YET AGAIN, FINE Gael has failed to win a presidential election, with some dubbing it ‘the curse of the Áras’. 

The party has come close several times since the role was created almost 90 years ago, but has never managed to get a candidate over the line. 

So just how close has Fine Gael come to winning the presidential elections in the past? 

1938 to 1990

Douglas Hyde was elected as the first president of Ireland in 1938. He was supported by both Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil for the role, but he ran as an independent. 

Seán Mac Eoin, who was an Irish republican, was fielded by Fine Gael in the 1945 election.

He had been Chief of Staff of the Defence Forces from February 1929 to October 1929, and later became Minister for Defence in 1951 and from 1954 to 1957. He was Minister for Justice from 1948 to 1951.

Mac Eoin performed well in the first count. He received 335,539 first preference votes, but was pipped to the post by Fianna Fáil’s candidate Seán T O’Kelly (who received 537,965 first preference votes) in the second count.

O’Kelly was the only candidate nominated for the Presidency in 1952 and was automatically re-elected for a second term.

Fine Gael ran Mac Eoin again in the 1959 election. However, he was up against former Taoiseach Eamon De Valera, who was elected on the first count with 538,003 first preference votes to Mac Eoin’s 417,536.

In 1966, Thomas F O’Higgins, a Fine Gael politician and barrister , represented the party in the presidential election.

O’Higgins received 548,144 first preference votes, narrowly losing out on the presidency to Eamon De Valera, who was re-elected on the first count with 558,861 first preference votes.

O’Higgins ran again for Fine Gael in 1973, but was beaten by Erskine Childers in the first count by almost 50,000 first preference votes.

When Erskine Childers died in 1974, Fine Gael entered an agreement with Fianna Fáil to support their nomination for Uachtarán na hÉireann, Cearbhaill Ó Dálaigh.

When Ó Dálaigh resigned in 1976, Fine Gael did not field a candidate and there was only nomination for the Áras – Fianna Fáil’s candidate Patrick Hillery, who was automatically elected.

As the only candidate in the race in 1983, Hillery was automatically re-elected for a second term.

1990 to present day

There was a three-horse race in 1990, which saw Austin Currie as the Fine Gael candidate for the Áras.

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Currie was up against Fianna Fáil candidate Brian Lenihan, and Labour’s Mary Robinson, but he was eliminated on the first count and came third in the race.

1997 saw five Áras hopefuls: Adi Roche (Labour), Mary McAleese (Fianna Fáil), Mary Banotti (Fine Gael), Dana Rosemary Scallon (Independent) and Derek Nally (Independent).

The race narrowed between Mary Banotti and Mary McAleese on the second count, but  Fine Gael once again lost out to Fianna Fáil with a final tally of 706,259 votes to 497,516.

Mary McAleese was automatically re-elected in 2004 as no other candidate entered the race.

In 2011, there were seven candidates in the running for the presidency: Labour’s Michael D Higgins, Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness, Fine Gael’s Gay Mitchell, and independent candidates David Norris, Seán Gallagher, Dana Rosemary Scallon and Mary Davis.

Fine Gael’s Gay Mitchell received 113,321 first preference votes. However, Mitchell was eliminated on the third count and he came fourth in the race.

Michael D Higgins was elected President of Ireland on the fourth count with 1,007,104 votes, the highest ever in the history of the State.

In the 2018 election, Fine Gael opted not to field a candidate for the Presidential election and instead chose to support outgoing President Michael D Higgins.