Breithlá sona a Uachtaráin

As the title indicates, today, I can do something that my British neighbours cannot even conceive of doing.

And that is to wish a happy birthday to the head of state that I helped to elect.

Moreover, it is a landmark 80th birthday for Mícheál Dónal Ó hUigínn.

It is an event of public importance here because he is Uachtarán na hÉireann.

As previously stated, that is an elected position.

He is our First Citizen because we put him there, first elected in 2011 and won a second term in 2018

Moreover, his backstory is the antithesis of the unearned privilege of the Saxe-Coburg crime crew.

Whether they be paragons or paedos they are there because of a lucky accident of birth.

Michael D Higgins was born into poor circumstances in Limerick.

His father John was a lieutenant with the Charleville Company, 3rd Battalion, 2nd Cork Brigade of the Irish Republican Army during the war of independence.

Now that is proper breeding!

The last time I was in the presence of our President was on the Mall in Westport in May 2016.

I was in my father’s town to commemorate the 31 men who were sent to the Frongoch internment camp after the Rising.

Among the 31 was my grandmother’s brother Óglach Michael Derrig.

In Westport, his speech on the generation that faced down the British Empire was magisterial in its breadth and complexity. Only a polymath with a nuanced grasp of our island story would have delivered it with such elan.

My president is also an author and has a great grá for all of us committed to the written word.

To mark his birthday, a collection of his speeches was published.

It is fitting that the work is focused on our connection to the Continent.

Like the 1916 generation in these post-Brexit times, we have our gallant allies in Europe.

The same year that he spoke on the Mall in Westport about the Frongoch 31, he gave this speech in the Irish Writer’s Centre.

For the avoidance of doubt, this Irish writer hopes that all of his output passes the subversion test.

Of course, it is for others to judge.

When my head of state was born in 1941 in Limerick, this state was a poor, broken place with many many injustices.

Today, we still have so much to do.

However, our citizens live longer than those in Britain.

The current life expectancy for Ireland is 79.6 years for males and 83.4 for females, while in England, the equivalent figures are 78.7 years for males and 82.7 years for females.

In Scotland in 2017-2019, life expectancy at birth was 77.1 years for males and 81.1 years for females.

In the Six Counties, a child born today has a lower life expectancy than in this state.

As well as dealing with the issues domestically, we have our own place at the global table.

According to this fella, we’re making not a bad fist of it.

Of course, we still have to fully heal the wounds of our traumatic history.

It is worth noting that the Republic of Ireland is still the only EU member state with a smaller population than it had in 1850.

Dear reader, it is almost as if some awful genocidal event took place here around that time.

Your clue is An Gorta Mór

Now, do not think for a second that the current President of this Republic is not aware of that.

I particularly appreciated his use of the term “feigned amnesia” in this piece in the Irish Times.

The polyglot president rarely misuses a word.

The featured image is of a much younger Michael D Higgins in 1984 at a gig in Slane where Boby Dylan was the headline act.

In 2021, for we Irish, the times they are a-changin.

Moreover, our First Citizen articulates those new possibilities with a writer’s vision.

I hope that he has many happy, healthy years left in him.

A mighty man!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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