TRIBUTES:PRESIDENT MARY McAleese, the Taoiseach Enda Kenny and defeated candidates all paid tribute to Michael D Higgins after he was declared President-elect in Dublin Castle.
Church leaders, along with the first ministers of Scotland and Wales, also wished the Labour candidate well after his decisive victory.
Mrs McAleese extended her warm congratulations to Mr Higgins. “On my own behalf and on behalf of the Irish people, I warmly congratulate Michael D Higgins, our new President-elect,” she said in a statement.
“His success in the presidential election marks the start of an exciting chapter for our country, our global Irish family and for the Higgins family. To Michael D, Sabina and their children, I send my very best wishes and prayers for the years ahead.”
Speaking at the results centre on Saturday, after Mr Higgins pledged to be a president “for all the people”, Enda Kenny said: “The authenticity of this result speaks for itself that this is the people’s day; they’ve made their choice very clearly, they wanted Michael D Higgins as their president. He will be an outstanding president and personality over the next seven years.”
The Orange Lodges in the Republic also congratulated Mr Higgins and suggested he should further develop the special relationship with the UK through nurturing Mrs McAleese’s friendship with Queen Elizabeth and a “return to the Commonwealth of Nations”.
The new president should acknowledge and celebrate the “our rich Orange heritage and tradition, and recognise the positive contribution Protestants make to Irish society”.
Catholic Bishop of Galway Dr Martin Drennan said Mr Higgins had served the people of Galway with care and compassion and was now called on to serve the country in a very special way.
The Church of Ireland archbishop of Armagh, Alan Harper, said the electorate had conferred on Mr Higgins a great honour and a great responsibility at a crucial moment in the history of Ireland.
The president of the Methodist church, Rev Ian Henderson, described the President-elect as “a man with a passion for human rights and social justice, as well as a great concern for the creative and artistic life of Ireland”.
“Far from being the conservative choice for Áras an Uachtaráin, Michael D will, I am sure, be a courageous and involved president, acting as an ambassador for an Ireland which not only seeks to free itself from economic turmoil, but which cares about the emotional, imaginative and spiritual needs of its people.”
First Minister of Scotland Alex Salmond said he greatly admired Mr Higgins’s work as minister for arts, culture and the Gaeltacht in the 1990s, and expressed the hope that the two countries could work together in areas of mutual interest. Welsh first minister Carwyn James has also written a letter of congratulations.
Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin and Green Party leader Eamon Ryan were also among those to congratulate Mr Higgins.
Speaking in Dublin Castle, Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness said it was “a real privilege and honour for me to stand for the presidency of my country”, adding it was the “experience of a lifetime”. He said Mr Higgins would be a “very, very fine president” and “one of Ireland’s greatest presidents”.
Seán Gallagher also offered his congratulations to Mr Higgins and said the Labour candidate had brought a new message of something fresh into Irish politics.
David Norris said it was a “great day” and described the President-elect as a man possessing a commitment to “justice and human rights”.
“He [Mr Higgins] is a poet, he is a visionary, he is an academic, he is a scholar, but he is a man who above all has a passionate commitment to justice and to human rights, and it’s for that reason that the Irish people have honoured him. He must be, I think, about the only political millionaire in this country because he got over one million votes. Now that tells you something about Michael D Higgins,” the Senator added to laughter in the hall.