The 1966 Irish presidential election was held on Wednesday, 1 June 1966. It was contested between the incumbent president Éamon de Valera, representing Fianna Fáil, and Tom O'Higgins of Fine Gael. De Valera, one of the most prominent figures in 20th-century Irish politics and figurehead of Ireland's old guard, sought a second term at the age of 83, while O'Higgins represented a younger generation seeking political change. The election was notable for its extremely narrow outcome, with de Valera winning by a slim margin of just 10,717 votes (50.5% to 49.5%). The election held symbolic significance, occurring not only on the 50th anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising (an event in which de Valera had been a prominent leader) but also in the wake of the 1960 United States presidential election, where the young, charismatic Irish-American Catholic John F. Kennedy was the victor. Both events influenced the election and helped shape the narrative that the election was a battle between Ireland's different generations.
Nomination process
Under Article 12 of the Constitution of Ireland, a candidate for president may be nominated by:
- at least twenty of the 204 serving members of the Houses of the Oireachtas, or
- at least four of 31 councils of the administrative counties, including county boroughs, or
- themselves, in the case of a former or retiring president.
On 27 April, the Minister for Local Government made the order for the presidential election, with noon on 10 May as the date for nominations, and 1 June as the date of polling.
Fianna Fáil
As president, Éamon de Valera had the right to nominate himself for a second term, but he chose to be nominated by Fianna Fáil, the party he had led from 1926 until his election in 1959. Then Fianna Fáil leader and Taoiseach Seán Lemass had urged de Valera not to retire, as he had been considering. De Valera's campaign manager was Charles Haughey, later to become Fianna Fáil leader and Taoiseach.
Fine Gael
Before the election, O'Higgins unsuccessfully proposed that Fine Gael nominate Seán MacBride to challenge the incumbent, Éamon de Valera. MacBride was not a member of Fine Gael but had worked with the party during the 1950s, serving as Minister for External Affairs in the Inter-Party Government led by Fine Gael's John A. Costello. MacBride's involvement with Fine Gael had been strategic, allowing him to advance his policy agenda while maintaining his independence from the party's core ideology. MacBride's background was firmly rooted in Irish republicanism: he was a prominent figure in the Irish Republican Army (IRA) during the 1920s and the son of Maud Gonne and John MacBride, both influential figures in the independence movement. This background gave him significant republican credentials, which some in Fine Gael saw as an asset for countering Éamon de Valera's own republican legacy. By suggesting MacBride as a candidate, O’Higgins and others within Fine Gael aimed to present a challenger who could contend with de Valera on Irish nationalism. However, the idea of Fine Gael running a republican was inherently a fundamentally contentious one, and was rejected.
After the MacBride suggestion was declined, O'Higgins encouraged former Taoiseach John A. Costello to enter the race before ultimately being persuaded to stand as Fine Gael's candidate himself. Gerard Sweetman served as his election director.
Although O'Higgins was seen as a young liberal, his family background was steeped in Fine Gael tradition and conservativism. His father Thomas F. O'Higgins, his brother Michael, his sister-in-law Brigid Hogan-O'Higgins, and his uncle Kevin had all been elected to the Dáil for Fine Gael or its predecessor Cumann na nGaedheal. Both his father and uncle had also served as cabinet ministers. Additionally, one of his great-grandfathers, Timothy Daniel Sullivan, was a Fenian poet and nationalist.
Independent bids
Independent broadcaster and genealogist Eoin "the Pope" O'Mahony, who had sought and failed to be nominated in 1959, tried again, unsuccessfully. He wrote to local authorities and was allowed to address eleven. He fell short of the requisite four nominations: only North Tipperary County Council vote in his favour, and later reversed the decision; Wicklow County Council fell one vote short.
Campaign
RTÉ decision not to cover campaign
O'Higgins' campaign was met with immediate difficulty when, at the outset, de Valera declared that he would not conduct a campaign himself, believing that the office of President should be above party politics. In response, Ireland's national radio and television broadcaster RTÉ decided it could not (or would not), cover O'Higgins campaigning as this would be unbalanced in their view. Fine Gael leader Liam Cosgrove responded by arguing that this was unjust, as although de Valera was not formally campaigning, he regularly appeared on RTÉ radio and television in his capacity as president. RTÉ, however, did not change its position.
John F. Kennedy-influenced O'Higgins campaign
O'Higgins carried out a grassroots campaign that saw him attend over 130 public meetings across the Republic of Ireland, covering an estimated 22,000 miles around the country over five weeks, reportedly attending as many as three rallies a night. Fine Gael presented O'Higgins and his wife Terry as Irish analogues of John F. Kennedy and his wife Jackie Kennedy, emphasising their comparative youth to the elderly de Valera. Campaign ads for O'Higgins prominently featured images of him surrounded by Terry and their seven children in shots designed to evoke the spirit of Camelot that had earned the Kennedys much popularity earlier in the decade. The general thrust of the campaign was that O'Higgins represented the future in contrast to the nostalgia of de Valera. Campaign manager Gerald Sweetman described the campaign as expressing "the need for a youthful, forward looking president to personify the real Ireland and what it can best contribute to modern civilisation".
An example of O'Higgins' attempt to emulate modern American politics was seen on 28 May 1966, when a light aircraft dropped balloons bearing campaign slogans onto the city of Limerick during an O'Higgins motorcade procession. Observing these new tactics, the journalist John Healy of The Irish Times observed "The Fine Gael tail is up. It is running as it has not run for a long time. It will be an interesting finish indeed".
De Valera response
Polling was not yet a feature of Irish politics in 1966; instead parties still generally relied on their constituency branches to provide a sense of grassroots sentiment. When Fianna Fáil received feedback from their branches about the O'Higgins campaign, they became highly concerned. Although de Valera remained officially committed to not campaigning, he began to make several public appearances on the pretence of commemorating 1916. De Valera's campaign manager was then Minister for Agriculture and future leader of Fianna Fáil Charles Haughey. Responding to the momentum of the O'Higgins campaign, Haughey announced £5.5 million in spending targeted at farmers just five days before voting began. Fianna Fáil leader and de Valera protege Sean Lemass declared that a de Valera victory would be "an affirmation by the people that the aims for our country which have directed him throughout his life remain constant, and that patriotism is as relevant in the island of 1966 as it was in 1916".
Aftermath
The President expressed his satisfaction at securing victory in his final election, remarking, "even though it was only by a short head," and explained his decision not to nominate himself. He emphasised that doing so would have been disingenuous, as no one could realistically expect to win the presidency without the support of a political party or organisation. Seán Lemass interpreted the result as a "tribute to a man who had rendered exceptional national service" and a clear indication of the people's confidence in his ability to carry out the presidential duties in a manner that would reflect positively on the nation.
In his autobiography, A Double Life, O'Higgins reflected decades later on his performance in the 1966 presidential race: He believed he had conducted himself honourably and maintained his integrity throughout the contest. He wrote that the election was "a close-run thing", invoking the words used by the Duke of Wellington to describe his victory at Waterloo. His vote remains the highest election result a Fine Gael candidate has received in an Irish presidential election.