President of Ireland

The President of Ireland (Irish: Uachtarán na hÉireann OOk-te-rawn na HAir-un ) is the head of state of Ireland. It is mostly ceremonial and elections are held every seven years, a person can be elected for up to two terms. The current President of Ireland is Michael D. Higgins.

President of Ireland
Presidential Seal
Presidential Standard
Incumbent Michael D. Higgins since 11 November 2011
Style	President (Uachtarán) or Your Excellency (A Shoilse)
Residence	Áras an Uachtaráin
Term length	Seven years, renewable once
Inaugural holder	Douglas Hyde
Formation	25 June 1938
Salary	€250,000 per annum [1]
Website	www.president.ie

Duties

• Appoints the government: The President formally appoints the Taoiseach (head of government) and other ministers, and accepts their resignations.
• Signs bills into law: The President cannot veto a bill that the Dáil and the Seanad have adopted.
• Power of pardon: The President, on the advice of the Government, has "the right of pardon and the power to commute or remit punishment".^[2]
• The President is ex officio President of the Irish Red Cross Society.^[3]
• The President appoints, on the advice of the Government, the Senior Professors and chairman of the council of the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies;^[4]

List of presidents of Ireland

The functions of the President were exercised by the Presidential Commission from the coming into force of the Constitution on 29 December 1937 until the election of Douglas Hyde in 1938, and during the vacancies of 1974, 1976, and 1997.

No.	Name (Birth–Death)	Portrait	Previous service	Term of office		Nominated by	Election
1	Douglas Hyde (1860–1949)		Senator (1925, 1938)	25 June 1938	24 June 1945	All-party nomination	1938
2	Séan T. O'Kelly (1882–1966)		Tánaiste (1932–1945)	25 June 1945	24 June 1959	Fianna Fáil	1945
						Himself[n 1]	1952
3	Éamon de Valera (1882–1975)		Taoiseach (1932–1948, 1951–1954, 1957–1959)	25 June 1959	24 June 1973	Fianna Fáil	1959
						Fianna Fáil[n 2]	1966
4	Erskine H. Childers (1905–1974)		Tánaiste (1969–1973)	25 June 1973	17 November 1974	Fianna Fáil	1973
5	Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh[5] (1911–1978)		Chief Justice of Ireland (1961–1973)	19 December 1974	22 October 1976	All-party nomination	1974
6	Patrick Hillery (1923–2008)		European Commissioner for Social Affairs (1973–1976)	3 December 1976	2 December 1990	Fianna Fáil	1976
						Fianna Fáil	1983
7	Mary Robinson (1944–)		Senator (1969–1989)	3 December 1990	12 September 1997	Labour Party	1990
						Workers' Party
						Independent
8	Mary McAleese (1951–)		Reid Professor of Criminal law, Criminology and Penology at Trinity College, Dublin	11 November 1997	10 November 2011	Fianna Fáil	1997
						Herself	2004
9	Michael D. Higgins (1941–)		Minister for Arts, Culture and Gaeltacht (1993–1997)	11 November 2011	Incumbent	Labour Party	2011

Notes

1. In 1952 Seán T. O'Kelly re-nominated himself, as was his right under the Constitution. This allowed him a free run, as he was not the nominee of a specific party, and the other parties could let him be re-elected unopposed without loss of face.
2. Unlike Seán T. O'Kelly in 1952, De Valera was renominated in 1966 by Fianna Fáil. As a result, Fine Gael felt honour bound to nominate a candidate, albeit low key. In the event their candidate, Tom O'Higgins, came within 1% (or 10,000 votes) of winning.