Leader of the Opposition (Ireland)

The **Leader of the Opposition** () in Ireland is the politician who, , leads the Parliamentary Opposition in the lower house of the Irish Parliament, Dáil Éireann.

When in the Dáil, the Leader of the Opposition sits on the right-hand side of the Ceann Comhairle and directly opposite of the Taoiseach.

To date there have been 17 Opposition Leaders, 9 of whom have been Taoiseach. The current Leader of the Opposition is Mary Lou McDonald TD of the Sinn Féin party since June 2020.

## Leader of the Opposition

- Leaders who later became Taoiseach are indicated in bold.
|rowspan=2|No.|rowspan=2|Name|rowspan=2|Portrait|rowspan=2|Constituency|colspan=2|Term of office|rowspan=2 colspan=2|Party|rowspan=2 colspan=2|Taoiseach|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1.|align=center|**Éamon de Valera**||Clare|9 January 1922|8 June 1922||||||||
|Sinn Féin (Anti-Treaty)||||||||||||||
|Arthur Griffith (1922)||||||||||||||
|2.|align=center|Thomas Johnson||Dublin County|9 September 1922|11 August 1927||||||||
|Labour Party||||||||||||||
|rowspan=2|W. T. Cosgrave (1922–32)|||||||||||||
||align=center|**Éamon de Valera**||Clare|11 August 1927|9 March 1932||||||||
|Fianna Fáil||||||||||||||
|rowspan=2|3.|rowspan=2 align=center|W. T. Cosgrave|rowspan=2||rowspan=2|Cork Borough|rowspan=2|9 March 1932|rowspan=2|January 1944|||
|Cumann na nGaedheal||||||||||||||
|rowspan=4|Éamon de Valera (1932–48)|||||||||||||
|rowspan=3|Fine Gael|||||||||||||
|4.|align=center|Thomas F. O'Higgins||Leix–Offaly|January 1944|9 June 1944||||||||
|5.|align=center|Richard Mulcahy||Tipperary|9 June 1944|18 February 1948||||||||
||align=center|**Éamon de Valera**||Clare|18 February 1948|13 June 1951||||||||
|Fianna Fáil||||||||||||||
|John A. Costello (1948–51)||||||||||||||
|6.|align=center|**John A. Costello**||Dublin South-East|13 June 1951|2 June 1954||||||||
|Fine Gael||||||||||||||
|Éamon de Valera (1951–54)||||||||||||||
||align=center|**Éamon de Valera**||Clare|2 June 1954|20 March 1957||||||||
|Fianna Fáil||||||||||||||
|John A. Costello (1954–57)||||||||||||||
|rowspan=2||rowspan=2 align=center|**John A. Costello**|rowspan=2||rowspan=2|Dublin South-East|rowspan=2|20 March 1957|rowspan=2|21 October 1959|||
|rowspan=5|Fine Gael|||||||||||||
|Éamon de Valera (1957–59)||||||||||||||
|rowspan=3|Seán Lemass (1959–66)|||||||||||||
|7.|align=center|James Dillon||Monaghan|21 October 1959|21 April 1965||||||||
|rowspan=2|8.|rowspan=2 align=center|**Liam Cosgrave**|rowspan=2||rowspan=2|Dún Laoghaire and Rathdown|rowspan=2|21 April 1965|rowspan=2|14 March 1973|||
|Jack Lynch (1966–73)||||||||||||||
|9.|align=center|**Jack Lynch**||Cork City North-West|14 March 1973|5 July 1977||||||||
|Fianna Fáil||||||||||||||
|Liam Cosgrave (1973–77)||||||||||||||
|rowspan=2|10.|rowspan=2 align=center|**Garret FitzGerald**|rowspan=2||rowspan=2|Dublin South-East|rowspan=2|5 July 1977|rowspan=2|30 June 1981|||
|rowspan=2|Fine Gael|||||||||||||
|Jack Lynch (1977–79)||||||||||||||
|Charles Haughey (1979–81)||||||||||||||
|11.|align=center|**Charles Haughey**||Dublin North-Central|30 June 1981|9 March 1982||||||||
|Fianna Fáil||||||||||||||
|Garret FitzGerald (1981–82)||||||||||||||
||align=center|**Garret FitzGerald**||Dublin South-East|9 March 1982|14 December 1982||||||||
|Fine Gael||||||||||||||
|Charles Haughey (1982)||||||||||||||
||align=center|**Charles Haughey**||Dublin North-Central|14 December 1982|10 March 1987||||||||
|Fianna Fáil||||||||||||||
|Garret FitzGerald (1982–87)||||||||||||||
|12.|align=center|Alan Dukes||Kildare|10 March 1987|20 November 1990||||||||
|rowspan=3|Fine Gael|||||||||||||
|rowspan=2|Charles Haughey (1987–92)|||||||||||||
|rowspan=2|13.|rowspan=2 align=center|**John Bruton**|rowspan=2||rowspan=2|Meath|rowspan=2|20 November 1990|rowspan=2|15 December 1994|||
|Albert Reynolds (1992–94)||||||||||||||
|14.|align=center|**Bertie Ahern**||Dublin Central|15 December 1994|26 June 1997||||||||
|Fianna Fáil||||||||||||||
|John Bruton (1994–97)||||||||||||||
||align=center|John Bruton||Meath|26 June 1997|9 February 2001||||||||
|rowspan=4|Fine Gael|||||||||||||
|rowspan=3|Bertie Ahern (1997–2008)|||||||||||||
|15.|align=center|Michael Noonan||Limerick East|9 February 2001|6 June 2002||||||||
|rowspan=2|16.|rowspan=2 align=center|**Enda Kenny**|rowspan=2||rowspan=2|Mayo|rowspan=2|6 June 2002|rowspan=2|9 March 2011|||
|Brian Cowen (2008–11)||||||||||||||
|rowspan=2|17.|rowspan=2 align=center|**Micheál Martin**|rowspan=2||rowspan=2|Cork South-Central|rowspan=2|9 March 2011|rowspan=2|27 June 2020|||
|rowspan=2|Fianna Fáil|||||||||||||
|Enda Kenny (2011–2017)||||||||||||||
|Leo Varadkar (2017–2020)||||||||||||||
|18.|align=center|Mary Lou McDonald||Dublin Central|27 June 2020|_Incumbent_||||||||
|Sinn Féin||||||||||||||
|Micheál Martin (2020–present)||||||||||||||

## Infobox (official post)

- **post**: Leader of the Opposition
- **native name**: Ceannaire an Fhreasúra
- **image**: Mary Lou McDonald (official portrait).jpg
- **incumbent**: Mary Lou McDonald
- **incumbentsince**: 27 June 2020
- **termlength**: While leader of the largest political party not in government
- **inaugural**: Thomas Johnson (Irish politician), Thomas Johnson
- **formation**: 6 December 1922