Not just a novelty tea cosy, Michael D Higgins has thrown the fox into the Atlanticist henhouse with a robust defence of Irish neutrality ahead of a blatantly rigged forum on defence policy.
True to his contrarian anti-war roots the Marxist academic turned head-of-state rightly erred against Irish membership of NATO and the prospect of hapless Irish soldiers being deployed to go toe-to-toe with the Wagner group in the Donbass.
Not the first time the Áras resident has used his plinth to burst the bubble on government policy Higgins also challenged failing state housing policies and the ridiculous commemoration of Northern Ireland’s centenary.
While the President keeps much closeted, his lifelong ideological affiliation as a liberal 68er and touch of anti-Americanism has been well known throughout his career. About the only thing that separates the geriatric from the political mainstream, leaving aside the meat and potatoes of the NATO debate, the intentional politicisation of his office has been a marvel to watch from afar.
The Puppet Awakes
Long memories may remember a time when offhand comments by a minister against a sitting President were enough to prompt turmoil with no real protocol established for when the Áras gets political.
Constitutionally An Uachtaran sits as an inert Sun King over the Irish political regime with the power to seriously upend proceedings short of impeachment. As the office gets more partisan and moves away from being a retirement home to a genuine bullying pulpit one wonders if pro-Higgins progressives may rue the day the presidency ever got political.
Consider this:
In 2011 Higgins won the presidential race after an accidentally on-purpose media faux pas against an upstart candidate Seán Gallagher, largely considered to implicitly represent the conservative Fianna Fáil grassroots.
In 2018 the race was upturned by an unexpected surge for a right-wing populist Peter Casey on the back of anti-traveller comments which saw him (without an ounce of political brains) get a stunning 23.3% of the vote share last minute. This is excluding the surprising prominence of Kevin Sharkey throughout the campaign on an anti-immigration platform despite never making it to the ballot.
A Relevant Presidency?
Next time around in 2025 Higgins will be off the ballot and the public will be faced with a loveless choice likely between Bertie Ahern, Gerry Adams and whatever corpse the Fine Gael parliamentary party drags up. In between this rock and a hard place, something unexpected could erupt to fill the void.
Ireland feels like it’s on a populist warpath as both working-class Dublin and rural communities turn against mass immigration. Better than European elections even, Irish Presidential races are becoming the ultimate occasions for flippant voter choices with surprisingly little stopping a populist candidate from crossing the line with the right conditions, profile and platform once enough nominations have been secured.
Now that the Rubicon has been crossed on the President wading into politics how will progressives feel if the wrong candidate is elected next time round?
President Conor McGregor? Sharon Keogan? or even some random GAA All-Star turned populist the result of the next Presidential election could pose a serious glitch in the matrix.
While we’re unlikely to join NATO anytime soon, Higgins’ politicisation of the office is a long-term establishment owngoal, sowing the potential for destabilising the rotten state. Bunreacht always intended Presidents to be seen rather than be heard.
Higgins has no credibility left.
His signature on the Lockdown statutes ,showed he was just a figure-head puppet.
This was followed by his signature on the Apartheid Covid passes.
Higgins loyalty is to his own comfortable Taxpayer paid lifestyle at the Aras.
Higgins is the dog that did not bark, when the People needed him for protection from the tyrannical Regime diktats..
We do not forgive and we do not forget ,his betrayal of our Constitution and the People.
As Uachtarán is masculine, it is not “an Uachtaran”, but ” an tUachtarán”.
Waters for President
John Water is the only candiate that has the honesty , integrity and intellectual capacity to fill the role of Iireland Presidency, which makes him unsuitable to the malevolent,vicious ,maicious cohOrt of Gombeens of FF/FG/S.
Ireland poitical system is rigged to suppress the Peoeple and favour the Establishment.
The Corrupted Media shills ,NGO’S and phoney Citizen Assemblies are the tools of suppression used.
I personally would love to see a John Waters presidency, might be unlikely i know, many obstacles, but someone in a desert has a right to dream of an oasis.
The obstacles preventing Irelands political salvation are the same ones that stop all meritocracy and justice in the country on every other issue.
Institutionalized cronyism, thuggish gardi, shameless piss taking enforcers in the health service, all these imposing unjust regimes, unjust standards, and ridiculous false realities on the people. The shameless enforcers is what annoys me the most, mindless boot boys for the establishment and its false realities and rewritten histories. They all have plenty of money as well, MY money. MY tax money bought their house and cars, and my general public tolerates them and does not descend into lynch mobs to hang these criminals from the lamposts. For that they should at least to their job properly, but they dont, they cant, they remain and always were and will be, a shamless corrupt cute hoor gombeen traitor palesman regime crony. All of them need to go. Every institution needs to be purged of these lingering corrupt abusive morons.
Gardai Vice are investigating sightings of a grey-haired, male-identifying / presenting ,4ft, Antifa Member wandering through the park around midnight apparently muttering about being behind on the Rent…..
John Water is the only candiate that has the honesty , integrity and intellectual capacity to fill the role of Ireland Presidency, which makes him unsuitable to the malevolent, vicious ,malicious, morally bankrupt cohort of Gombeen weasels of FF/FG/SF.
IrelandS’ poitical system is rigged to suppress the Peoeple and favour the Establishment.
The Corrupted Media shills ,NGO’S and phoney Citizen Assemblies are the tools of suppression used.
It’s no coincidence or conspiracy that John Waters name has been raised by so
many People.To believe in miracles is a great outlook,we should never doubt the power of God…and this IRISHMAN is of the highest integrity,fit for the role as a Statesman and natural leader of THE IRISH NATION.
When the establishment collapses,along with all the “ROGUES” and should
Mr John Waters decline the offer of President then as a token gesture it should be offered to a HOMELESS IRISH PERSON…we do not expect them to do
ANYTHING,it’s a lot safer than what we’ve got presently,just enjoy the ride.
Two observations:
Our governments (whatever their precise Dail composition) since around the year 2000 have been ever more ‘Redmondite’ in their outlook. They would be happy to offer up thousands of young Irish men and women to the War effort (whenever & wherever & by whomever required) as cannon fodder if it meant being seen as good boys and girls in the corridors of power and maybe getting a pat on the head for it sometime.
Secondly, one reason I guess for the push for Ireland to join NATO is that Ireland will then have a vote in NATO, and, again, our governments over the last 20 years have shown themselves to bend over backwards in their compliance and efforts to please those higher up the food chain than themselves. So with Ireland in NATO, Ireland’s vote at NATO board meeting is a dead cert for whoever is in charge, and where numbers of votes count, eg in getting Ukraine over the line into NATO over say, Turkish opposition.