Michael Daniel Higgins is an Irish politician, poet, author, sociologist, and broadcaster, who has served as the ninth president of Ireland since November 2011. Higgins ran for a second term as president of Ireland in 2018 and was re-elected. In addition to a successful political career, Higgins pursued poetry and wrote nonfiction books.
Born in Limerick, Michael D. Higgins was educated at University College Galway, where he later taught sociology and political science. He was Minister for Arts, Culture, and the Gaeltacht from 1993 to 1997.
He has contributed extensively to political and philosophical journals on many topics, among them ideology, the sociology of literature, clientelism in politics, regionalism, and the politics of the media.
Higgins' poems have been published in a number of periodicals, and he has also published four collections of his poetry, including The Betrayal (1990), his second book of poems, The Season of Fire (1993), and An Arid Season (2004).
He wrote and presented a television film on Montserrat, entitled The Other Emerald Isle for Channel 4 and his documentary on the life of Noel Browne, for RTÉ, has also been screened.
In his When Ideas Matter: Speeches for an Ethical Republic (2017) Michael D. Higgins laid out a vision for what he calls an "Ethical Republic." In a series of remarkable and urgent speeches, which are anything but the boring commentaries of a ceremonial head of state, he has urged his fellow citizens to consider what makes the good life. He has asked how human rights, an active and empowered citizenry, women’s equality and the right to health and a life free of corrosive anxiety might be achieved.
His personal notes and workbooks reside at the National Library of Ireland.
Photo credit: IG @presidentirl
Born in Limerick, Michael D. Higgins was educated at University College Galway, where he later taught sociology and political science. He was Minister for Arts, Culture, and the Gaeltacht from 1993 to 1997.
He has contributed extensively to political and philosophical journals on many topics, among them ideology, the sociology of literature, clientelism in politics, regionalism, and the politics of the media.
Higgins' poems have been published in a number of periodicals, and he has also published four collections of his poetry, including The Betrayal (1990), his second book of poems, The Season of Fire (1993), and An Arid Season (2004).
He wrote and presented a television film on Montserrat, entitled The Other Emerald Isle for Channel 4 and his documentary on the life of Noel Browne, for RTÉ, has also been screened.
In his When Ideas Matter: Speeches for an Ethical Republic (2017) Michael D. Higgins laid out a vision for what he calls an "Ethical Republic." In a series of remarkable and urgent speeches, which are anything but the boring commentaries of a ceremonial head of state, he has urged his fellow citizens to consider what makes the good life. He has asked how human rights, an active and empowered citizenry, women’s equality and the right to health and a life free of corrosive anxiety might be achieved.
His personal notes and workbooks reside at the National Library of Ireland.
Photo credit: IG @presidentirl
years of life: 18 April 1941 – present
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