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Ireland's Voice Abroad
As Head of State, an important part of the President’s role is to represent Ireland on the world stage.
President Higgins has made it his aim to engage with Irish people worldwide. On his foreign visits during 2019 to Cyprus, Germany, Greece, Lebanon, the United Kingdom and the United States – President Higgins met with representatives from a diverse range of Irish people and organisations, thanking them for their efforts and expressing his appreciation for the way Irish people continue to represent Ireland abroad.
During the year, President Higgins continued his work strengthening Ireland’s international reputation, and highlighting the importance of increased global cooperation to address the challenges of our time.
At his meetings with international organisations, President Higgins re-affirmed Ireland’s commitment to the international, rules-based, multilateral system, arguing that, as a small State, Ireland’s sovereignty and economic well-being is enhanced, not diminished, by our participation in international organisations.
In September 2019, President Higgins addressed the United Nations General Assembly, to underscore the importance that Ireland attaches to the UN and the multilateral system, and to call for urgent action on global challenges such as climate change and the promotion of peace.
In his speech, the President said that Ireland had anchored its foreign policy to the UN, which the President called a “special institution where newly free nations found a home after their struggles for independence, their emergence from the shadows, legacies and distortions of imperialism.”
During his visit to the UN, President Higgins had over 20 bilateral meetings with other Heads of State or Government. Later in the year, in October, the President met with 13 fellow non-executive Presidents, at a meeting in Athens of the Arraiolos Group of Presidents of EU Member States.
Wreath laying on Martyrs’ Square in Beirut, October 2019
Meeting UN peacekeepers in Cyprus, October 2019
Viewing the archive of the Irish in Liverpool, with Catherine Morris at the Liverpool Central Library, February 2019
Visiting Irish troops in South Lebanon, October 2019
Meeting the Federal President of Germany Frank-Walter Steinmeier in Berlin, during a State Visit to Germany, July 2019
Speaking with Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin, July 2019
Welcoming Permanent Representatives of UN member states to Áras an Uachtaráin, November 2019
With UN Secretary General António Guterres, at a UN meeting on the impact of climate change on small island states, September 2019
Visiting the Committee on Missing Persons in Cyprus, October 2019
President Pavlopoulos of Greece invited President Higgins to undertake an Official Visit to his country in October 2019
State and Official Visits in 2019
During 2019, President Higgins undertook State Visits to Germany (July; 20 events) and Cyprus (October; 11 events), and Official Visits to the United Kingdom (February; 11 events), United States (September; 26 events), Greece (October; 9 events) and Lebanon (October; 9 events).
The President also hosted State Visits by the King and Queen of Sweden (May), the King and Queen of the Netherlands (June), and the President of Cuba (October), as well as an Official Visit by the President of the Seychelles (June). During 2019, President Higgins met with a range of international organisations and international groupings of countries, including: • International Federation of the Red Cross and Red
Crescent (October) • Small Island Developing States (June, September) • UNHCR (July and November) • UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (October) • UNIFIL (October) • UNWRA (October) • World Food Programme (October) • World Tourism Organisation (June)
Meeting with 13 Heads of State at the Arraiolos Group Meeting in Athens, October 2019
Protecting Democracy
inequality within societies.
The President of the Hellenic Republic, H.E. Prokopios Pavlopoulos invited President Michael D. Higgins to deliver the 2019 Aristotle Address in Athens.
The Aristotle Address, which had previously been given by the President of Greece and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, is the highlight of the annual Athens Democracy Forum, hosted under the auspices of the President of the Hellenic Republic and organised in cooperation with the New York Times, the United Nations and the City of Athens.
In his address, which took place 18 months after the President’s State Visit to Greece, President Higgins spoke of the core concepts of democracy, and called for a new “ecological-social paradigm” to reverse social and environmental damage and to reduce In the summer of 2019, President Higgins undertook a State Visit to Germany - the first such visit by an Irish Head of State since 2008.
The State Visit was aimed at strengthening bilateral relations and promoting greater political and diplomatic cooperation at international level. President Higgins travelled to four federal States and met with leaders in the fields of politics, business, arts and science, receiving many expressions of support for Ireland and Irish perspectives.
Federal President Steinmeier told President Higgins at the end of the second day of the three-day Visit: “If the role of the State visit is to strengthen the ties, to forge the bonds between two countries, between the people of two countries, your mission is complete.”
Ideas matter and history tells us that antiintellectualism has been, and remains, the weapon of authoritarian and anti-democratic forces in so many parts of our shared, vulnerable planet.
As we live through this period of seeking an exit from extreme individualism, a period where the concept of society itself has been questioned and redefined narrowly and pejoratively, when the public space in so many countries has been commodified, we must come together in co-operating and encouraging the merging of the consciousnesses of ecology, human need, dignity, respect for sources of truth and consolation, reasoned and revealed.
Address to the Cypriot House of Representatives, October 2019
SPECIAL INITIATIVES
With staff and residents of Clúid Housing Association, March 2018 Participation and Transformation
President Higgins has made the promotion of a more inclusive society a cornerstone of his work, informed by his firm belief that everyone in Ireland has a valuable contribution to make and that society is strengthened when it supports, and is shaped by, a diversity of experiences and perspectives.
Under the “Participation and Transformation” initiative, President Higgins attended or hosted a total of 28 separate events during 2019.
The initiative champions the importance of participation and highlights the significant obstacles to participation faced by so many people. These obstacles include isolation, exclusion and discrimination.
Achieving equality is not simply about opportunities for the individual, it is also about how we change our spaces and our systems to ensure they actively drive and encourage inclusion.
This initiative therefore includes two complementary strands: One focusing on people and their participation; the second focusing on institutions and their transformation.
Muintir na hÉireann, I thank you again from my heart. This is your Presidency and I will work for you and with you towards a future of equality, participation, inclusion, imagination, creativity, and sustainability. It is together that we go forward.
