Is Michael D man for the job?

MICHAEL D Higgins is no stranger to presidential titles. He is the current president of the Labour Party and is president of the Galway Gaelic football and hurling teams but now he is aspiring to don another presidential role, that of Ireland’s 10th President.

Growing up in Ballycar, Newmarket-on-Fergus, Michael D developed a great love for poetry, writing and academia.
Although born in Limerick City, Michael D’s father is originally from Ballycar and it was here that he spent 14 years of his life, where from the age of five, he and his younger brother John were raised by his aunt and uncle. He left Newmarket after completing his Leaving Certificate in St Flannan’s College in Ennis in 1960.
The house where the Presidential hopeful grew up was situated on the top of the old road in Ballycar.
“We learned all the things that you do about milking cows, calving and the awful drudgery of weeding, which I remember but I have very positive memories of Clare,” he said.
When attending national school, Michael D recalled his teacher as an inspirational figure.
“William Clune was from Quin and was a great influence on my life, both in terms of writing and in terms of the Irish language. He was just a wonderful teacher.
“Ballycar National School was a two-roomed school, with the junior pupils facing towards one end and the senior pupils above third class facing the other, with a big fireplace at each end. Ms Hastings from Newmarket was the teacher at one end for the junior classes and William Clune was the principal teacher and he used to cycle from Quin to Ballycar everyday. He was the brother of Conor Clune, the volunteer who was shot,” Michael D recalled.
Having worked as a public representative as a councillor, mayor, senator, TD, cabinet minister and, at European level, as the president of the European Council of Culture Ministers, the Presidency was something that interested Michael D long before now.
“I thought about running in 2004 but the Labour Party decided not to have a candidate but I was the candidate if they had contested. The reason I was interested in standing then, curiously, has a Clare connection too,” he explained.
At that time, Michael D had given a number of papers at the 2004 Céifin Conference, which had been organised by Fr Harry Bohan and was held in Ennis.
“I was raising the question about an assumption that people could be consumed by their consumption, about the drift of the economy. That was quite a lonely voice at that particular time. I was interested in the debate and I thought we should be debating the direction of the country,” he said.
Following an internal contest within the Labour Party, Michael D secured the nomination to contest the Presidential election with 37 votes in June of this year and since then he has put down 14,000km and visited 24 of the 26 counties, with the remaining counties, Meath and Monaghan, on the agenda in the coming weeks.
There has been much speculation about a celebrity candidate emerging from the woodwork, with names such as Gay Byrne and Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh being bandied about but Michael D believes the public want someone who is experienced.
“I actually think that the public want a person who has a vision and a person who has the capacity to implement that vision and who has the background to bring that to fruition. I think, to some extent, they have been somewhat distracted with the concentration so far being on who is going to be in the field, is David Norris going to get in, will Gay Byrne stand and so forth. I think the public are a bit fed up,” he said.
Asked why he would make a good President, Michael D believes experience is what he has to offer and is what the people want.
“I’m a political scientist by training so I’ve lectured on the Presidency. I know what you can do and what you can’t do. My experience is there. You are dealing with legislation every week. When the five stages of a bill are finished in the Dáil and in the Seanad, it’s referred to the President for signature so it is an advantage to know the legislative process.
“Someone coming from outside may very well attract the attention of the public in some way but there is actually work involved in the Presidency and there is an advantage to having experience of the legislative process. I think a person with legislative experience has a better opportunity of putting their own stamp on the Presidency,” he added.
He stressed that, as President, one is no longer a member of a political party and, as such, he said he would be cognisant that the President speaks for all of Ireland, representing the country and not personal opinions.
“As President, you have three functions; there are constitutional obligations, you are part of the Oireachtas because you are part of the legislative wing, then you have ceremonial duties where you are representing Ireland both at home and abroad and then the third area, which was opened up by Mary Robinson and which was kept up by Mary McAleese, is where you have discretion,” he outlined.
He believes that how discretion is exercised is through the themes the President takes up and the groups the President decides to speak to. Michael D added that in this way, the President can be of assistance to Government in a thematic sense but doesn’t express an opinion on legislation. He says the public are looking for the incoming President to be an inspirational figure.
“What I come across most, which surprised me, was the amount of people who talk about the President representing Ireland abroad. I thought that the President at home might be top of their agenda but it isn’t, in fact. The polls are also showing that the statesmanship of it is important to them.
“I think a lot of it is this sense that the reputation of the country needs to be restored and enhanced. You could say we are coming out of a period where there was a lot of swagger associated with something that wasn’t very substantial and that in a way turned off some of our potential friends. We were inclined to give lectures to the new members of the EU about how if they shaped up they could be as successful as us,” he said.
While he understands this concept, Michael D believes Ireland’s reputation abroad is enhanced by the country’s achievements and reputation in a number of fields. For instance, in the cultural arena Ireland proportionately has more Nobel Prizes for literature than any other country.
He also noted Ireland is renowned with Norway for its peacekeeping contributions.
“People are very much admiring of that. I think as well, in relation to the humanitarian side, you just have to think that there is a great decency in a country that raised €12 million in the last fortnight for the Somalia famine,” he said.
This caused Michael D to reflect on a visit to Somalia 20 years ago when he accompanied the then President Mary Robinson on a trip to Mogadishu.
“Over the years, I have been in maybe 14 different disaster or conflict areas, including Salvador with the Chilean dictatorship. But the Somalian famine took me many weeks to recover from. I had a very troubling experience while in Somalia, a child died while I was holding it.
“There was a woman who had had twins and she had walked nearly 200 miles and one of them had died and just as the local bishop and myself had given her a lift to reach the top of the queue, he handed the child to me and the child died just in that instant. One of the things about why the international side of things is important is here we are again 20 years later,” he recalled.
Michael D said Ireland has a “fantastic” reputation in the humanitarian, peacekeeping and aid areas.
“We need to transform our administration and look at the caring side of life in a different way. That is possible and that’s what I mean by creativity, literally in every aspect of our life, diplomacy and foreign aid.
“For the next seven years of my life I can think of no other way than of driving on the change and thinking and ideas that we need because I think I’m being very positive about the country. It is full of people who are doing worthwhile things, creative things,” he said.
Michael D believes change is on the way and could see the role of President changed also, with the present Government committed to carrying out a convention on the constitution.
“I think this convention will happen within 12 months. It can look at the archaic method of getting into the field for the Presidency. It also should look at this business of having to be aged 35. It would be a complete review of the Constitution. It will, in fact, look at the whole of the Presidency itself. It is a process I would support as President,” he revealed.
However, such a convention is not open to scrutiny by the President, nor can it be referred to the Supreme Court for consideration, according to Michael D.
“There are three pieces of legislation you can’t interfere with as President, one is a money bill, another is an emergency bill that has been certified by the cathaoirleach of the Seanad and Ceann Comhairle and the third is a bill proposing an amendment to the Constitution. It is up to the Government to take the proposals of the convention and, if they wish, to change the role of the Presidency to suggest a constitutional amendment. In that case, it is one of the things that cannot be referred to the Supreme Court,” he explained.
With the battle still ahead as further candidates are yet to emerge, Michael D said he would be honoured to receive the public’s vote as their 10th President.
“I think it would be a great honour. I think also it is a great responsibility. To quote the affirmation you make as President ‘I will dedicate my abilities to the service and welfare of the people of Ireland’. That is exactly what one does,” he said.
However, if unsuccessful it would not stop Michael D from continuing and developing his non-political pursuits. He admits he wouldn’t find it difficult to retire from political life, as he would return happily to his writing and lecturing, with several unfinished books awaiting completion.
He does hope the public do task him with the job as he reiterates, “I can’t think of a better way of spending the next seven years of my life.
“I could have walked away but I do think that in the present time it is a time for ideas and it’s a time for ideas moving to the centre of things. It was ideas that brought me from Ballycar, Newmarket-on-Fergus, on my long journey through the different university systems and back again to the public,” he concluded.