Éamon de Valera among the electorate, 75-year-old de Valera had begun to be seen by the electorate as too old and out of touch to remain as head of government. At the urging of party officials, de Valera decided to retire from government and the Dáil and instead seek the presidency of Ireland. He won the 1959 presidential election on 17 June 1959 and resigned as Taoiseach, Leader of Fianna Fáil and a TD for Clare, six days later, handing over power to Seán Lemass. De Valera was inaugurated President of Ireland on 25 June 1959. He was re-elected President in 1966, aged
Sinéad de Valera and Irish. Among her works were plays such as "Cluichidhe na Gaedhilge" (1935) and story collections such as "The Emerald Ring and Other Irish Fairy Stories" (1951), "The Stolen Child and Other Stories" (1961), "The Four-leafed Shamrock" (1964) and "The Miser's Gold" (1970). Sinéad de Valera died on 7 January 1975, at the age of 96, the day before what would have been the de Valeras' sixty-fifth wedding anniversary. Éamon de Valera died just under eight months later, on 29 August 1975, aged 92. The couple are buried together, along with their son Brian, at Dublin's Glasnevin Cemetery. Sinéad de