1959 Irish presidential election

none November 2021 November 2021 1959 Irish presidential election Ireland presidential no 1952 Irish presidential election 1952 1966 Irish presidential election 1966 58.3% ( 4.7 pp)1945 election Based on the last contested election in 1945 17 June 1959 1st preference Éamon de Valera, President of Ireland, in 1960s (43915959314).jpg 130 120 160 0 0 Éamon de Valera Fianna Fáil 538,003 (56.3%) Seán Mac Eoin 1945 presidential election poster (cropped).png 120 120 160 0 0 Seán Mac Eoin Fine Gael 417,536 (43.7%) President Seán T. O'Kelly Fianna Fáil Éamon de Valera Fianna Fáil 1959 Irish presidential election.svg The 1959 Irish presidential election was held on Wednesday, 17 June 1959. Éamon de Valera, then Taoiseach, was elected as president of Ireland. A referendum proposed by de Valera to replace the electoral system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote with first-past-the-post voting which was held on the same day was defeated by 48.2% to 51.8%. Nomination process Under Article 12 of the Constitution of Ireland, a candidate for president may be nominated by: at least twenty of the 207 serving members of the Houses of the Oireachtas, or at least four of 31 councils of the administrative counties, including county boroughs, or themselves, in the case of a former or retiring president. Outgoing president Seán T. O'Kelly had served two terms and was ineligible to serve again. On 27 April, the Minister for Local Government signed the ministerial order opening nominations, with noon on 19 May as the deadline for nominations, and 17 June set as the date for a contest.Presidential election on June 17th 28 April 1959 The Irish Times All Irish citizens on the Dáil electoral register were eligible to vote. Éamon de Valera, who had served as President of Dáil Éireann and President of the Irish Republic from 1919 to 1922 during the Irish revolutionary period, as President of the Executive Council from 1932 to 1937, and as Taoiseach from 1937 to 1948, from 1951 to 1954, and was serving again from 1957, was nominated by Fianna Fáil on 12 May.Papers presented 16 May 1959 The Irish Times He had served as Fianna Fáil's leader since its foundation in 1926. Later reports revealed that de Valera requested Oscar Traynor, the Minister for Justice, to issue him with a certificate of citizenship, as he had been born in the United States. This was kept confidential.McCullagh David David McCullagh De Valera eligibility for president questioned in 1959 RTÉ News 18 September 2025 https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2025/0918/1534050-devalera-citizenship-president/ 24 September 2025 Seán Mac Eoin, a Fine Gael TD who had been the party's candidate in the 1945 presidential election, was nominated again by the party on 15 May.MacEoin nomination goes in today 15 May 1959 The Irish Times During the campaign, the far-right micro-party Lia Fáil called on its followers to support Seán Mac Eoin over de Valera. The party gave 25 reasons for this position, with some of those reasons being that de Valera "was an alien" (de Valera had been born in the United States, but had been raised and living in Ireland since the age of 2), was a puppet of the British, that he was "the darling" of Protestants, Freemasons and the British Army, and that "his satanic lust for power motivates every act of his life". The paper's reasons for supporting Mac Eoin were that he was "an honest-to-God Irishman of our flesh and blood whose father and mother we know" and that he had a military background.Madden Jim Fr John Fahy: Radical Republican & Agrarian Activist https://open.spotify.com/episode/2b8eoZNt8lmNtp71YiHhW4 Lia Fáil -Episode 22 Alan Kinsella 4 November 2020 Madden Jim 31 January 2013 An Irishman's Diary https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/an-irishman-s-diary-1.1255670 Irish Times 8 November 2020 Patrick McCartan, who had also been a candidate in the 1945 election and had served as a senator for Clann na Poblachta from 1948 to 1951, was nominated by two county councils only, short of the four required for nomination.Council to nominate MacCartan 12 May 1959 The Irish TimesOnly two to stand for Presidency 20 May 1959 The Irish Times Eoin O'Mahony, the eccentric former Fianna Fáil county councillor in Cork, also sought and failed to secure a nomination by county councils.No Cork candidate for president 13 May 1959 The Irish Times Éamon de Valera was inaugurated as president on 25 June. Result Nominated by Éamon de Valera Oireachtas: Fianna Fáil 538003 Fianna Fáil Seán Mac Eoin Oireachtas: Fine Gael 417536 Fine Gael 24089 1678450 http://www.housing.gov.ie/sites/default/files/migrated-files/en/Publications/LocalGovernment/Voting/FileDownLoad%2C661%2Cen.pdf Presidential Elections 1938–2011 Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government 16 August 2018 24 20 December 2017 https://web.archive.org/web/20171220201718/http://www.housing.gov.ie/sites/default/files/migrated-files/en/Publications/LocalGovernment/Voting/FileDownLoad,661,en.pdf live Results by constituency ConstituencyDe ValeraMac EoinVotes%Votes%Carlow–Kilkenny20,02358.014,52142.0Cavan13,91256.610,66943.4Clare19,09565.010,27035.0Cork Borough19,39055.815,34044.2Cork East12,11756.69,29543.4Cork North12,75454.210,79345.8Cork South11,90953.510,36746.5Cork West10,23548.510,86151.5Donegal East15,52169.16,93430.9Donegal West9,61662.85,70037.2Dublin County19,44952.917,29247.1Dublin North-East6,13347.96,68252.1Dublin North-Central16,41748.517,44651.5Dublin North-West7,70746.38,94153.7Dublin South-Central11,81949.612,01050.4Dublin South-East10,36350.810,03449.2Dublin South-West16,19551.015,55149.0Dún Laoghaire and Rathdown16,91153.014,98247.0Galway North9,03762.75,36837.3Galway South11,71066.65,86833.4Galway West10,13469.04,54831.0Kerry North12,36161.77,68038.3Kerry South7,47257.75,48142.3Kildare10,79452.49,79147.6Laois–Offaly20,05958.814,04541.2Limerick East15,94259.211,00740.8Limerick West12,91862.47,79937.6Longford–Westmeath16,23448.117,53451.9Louth13,64655.211,07644.8Mayo North9,21962.05,65138.0Mayo South12,92555.110,53844.9Meath13,94058.99,71041.1Monaghan11,02860.07,36140.0Roscommon12,18853.510,59946.5Sligo–Leitrim16,08152.714,44947.3Tipperary North12,25360.28,10439.8Tipperary South16,56858.211,90041.8Waterford15,67961.79,71538.3Wexford17,29055.913,66744.1Wicklow10,95957.97,95742.1Total538,00356.3417,53643.7 Notes References collapsed Category:1959 elections in the Republic of Ireland Presidential Category:Éamon de Valera Category:Presidential elections in Ireland Category:June 1959 in Europe