Her victory was decisive: On the evening of Saturday, October 25, left-wing candidate Catherine Connolly was named the 10^th president of the Republic of Ireland (and the third woman to hold the office). She garnered 63.4% of the vote, far ahead of Heather Humphreys from Fine Gael, the centrist party in power, who received only 29.4%.

At 68, Connolly, originally from Galway in the west of the country, will officially take office on November 11 for a seven-year term. She is succeeding Michael D. Higgins, who was ineligible to run again after completing his second and final term.

In Ireland, the president, though elected by direct universal suffrage, holds a largely symbolic role. The president is head of state, guardian of the Constitution and commander-in-chief of the Irish Defence Forces, which are quite modest, as Ireland fiercely guards its status as a neutral nation. In the 1990s, however, Mary Robinson, the first woman to reside at Áras an Uachtaráin – the official presidential residence in western Dublin – gave the position a more active dimension, frequently taking part in public debates. Robinson championed the legalization of contraception and same-sex marriage. Her bold stances in a still deeply conservative Catholic country paved the way for Ireland’s dramatic secularization and liberalization.

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