaf Fine Gael Teachta Dála, identified in some reports as Tom O'Donnell,^[3] confirmed the secret arrangement upon mishearing a journalist's question asking about the decision of a local council's nomination of Childers as president, having assumed that the cross-party decision was made public.^[2] Fianna Fáil leader Jack Lynch, thinking the party was set up, subsequently withdrew from the agreement and nominated Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh instead.^[2] The parties agreed to the new arrangement due to a number of external factors, including a sluggish economy and The Troubles.^[2]

Ó Dálaigh had served as Attorney General from 1951 to 1953, as a judge of the Supreme Court from 1953 to 1973, as Chief Justice from 1961 to 1973, and had been serving as a judge of the European Court of Justice from 1973 at the time of his nomination. All parties agreed to Ó Dálaigh's nomination. As no other candidate was nominated, it was not necessary to proceed to a ballot for his election.

Result

Ó Dálaigh was inaugurated as president on Thursday, 19 December 1974.

References