Dr. Douglas Hyde Inaugurated as First President of Ireland
June 25, 1938
Dr. Douglas Hyde is inaugurated as the first President of Ireland on June 25, 1938, at St. Patrick’s Hall in Dublin Castle. A respected scholar, Irish language revivalist, and founder of the Gaelic League (Conradh na Gaeilge), Hyde’s selection marked a unifying and non-partisan start to the presidency of the newly established Irish Constitution (Bunreacht na hÉireann).
Interestingly, three later Presidents—Seán T. Ó Ceallaigh (1945), Éamon de Valera (1959), and Erskine Childers (1973)—were also inaugurated on June 25, making it a historically significant date in Ireland’s presidential tradition.