Eight thoughts on Michael D and the presidency

So now we know: Michael D Higgins would like to be President of Ireland for another seven years. When he took the job originally, he made it clear that he would serve for just one term. Now he’s changed his mind and wants a second.

I think there are a number of things worth noting here.

1. Michael D became President through default: it was only when Sean Gallagher imploded on that famous RTÉ election programme that the former Labour TD got the opportunity to step in.
2. Michael D misled the public when he said he would serve for just one term. Whether he genuinely intended to serve just one term originally or not is beside the point. The fact is, he told the public he would serve for one term, they voted him in, now he says he’d like a second term.
3. The President of Ireland, we are repeatedly told, is above politics. But actually that’s debatable. Was Mary Robinson’s famous shake-hands with Gerry Adams in the early 1990s above politics? Were those Twelfth of July jamborees which Mary McAleese held for northern loyalists and Orangemen above politics? Of course they were political, and deliberately so, and none the worse for that. So what equivalent gesture has Michael D made during his term in office? Well, in 2013 he said the EU leaders needed to do a “radical rethink” about the economic crisis. He said the EU was faced with a moral as much as an economic crisis. He said the south faced a housing crisis and there should be more public rental accommodation. All worthy matters and sensible comments, but hardly original.
4. One of the things I personally like to see in a political leader (and yes, Virginia, the President of Ireland is a political leader) is that it’s someone who doesn’t embarrass me by what s/he says or does, or even how s/he looks. In that respect, the two Marys were well ahead of Michael D, although he has a certain dignity. He also can give off a certain pomposity, taking something ordinary and pumping it up into something grand and slightly vague: “As a political scientist for nearly 40 years, I am very well aware of not only the constitutional limits of president but also, what the people might correctly expect from their president”.
5. Sometimes when Michael D appears on my screen, I’m struck by how smart he is. Other times I wish he would say something of substance about the six northern counties. But he hasn’t, as far as I know.
6. I think it’s a good idea for Sinn Féin to run a candidate against Michael D, not least because seven years is long enough for any President of Ireland to strut his/her stuff. It’s like Arsene Wenger: you have to know when to go.
7. Did you notice? Mary Robinson didn’t bother to serve her full term, because she had an important UN job to go to. So she cut her Presidency short. Michael D, in contrast, said he wanted to serve just one term, but now wants to make it two. Robinson shortened her time, Higgins wants to elongate his.
8. Anybody who says it’s a hard job is talking through the back of their neck. Lovely living conditions, well paid, chauffeurs and servants, all travel paid for: what’s not to like? Anyone who suggest they’re keen to “serve the people of Ireland” should be disqualified, if they don’t add “In one of the comfiest jobs going.”