first President of Ireland
Douglas Hyde took which position in May 1938?
Douglas Hyde Douglas Ross Hyde ( ; 17 January 1860 – 12 July 1949 ) , known as An Craoibhín Aoibhinn ( lit . the pleasant little branch ) , was an Irish academic , linguist , scholar of the Irish language , politician and diplomat who served as the first President of Ireland from June 1938 to June 1945 . He was a leading figure in the Gaelic revival , and the first President of the Gaelic League , one of the most influential cultural organisations in Ireland at the time . Background . Hyde was born at Longford House in Castlerea , County Roscommon , while his mother , Elizabeth née Oldfield ( 1834–1886 ) was on a short visit . His father , Arthur Hyde , whose family were originally from Castlehyde , Fermoy , County Cork , was Church of Ireland rector of Kilmactranny , County Sligo , from 1852 to 1867 , and it was here that Hyde spent his early years . Arthur Hyde and Elizabeth Oldfield married in County Roscommon , in 1852 , and had three other children , Arthur ( 1853–79 in County Leitrim ) , John Oldfield ( 1854–96 in County Dublin ) , and Hugh ( 1856 ) Hyde . In 1867 , his father was appointed prebendary and rector of Tibohine , and the family moved to neighbouring Frenchpark , in County Roscommon . He was home schooled by his father and his aunt due to a childhood illness . While a young man , he became fascinated with hearing the old people in the locality speak the Irish language . He was influenced in particular by the gamekeeper Seamus Hart and his friends wife , Mrs . Connolly . Aged 14 , Hyde was devastated when Hart died , and his interest in the Irish language—the first language he began to study in any detail , as his own undertaking—flagged for a while . However , he visited Dublin a number of times and realised that there were groups of people , just like him , interested in Irish , a language looked down on at the time by many and seen as backward and old-fashioned . Rejecting family pressure that , like past generations of Hydes , he would follow a career in the Church , Hyde instead became an academic . He entered Trinity College Dublin , where he became fluent in French , Latin , German , Greek and Hebrew , graduating in 1884 as a moderator in modern literature . A medallist of the College Historical Society , he was elected its president in 1931 . His passion for Irish , already a language in severe decline , led him to help found the Gaelic League , or in Irish , Conradh na Gaeilge , in 1893 . Hyde married German-born but British-raised Lucy Kurtz in 1893 . The couple had two daughters , Nuala and Úna . Conradh na Gaeilge/Gaelic League . Hyde joined the Society for the Preservation of the Irish Language around 1880 , and between 1879 and 1884 , he published more than a hundred pieces of Irish verse under the pen name An Craoibhín Aoibhinn ( The Pleasant Little Branch ) . Initially derided , the Irish language movement gained a mass following . Hyde helped establish the Gaelic Journal in 1892 ; in November , he wrote a manifesto called The necessity for de-anglicising the Irish nation , arguing that Ireland should follow its own traditions in language , literature and dress . In 1893 , he helped found Conradh na Gaeilge ( the Gaelic League ) to encourage the preservation of Irish culture , music , dance and language . A new generation of Irish republicans ( including Pádraig Pearse , Éamon de Valera , Michael Collins and Ernest Blythe ) , became politicised through their involvement in Conradh na Gaeilge . Hyde filled out the 1911 census form in Irish . Uncomfortable at the growing politicisation of the movement , Hyde resigned the presidency in 1915 . He was succeeded by the Leagues co-founder Eoin MacNeill . Senator . Hyde had no association with Sinn Féin and the independence movement . He was elected to Seanad Éireann , the upper house of the Irish Free States Oireachtas ( parliament ) , at a by-election on 4 February 1925 , replacing Sir Hutcheson Poë . In the 1925 Seanad election , Hyde placed 28th of the 78 candidates , with 19 seats available . The Catholic Truth Society opposed him for his Protestantism and publicised his supposed support for divorce . Historians have suggested that the CTS campaign was ineffective , and that Irish-language advocates performed poorly , with all those endorsed by the Gaelic League losing . He returned to academia as Professor of Irish at University College Dublin , where one of his students was future Attorney General of Ireland , Chief Justice of Ireland and President of Ireland , Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh . President of Ireland . Nomination . In April 1938 , by now retired from academia , Hyde was plucked from retirement by Taoiseach Éamon de Valera and again appointed to Seanad Éireann . Again his tenure proved short , even shorter than before ; however , this time it was because Hyde was chosen , after inter-party negotiations—following an initial suggestion by Fine Gael—to be the first President of Ireland , to which office he was elected unopposed . He was selected for a number of reasons : - Both the Taoiseach , Éamon de Valera , and the Leader of the Opposition , W . T . Cosgrave , admired him ; - Both wanted a President with universal prestige to lend credibility to the new office , especially since the new 1937 Constitution made it unclear whether the President or the British monarch was the official head of state ; - Both wanted to purge the humiliation that had occurred when Hyde lost his Senate seat in 1925 ; - Both wanted a President who would prove there was no danger that the holder of the office would become an authoritarian dictator , a widespread fear when the new constitution was being discussed in 1937 ; - Both wanted to pay tribute to Hydes role in promoting the Irish language . - Both wanted to choose a non-Catholic to disprove the assertion that the State was a confessional state , although on 11 May 1937 Seán MacEntee , the Fianna Fáil Minister of Finance , had described the 1937 Constitution in the Dáil as the Constitution of a Catholic State . Inauguration . Hyde was inaugurated as the first President of Ireland , on 26 June 1938 . The Irish Times reported it as follows : Hyde set a precedent by reciting the Presidential Declaration of Office in Irish . His recitation , in Roscommon Irish , is one of a few recordings of a dialect of which Hyde was one of the last speakers . Upon inauguration , he moved into the long vacant Viceregal Lodge in Phoenix Park , since known as Áras an Uachtaráin . Hydes selection and inauguration received worldwide media attention and was covered by newspapers in Australia , New Zealand , South Africa , Argentina , and even Egypt . Hitler ordered the Berlin newspapers to splash on the Irish presidential installation ceremony . However , the British government ignored the event . The Northern Ireland Finance Minister , John Miller Andrews , described Hydes inauguration as a slight on the King and a deplorable tragedy . Presidency . Despite being placed in a position to shape the office of the presidency via precedent , Hyde by and large opted for a quiet , conservative interpretation of the office . His age and health obligated him to schedule periods of rest throughout his days , and his lack of political experience caused him to defer to his advisers on questions of policy and discretionary powers , especially to his Secretary , Michael McDunphy . On 13 November 1938 , just months after Hydes inauguration , Hyde attended an international soccer match between Ireland and Poland at Dalymount Park in Dublin . This was seen as breaching the GAAs ban on foreign games and he was subsequently removed as patron of the GAA , an honour he had held since 1902 . However , after a massive stroke in April 1940 , plans were made for his lying-in-state and state funeral . However , Hyde survived , albeit paralysed and having to use a wheelchair . Although the role of President of Ireland was largely ceremonial , Hyde did make important decisions during his presidency . He was confronted with a crisis in 1944 , when de Valeras government unexpectedly collapsed in a vote on the Transport Bill and the President had to decide whether or not to grant a dissolution of the Dáil to de Valera . Under the Constitution the President of Ireland may grant or refuse a dissolution of the Dáil to a Taoiseach who has ceased to retain the support of a majority in Dáil Éireann . If a dissolution is granted , a general election is proclaimed to fill the seats now vacated by the dissolution . However , this means that for four to six weeks , until the new Dáil assembles , there is no Dáil . Fearing this gap might facilitate an invasion during World War II , during which no parliament could be called upon to deal with the invasion , the Oireachtas enacted emergency legislation ( under Article 28.3.3° ) - the General Elections ( Emergency Powers ) Act 1943 - which allowed an election to be called separate from a dissolution , with the Dáil only being dissolved just before new Dáil would assemble , so ensuring the gap between Dála ( plural of Dáil ) would be too short to facilitate an invasion . Under the Act the President could refuse to proclaim a general election on the advice of a Taoiseach who had ceased to retain the support of a majority in Dáil Éireann . Hyde had that option , but after considering it with his senior advisor , Michael McDunphy , he opted to grant de Valera his election request . Hyde twice used his power under Article 26 of the Constitution , having consulted the Council of State , to refer a Bill or part of a Bill to the Supreme Court , for the courts decision on whether the Bill or part referred is repugnant to the Constitution ( so that the Bill in question cannot be signed into law ) . On the first occasion , the court held that the Bill referred – Offences Against the State ( Amendment ) Bill , 1940 – was not repugnant to the Constitution . In response to the second reference , the Court decided that the particular provision referred – section 4 of the School Attendance Bill , 1942 – was repugnant to the Constitution . Because of Article 34.3.3° of the Constitution , the constitutional validity of the Offences Against the State ( Amendment ) Act , 1940 cannot be challenged in any court , since the Bill which became that Act was found by the Supreme Court not to be repugnant in the context of an Article 26 reference . One of Hydes last presidential acts was a visit to the German Ambassador Eduard Hempel , on 3 May 1945 , to offer his formal condolences on the death of Adolf Hitler . The visit remained a secret until 2005 . Retirement and death . Hyde left office on 25 June 1945 , opting not to nominate himself for a second term . Owing to his ill-health he did not return to his Roscommon home , Ratra , empty since the death of his wife early in his term . He moved into the former residence of the Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant , in the grounds of Áras an Uachtaráin , which he renamed Little Ratra , where he lived out the remaining four years of his life . He died at 10pm on 12 July 1949 , aged 89 . State funeral . As a former President of Ireland he was accorded a state funeral . A problem arose ; as a member of the Church of Ireland , his funeral service took place in Dublins Church of Ireland St . Patricks Cathedral . However , contemporary rules of the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland prohibited Roman Catholics from attending services in non-Catholic churches . As a result , all but one member of the Catholic cabinet , Noël Browne , remained outside the cathedral grounds while Hydes funeral took place . They then joined the cortège when his coffin left the cathedral . Éamon de Valera , by now Leader of the Opposition also did not attend , being represented by a senior Fianna Fáil figure who was a member of the Church of Ireland , Erskine H . Childers , a future President of Ireland himself . Hyde was buried in Frenchpark , County Roscommon at Portahard Church , ( where he had spent most of his childhood life ) beside his wife Lucy , his daughter Nuala , his sister Annette , mother Elizabeth and father Arthur . External links . - Biography at Áras an Uachtaráin website - Oireachtas Members Database – Profile - Dunleavy , Janet Egleson and Gareth W . Dunleavy . Douglas Hyde : A Maker of Modern Ireland . Berkeley et al. : Univ . of California Press , 1991 . Available from eScholarship . - Hyde , Douglas . The Love Songs of Connacht : Being the Fourth Chapter of the Songs of Connacht . Dundrum , Ireland : Dun Emer Press , 1904 . Available from Google Books .