Irish presidential election, 1990

← 1983

7 November 1990

1997 →

Turnout

64.1%


Nominee	Mary Robinson	Brian Lenihan	Austin Currie
Party	Labour	Fianna Fáil	Fine Gael
1st preference	612,265 (38.9%)	694,484 (44.1%)	267,902 (17.0%)
Final count	817,830 (51.9%)	731,273 (46.4%)	Eliminated

President before election

Patrick Hillery
Fianna Fáil

Elected President

Mary Robinson
Independent

Patrick Hillery
Fianna Fáil

Mary Robinson
Independent

The Irish presidential election of 1990 was the tenth presidential election to be held in Ireland, and only the fifth to be contested by more than one candidate and the first to have a female candidate. It was held on Wednesday, 7 November 1990.

Brian Lenihan, the Tánaiste and Minister for Defence was chosen by Fianna 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 (relaxed censorship in the 1960s), and he was seen as a near certainty to win the presidency.

Fine Gael, after trying and failing to get former Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald and former Tánaiste Peter Barry to run, ultimately nominated the former civil rights campaigner and SDLP member Austin Currie. Currie had been elected to the Dáil in the 1989 general election and had been a minister in Brian Faulkner's power-sharing executive in Northern Ireland from 1973–1974. However 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.

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