Irish presidential election, 1997

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30 October 1997

2004 →

Turnout

47.6%


Nominee	Mary McAleese	Mary Banotti	Dana Rosemary Scallon
Party	Fianna Fáil	Fine Gael	Independent
1st preference	574,424 (45.2%)	372,002 (29.3%)	175,458 (13.8%)
Final count	706,259 (55.6%)	497,516 (39.2%)	Eliminated


Nominee	Adi Roche	Derek Nally
Party	Independent	Independent
1st preference	88,423 (7.0%)	59,529 (4.7%)
Final count	Eliminated	Eliminated

President before election

Mary Robinson
Independent

Elected President

Mary McAleese
Fianna Fáil

Mary Robinson
Independent

Mary McAleese
Fianna Fáil

The Irish presidential election of 1997 was held on 30 October 1997. It was the eleventh presidential election to be held in Ireland, and only the sixth to be contested by more than one candidate.

The election had the biggest number of candidates contesting the position. In all, five people received nominations, and more remarkably, four of them were women.

Mary McAleese was the candidate of the Fianna Fáil and Progressive Democrats parties for the presidency. Born in Belfast, she was formerly a journalist with broadcaster, RTÉ, and at the time of her nomination, she was Pro-Vice Chancellor of Queens University Belfast. Although an activist with Fianna Fáil for many years, she was thought to be unlikely to receive the party's nomination. Two other candidates, Albert Reynolds and Michael O'Kennedy, also sought the party's nomination. Reynolds was a former Taoiseach while O'Kennedy was a former cabinet minister having served in the Finance and Foreign Affairs portfolios. Both were also sitting Teachtaí Dála (TDs) which was seen as an advantage. In the first round of voting, Reynolds received 49 votes, McAleese 42, and O'Kennedy 21. In the second round, McAleese won, with 62 votes to Reynolds's 48.

Mary Banotti was the choice of the Fine Gael party to represent them in the election.She was the grand-niece of the former Irish leader, Michael Collins, and sister of the deputy leader of the party, Nora Owen. She defeated colleague Avril Doyle for the party nomination in a very close contest. Banotti, who was an MEP at the time, was the only practising politician among the five presidential candidates.

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