The 1997 Irish presidential election was held on Thursday, 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. It was held ahead of schedule when incumbent President Mary Robinson resigned to assume her new appointment as the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Candidates The Minister for the Environment and Local Government made the order opening nominations on 15 September, with 30 September as the deadline for nominations. Five people received nominations, the highest number contesting to that point; four of the five were women.

Mary McAleese Mary McAleese was selected by Fianna Fáil as their candidate 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 Queen's University Belfast. Two other candidates, Albert Reynolds and Michael O'Kennedy, had also sought the Fianna Fáil 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 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. McAleese was later also endorsed by the Progressive Democrats, the smaller party in the coalition government with Fianna Fáil.

Mary Banotti Mary Banotti was nominated by Fine Gael. 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 serving politician among the five presidential candidates.

Adi Roche Adi Roche, who had founded Chernobyl Children International in 1991, was nominated by the Labour Party. Roche was later endorsed by Democratic Left and the Green Party. At 42 years of age, she was and is the youngest person to stand in an Irish presidential election.

Dana Rosemary Scallon Dana Rosemary Scallon received the nominations of five county councils: Donegal, Kerry, Longford, North Tipperary and Wicklow. Scallon was a singer, the winner of the 1970 Eurovision Song Contest, and a family values campaigner. She was the first candidate in any Irish presidential election to have been nominated by local authorities, rather than by Oireachtas members.

Derek Nally Derek Nally was the fifth candidate to join the presidential race and the only male candidate. He was a retired Garda and victims' rights campaigner. He also received the nominations of five county councils: Carlow, Clare, Kildare, South Dublin and Wexford.

Campaign The Presidential campaign, held before the forthcoming Good Friday Agreement of 1998, would become dominated by Northern Ireland issues and questions about candidates' views on Irish Republicanism.

McAleese enjoyed the full backing of the powerful Fianna Fáil electoral machine, and she emphasised her north–south background amid fragile peace prospects, while Banotti stressed her parliamentary experience and family legacy (Banotti was the grand-niece of Michael Collins). Roche campaigned on her international humanitarian credentials. Scallon ran a grassroots "people's campaign" spotlighting family values, and Nally's platform centred on victims’ rights and policing reform.

Adi Roche entered the race in good standing on the back of her charitable work, and initially polled extremely well at 38%, raising the possibility of another upset win by the Labour Party. However, Roche's campaign was severely undermined by a covert smear campaign focused on her brother Dónal de Róiste, a former Army officer who had been summarily and controversially dismissed from the Defence Forces in 1969. Anonymous letters and phone calls were circulated to media outlets during the campaign, suggesting links between her brother and Irish republican paramilitaries. Though no evidence of wrongdoing was ever produced and the allegations were later discredited, the innuendo damaged Roche's polling badly, falling down to 7% shortly before election day. She ultimately placed fourth out of five candidates. In later years, Roche described the experience as traumatising and politically vicious, noting it had a long-lasting impact on her self-confidence. Her brother was formally exonerated and issued a State apology in 2022 after a government review found his dismissal had been legally flawed and procedurally unjust.

Likewise, Mary McAleese was also peppered with questions relating to possible links to Irish republicanism. Questions about Mary McAleese's attitude to Sinn Féin first emerged when the Sunday Business Post of 12 October 1997 published leaked Department of Foreign Affairs memos suggesting she had expressed pleasure at Sinn Féin's electoral performance and would not back a presidential contest without a Sinn Féin–SDLP pact. The memos were quickly seized upon by rival candidate Derek Nally, who accused McAleese of operating "a different set of moral assumptions" compared to "most Irish people", and demanded she explain whether she had ever voted for or supported Sinn Féin. Further speculation mounted following 16 October, when President of Sinn Féin Gerry Adams stated his preferred candidate was McAleese.

On RTÉ's Questions and Answers, journalist Geraldine Kennedy pressed her directly, asking "Did you ever vote for Sinn Féin?". McAleese strenuously denied the accuracy of the leaked documents, issuing a statement through her campaign that she had never voted for Sinn Féin and repudiating any implication of republican sympathy. She subsequently challenged the department official responsible for the leak to legal action, though no lawsuit ensued. The Irish Times editorial later urged her to provide "the frankest explanation" of her views on Sinn Féin and the broader peace process if confidence in her fitness for office was to be restored. Despite the intensity of the controversy, no evidence emerged to substantiate the allegations.

During the campaign, Derek Nally, a former garda and long-standing critic of police brutality, claimed that a group of former gardaí had threatened his life. He called on these individuals to identify themselves, stating: "I want to be able to identify the people who are making the threats and identify my possible assassins". The threat, discussed on RTÉ's Prime Time, allegedly came from those angered by Nally's past whistleblowing against the so-called "heavy gang" within the Garda Síochána in the 1970s. He insisted the group's motives were linked to his efforts back then to expose prisoner mistreatment and misconduct, which he had brought to the attention of then-Minister for Justice Paddy Cooney. Nally also drew parallels with alleged smear attempts against fellow candidate Adi Roche, suggesting there was a campaign by ex-gardaí to undermine certain candidates. However, both the Garda Representative Association and the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors denied any knowledge of such a plot.

Opinion polls Last date of pollingCommissionerPolling firm Sample size Sources McAleese Banotti Scallon Roche Nally27 October 1997The Irish TimesMRBI?46%30%10%8%5%25 October 1997Irish IndependentIMS?49%32%7%7%5%23 October 1997Irish IndependentIMS?45%32%10%8%5%22 October 1997The Irish TimesMRBI?42%33%9%9%6%11 October 1997The Irish TimesMRBI?39%29%8%16%9%27 September 1997The Irish TimesMRBI?40%27%8%25%

Result

Results by constituency + First count votes Constituency Banotti McAleese Nally Roche Scallon Carlow–Kilkenny 11,962 19,949 3,040 2,936 5,177 Cavan–Monaghan 9,299 21,749 1,122 1,373 6,346 Clare 8,353 17,970 1,637 1,889 5,095 Cork East 8,859 15,598 1,063 3,444 4,450 Cork North-Central 8,348 14,322 1,194 4,808 3,742 Cork North-West 8,214 13,086 776 2,291 3,567 Cork South-Central 12,609 19,410 1,894 5,434 4,461 Cork South-West 8,808 12,616 825 2,208 3,016 Donegal North-East 3,313 11,008 575 748 5,136 Donegal South-West 3,958 11,060 545 826 5,025 Dublin Central 6,864 9,226 1,175 1,605 2,920 Dublin North 10,161 12,599 1,291 1,918 3,364 Dublin North-Central 10,789 12,949 1,342 1,946 4,044 Dublin North-East 8,728 10,132 1,114 1,770 2,890 Dublin North-West 7,806 9,910 1,180 1,769 3,037 Dublin South 18,766 16,053 1,990 2,589 5,360 Dublin South-Central 10,900 10,636 1,375 1,909 3,636 Dublin South-East 12,692 9,338 1,056 1,885 3,403 Dublin South-West 8,879 10,366 1,539 1,833 3,384 Dublin West 8,965 10,678 1,504 1,675 3,363 Dún Laoghaire 18,415 14,310 1,632 2,696 4,882 Galway East 7,352 15,979 1,076 1,285 5,044 Galway West 9,495 16,707 1,437 2,012 5,320 Kerry North 5,266 10,753 689 3,039 3,367 Kerry South 5,384 11,586 778 2,075 3,162 Kildare North 7,657 9,496 1,242 1,483 3,101 Kildare South 6,052 9,204 1,039 1,426 2,372 Laois–Offaly 10,878 20,398 1,739 2,090 6,188 Limerick East 11,529 15,080 1,714 2,235 4,998 Limerick West 6,999 11,823 886 1,201 3,722 Longford–Roscommon 8,212 15,654 1,456 1,159 6,175 Louth 7,322 16,356 1,228 1,983 4,337 Mayo 10,923 21,174 1,348 1,666 6,601 Meath 11,338 18,584 1,487 2,123 5,898 Sligo–Leitrim 7,909 16,162 1,044 1,670 5,290 Tipperary North 7,547 13,316 1,550 2,158 3,802 Tipperary South 6,928 11,865 832 4,187 3,092 Waterford 8,243 15,769 1,406 2,229 3,887 Westmeath 5,969 10,653 1,160 1,561 3,770 Wexford 8,779 16,713 7,405 2,415 4,061 Wicklow 11,532 14,187 2,144 2,874 4,973 Total 372,002 574,424 59,529 88,423 175,458

+ Second count result Constituency Banotti McAleeseVotes%Votes% Carlow–Kilkenny 16,474 40.5% 24,295 59.5% Cavan–Monaghan 12,159 31.9% 26,015 68.1% Clare 11,542 34.7% 21,766 65.3% Cork East 12,205 38.9% 19,218 61.1% Cork North-Central 12,201 40.3% 18,139 59.7% Cork North-West 10,687 40.4% 15,825 59.6% Cork South-Central 17,021 41.1% 24,437 58.9% Cork South-West 11,326 43.0% 15,056 57.0% Donegal North-East 4,844 25.6% 14,113 74.4% Donegal South-West 5,573 28.4% 14,060 71.6% Dublin Central 9,140 44.7% 11,349 55.3% Dublin North 13,013 46.3% 15,149 53.7% Dublin North-Central 13,903 46.8% 15,843 53.2% Dublin North-East 11,114 47.4% 12,374 52.6% Dublin North-West 10,337 46.0% 12,180 54.0% Dublin South 23,436 54.3% 19,779 45.7% Dublin South-Central 13,887 51.4% 13,182 48.6% Dublin South-East 15,703 57.6% 11,568 42.4% Dublin South-West 11,734 47.6% 12,920 52.4% Dublin West 11,848 47.4% 13,199 52.6% Dún Laoghaire 22,745 56.3% 17,678 43.7% Galway East 10,003 34.2% 19,318 65.8% Galway West 12,974 38.9% 20,418 61.1% Kerry North 7,942 37.0% 13,546 63.0% Kerry South 7,631 35.2% 14,109 64.8% Kildare North 10,209 46.6% 11,741 53.4% Kildare South 7,976 42.0% 11,039 58.0% Laois–Offaly 14,485 37.0% 24,761 63.0% Limerick East 15,208 45.2% 18,493 54.8% Limerick West 9,082 38.9% 14,277 61.1% Longford–Roscommon 11,216 36.5% 19,555 63.5% Louth 10,015 34.0% 19,527 66.0% Mayo 14,343 36.0% 25,551 64.0% Meath 15,026 40.2% 22,430 59.8% Sligo–Leitrim 10,729 35.1% 19,912 64.9% Tipperary North 10,375 38.8% 16,373 61.2% Tipperary South 10,129 40.3% 15,065 59.7% Waterford 11,070 37.2% 18,760 62.8% Westmeath 8,362 38.6% 13,347 61.4% Wexford 14,143 39.1% 22,064 60.9% Wicklow 15,706 46.9% 17,828 53.1% Total 497,516 39.2% 706,259 55.6%

Footnotes

References