- Irish presidential election, 1990
The Irish presidential election of 1990 was held on 7 November 1990. It was the tenth presidential election to be held in Ireland, and only the fifth to be contested by more than one candidate.
Candidates
Brian Lenihan, Snr
Brian Lenihan, Snr , theTánaiste and Minister for Defence was chosen byFianna Fáil as their candidate, though he faced a late challenge for the party nomination from another senior minister, John Wilson, TD. Lenihan was popular and widely seen as humorous and intelligent. He had delivered liberal policy reform (abolished censorship in the 1960s), and he was seen as a near certainty to win the presidency.Austin Currie
Fine Gael , after trying and failing to get formerTaoiseach Garret FitzGerald and formerTánaiste Peter Barry to run, ultimately nominated the former civil rights campaigner and SDLP memberAustin Currie . Currie was a respected new TD and former minister inBrian Faulkner 's power-sharing executive in Northern Ireland from 1973–1974. Currie had little experience in the politics of the Republic and was widely seen as the party's last choice, nominated only when no-one else was available.Mary Robinson
The Labour Party let it be known that it would for the first time run a candidate. It chose as its candidate
Mary Robinson , SC, a former senator and liberal campaigner. Robinson was a former Reid Professor of Law in theTrinity College, Dublin . She was previously involved in theCampaign for Homosexual Law Reform and the campaign to saveWood Quay .Campaign
Lenihan entered the race as odds-on favourite; no Fianna Fáil candidate had ever lost a presidential election. However Lenihan was derailed when he confirmed in an on-the-record interview with freelance journalist and academic researcher Jim Duffy that he had been involved in controversial attempts to pressurise the President,
Patrick Hillery over a controversial parliamentary dissolution in 1982. When the contrast between his public denials during the campaign and his confirmation during his earlier interview (recorded in May) he was dismissed from the Irish government.At this point a cabinet colleague,
Pádraig Flynn launched a controversial personal attack on Mary Robinson "as a wife and mother", an attack that was itself attacked in response as "disgraceful" on live radio byMichael McDowell , a senior member of theProgressive Democrats , then in coalition with Fianna Fáil and up to that point supporting Lenihan's campaign. Flynn's attack was a fatal blow to Lenihan's campaign, causing many female supporters of Lenihan to vote for Robinson in a gesture of support.In a shock outcomeFact|date=June 2008, Labour's Mary Robinson beat Austin Currie, forcing Fine Gael's candidate into a humiliating third place. Under Ireland's system of
Single Transferable Vote Robinson received over 75% of the transfers when Austin Currie was eliminated, beating Lenihan into second place and becoming the seventhPresident of Ireland .Result
Irish Election box begin
title=Irish Presidential Election, 1990Irish Election box candidate with party link
candidate =Mary Robinson
party = Labour Party (Ireland)
votes = 612,265
percentage = 38.88%
seat = 1
count = 2Irish Election box candidate with party link
candidate =Brian Lenihan, Snr
party = Fianna Fáil
votes = 694,484
percentage = 44.10%
seat =
count = Irish Election box candidate with party link
candidate =Austin Currie
party = Fine Gael
votes = 267,902
percentage = 17.01%
seat =
count =Aftermath
While the role of the presidency in day to day politics is a very limited one the Robinson presidency is regarded by many observers as a watershed in Irish society symbolising the shift away from the conservative ultracatholic male-dominated Ireland which existed up until the end of the 1980s to the more liberal society symbolised by Robinson.
Robinson is generally credited with raising the profile of the office of president which had being considered little more than an honorary figurehead position under her predecessors. Indeed prior to the Robinson presidency it was not unusual to hear commentators advocating the abolition of the office of president (a viewpoint that is almost never advanced nowadays).
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