Editing Seán T. O'Kelly (section)

==President of Ireland==

{{More citations needed section|date=January 2022}}
[[File:Seán T. O'Kelly being escorted to his inauguration as President of Ireland in 1945.jpg|thumb|The inauguration of Seán T. O'Kelly as President of Ireland in 1945.<br />The 2nd Cavalry Squadron of the [[Blue Hussars]] escort the President, who travelled in the late [[Alexandra of Denmark|Queen Alexandra]]'s [[landau]]. The Landau and the Hussars were later scrapped]]

[[File:Tostal1954.jpg|thumb|President Seán T. O'Kelly, [[An Tóstal]], 1954.<br />Outside the [[General Post Office (Dublin)|GPO]], President O'Kelly receives the salute from the new [[Garda Síochána|Garda]] recruits during the Tostal celebrations of 1954]]

O'Kelly was the Fianna Fáil candidate for [[President of Ireland]] in [[1945 Irish presidential election|1945]]. He defeated two other candidates.<ref name="Townshend, p.463"/> However, he came up just short of a majority on the first count.

O'Kelly's most famous faux pas occurred during a state visit to the [[Vatican City]], when in a breach with the standard [[protocol (diplomacy)|protocol]], he told the media of [[Pope Pius XII]]'s personal opinions on communism. The resulting row strained the relationships between Pope Pius XII and [[Joseph Stalin]].

During his term, he signed the [[Republic of Ireland Act 1948]], which established the [[Republic of Ireland]] on 18 April 1949 as an independent republic outside the [[British Commonwealth]]. As a result, O'Kelly became the first President of Ireland to be internationally recognised as a full head of state. Prior to 18 April 1949, King [[George VI]] was Ireland's head of state as the last [[King of Ireland]].

O'Kelly was reelected on 25 June 1952,{{citation needed|date=January 2022}} this time unopposed. During his second term, he visited many nations in [[Europe]] and addressed the [[United States Congress]] in 1959.<ref name="address">The six Irish leaders who have addressed [[List of joint sessions of the United States Congress|joint sessions of the U.S. Congress]] are Seán T. O'Kelly (18 March 1959), Éamon de Valera (28 May 1964), [[Liam Cosgrave]] (17 March 1976), [[Garret FitzGerald]] (15 March 1984), [[John Bruton]] (11 September 1996), and [[Bertie Ahern]] (30 April 2008).</ref> He retired at the end of his second term in 1959, to be replaced by his old mentor and former [[Taoiseach]], Éamon de Valera.

O'Kelly did not refer any Bills to the [[Supreme Court of Ireland|Supreme Court]], under Article 26 of the [[Constitution of Ireland]] while he was in office. He convened a meeting of the [[Council of State (Ireland)|Council of State]] in 1947, to consider whether Part III of the Health Bill, 1947 – which provided the basis for the [[Mother and Child Scheme]] – should be referred, but he decided against doing so.<ref>Kelly, Hogan and Whyte ''The Irish Constitution'' (4th ed., LexisNexis Butterworth, 2003) par 4.5.110. Health Act, 1947 Part III {{cite web |url=http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/ZZA28Y1947.html |title=Health Act, 1947 |accessdate=2006-05-17 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20060503044418/http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/ZZA28Y1947.html |archivedate=3 May 2006 }}.</ref>

He dissolved the Dáil on four occasions (in 1948, 1951, 1954 and 1957). On each occasion, the Taoiseach who advised him to do so (de Valera in the first and third cases, and [[John A. Costello]] in the other two) had not been formally defeated in a Dáil vote in a manner showing a loss of support by a majority of TDs. Therefore, under Article 13.2.3° of the Constitution, O'Kelly had no discretion to refuse to act on their advice to dissolve. A more complex case occurred however in 1949, when the First Inter-Party Government was defeated in a snap Dáil vote on a financial measure due to the absence of a number of Government TDs. O'Kelly was advised by the [[Secretary-General to the President (Ireland)|Secretary to the President]], [[Michael McDunphy]], that had Costello requested a dissolution, he could have refused it–thus forcing Costello to resign. However, Costello considered that the vote failed by accident (due to a mistake by the party whips), and opted to reintroduce the measure the following morning, rather than seek a dissolution. With all TDs present this time, the vote carried. McDunphy later changed his mind and in the files on the event concluded that O'Kelly could not have refused a dissolution because the loss had merely been a technical loss, not an actual decision by the Dáil to vote against the government.{{citation needed|date=October 2007}}

===Visit to the United States===

O'Kelly was the first President of Ireland to visit the United States of America, when from 16 to 31 March 1959, he was the guest of [[US President|President]] [[Dwight Eisenhower]]. He was invited to address both houses of [[Congress of the United States|Congress]].<ref name="address" /> This was important to Ireland as it showed that the republic and its head of state were recognised by the United States. Historian [[J. J. Lee (historian)|J. J. Lee]] has stated that the visit signified an end to a period of distrust between Ireland and the United States, following [[World War II]].<ref>J.J.Lee, "Ireland 1912–1985: Politics and Society (Cambridge 1989),</ref> Both Ireland and America had been neutral countries when the war began, but the US joined the conflict in 1941. But Ireland continued to remain neutral, which annoyed American politicians during the war, and afterwards. The invitation to President O'Kelly to address Congress meant that Ireland had been forgiven by the larger power.<ref>{{YouTube|id=af9v_CBATCw#t=51m00s|title=''Uachtaráin – Séan T. Ó Ceallaigh'' (51m 00s)}} Television documentary by [[TG4]], 2007.</ref>