Ireland Elects Its 1st Woman President

Left-wing lawyer Mary Robinson, creating the biggest upset in the history of Irish politics, became Ireland’s first woman head of state today after trouncing her male opponents in a presidential election she won against all odds.

Final official results from a second count showed Robinson winning by 86,000 votes over sacked Cabinet Minister Brian Lenihan, whose defeat could threaten the future of his closest confidant, Prime Minister Charles Haughey.

For the woman who started the campaign as a 1,000-to-1 outsider, it was a stunning victory against the well-oiled election machine of the ruling Fianna Fail Party that has dominated Irish politics for 60 years.

Heralding a major change in conservative and Roman Catholic Ireland, she campaigned for the equality of women, a greater voice for the dispossessed and liberalization of the country’s draconian laws on divorce, homosexuality and contraception.

Letting slip her unruffled composure to reveal in an emotional voice what it meant to her, the 46-year-old mother of three said, “It was people power and above all woman power. I want to go out and dance in the streets with joy.

“My election was on the exact first anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Something has crumbled away in Ireland, too.”

She promised to offer a hand of friendship to the people in British-ruled Northern Ireland where Irish Republican Army guerrillas are fighting to oust Britain.

“I would dearly love to visit Northern Ireland and have as many people come to visit me. I extend the hand of friendship and love to the two communities in the north.”

Robinson, a forceful libertarian lawyer who must now uphold the constitution and be above party politics, will take up residence for the next seven years in Aras An Uachtarain, the former British vice-regal mansion in Dublin’s Phoenix Park.