Irish heads of government since 1919

Ireland

The head of government, or prime minister, of Ireland is known as the Taoiseach and heads a cabinet called the Government. However, since 1919, heads of government in the Irish state have borne a number of titles. Under the short-lived Irish Republic of 1919–22 the head of government was known first as the President of Dáil Éireann and later as the President of the Republic. Under the Irish Free State of 1922–37 the head of government was the President of the Executive Council. There also briefly existed, immediately before the creation of the Irish Free State, an interim office of Chairman of the Provisional Government. For a brief period in 1921 the offices of President of the Republic and Chairman of the Provisional Government existed simultaneously.

Offices

Head	Deputy	Cabinet	State	Constitution	Date
President of Dáil Éireann/ President of the Irish Republic[1]	N/A	Ministry	Irish Republic	Dáil Constitution	21 January 1919 – 6 December 1922 26 August 1921 – 6 December 1922
Chairman of the Provisional Government	N/A	Provisional Government	Southern Ireland	Irish Free State (Agreement) Act 1922	3 May 1921 – 6 December 1922
President of the Executive Council	Vice-President	Executive Council	Irish Free State	Constitution of the Irish Free State	6 December 1922 – 29 December 1937
Taoiseach	Tánaiste	Government	Ireland	Constitution of Ireland	29 December 1937 – present

List of office-holders

No.		Name (Birth–Death)	Portrait	Term of office		Party	Constituency	Government
	1.	Cathal Brugha (1874–1922)		21 January 1919	1 April 1919	Sinn Féin	Waterford County	1st Ministry
	2.	Éamon de Valera (1882–1975)		1 April 1919	9 January 1922	Sinn Féin	Clare East and Mayo East (1919–1921) Clare (1921–1922)	2nd Ministry (1919–1921) 3rd Ministry (1921–1922)
	3.	Arthur Griffith (1872–1922)[2]		10 January 1922	12 August 1922	Sinn Féin (Pro-Treaty faction)	Cavan	4th Ministry
	4.	Michael Collins (1890–1922)[2]		16 January 1922	22 August 1922	Sinn Féin (Pro-Treaty faction)	Cork Mid, North, South, South East and West	1st Provisional Government
	5.	W. T. Cosgrave (1880–1965)		22 August 1922	9 March 1932	Cumann na nGaedheal[3]	Carlow–Kilkenny (1922–1927) Cork Borough (1927–1932)	1st Provisional Government (1922) 2nd Provisional Government (1922) 1st Executive Council (1922–1923) 2nd Executive Council (1923–1927) 3rd Executive Council (1927) 4th Executive Council (1927–1930) 5th Executive Council (1930–1932)
	(2)	Éamon de Valera (1882–1975)		9 March 1932	18 February 1948	Fianna Fáil[4]	Clare	6th Executive Council (1932–1933) 7th Executive Council (1933–1937) 8th Executive Council (1937) 1st Government (1937–1938) 2nd Government (1938–1943) 3rd Government (1943–1944) 4th Government (1944–1948)
	6.	John A. Costello (1891–1976)		18 February 1948	13 June 1951	Fine Gael[5]	Dublin South-East	5th Government
	(2)	Éamon de Valera (1882–1975)		13 June 1951	2 June 1954	Fianna Fáil	Clare	6th Government
	(6)	John A. Costello (1891–1976)		2 June 1954	20 March 1957	Fine Gael	Dublin South-East	7th Government
	(2)	Éamon de Valera (1882–1975)		20 March 1957	23 June 1959	Fianna Fáil	Clare	8th Government
	7.	Seán Lemass (1899–1971)		23 June 1959	10 November 1966	Fianna Fáil	Dublin South-Central	9th Government (1959–1961) 10th Government (1961–1965) 11th Government (1965–1966)
	8.	Jack Lynch (1917–1999)		10 November 1966	14 March 1973	Fianna Fáil	Cork Borough (1966–1969) Cork City North-West (1969–1973)	12th Government (1966–1969) 13th Government (1969–1973)
	9.	Liam Cosgrave (1920–2017)		14 March 1973	5 July 1977	Fine Gael	Dún Laoghaire and Rathdown	14th Government
	(8)	Jack Lynch (1917–1999)		5 July 1977	11 December 1979	Fianna Fáil	Cork City	15th Government
	10.	Charles Haughey (1925–2006)		11 December 1979	30 June 1981	Fianna Fáil	Dublin Artane	16th Government
	11.	Garret FitzGerald (1926–2011)		30 June 1981	9 March 1982	Fine Gael	Dublin South-East	17th Government
	(10)	Charles Haughey (1925–2006)		9 March 1982	14 December 1982	Fianna Fáil	Dublin North-Central	18th Government
	(11)	Garret FitzGerald (1926–2011)		14 December 1982	10 March 1987	Fine Gael	Dublin South-East	19th Government
	(10)	Charles Haughey (1925–2006)		10 March 1987	11 February 1992	Fianna Fáil	Dublin North-Central	20th Government (1987–1989) 21st Government (1989–1992)
	12.	Albert Reynolds (1932–2014)		11 February 1992	15 December 1994	Fianna Fáil	Longford–Roscommon	22nd Government (1992–1993) 23rd Government (1993–1994)
	13.	John Bruton (born 1947)		15 December 1994	26 June 1997	Fine Gael	Meath	24th Government (1994–1997)
	14.	Bertie Ahern (born 1951)		26 June 1997	7 May 2008	Fianna Fáil	Dublin Central	25th Government (1997–2002) 26th Government (2002–2007) 27th Government (2007–2008)
	15.	Brian Cowen (born 1960)		7 May 2008	9 March 2011	Fianna Fáil	Laois–Offaly	28th Government
	16.	Enda Kenny (born 1951)		9 March 2011	14 June 2017	Fine Gael	Mayo	29th Government (2011–2016) 30th Government (2016–2017)
	17.	Leo Varadkar (born 1979)		14 June 2017	27 June 2020	Fine Gael	Dublin West	31st Government
	18.	Micheál Martin (born 1960)		27 June 2020	Incumbent	Fianna Fáil	Cork South-Central	32nd Government

Northern Ireland

The most recent devolved cabinet in Northern Ireland is the Northern Ireland Executive, established under the Good Friday Agreement. The Executive has been in operation, intermittently, since 1999; but had existed continuously since 2007, but after elections following a government collapsed on 16 January 2017, no Executive has been formed. Since 1921, there have been three different prime ministerial offices in Northern Ireland. The most recent structure, the Office of the First Minister and deputy First Minister, represents a diarchy. As such, there is no longer a singular executive office, but rather a dual office.

Offices

Head	Cabinet	Date
Prime Minister	Government	7 June 1921 – 30 March 1972
Chief Executive	Executive (Sunningdale)	1 January 1974 – 28 May 1974
First Minister and deputy First Minister	Executive	1 July 1998 – present

List of office-holders

No.		Name (Birth–Death)	Portrait	Term of office		Party	Constituency	Government
	1.	Sir James Craig (1871–1940)[6]		7 June 1921	24 November 1940	Ulster Unionist Party	Down (1921–1929) North Down (1929–1940)	Craigavon ministry
	2.	John Miller Andrews (1871–1956)		25 November 1940	1 May 1943	Ulster Unionist Party	Mid Down	Andrews ministry
	3.	Sir Basil Brooke (1888–1973)[7]		1 May 1943	25 March 1963	Ulster Unionist Party	Lisnaskea	Brookeborough ministry
	4.	Terence O'Neill (1914–1990)		25 March 1963	1 May 1969	Ulster Unionist Party	Bannside	O'Neill ministry
	5.	James Chichester-Clark (1923–2002)		1 May 1969	23 March 1971	Ulster Unionist Party	South Londonderry	Chichester-Clark ministry
	6.	Brian Faulkner (1921–1977)		23 March 1971	30 March 1972	Ulster Unionist Party	East Down	Faulkner ministry
	(6)			1 January 1974	28 May 1974		South Down	1974 Executive
First Ministers
	1.	David Trimble (born 1944)		1 July 1998	14 October 2002	Ulster Unionist Party	Upper Bann	First Executive
	2.	Ian Paisley (1926–2014)		8 May 2007	5 June 2008	Democratic Unionist Party	North Antrim	Second Executive
	3.	Peter Robinson (born 1944)		5 June 2008	11 January 2016	Democratic Unionist Party	Belfast East	Second Executive (2008–2011) Third Executive (2011–2016)
	4.	Arlene Foster (born 1970)		11 January 2016	9 January 2017	Democratic Unionist Party	Fermanagh and South Tyrone	Fourth Executive
	(4)			11 January 2020	Incumbent			Fifth Executive
deputy First Ministers
	1.	Seamus Mallon (born 1936)		1 July 1998	6 November 2001	Social Democratic and Labour Party	Newry and Armagh	First Executive
	2.	Mark Durkan (born 1960)		6 November 2001	14 October 2002	Social Democratic and Labour Party	Foyle	First Executive
	3.	Martin McGuinness (1950–2017)		8 May 2007	9 January 2017	Sinn Féin	Mid Ulster (2007–2016) Foyle (2016–2017)	Second Executive (2007–2011) Third Executive (2011–2016) Fourth Executive (2016–2017)
	4.	Michelle O'Neill (born 1977)		11 January 2020	Incumbent	Sinn Féin	Mid Ulster	Fifth Executive

See also

• Head of state of Ireland (1936 to 1949)
• President of Ireland
• Irish cabinets since 1919
• History of the Republic of Ireland
• History of Northern Ireland
• Politics of the Republic of Ireland
• Politics of Northern Ireland
• Records of Irish heads of government since 1922

Footnotes

1. The President of Dáil Éireann, also known as the Príomh Aire, was upgraded to a head of state-level President of the Irish Republic in August 1921.
2. From January to August 1922 there were two administrations operating in parallel, the Ministry of the self-declared independent Irish Republic and the Provisional Government accepted by the United Kingdom, and each cabinet had an overlapping membership. De Valera had filled both posts, but after his resignation there were two heads of government, Arthur Griffith, as President of the Republic, and Michael Collins as Chairman of the Provisional Government of Southern Ireland. This anomalous situation came about because the British Government would only recognise the parliament that it had established through the Government of Ireland Act, so Sinn Féin participated in the charade to move matters along. To add to the confusion, Collins was Griffith's Minister of Finance, while Griffith was Collins's Minister for Foreign Affairs. The dual leadership came to an end when W. T. Cosgrave assumed both offices on the deaths of Griffith, on 12 August 1922, and Collins, on 22 August, and merged the two parallel administrations.
3. When W. T. Cosgrave first became head of government he was still technically a member of Sinn Féin. However the pro-Treaty faction of Sinn Féin reformed itself as Cumann na nGaedheal shortly afterwards.
4. Successor of the Sinn Féin Anti-Treaty faction
5. Successor of Cumann na nGaedheal and two more parties.
6. After 1927, the Viscount Craigavon
7. After 1952, the Viscount Brookeborough