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.