1974_Irish_presidential_election
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.
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Childers died on 17 November 1974. On 21 November, the Minister for Local Government issued a ministerial order setting 3 December as the date for close of nominations and 18 December as the date of the election.[1]
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.
Initially all parties privately agreed to nominate the late president's widow, Rita Childers.[2] Before she was informed of the plan, however, a mix-up led to the collapse of the arrangement.[3] A partially deaf Fine Gael Teachta Dála, identified in some reports as Tom O'Donnell,[4] 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.[3] Fianna Fáil leader Jack Lynch, thinking the party was set up, subsequently withdrew from the agreement and nominated Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh instead.[3] The parties agreed to the new arrangement due to a number of external factors, including a sluggish economy and The Troubles.[3]
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.
| 1974 Irish presidential election[5] | ||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Nominated by | |
| Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh | Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Labour Party | |
Ó Dálaigh was inaugurated as president on Thursday, 19 December 1974.
- "December 18th poll if Presidency contested". The Irish Times. 22 November 1974.
- Regan, Mary (10 May 2010). "Rita Childers dies peacefully aged 95". Irish Examiner. Archived from the original on 4 July 2018. Retrieved 17 May 2018.
- "The best President we never had". Irish Independent. 15 May 2010. Archived from the original on 4 July 2018. Retrieved 17 May 2018.
- "Presidential campaigns are not getting dirtier - they are just more public". The Tuam Herald. 26 October 2011. Archived from the original on 1 September 2018. Retrieved 17 May 2018.
- "Presidential Elections 1938–2011" (PDF). Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government. p. 30. Archived (PDF) from the original on 20 December 2017. Retrieved 1 September 2018.