In January 1990, leaks to the media suggested that Lenihan was considering seeking the Fianna Fáil nomination in the
1990 presidential election, which was due in November 1990. Speculation abounded that this was part of a plan to discourage other parties from running candidates in the belief that Lenihan would prove unbeatable and so get the office unopposed. Labour Party leader
Dick Spring indicated that Labour would run a candidate for the presidency, even if he had to stand himself. Ultimately, Labour chose former Senator
Mary Robinson as its candidate. Lenihan was generally perceived as an unbeatable candidate, though he did receive a late challenge for the nomination from cabinet colleague
John Wilson. However, in September 1990, Lenihan was formally nominated as his party's candidate. The main opposition party, Fine Gael chose
Austin Currie, a TD and former Northern Ireland cabinet minister, to be its candidate.
The Lenihan tape The issue of Lenihan's trustworthiness became the central issue of the second half of the presidential campaign. In January 1982, Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald had asked President Patrick Hillery, a former government colleague of Lenihan's, to dissolve the Dáil, a request which Hillery granted. If President Hillery had refused a dissolution, Charles Haughey as Leader of the Opposition, could have formed an alternative government and strengthened his own embattled position as leader of
Fianna Fáil. Subsequently, it was reported in books by authors Stephen O'Byrnes and Raymond Smith, and by many political journalists in newspaper articles (some of whom had Lenihan as their source) that Lenihan had been one of the people who had made phone calls to
Áras an Uachtaráin, the President's official residence, on the night in question, in order to persuade or pressure Hillery to refuse a dissolution. Lenihan himself never denied his involvement in the incident. Indeed, in May 1990, he confirmed his participation in an
on-the-record interview with a postgraduate student and journalist,
Jim Duffy. In September 1990,
The Irish Times carried a series of articles on the presidency, one of which mentioned in passing the role of Lenihan,
Sylvester Barrett, and Charles Haughey in making the calls. The article in question was sourced from Duffy's interview. In October 1990, in the midst of the presidential election, Lenihan suddenly changed his account. In an interview in the
Irish Press and on
RTÉ's
Questions and Answers programme, he insisted that he had had "no hand, act or part" in efforts to pressure President Hillery. The
Irish Times, which was aware that Lenihan himself was Duffy's source for the original article claim, published, with Duffy's agreement, a newspaper story confirming that Lenihan had indeed made the controversial phone calls to Áras an Uachtaráin. When Lenihan's campaign manager,
Bertie Ahern, named Duffy on radio as someone who had interviewed Lenihan back in May, a political storm erupted in which the journalist was put under siege by the media and Fianna Fáil, leading to his reluctant decision, after consulting with lawyers, to release the portion of the tape in which Lenihan talked about the events of January 1982.
"On mature recollection" Lenihan's reaction severely damaged his credibility. He appeared on a live TV news bulletin, and, looking into the camera, pleaded with the Irish people to believe him, stating that "on mature recollection" he had not phoned President Hillery and his account to Duffy had been wrong. He then requested an
audience with President Hillery to seek his confirmation that he made no phone calls. No audience was granted, and his campaign manager Bertie Ahern withdrew the request – though, in a sign of the chaos enveloping the campaign, Lenihan told journalist Charlie Bird that the request was still there until the journalist played back his interview with Ahern, after which Lenihan recorded a new soundbite explaining why the request had been withdrawn. At this point, the opposition put down a
motion of no confidence in the government. The
Progressive Democrats, Fianna Fáil's coalition partner, told Taoiseach Charles Haughey that unless Lenihan was either dismissed or an inquiry set up into the events of January 1982, it would pull out of government, support the opposition motion and force a general election. Though insisting that he would put no pressure on Lenihan, "my friend of thirty years", Haughey drew up a letter of resignation for Lenihan's signature. Lenihan refused to sign, and Haughey formally advised President Hillery to dismiss Lenihan from the government – which Hillery, as was required constitutionally, duly did, despite grave personal concerns. Many in Fianna Fáil were disgusted with what they saw as Haughey's betrayal of his old friend, and argued that the Progressive Democrats' threat to bring down the government was a mere bluff. This would be the first in a series of events generating discontent in Fianna Fáil with Haughey's leadership, culminating in his downfall in early 1992.
Pádraig Flynn's attack on Mary Robinson Lenihan's dismissal led to an immediate collapse in his popularity (from mid 40% to 31% almost overnight), though his standing in the polls subsequently improved. A personal attack by former cabinet colleague
Pádraig Flynn on Mary Robinson, in which he accused her of showing a "new-found interest" in her family, backfired and destroyed Lenihan's campaign. Women voters rallied to Robinson and abandoned the Lenihan campaign in droves.
The result In spite of his troubled campaign, Lenihan won the largest number of first-preference votes. However, most of the votes that initially went to Austin Currie, the third-placed candidate, transferred to Mary Robinson on the second count, in what was widely seen as a pact between Fine Gael and the Labour Party. As a result, Lenihan became the first Fianna Fáil candidate to lose an Irish presidential election. ==Out of government==