It was on this day, November 7th, in 1990 that Mary Robinson was elected the first female President of Ireland.

On December 3rd, 1990, Mrs Robinson was inaugurated as the seventh President of Ireland.

Her resignation was handed in on September 12th, 1997,  in order to take up appointment as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Mary Robinson was also the first President of Ireland to visit Northern Ireland regulary in an attempt to improve cross-border relations and the first to do so also where the UK was concerned.

In May 1993 she became the first Irish Head of State to make a trip to the UK where she met with Queen Elizabeth II.

It was in 1996 when the first public handshake between the Head of State for Ireland and the President of Sinn Féin, Gerry Adams, took place.

During her presidential career Mrs Robinson signed two very significant Bills that she had fought for throughout her political career.

One of which was to fully liberalise the law on the availability of contraceptives in Ireland.

The second, a Bill fully decriminalising homosexuality, and which unlike legislation in much of the world at the time, provided for a fully equal age of consent, treating heterosexuals and LGBT people alike.