From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

1976 Irish presidential election

none

Field	Value
election_name	1976 Irish presidential election
country	Ireland
type	presidential
ongoing	no
previous_election	1974 Irish presidential election
previous_year	1974
next_election	1983 Irish presidential election
next_year	1983
election_date	3 December 1976
(Unopposed)
image_size	200x200px
image1	Patrick Hillery, 1973 (cropped).tif
nominee1	Patrick Hillery
party1	Fianna Fáil
title	President
before_election	Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh
before_party	Independent politician (Ireland)
after_election	Patrick Hillery
after_party	Fianna Fáil

(Unopposed) The 1976 Irish presidential election was precipitated by the resignation of President Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh in October 1976. Patrick Hillery was elected unopposed as the sixth president of Ireland.

Background to the election

Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh resigned as president soon after an attack on him by Paddy Donegan, the Minister for Defence, in which the minister called the President a "thundering disgrace" for having referred the Emergency Powers Bill 1976 to the Supreme Court. Ó Dálaigh resigned on 22 October after Dáil Éireann supported the minister in a motion of no confidence.

Nomination process

Under Article 12 of the Constitution of Ireland, a candidate for president could be nominated by:

at least twenty of the 204 serving members of the Houses of the Oireachtas, or
at least four of 31 councils of the administrative counties, including county boroughs, or
Themselves, if a former or incumbent president.

Fianna Fáil leader Jack Lynch proposed as the party's presidential election candidate Patrick Hillery, retiring European Commissioner for Social Affairs and former Minister for External Affairs. Charles Haughey, a critic of Lynch, proposed Joseph Brennan, TD for Donegal–Leitrim and a former Minister for Social Welfare. Hillery easily won the party nomination.

The government parties, Fine Gael and the Labour Party, did not nominate a candidate due to the row over Ó Dálaigh's resignation and the government's role in it. As no other candidate was nominated, it was not necessary to proceed to a ballot for the election.

Result

Patrick Hillery was inaugurated as president on Friday, 3 December.

Notes

References

(21 October 1976). "Dáil Éireann Debate: Call for Resignation of Minister: Motion".
"Presidential Elections 1938–2011". [[Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage.

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

1976-elections-in-the-republic-of-ireland 1976-in-irish-politics presidential-elections-in-ireland uncontested-elections october-1976-in-europe

Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about 1976 Irish presidential election — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report