1974 Irish presidential election

Childers died on 17 November 1974. On 21 November, the Minister for Local Government issued a ministerial order setting 3 December as the date for close of nominations and 18 December as the date of the election.^[1]

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.

Initially all parties privately agreed to nominate the late president's widow, Rita Childers.^[2] Before she was informed of the plan, however, a mix-up led to the collapse of the arrangement.^[3] A partially deaf Fine Gael Teachta Dála, identified in some reports as Tom O'Donnell,^[4] confirmed the secret arrangement upon mishearing a journalist's question asking about the decision of a local council's nomination of Childers as president, having assumed that the cross-party decision was made public.^[3] Fianna Fáil leader Jack Lynch, thinking the party was set up, subsequently withdrew from the agreement and nominated Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh instead.^[3] The parties agreed to the new arrangement due to a number of external factors, including a sluggish economy and The Troubles.^[3]

Ó Dálaigh had served as Attorney General from 1951 to 1953, as a judge of the Supreme Court from 1953 to 1973, as Chief Justice from 1961 to 1973, and had been serving as a judge of the European Court of Justice from 1973 at the time of his nomination. All parties agreed to Ó Dálaigh's nomination. As no other candidate was nominated, it was not necessary to proceed to a ballot for his election.

Ó Dálaigh was inaugurated as president on Thursday, 19 December 1974.