President of Ireland

The **President of Ireland** (Irish: Uachtarán na hÉireann ) 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 Catherine Connolly.

## 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".
- The President is _ex officio_ President of the Irish Red Cross Society.
- The President appoints, on the advice of the Government, the Senior Professors and chairman of the council of the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies;

## 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.

|rowspan=2||rowspan=2|Portrait|rowspan=2|Name|rowspan=2|Previous service|colspan=3|Term of office|colspan=2 rowspan=2|Nominated by|rowspan=2|Election|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|rowspan=2|1|rowspan=2||rowspan=2|Douglas Hyde|rowspan=2|Senator|rowspan=2|25 June 1938|rowspan=2|24 June 1945|rowspan=2|7 years|
|Fianna Fáil|rowspan=2|1938||||||||||||
|Fine Gael||||||||||||||
|rowspan=2|2|rowspan=2||rowspan=2|Seán T. O'Kelly|rowspan=2|Tánaiste|rowspan=2|25 June 1945|rowspan=2|24 June 1959|rowspan=2|14 years|
|Fianna Fáil|1945|||||||||||||
|Himself|1952|||||||||||||
|rowspan=2|3|rowspan=2||rowspan=2|Éamon de Valera|rowspan=2|Taoiseach|rowspan=2|25 June 1959|rowspan=2|24 June 1973|rowspan=2|14 years|
|Fianna Fáil|1959|||||||||||||
|Himself|1966|||||||||||||
|4|rowspan=1||Erskine Hamilton Childers|Tánaiste|25 June 1973|17 November 1974||||||||
|Fianna Fáil|1973|||||||||||||
|5|rowspan=1|||Chief Justice of Ireland|19 December 1974|22 October 1976||||||||
|_All-party nomination_|1974|||||||||||||
|rowspan=2|6|rowspan=2||rowspan=2|Patrick Hillery|rowspan=2|European Commissioner for Social Affairs|rowspan=2|3 December 1976|rowspan=2|2 December 1990|rowspan=2|14 years|
|Fianna Fáil|1976|||||||||||||
|Himself|1983|||||||||||||
|rowspan=2|7|rowspan=2||rowspan=2|Mary Robinson|rowspan=2|Senator|rowspan=2|3 December 1990|rowspan=2|12 September 1997|rowspan=2||
|Labour|rowspan=2|1990||||||||||||
|Workers' Party||||||||||||||
|rowspan=3|8|rowspan=3||rowspan=3|Mary McAleese|rowspan=3|Reid Professor of Criminal law, Criminology and Penology at Trinity College Dublin|rowspan=3|11 November 1997|rowspan=3|10 November 2011|rowspan=3|14 years|
|Fianna Fáil|rowspan=2|1997||||||||||||
|Progressive Democrats||||||||||||||
|Herself|2004|||||||||||||
|rowspan=2|9|rowspan=2||rowspan=2|Michael D. Higgins|rowspan=2|Minister for Arts, Culture and Gaeltacht|rowspan=2|11 November 2011|rowspan=2|10 November 2025|rowspan=2|14 years|
|Labour|2011|||||||||||||
|Himself|2018|||||||||||||
|rowspan=7|10|rowspan=7||rowspan=7|Catherine Connolly|rowspan=7|Leas-Cheann Comhairle|rowspan=7|11 November 2025|rowspan=7|Incumbent|rowspan=7||
|Sinn Fein|rowspan=7|2025||||||||||||
|Social Democrats||||||||||||||
|Labour||||||||||||||
|PBP–Solidarity||||||||||||||
|Green Party||||||||||||||
|100% Redress||||||||||||||
|Independents||||||||||||||

## Infobox (political post)

- **post**: President
- **body**: Ireland
- **flag**: Flag of the President of Ireland.svg
- **flagsize**: 120px
- **flagcaption**: Standard of the President of Ireland, Presidential Standard
- **insignia**: Seal of the President of Ireland.png
- **insigniasize**: 110px
- **insigniacaption**: Seal of the President of Ireland, Presidential Seal
- **nativename**: _Uachtarán na hÉireann_
- **image**: Catherine Connolly 3 October 2024.jpg
- **imagesize**: 175px
- **incumbent**: Catherine Connolly
- **incumbentsince**: 11 November 2025
- **residence**: Áras an Uachtaráin
- **style**: President (Uachtarán) or
 Your Excellency (A Shoilse)
- **termlength**: Seven years, renewable once
- **formation**: 25 June 1938
- **inaugural**: Douglas Hyde
- **salary**: €250,000 per annum