Everything about Michael D Higgins totally explained
Michael D. Higgins (born
18 April 1941), known in Irish as
Micheál D. Ó hUigínn, or informally as
Michael D., is an
Irish Labour Party politician. He is currently a
Teachta Dála (TD) for
Galway West and Labour Party President and Spokesperson for
Foreign Affairs and a former
Minister for Arts, Culture & the Gaeltacht.
Michael D. Higgins was born in
Limerick. He and his family moved to
County Clare when he was 5 years old. He was educated at Ballycar National School, Co. Clare,
St. Flannan's College,
Ennis,
University College Galway,
Indiana University and
Manchester University. Serving as Vice Auditor of the College's
Literary and Debating Societyin 1963/1964, he rose to the position of Auditor in the 1964-1965 academic year. He also served as President of
NUI,Galway Students' Union then known as UCG Students' Union (or Comhairle Teachta na Mac Léinn) in
1964-
65. Before entering politics he worked as Statutory Lecturer in Political Science and Sociology at
University College, Galway, and Visiting Professor at the
Southern Illinois University. In
1973 Higgins was appointed to
Seanad Éireann by the then
Taoiseach,
Liam Cosgrave. He was first elected to
Dáil Éireann in the
1981 General Election as a Labour Party TD. He lost his seat at the
February 1982 election but returned to the Seanad. He served as Mayor of
Galway on two occasions, 1982-1983 and 1991-1992.
Higgins returned to the Dáil at the
1987 general election and has held his seat ever since. In 1993 he joined the Cabinet as
Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht. During his period as Minister he scrapped the controversial Section 31 of the Broadcasting Act, re-established the Irish Film Board and set up the Irish language television station,
Teilifís na Gaeilge (subsequently renamed TG4). In 2000 he received his current position on the Labour Party front bench. In 2002 Higgins succeeded
Proinsias De Rossa in the largely symbolic role of Labour party president, while also acting as party spokesman on foreign affairs.
With a
Presidential Election looming in 2004 Higgins indicated his willingness to run as a Labour candidate. However, the party decided on
16 September 2004 against running a candidate in the election, much to the disappointment of Higgins and much of the Labour Party.
Higgins has campaigned for human rights and written of conflict in many parts of the world, including such areas as
Turkey,
Western Sahara,
East Timor,
Nicaragua,
Chile, the
West Bank and Gaza,
Peru,
El Salvador,
Iraq and
Somalia. In recognition of his work for peace with justice in many parts of the world, he became the first recipient of the
Seán MacBride Peace Prize of the International Peace Bureau in Helsinki in 1992.
As well as having a successful political career Michael D. Higgins has also had a career as a poet, author and broadcaster. He has contributed widely to political and philosophical journals on many subjects including Ideology, The Sociology of Literature, Clientism in Politics, Regionalism and The Politics of the Media.
He wrote and presented a television film on Montserrat, entitled "The Other Emerald Isle" for
Channel 4 and his documentary on the life of
Dr. Noel Browne, for
RTÉ, has also been screened. Higgins has had poems published in a number of periodicals, as well as publishing three collections of his poetry, including, "The Betrayal", in 1990, his second book of poems "The Season of Fire" and his latest book "An Arid Season".
Higgins' eclectic mix of interests also extend to sport — he's a regular at the
Galway Races each summer and is the President and director of
Galway United Football Club, who play in the
Football League of Ireland.
He is the subject of a song (
Michael D. Rocking in the Dáil from their 2002 album
Play It Again, Sham!) by popular
Galway based band
The Saw Doctors.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Michael D Higgins'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://michael_d__higgins.totallyexplained.com">Michael D. Higgins Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
