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List of Irish Foreign Ministers

The following people have served as the Irish Minister for External Affairs (renamed in 1972 Minister for Foreign Affairs) from 1933.

Note: In a multi-party coalition, the party to which he minister belonged is bold italicised.

Footnotes

1 Eamon de Valera, who was head of government (President of the Executive Council until 1937, renamed Taoiseach in 1937) served as his own foreign minister.

2 When Garret FitzGerald formed a government in mid 1981 he announced that he would be appointing James Dooge to be a senator and once in office would make him minister. However as the appointment could not be made until Seanad Éireann's general election had taken place (which would be a few weeks), in the interim the Minister for Trade, Commerce and Tourism, John M. Kelly, would act as minister.

3 When Labour withdrew from cabinet in early 1987, a new interim cabinet, made up simply of the outgoing Fine Gael ministers, was formed. Peter Barry continued on as Foreign Minister in that shortlived Fine Gael cabinet.