This article is from page 4 of the 2011-11-01 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 4 JPG
FROM a three-roomed thatched house with no running water or electricity in Ballycar, Newmarketon-Fergus, to Áras an Uachtaráin – that’s the journey that Michael D Higgins will complete on November 11 when he’s inaugurated as the ninth President of Ireland and Clare’s third Head of State after Eamon de Valera and Dr Paddy Hillery.
After topping the poll in 35 out of 43 constituencies and polling more than one million votes after the fourth count, Higgins has pledged to be “a president for all the people” and to lead “a sea change” in the values of society.
“I want to be a president for those who didn’t vote, whose trust in public institutions I will encourage and work to recover. And always in my mind, too, will be those who have gone away and I will be their president too,” he said.
In outlining his “vision” for a new Republic, the President-elect said his seven-year term would be one “where life and language, where ideals and experience, have the ring of authenticity, which we need now as we go forward.
“During a long campaign, which for me was almost 14 months since I first sought a nomination from the Labour Party, I saw and felt and feel the pain of the Irish people. I recognise the need for a reflection on those values and assumptions, often carelessly taken, that had brought us to such a sorry pass in social and economic terms, for which such a high price has been paid and is being paid.
“I recognise the righteous anger, but I also saw the need for healing and to move past recrimination. I love our shared island, our shared Ireland and its core decency. I love it for its imagination and its celebration of the endless possibilities for our people.
“This necessary transformation which has now begun will, I hope, result in making the values of equality, respect, participation in an active citizenship, the characteristic of the next seven years. The reconnection of society, economy and ethics is a project we cannot postpone,” he added.
In January, Higgins marked his last official function as a member of Dáil Éireann by returning to Clare, telling The Clare People “that some of the major experiences in my life are associated with County Clare”.
In taking part in a poetry reading in the Burren College of Art and surrounded by family and supporters, the Newmarket-on-Fergus man launched his presidential campaign when saying “the president of Ireland is a president for the people and not for any political party” – a pledge he is set to follow through, with the announcement that he will be leaving the Labour Party when taking up office in November.