President Higgins has a popular mandate from the Irish people to speak on their behalf…

The Irish Times opinion columnist, Finn McRedmond, raises pearl clutching to a fine art form in We should not expect contrition from Michael D Higgins.

The President has few executive functions, but it is only convention that he should not enter into public debate on topics broadly within the purview of the government of the day. Questioning the appropriateness of having an Irish academic who saw fit to become a Dame of the British Empire chair a forum on Irish neutrality is a reasonable position to adopt. Britain is, after all, a leading member of NATO, and indeed one of its more belligerent members. Does this not pre-empt that debate just a little bit or at least create the appearance that it might?

Finn McRedmond accuses the President of failing to consult his electorate about whether they wished him to comment on the UK failing to properly remember the worst excesses of the British empire. Quite apart from the fact the President has no means of “consulting his electorate”, his comments were quite apt. Nigel Farage had been in Ireland urging the Irish people to follow the UK out of the EU because EU membership was, in his view, comparable to colonialism under British rule.

It may be the convention in Britain for the King, as head of state, not to comment on public affairs. But President Higgins, unlike the King, has a popular mandate from the Irish people to speak on their behalf. Anyone who voted for the President not realising he has a proclivity to make wide ranging remarks on all manner of issues of public concern had not been paying attention. We voted for Michel D. Higgins in the full knowledge of his many foibles. We did not want a stuffed dummy.