Mary Patricia McAleese (;
née Leneghan; ; born 27 June 1951) served as the
eighth President of Ireland from 1997 to 2011. She was the second
female president and was first elected in 1997 succeeding
Mary Robinson, making McAleese the world's first woman to succeed another as president. She was re-elected unopposed for a second term in office in 2004. McAleese is the first President of Ireland to have come from either
Northern Ireland or
Ulster.