Everyone who has led the state since the First Dáil in 1919 — the 10 presidents, the 15 Taoisigh and the heads of government before them — and, for the whole island, Northern Ireland's prime ministers and first ministers. President: Catherine Connolly. Taoiseach: Micheál Martin.
The head of state under the Constitution of 1937, elected for seven years and for at most two terms.
| # | Name | From | To | Party |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Douglas Hyde | 25 June 1938 | 24 June 1945 | — |
| 2 | Seán T. O'Kelly | 25 June 1945 | 24 June 1959 | Fianna Fáil |
| 3 | Éamon de Valera | 25 June 1959 | 24 June 1973 | Sinn Féin, then Fianna Fáil |
| 4 | Erskine H. Childers | 25 June 1973 | 17 November 1974 | Fianna Fáil |
| 5 | Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh | 19 December 1974 | 22 October 1976 | Fianna Fáil |
| 6 | Patrick Hillery | 3 December 1976 | 2 December 1990 | Fianna Fáil |
| 7 | Mary Robinson | 3 December 1990 | 12 September 1997 | Independent |
| 8 | Mary McAleese | 11 November 1997 | 10 November 2011 | Nominated by Fianna Fáil |
| 9 | Michael D. Higgins | 11 November 2011 | 10 November 2025 | Labour |
| 10 | Catherine Connolly | 11 November 2025 | present | Independent |
A scholar of the Irish language, a linguist and the leading figure of the Gaelic revival, Hyde was the first president of the Gaelic League and wrote under the name An Craoibhín Aoibhinn, the pleasant little branch. He was chosen as the first President of Ireland and served from June 1938 to June 1945.
Wikipedia ↗Born John T. O'Kelly, he was Ceann Comhairle of the Dáil from 1919 to 1921 and a TD from 1918 to 1945. From 1932 to 1945 he was deputy head of government — Vice-President of the Executive Council, then Tánaiste — and held Local Government and Public Health and later Finance. He was President of Ireland for two terms, from June 1945 to June 1959.
Wikipedia ↗Born in New York, de Valera commanded the Irish Volunteers at Boland's Mill in the Easter Rising; he was sentenced to death but released, partly because of his American citizenship and the public reaction to the executions. He became a leading figure of the War of Independence and President of Dáil Éireann from 1919 to January 1922.
He led the anti-Treaty side after 1921, and in 1926 left Sinn Féin to found Fianna Fáil, which ended abstention from the Dáil. He took over from W. T. Cosgrave as President of the Executive Council in 1932, introduced the Constitution of 1937 and became Taoiseach under it; with 21 years in all he is the longest-serving Irish head of government. He was then President of Ireland for two full terms, 1959 to 1973.
His record is argued over: his biographer Tim Pat Coogan saw his years in power as a time of economic and cultural stagnation, while the historian Diarmaid Ferriter argues that the austere, backward image of him was largely manufactured in the 1960s.
Wikipedia ↗A TD from 1938 to 1973, Childers held Posts and Telegraphs, Lands, and Transport and Power, and was Tánaiste and Minister for Health from 1969 to 1973. He was elected President in 1973 and died in office in November 1974, the only Irish president to do so. His father, Robert Erskine Childers, author of The Riddle of the Sands, was executed in the Civil War.
Wikipedia ↗A barrister and scholar of Irish, Ó Dálaigh was the youngest Attorney General (1946) and Supreme Court judge (1953) of his time, Chief Justice from 1961, and in 1973 the first Irish judge on the European Court of Justice. He became President unexpectedly after Childers's death. After hostile remarks by the defence minister Paddy Donegan, amid open conflict with the government, he resigned in October 1976 — the first president to do so.
Wikipedia ↗A TD for Clare from 1951 to 1973, Hillery was Minister for Education, for Industry and Commerce, for Labour and for External Affairs, and in 1973 Ireland's first European Commissioner. He was President for two terms, 1976 to 1990; the article credits him with bringing stability and dignity to the office, and he won admiration when it emerged that he had resisted pressure from his own party during a political crisis in 1982.
Wikipedia ↗A senator from 1969 to 1989 and a lawyer who campaigned on the decriminalisation of homosexuality, contraception, divorce, women on juries and civil legal aid, Robinson was elected in 1990 as Ireland's first woman president — the first independent to win and the first without Fianna Fáil's support. Her approval reached 93%, the highest of any Irish president.
She left office in 1997 to become UN High Commissioner for Human Rights until 2002, and later chaired the Council of Women World Leaders and founded the Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice.
Wikipedia ↗Born in Ardoyne in north Belfast, McAleese was a professor of criminal law at Trinity College Dublin and pro-vice-chancellor of Queen's University Belfast before her election in 1997. She was the first president from Ulster and the first woman anywhere to succeed another woman as president, and was returned unopposed in 2004. She called her presidency's theme "Building Bridges", reaching out to unionists, including by marking the Twelfth of July at Áras an Uachtaráin.
Wikipedia ↗Poet, broadcaster and Labour politician, Higgins was twice Mayor of Galway and Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht from 1993 to 1997. Elected President in 2011 and re-elected in 2018 with 822,566 first-preference votes, then the largest personal mandate in the state's history, he served until November 2025, and in 2014 made the first state visit by an Irish president to the United Kingdom.
Wikipedia ↗A clinical psychologist and barrister, Connolly was Mayor of Galway in 2004–05, TD for Galway West from 2016 and the first woman Leas-Cheann Comhairle. Standing as an independent backed by Sinn Féin, Labour, the Social Democrats and others, she won the 2025 election with 914,143 first-preference votes, the largest in the state's history, and took office on 11 November 2025, the third woman to hold it. She is an Irish speaker.
Wikipedia ↗Head of government under the Constitution of 1937.
| # | Name | From | To | Party |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Éamon de Valera | 29 December 1937 | 18 February 1948 | Sinn Féin, then Fianna Fáil |
| 2 | John A. Costello | 18 February 1948 | 13 June 1951 | Fine Gael |
| 3 | Éamon de Valera | 13 June 1951 | 2 June 1954 | Sinn Féin, then Fianna Fáil |
| 4 | John A. Costello | 2 June 1954 | 20 March 1957 | Fine Gael |
| 5 | Éamon de Valera | 20 March 1957 | 23 June 1959 | Sinn Féin, then Fianna Fáil |
| 6 | Seán Lemass | 23 June 1959 | 10 November 1966 | Fianna Fáil |
| 7 | Jack Lynch | 10 November 1966 | 14 March 1973 | Fianna Fáil |
| 8 | Liam Cosgrave | 14 March 1973 | 5 July 1977 | Fine Gael |
| 9 | Jack Lynch | 5 July 1977 | 11 December 1979 | Fianna Fáil |
| 10 | Charles Haughey | 11 December 1979 | 30 June 1981 | Fianna Fáil |
| 11 | Garret FitzGerald | 30 June 1981 | 9 March 1982 | Fine Gael |
| 12 | Charles Haughey | 9 March 1982 | 14 December 1982 | Fianna Fáil |
| 13 | Garret FitzGerald | 14 December 1982 | 10 March 1987 | Fine Gael |
| 14 | Charles Haughey | 10 March 1987 | 11 February 1992 | Fianna Fáil |
| 15 | Albert Reynolds | 11 February 1992 | 15 December 1994 | Fianna Fáil |
| 16 | John Bruton | 15 December 1994 | 26 June 1997 | Fine Gael |
| 17 | Bertie Ahern | 26 June 1997 | 7 May 2008 | Fianna Fáil |
| 18 | Brian Cowen | 7 May 2008 | 9 March 2011 | Fianna Fáil |
| 19 | Enda Kenny | 9 March 2011 | 14 June 2017 | Fine Gael |
| 20 | Leo Varadkar | 14 June 2017 | 27 June 2020 | Fine Gael |
| 21 | Micheál Martin | 27 June 2020 | 17 December 2022 | Fianna Fáil |
| 22 | Leo Varadkar | 17 December 2022 | 9 April 2024 | Fine Gael |
| 23 | Simon Harris | 9 April 2024 | 23 January 2025 | Fine Gael |
| 24 | Micheál Martin | 23 January 2025 | present | Fianna Fáil |
See above for Éamon de Valera's career.
Wikipedia ↗Attorney General from 1926 to 1932, Costello was Taoiseach twice, 1948–51 and 1954–57, and Leader of the Opposition in between and after.
Wikipedia ↗A veteran of the Rising, the War of Independence and the Civil War and a founder member of Fianna Fáil, Lemass spent decades as Minister for Industry and Commerce and as Tánaiste before becoming Taoiseach in 1959. His legacy is industrial growth, foreign investment and the first links with the European Communities; free secondary education, introduced by his government, took effect just after he stepped down in 1966.
Wikipedia ↗Taoiseach from 1966 to 1973 and 1977 to 1979, Lynch was the last party leader to win an overall majority in the Dáil, in 1977; the historian T. Ryle Dwyer called him the most popular Irish politician since O'Connell. Before politics he won five All-Ireland hurling titles and one in football with Cork, and he was named on the Hurling Team of the Century.
Wikipedia ↗Son of W. T. Cosgrave, he was Minister for External Affairs when Ireland joined the United Nations, led Fine Gael from 1965 and was Taoiseach of a Fine Gael–Labour government from 1973 to 1977. He died at 97, the longest-lived Taoiseach and the last born before partition.
Wikipedia ↗Taoiseach three times between 1979 and 1992, Haughey is described in the article as the most complex and divisive figure in late 20th-century Ireland. Sacked from the government in the 1970 Arms Crisis and acquitted of criminal charges, he returned to lead Fianna Fáil in 1979, took it into its first coalition in 1989, and held secret talks with the Provisional IRA.
After his retirement, the McCracken and Moriarty tribunals found that he had received more than £9 million in payments from businessmen and misappropriated party funds.
Wikipedia ↗An economist and barrister, son of the Free State's first foreign minister, FitzGerald was Minister for Foreign Affairs from 1973 to 1977 and Taoiseach twice, 1981–82 and 1982–87, leading Fine Gael for a decade. His government signed the Anglo-Irish Agreement in 1985.
Wikipedia ↗Minister for Finance from 1988 to 1991, Reynolds was Taoiseach from 1992 to 1994, leading coalitions first with the Progressive Democrats and then with Labour.
Wikipedia ↗TD for Meath from 1969 and twice Minister for Finance, Bruton was Taoiseach from 1994 to 1997 at the head of the Fine Gael–Labour–Democratic Left "Rainbow Coalition", and later EU Ambassador to the United States.
Wikipedia ↗Lord Mayor of Dublin and Minister for Finance before leading Fianna Fáil, Ahern was Taoiseach from 1997 to 2008, the second-longest serving after de Valera, at the head of three coalition governments. He resigned in May 2008 following revelations at the Mahon Tribunal about payments from developers.
Wikipedia ↗Minister for Finance from 2004, Cowen succeeded Ahern in 2008 and within weeks faced the financial and banking crises, which ended in the request for aid from the EU and IMF. He resigned as party leader in January 2011 and left politics at that year's election, the only Fianna Fáil leader not to take the party into an election.
Wikipedia ↗A TD for Mayo from 1975, Kenny led Fine Gael to its best result in 2011, when it became the largest party for the first time, and was Taoiseach until 2017 — the first Fine Gael Taoiseach re-elected for a second consecutive term, and the longest-serving from his party.
Wikipedia ↗A doctor and GP before politics, Varadkar became Taoiseach in 2017 at 38, then the youngest in the state's history, the first from an ethnic minority and Ireland's first openly gay head of government. He served 2017–20 and, after rotating with Micheál Martin, 2022–24, and backed the referendums on same-sex marriage and abortion.
Wikipedia ↗A former teacher and Lord Mayor of Cork, Martin introduced the workplace smoking ban as Minister for Health in 2004, the first in the world. Leader of Fianna Fáil since 2011, he was Taoiseach from 2020 to 2022 in the first government of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael together, and again from January 2025.
Wikipedia ↗Elected to the Dáil at 24, Harris was Minister for Health and for Further and Higher Education before becoming Taoiseach on 9 April 2024 at 37, the youngest in the state's history. He has been Tánaiste and Minister for Finance since 2025.
Wikipedia ↗The President of Dáil Éireann led the revolutionary Dáil government; the Chairman of the Provisional Government ran the transition in 1922; the President of the Executive Council led the Irish Free State until the Constitution of 1937.
| # | Name | From | To | Office | Party |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cathal Brugha | 22 January 1919 | 1 April 1919 | President of Dáil Éireann | Sinn Féin |
| 2 | Éamon de Valera | 1 April 1919 | 9 January 1922 | President of Dáil Éireann | Sinn Féin, then Fianna Fáil |
| 3 | Arthur Griffith | 10 January 1922 | 12 August 1922 | President of Dáil Éireann | Sinn Féin |
| 4 | Michael Collins | January 1922 | 22 August 1922 | Chairman of the Provisional Government | Sinn Féin |
| 5 | W. T. Cosgrave | August 1922 | 6 December 1922 | Chairman of the Provisional Government, and from 9 September President of Dáil Éireann | Cumann na nGaedheal, then Fine Gael |
| 6 | W. T. Cosgrave | 6 December 1922 | 9 March 1932 | President of the Executive Council | Cumann na nGaedheal, then Fine Gael |
| 7 | Éamon de Valera | 9 March 1932 | 29 December 1937 | President of the Executive Council | Sinn Féin, then Fianna Fáil |
Born Charles William St John Burgess, Brugha fought in the Easter Rising, was Chief of Staff of the IRA in 1917–18, and in January 1919 was the first Ceann Comhairle and the first President of Dáil Éireann, until de Valera took over in April. He was Minister for Defence until 1922 and died in the Civil War.
Wikipedia ↗See above for Éamon de Valera's career.
Wikipedia ↗Writer and newspaper editor, Griffith founded Sinn Féin, setting out the policy in The Resurrection of Hungary (1904) and presenting it in November 1905. He chaired the Irish delegation that signed the Anglo-Irish Treaty in December 1921, and when de Valera resigned over it he was elected President of Dáil Éireann in January 1922. He died suddenly in August 1922, two months into the Civil War.
Wikipedia ↗Born at Woodfield in County Cork, Collins fought in the Easter Rising, was Minister for Finance in the Dáil government and, as the IRA's Director of Intelligence, organised the killing of British intelligence agents on Bloody Sunday, 1920. One of the Treaty's signatories, he called it "the freedom to achieve freedom". He was Chairman of the Provisional Government from January 1922 and commander-in-chief of the National Army, and was killed in an ambush at Béal na Bláth in August 1922.
Wikipedia ↗Minister for Local Government in the Dáil from 1919, Cosgrave took over after the deaths of Griffith and Collins in 1922, as Chairman of the Provisional Government and President of Dáil Éireann, and then from December 1922 to 1932 as the first President of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State. He founded and led Cumann na nGaedheal and later led Fine Gael from 1934 to 1944. His son Liam was Taoiseach from 1973 to 1977.
Wikipedia ↗Head of the government at Stormont from 1921 until the parliament was suspended in 1972 and direct rule began.
| # | Name | From | To | Party |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | James Craig, Viscount Craigavon | 7 June 1921 | 24 November 1940 | Ulster Unionist |
| 2 | J. M. Andrews | 27 November 1940 | 1 May 1943 | Ulster Unionist |
| 3 | Basil Brooke, Viscount Brookeborough | 1 May 1943 | 26 March 1963 | Ulster Unionist |
| 4 | Terence O'Neill | 25 March 1963 | 1 May 1969 | Ulster Unionist |
| 5 | James Chichester-Clark | 1 May 1969 | 23 March 1971 | Ulster Unionist |
| 6 | Brian Faulkner | 23 March 1971 | 30 March 1972 | Ulster Unionist |
A key architect of Northern Ireland, Craig prepared armed resistance to Home Rule in 1912–14 and secured the opt-out of six counties under the 1921 Treaty. He was Northern Ireland's first Prime Minister from 1921 until his death in 1940, and described his administration as a "Protestant" counterpart to the "Catholic state" in the south.
Wikipedia ↗John Miller Andrews was the second Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, from 1940 to 1943.
Wikipedia ↗Prime Minister of Northern Ireland for twenty years, 1943 to 1963. He has been described both as perhaps the last unionist leader to command respect across the spectrum and as one of the most hard-line anti-Catholic leaders of his party, whose 1933 calls for exclusively Protestant employment deepened sectarian tension.
Wikipedia ↗Prime Minister from 1963 to 1969, O'Neill was a moderate unionist who tried to reconcile Northern Ireland's divisions and met his counterpart in the Republic.
Wikipedia ↗Prime Minister from 1969 to 1971, amid growing political strife within unionism and a nationalist resurgence; he resigned in March 1971, his health suffering, after failing to secure more military resources from the British government.
Wikipedia ↗The sixth and last Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, from March 1971 until the parliament at Stormont was suspended in March 1972; in 1974 he was chief executive of the short-lived power-sharing Executive.
Wikipedia ↗Joint head, with the deputy First Minister, of the power-sharing Executive set up under the Good Friday Agreement. Gaps in the list are the periods when the Executive was suspended or not formed.
| # | Name | From | To | Office | Party |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | David Trimble | 1 July 1998 | 1 July 2001 | Ulster Unionist | |
| 2 | Reg Empey | 1 July 2001 | 6 November 2001 | Acting | Ulster Unionist |
| 3 | David Trimble | 6 November 2001 | 14 October 2002 | Ulster Unionist | |
| 4 | Ian Paisley | 8 May 2007 | 5 June 2008 | Democratic Unionist | |
| 5 | Peter Robinson | 5 June 2008 | 11 January 2016 | Democratic Unionist | |
| 6 | Arlene Foster | 11 January 2016 | 9 January 2017 | Democratic Unionist | |
| 7 | Arlene Foster | 11 January 2020 | 14 June 2021 | Democratic Unionist | |
| 8 | Paul Givan | 17 June 2021 | 4 February 2022 | Democratic Unionist | |
| 9 | Michelle O'Neill | 3 February 2024 | present | Sinn Féin |
A law lecturer at Queen's who led the UUP from 1995, Trimble was instrumental in the Good Friday Agreement and shared the 1998 Nobel Peace Prize with John Hume. He was the first First Minister, 1998–2002, in a tenure repeatedly interrupted by disputes over IRA decommissioning.
Wikipedia ↗Acting First Minister in 2001, later leader of the UUP from 2005 to 2010.
Wikipedia ↗Founder of the Free Presbyterian Church and of the DUP, which he led for almost forty years, Paisley opposed power-sharing, Sunningdale, the Anglo-Irish Agreement and the Good Friday Agreement — until the St Andrews Agreement, after which he became First Minister in 2007 alongside Martin McGuinness of Sinn Féin.
Wikipedia ↗A founder member of the DUP and MP for Belfast East for 31 years, Robinson was First Minister from 2008 to 2016, the longest-serving since the Good Friday Agreement.
Wikipedia ↗The first woman to lead the DUP and to be First Minister, Foster served 2016–17, when the Renewable Heat Incentive scandal brought down the Executive, and again 2020–21.
Wikipedia ↗The youngest First Minister, from June 2021; he resigned in February 2022 in the DUP's protest against the Northern Ireland Protocol.
Wikipedia ↗Vice President of Sinn Féin and MLA for Mid Ulster, O'Neill became First Minister on 3 February 2024, the first Irish nationalist to hold the office.
Wikipedia ↗First-preference votes and turnout. Where only one candidate was nominated, no vote was held.
From each election's Wikipedia article; the 1945 and 1990 figures are from the results tables in those articles.
Catherine Connolly, since 11 November 2025. She is the 10th person to hold the office and the third woman.
Micheál Martin, since 23 January 2025, his second time in the office after 2020–2022.
Douglas Hyde, the scholar of Irish and founding president of the Gaelic League, from 25 June 1938 to 24 June 1945.
Éamon de Valera, with 21 years in all as President of the Executive Council and Taoiseach; Bertie Ahern is second.
Mary Robinson, elected in 1990. Mary McAleese succeeded her in 1997, the first time anywhere a woman succeeded another woman as president.
Simon Harris, appointed on 9 April 2024 at 37. Leo Varadkar, at 38 in 2017, had been the youngest before him.
Who held each office, and the dates of every term, are from Wikidata's records of positions held. Each person's dates, birthplace, party and career are from the introduction to their Wikipedia article, linked beside them, rewritten here and adding nothing; where the two disagree on a date, the article's is used. Judgements are given only where the article gives them, and are attributed to whoever made them.
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