Президентские выборы в Ирландии 1990 года: Первое женское президентство

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The 1990 Irish presidential election was the tenth presidential election to be held in Ireland, the fifth to be contested by more than one candidate, and the first to have a female candidate and winner. It was held on Wednesday, 7 November 1990 and was won by Mary Robinson on a joint Labour Party and Workers' Party ticket. The election was the first time in history a Fianna Fáil candidate failed to win the presidency. It was also the first time the Labour Party had contested a presidential election. The election had one of the tightest margins of victory in Irish presidential elections history, and the final leg of the campaign was characterised by intense internal turmoil within the Fianna Fáil party as well as personal attacks on the candidates from competing political parties. The election was considered a political failure for the Fine Gael party and would cause their leader, Alan Dukes, to resign in the immediate aftermath. One of the central issues during the campaign was whether the role of the President should be expanded or not, with Robinson and Currie arguing it should while Lenihan argued against it. In the years following Robinson's election, she would transform the position into a much more visible and influential position in Irish politics.

At the 1990 Fine Gael Ard Fheis, party leader Alan Dukes promised that he would find a "candidate of vigour and stature" to contest the election. However, Dukes had great difficulty in trying to secure a candidate from his party's ranks, primarily due to their perception that Fianna Fáil's Brian Lenihan would be a runaway favourite to win. With his options dwindling, Dukes turned to the newly elected Teachta Dala Austin Currie. Currie had only entered the Dáil for the first time 15 months previously following the 1989 general election. However, Currie had an extensive background as a political activist in Northern Ireland as part of the civil rights movement in Northern Ireland and as a former member of the Social Democratic and Labour Party. After Dukes convinced Currie to stand, Currie's nomination was confirmed by a unanimous vote of Fine Gael's parliamentary party on 12 September. By that point, it was already well known to the public that Brian Lenihan would be frontrunner for the Fianna Fáil nomination.

On 15 October (the day before the nomination deadline) recently elected Senator and former Lord Mayor of Dublin Carmencita Hederman asked Dublin City Council to support her and to give her a nomination towards the presidency. However, the motion was defeated by 31 votes to 5. Councillors from Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, the Progressive Democrats and the Workers' Party cited that they could not support her bid, as their parties had already given their support to other candidates or ruled themselves neutral. Hederman asserted on 15 October that the Progressive Democrats had promised to support her bid contingent on her securing 20,000 signatures of public support, but pulled their pledge at the last moment. Mary Harney denied this, and stated she had told Hederman her support was contingent on Hederman securing the backing of 11 other TDs. Ultimately, the Progressive Democrats declared "neutrality" in the election, and did not officially support any candidate. From as early as April 1990, Robinson made clear her ambitions to expand the role of the presidency.

On October 11, the Green Party announced that it had held a ballot of its members and they had overwhelmingly voted to officially support Robinson's campaign bid. Robinson welcomed the announcement and stated her belief that environmentalism was an area in which the office of President could provide leadership. Following the end of the campaign, Currie would cite the fact that many Fine Gael activists choose to support Robinson over himself as damaging his own campaign. Furthermore, although their party was officially "neutral", many Progressive Democrats activists were broadly sympathetic to Robinson's social views and were also attracted to offering her support. This support intensified following Michael McDowell's robust defence of Robinson in the face of personal attacks by Fianna Fáil's Padraig Flynn (See Flynn personal remarks about Robinson below for more).

The early and strong support amongst Fine Gael voters for Robinson alarmed the Fine Gael camp, who reacted by engaging in Red Scare tactics against Robinson rather than focusing on the favourite Lenihan. Immediately upon the confirmation that Currie was in the race, prominent members of Fine Gael, such as Jim Mitchell and Michael Noonan, suggested that Robinson would be the "acceptable face of Socialism in Ireland" and that a victory for Robinson would be a victory for the Workers' Party.

In September 1990, the magazine Hot Press conducted a 90 minute interview with Robinson. The audio was recorded and certain portions were later transcribed in order to be used in print. Two weeks passed between the actual interview and its eventual appearance in the October edition of the monthly magazine. Upon the release of the interview, the Fianna Fáil affiliated newspaper The Irish Press lead that day with a front page headline reading "LONGEST SUICIDE NOTE IN HISTORY" and an article by Emily O’Reilly focusing on Robinson responding "Yes" when asked in the interview if she would, as president, officiate the opening of a stall selling contraceptives in a Virgin Megastore. Both Lenihan and Currie accused Robinson of making a political gaffe with this response. The Robinson camp initially claimed Robinson had been misquoted, but when Liam Fay, the journalist for Hot Press, was able to produce the audio recording of the interview, his transcription was proven correct. The Robinson camp changed tack, and claimed that Robinson had not meant "Yes, I would", but simply that because of her legal background, she was in the habit of advancing dialogue by saying "Yes" as an interjection. Robinson would henceforth deny that she would preside over any illegal activity should she win the election.

Although Lenihan was the initial favourite to win the election, his campaign was derailed when he confirmed in an on the record interview with freelance journalist and academic researcher Jim Duffy that he had been involved in controversial attempts to pressurise President Patrick Hillery not to dissolve the Dáil in 1982. After the contrast between his public denials during the campaign and his eventual confirmation of his role during his earlier interview recorded in May the Progressive Democrats, then in coalition with Fianna Fáil, threatened to support an opposition motion of no confidence unless Lenihan was dismissed from the government or an inquiry into the 1982 events was set up. Taoiseach Charles Haughey privately asked Lenihan to resign, and sacked him on 31 October—a week before the election—when he refused to do so leading to a sympathy vote for Lenihan; his support in the polls going from 32% on 29 October to 42% on 3 November (with Robinson's support dropping from 51 to 42%).

On 3 November, just days before voting was due to take place, cabinet minister Pádraig Flynn of Fianna Fáil made an appearance on the RTÉ Radio 1 show Saturday View alongside Michael McDowell of the Progressive Democrats and Brendan Howlin of the Labour Party. During the segment, Flynn launched a personal attack on Mary Robinson, accusing her of "having a new found interest in her family" as part of a new public persona introduced for the campaign. Flynn's attack was a fatal blow to Lenihan's campaign, causing many female supporters of Lenihan to vote for Robinson in a gesture of support. Lenihan received a plurality of first preference votes. Robinson received more than twice as many votes as Currie, and 76.73% of Currie's votes transferred to Robinson, beating Lenihan into second place and electing Robinson as Ireland's first female president.