A few years into Michael D Higgins’s presidency, I was asked to write a profile of the man. I spent weeks speaking to people who worked with him or who had some insight into his life or his thinking. I read the speeches, listened back to his interviews and trawled the archives. The result was a snapshot of a president still finding his feet, flourishing in some aspects of the role and struggling with others, just a few years into what would become - owing to the abandonment of his pledge to serve just one term - a 14-year stint at Áras an Uachtaráin.
I was reminded of that piece when reading my colleague Naomi O’Leary’s excellent, in-depth portrait of the man known universally as Michael D, which we published this weekend. It’s striking how many of the themes have remained constant: his distrust of civil servants, his sharp political antennae, colleagues’ complaints that he is difficult to work with, his remarkable popularity, his sensitivity to criticism and, above all, the strong sense of a president eager to push at the boundaries (such as they are) of the office itself.
His conception of foreign policy and dismissal of the role of civil servants in executing it, Naomi writes, “may prove to be one of the most consequential aspects of his presidency, as it has shaped the campaign to elect his successor, and the public expectations of how the next president will fulfil the role”.
That campaign to find Higgins’s successor is entering its final two weeks, and we have some strong material on the election on irishtimes.com this weekend.
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The story of the week was the decision of Fianna Fáil candidate Jim Gavin to end his campaign (his name will remain on the ballot paper) after it emerged that he owed money to a former tenant. Colm Keena and Harry McGee have assembled a revealing behind-the-scenes account of the sequence that led to the implosion of the former Dublin football manager’s campaign, while Malachy Clerkin argues that the fiasco was a long overdue humbling for GAA exceptionalism.
What the episode will mean for the party that selected Gavin - and, in particular, for its long-time leader, Micheál Martin - is a question considered by Ellen Coyne in a piece that looks at the Taoiseach’s leadership style, his internal alliances and his future prospects. In Pat Leahy’s opinion, this was the week that fired the starting gun on the Fianna Fáil leadership race.
I’ll be interested to see the results of the next Irish Times/Ipsos B&A poll. For now, most polls have the Independent TD Catherine Connolly in front of Fine Gael’s Heather Humphreys, but we know that momentum can shift in the closing stages of a presidential campaign. You can read our latest reports, including on-the-canvass colour, profiles of the candidates and real-time analysis, on our dedicated election site. Our coverage will intensify this week, with daily live stories and daily episodes of our Inside Politics podcast from the middle of the week. And with much more to follow.
As ever, feel free to get in touch with your observations, suggestions or story tips.
Ruadhán Mac Cormaic
