How Is the Ireland Leader chosen?

Ireland's head of state is a president. An Irish president's term is 7 years, and they can do a maximum of 2 terms. The president can be elected by the people, or returned automatically if there are no other candidates. This happened in 2004 with the current president Mary McAleese, who was return unopposed for her second term.

The Irish head of government is called a Taoiseach. After a general election a government is formed. The head of the party that has the majority of seats or in the case of a coalition government, the party with most seats will be elected Taoiseach by the parliament, known as the Dáil. A general election must be held at least once every 5 years.