Imagine you were citizen of a country that, at a moment of economic turmoil, insecurity, and disappointment in the majority of public and private institutions of power, elected a man with the following qualifications as your president:
– Poet with three volumes of original verse in print
– Former University lecturer with a Ph.D. in Sociology
– Former mayor of a major city and longstanding member of the lower legislative house (like the Commons or House of Representatives) known for bi-lingual speeches that cite authorities ranging from Kant to contemporary economic theories and writers and poets from multiple traditions
– Internationally renowned Human Rights activist and advocate
– The leader of a social democratic party for a generations that has never controlled a government but has held fast to principles of individual dignity and equality of opportunity for all citizens even when irresponsible free market exuberance was at its zenith
– A man who is recognized as a political and humanitarian idealist of unimpeachable personal integrity
Well, that’s what Ireland did when it elected Michael D. Higgins as its ninth president this weekend.
–after the fold for more
We may admire much of what Barack Obama has to offer. But his intellectual credentials and rhetorical talents are significant liabilities with much the US electorate. Higgins’ resume is built upon qualities that have no appeal to many and are considered negative to others.
Full disclosure, Higgins’ daughter, Alice Mary, who helped to run his campaign, is a personal friend. As my wife and I married on Bloomsday, I asked her to open the pre-ceremony festivities with a reading of “Strings of Earth and Air,” by James Joyce, a love lyric that riffs on Song of Songs. Alice Mary also helped us plan our honeymoon in Ireland and arranged for us to stay in her family’s apartment in Dublin and with her family in Galway. We arrived muddied and late due to storms that caught us as we drove down from Sligo through Connemara. Alice Mary’s mother, an accomplished stage actress was off tending her grandmother in Wexford at the time. Michael D. (as he is known by one and all) received us with fresh flowers that he cut from his garden, pies and cheeses. As a former Minister of Arts and Culture (did I mention that he organized the Irish language TV station?) he was engaged the next day with a visiting dignitary from India, so he gave us some suggestions and took us into the city center. When we returned, we found all of our laundry washed and neatly folded. Yes, that’s right, the future president of Ireland folded my underwear. That evening, he made us tea and we talked about the “Celtic Tiger” phenomenon, which he detested for its promotion of inequality and which he saw as a completely unsustainable boom. He prophesied it’s collapse. We also discussed Israel and Palestine. Higgins has been a fierce critic of Israeli policies in the territories and particularly of the effects of the Gaza blockade on its children. But contrary to how the right pigeon-holes critics of Israel as simplistic fools or subtle anti-Semites, he was eminently aware of and familiar with Israeli critics on the left and deeply respectful of Jewish culture and history.
And now he is President of Ireland. Head of State and occupier of his country’s highest office, he has no direct role in policy but is entrusted with insuring that all laws and procedures adhere to Ireland’s Constitution, and as a TD (legislator) he has a reputation of being rigorously devoted to the rule of law. He will also exert influence through his significant ceremonial platform. Indeed, he campaigned on recovery from the collapse of the Celtic Tiger and the establishment of a “real Republic” for all of Ireland’s citizens. I’d love to see him square off with Elizabeth II, Sarkozy and his other European counterparts. I have no doubt that he will out argue them with both wit and grace.
Here’s an overview of his career:
And here’s his accepptance speech (it’s half in Irish and half in English). Up the Republic indeed!!!
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