Since the mid-sixties, Michael D Higgins has been a major figure in Galway education and politics. In UCG, his sociology lectures were memorable for their fluency, as well as their content.
The lucky students who attended them left the lecture hall in a daze but knowing they had experienced something special. Some, like myself, could not remember a word. However, when faced with exam questions some months later our pens flowed with the answers.
He was first elected to the Senate in 1973, to the Dáil in 1981 and the Presidency in 2011. On a personal level, he was the last politician I saw stand on a chair outside a church and address the people as they left Sunday Mass during an election campaign.
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His most important contribution to Irish life and culture, as Minister for Arts, was his role in the legitimation of Telefís na Gaelteachta to TG4 in 1996. He has also written several books on civil rights and climate change, as well as a number of poetry collections. Perhaps what will be deemed his most important work is being published this month - Reclaiming the European Street: Speeches on Europe and the European Union 2016-20, the book marks his 80th Birthday.
In the foreword, Michael D lays out his stall: “Looking ahead, my vision of which I continue to write…is of a Europe with quality public services at its core and decent jobs in the public sector. We must remember that the services the public sector delivers are not a cost to society but an investment in our communities."
'A global unregulated, financialized version of economy represents the greatest threat to democracy' - Uachtarán na hÉireann, Michael D Higgins
He finishes the foreword with the aspiration that, “the lessons of necessity and solidarity learnt during the pandemic must now inform a Europe-led transition to a just and ecologically sustainable society in its aftermath. I am hopeful that within an enlightened eco-social framework, we may respond together in a transformative, inclusive way to the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, the impact of digitalization, rising inequality, and the unaccountable, and, in doing so, address the democratic crisis facing so many societies in Europe and beyond.”
A president's vision
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The book consists of six sections, each one consisting of major speeches made by Michael D. on the topic of Europe since 1916: Section 1, European History and Memory: “In Honour of Roger Casement”, “A Forgotten Polish Hero of the Irish Famine, Paul Strezelecki’s Struggle to Save Thousands of Lives”, “The Great Flu of 1918-1919” and “Remembering the Holocaust".
Section II Towards A Social Europe: “A New European Mind and the Need to Rejuvenate Discourse”, “Trade Unions and the European Future”, “Parliamentary Democracy in the European Union”, “Solidarity in Europe”
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Section III, Thinking About Europe: “On the State of Democracy in Our Changing World”, “Overcoming Disciplinary Boundaries”, “Ethical Challenges for the European Union” and “The Idea of Home”
Section IV Connecting European Cultures: “ Of Greece and Ireland: An Ancient and Enduring Relationship Full of New Possibilities”, “Pangúr Bán”, “Ireland and Germany”, “Ireland and the Netherlands”, “Ireland and Sweden, Ireland and Lithuania: Towards a Shared Future Within the European Union”, and “Ireland and Croatia”.
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Section V: The Future of the European Union: “Giving the European Union a Future That Will Engage Citizens”, “The Future of Europe: Re-Balancing Ecology, Economics and Ethics”, and “Europe and Africa: Towards a New Relationship”
Section VI “Pangur Bán” (Irish Language Version ), “Une certaine idée de ”, and “Die Zununft Europas: Okologie, Wirtschaft, Und Ethik- Eine neue Balance finden”, “Postscript on the COVID- 19 Crisis: Towards a Europe Resolute in Its Vindication of the Most Vulnerable Amongst Us”.
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From the very beginning, the book is full of energy and urgency. The ideas and concepts are like a river in full flow with ideas and concepts hopping of the page at a rate of knots. Reading it brought back strong memories of the lecture hall in 1968, except that now the narrative is more immediate and the need for a positive response imperative.
Opening the door
Having said that, this is not a book that allows the reader to jump to conclusions, it is a book that simply allows the reader to open the door and to see what the questions and the problems of a Unified Europe are and to trigger the questions that need to be asked.
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The book seems to be an extraordinary kaleidoscope of ideas enmeshed in a dazzling torrent of words that could threaten to drown the reader. However as the book progresses, so does the understanding of the reader and an understanding of what the European Union can offer us, in theory at least, emerges.
Towards the end of the book, he writes: “Brexit, Trump, nationalism, and street violence all represent answers that we may perceive as inimical to the important question: how to reforge agreement on redistributive justice for those who have lost out, either objectively or subjectively, from globalisation, technological innovation (including digitalization ), so-called innovation (including the casualization of labour ) or responses to climate change. How then might we regain trust? What are the consequences of a legacy of dismissed or weakened mediatory institutions?”
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However, he does not leave it there. Some pages later he reaches for his mountain top: “Looking ahead, my vision is of a Europe with excellent public services at its core. Good jobs in the sector means quality services for citizens. We must remember that the services the public sector delivers are not a cost to society but an investment in our communities. This message must be taken to the heart of Europe.
I suggest that what is actually unaccountable is the speculative flows of insatiable capital; a global unregulated, financialized version of economy represents the greatest threat to democracy, the greatest source of an inevitable conflict, and the greatest obstacle to us achieving an end to global poverty or achieving sustainability.”
There is a strong feeling that, with these last words, Michael D. is only beginning the debate - and then the thought rises that if he writes like this approaching his 80th birthday, what will he be like when approaching his 100th? The mind boggles.
