Colin Sheridan: Michael D Higgins' record as an advocate for human rights is unimpeachable

President has the courage and intellect to articulate carefully chosen sentiments of empathy and concern for events both past and present

President Michael D Higgins is that rarest of things in modern politics — a public representative unafraid to tell the truth.

I once met Michael D Higgins in the university library when I was an undergrad. It was in between the aisles of Contemporary American Literature and Epistemology. I was wearing my military uniform (as I was obliged to), while he was attired in the battle fatigues of a seasoned academic.

Michael D is famously small in stature and I, well, am rather tall, so the chance encounter in such a confined space took on a rather comical air. 

Snapping his heels smartly to attention, he gave me a mock salute. 

"At ease, Professor," I whispered, conscious that — far from looking for a copy of Allen Ginsberg's 'Howl' — I was using all my military training to hide from someone. 

"Are you hiding from the enemy?" he asked, in his distinctive brogue. 

"Are you?" I replied cryptically. 

Sizing my lanky frame up, he mused “well my money’s on they’ll find you before me.” 

We both laughed the laughs of two learned men and went about our business. That was over 20 years ago, long before he would become President, but long after he had announced to the world exactly what he's about.

I'd guess that hundreds of students who passed through the Aula Maxima in the University of Galway over the decades have a similar story to tell. As a lecturer in Sociology, he was arguably the least intimidating academic in an institution weighed down by gargantuan egos, despite being the most well-known. 

While his intellectual reputation preceded him, his decency as a human being defined him. Usually, one compensates for the lack of the other. In Michael D's case, they were symbiotic

Those who have questioned his motives and actions over the last few months do so by ignoring six decades of public life that have been defined — not by pandering to an electorate, nor protecting a personal legacy — by advocacy for the downtrodden. 

Whether it was El Salvador, protesting the US military use of Shannon airport, or representing his constituents in rural Ireland in the Dáil and Seanad, he did so staying absolutely true to his own beliefs. That those values usually align him with the oppressed is something we should celebrate, not sneer at. He is that rarest of things in modern politics — a public representative unafraid to tell the truth.

Much of the criticism around his remarks at the Holocaust Memorial Day Commemoration in Dublin last Sunday accuses him of moral grandstanding, of politicising events so abhorrent they are beyond context or comparison. 

Had it been anybody else other than President Higgins, they might’ve had a point. But, because it was him, their assertions are ill-informed and absurd 

His record as an activist and advocate for human rights in Ireland and overseas is unimpeachable. 

Throughout his presidency he has consistently drawn criticism for speaking up on behalf of the homeless, the immigrant and the disabled. His candour has made life uncomfortable for consecutive governments who, you'd imagine, would much rather he play court jester than act as the moral conscience of a conflicted country.

In that context, Michael D was always going to mention the genocide in Gaza — perpetrated by Israel — in his Holocaust Memorial Day remarks. To do otherwise would’ve been a dereliction of duty as a head of a state that is already morally compromised by that same genocide. 

As some government politicians speak out of both sides of their mouths — lecturing Israel in one breath while concurrently enjoying cozy trade agreements with a pariah state — Higgins at least has the courage and the intellect to articulate carefully chosen sentiments of empathy and concern for events both past and present. 

It is understandable — regrettable, even — that him doing so might make members of the Jewish community here and elsewhere unhappy, but perhaps their discomfort only further proves the relevance of his words.

Of course, if you happen to agree with the President, you are a socialist hippy who is — as one commentator put it — “taking our economic prosperity for granted.” Never have I heard such Zone of Interest bullshit.

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On the back of a storm that crippled much of rural Ireland, a housing and homelessness crisis, and a healthcare system that’s as effective as a chocolate teapot, the prosperity mooted seems a rather poisoned chalice. 

Many would rather the President keep his sanctimonious sentiments to himself lest he further antogonise the new landlords to whom we have made ourselves indebted — the Direct Foreign Investors. That you could draw a line from almost all of them to the bullets that end up in the chests of Palestinian children is a truth much too hard for those people to swallow.

Decency and moral courage are clearly not prerequisites for politics. That we have a President blessed with both only compounds the lack of it in others. 

History will be kind to him. The rest of us? I’m not so sure.