November 30 1974
IRISH judge, Mr Cearbhall O Dalaigh, will be the fifth President of the Irish Republic, it was announced officially in Dublin last night.
Mr O Dalaigh (63) received the backing of the Coalition Government and the Opposition to become an all-party nominee.
This means there will be no electoral contest for the Presidency – something that both the Coalition and Opposition wanted to avoid.
A statement on behalf of the three major parties said it was “desirable in the present circumstances to agree to a suitable person as an all-party nominee.
“Accordingly the name of Cearbhall O Dalaigh has been agreed”.
The statement went on: “Judge O Dalaigh has been informed of the decision and has agreed to accept such a nomination.
“It is the belief of the three parties that Judge O Dalaigh would discharge the duties of President with distinction in the interest of all the people of Ireland”.
Mr O Dalaigh, a judge of the European Court, and a former Attorney-General and Chief Justice of Ireland, will succeed Mr Erskine Childers, who died of a heart attack 13 days ago. It was not immediately certain when he would take up his duties.
The announcement ended a day of lively political activity after the Opposition, Fianna Fail, had put forward the judge’s name as a suggested agreed candidate.
When Opposition Leader Mr Jack Lynch did so, he spoke of the judge’s “personal qualities and stature, his scholarship and multilinguistic ability, and his international reputation”.
Though out of active politics for many years, Mr O Dalaigh stood in 1948 and 1951, though unsuccessfully, for Fianna Fail in elections to the Irish Lower House. He was appointed by a Fianna Fail administration to the post of Attorney-General and had already been Irish editor of the Irish Press.
He was admitted to the Bar in 1934, took silk in 1945 and was Attorney-General twice between 1946 and 1953. He was Chief Justice from 1961 to 1973 before his appointment to the European Court.
A Who’s Who lists his recreations as the Irish, Italian and French languages, theatre, art, riding and bird-watching. He has been married for 40 years.
Following the sudden death of Erskine Childers, an election for a new president was avoided by the main parties agreeing to the nomination of Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh as his successor. Ó Dálaigh also did not serve a full term, resigning in controversy in 1976.
