Patrick Hillery

Dr. Patrick John Hillery (born May 2, 1923) was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician and the sixth President of Ireland from 1976 until 1990. First elected at the 1951 General Election as a Fianna Fáil TD for Clare, he remained in Dáil Éireann until 1973. During this time he served as Minister for Education (1959-1965), Minister for Industry & Commerce (1965-1966), Minister for Labour (1966-1969) and Minister for External Affairs (1969-1973). In 1973 he was appointed Ireland's first European Commissioner, serving until 1976 when he was appointed President. He shares the distinction, with Eamon de Valera and Seán T. Ó Ceallaigh, of serving two full terms as President of Ireland, and is the only President who never faced an election.

Phone Calls to the Áras: The Lenihan Tape Claim

However it was in 1982 that Hillery's reputation as president was arguably made. In January 1982, the Fine Gael-Labour government of Garret FitzGerald collapsed in Dáil Éireann on a budget vote. FitzGerald travelled to Áras an Uachtaráin to ask for a parliamentary dissolution, something which under Article 13.2.2.2 of Bunreacht na hÉireann President Hillery could have refused, forcing FitzGerald's resignation. However a series of phone calls (some published reports claim seven, others eight) was made by senior opposition figures urging Hillery to refuse FitzGerald a dissolution, so allowing Haughey to form a government. Hillery regarded such pressure as gross misconduct, and granted the dissolution as expected. (No Irish president to date has ever refused one.)

Related Topics:
1982 - January - Garret FitzGerald - Áras an Uachtaráin - Bunreacht na hÉireann

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By 1990, Hillery's term seemed to reaching a quiet end, until the events of 1982 returned, changing the course of the history of the presidency, Ireland and Hillery forever. Three candidates had been nominated in the 1990 presidential election; the then Tánaiste, the late Brian Lenihan from Fianna Fáil (widely viewed as the certain winner), Austin Currie from Fine Gael and Mary Robinson from Labour. In May 1990, in an "on the record" interview with Jim Duffy, an honours post-graduate student researching the Irish presidency, Lenihan had confirmed that he had been one of those phoning Hillery in January 1982. He confirmed that Haughey too had made phone calls. Jim Duffy mentioned the information in a newspaper article on the history of the Irish presidency in 28 September 1990 in The Irish Times. In October 1990, Lenihan changed his story, claiming (even though he had said the opposite for eight years) that he had played "no hand, act or part" in pressurising President Hillery that night. He made these denials in an interview in The Irish Press (a pro-Fianna Fáil newspaper) and on an RTÉ 1 political show, Questions and Answers. When it was realised that he had said the opposite in an 'on-the-record' interview in May 1990, his campaign panicked and tried to pressurize Duffy into not revealing the information. Their pressure backfired, particularly when his campaign manager named Duffy as the person to which he had given the interview in a radio broadcast, forcing a besieged Duffy to reverse an earlier decision and release the relevant segment of his interview with Lenihan. In the aftermath, the minority party in the coalition government, the Progressive Democrats indicated that unless Lenihan resigned from cabinet, they would resign from government and support an opposition Motion of No Confidence in Dáil Éireann, bringing down the government and causing a general election. Though publicly Taoiseach Charles Haughey insisted that it was entirely a matter for Lenihan, his "friend of thirty years" and that he was putting no pressure on him, in reality he gave Lenihan a letter of resignation to sign. When Lenihan refused, Haughey formally advised President Hillery to dismiss Lenihan as Tánaiste, Minister for Defence and member of the cabinet, which the President as constitutionally required duly did. Lenihan became the only candidate from his party to date to lose the presidency, having began the campaign as the apparent certain winner. Instead Labour's Mary Robinson, who already had had a spectacularly successful campaign, became the seventh president of Ireland, the first elected president from a non Fianna Fáil background, and the first woman to hold the office.

Related Topics:
1990 - Tánaiste - Brian Lenihan - Austin Currie - Mary Robinson - Jim Duffy - Newspaper - 28 September - The Irish Times - The Irish Press - RTÉ 1 - Progressive Democrats - Motion of No Confidence - President of Ireland

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The revelations, and the discovery that Hillery had stood up to pressure from former cabinet colleagues including his close friend Brian Lenihan back in 1982, increased Hillery's standing substantially. From a low-key modest presidency that many had written off as mediocre, his presidency came to be seen as embodying the highest standards of integrity. His reputation rose further when opposition leaders under parliamentary privilege alleged that Taoiseach Charles Haughey, who in January 1982 had been Leader of the Opposition, had not merely rang the President's Office but threatened to end the career of the army officer who took the call and who, on Hillery's explicit instructions, had refused to put through the call to the President. Haughey angrily denied the charge, though Lenihan, in his subsequently published account of the affair, noted that Haughey had denied "insulting" the officer, whereas the allegation was that he had "threatened" him. Hillery, it was revealed, had called in the Irish Army's Chief of Staff the following day and as Commander-in-Chief of the Army had ordered the Chief of Staff to ensure that no politician ever interfered with the career of the young army officer.

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In 1983 Hillery was again elected unopposed sharing the distiction with Seán T. O'Kelly and Eamon de Valera of serving two full terms as President of Ireland. Hillery left office in 1990 (he had served the maximum two terms), widely applauded for his integrity, honesty and devotion to duty. The previous image of Hillery, as low key, dull and unexciting (except for the bizarre 'sex rumours'), had been somewhat undermined. Hillery retired from public life. However he re-entered public life in 2002 during the second referendum on the Nice Treaty, when, along with most of the political elite, he urged a yes vote. The referendum was carried.

Related Topics:
1983 - Seán T. O'Kelly - Eamon de Valera - President of Ireland - 2002 - Nice Treaty

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