On this day: Roscommon man becomes Ireland’s first President

Ireland’s first President Dr. Douglas Hyde was inaugurated as the first President of Ireland on this day, June 25th in 1938.

The inauguration, in an Irish-language ceremony, lasted only 10 minutes. "We greet you as the successor of our rightful princes, and in your accession to office we hail the closing of the breach which existed since the undoing of our nation at Kinsale," the Cork Examiner reported then taoiseach Éamon de Valera as saying during the ceremony.

Hyde, whose nom de plume was “An Craoibhin Aoibhinn” was the first President of Ireland from June 25th, 1938 to June 24th, 1945.

He was born on January 17th, 1860, in Castlerea and grew up in Frenchpark. He was co-founder and First President (1893-1915) of the Gaelic League, the national movement for the revival of the Irish language. He died on July 12th, 1949 and was buried at Portahard, Frenchpark.