Has President Higgins overstepped the mark?

So Ireland 'stands alone' but also Ireland is part of the 'Brussels cabal'.

All your words.

An incoherent rant. Nothing more.

unfortunately we live in an age where we can see in almost real time the barbarity and outright cruelty that a supposedly civilised legitimate country ( not a terrorist organization) is inflicting on another and only a thousand miles away from us. Of course that is going to have an effect on us. How can Michael D expect us to just ignore that and carry on as if nothing has changed. It has changed and we didn’t change but it has changed. He has no right to shut down legitimate concern about our security situation. And this talk of losing respect of African countries Jesus h Christ I never heard such scutter. Most of them don’t even know we exist and mix us up with Iceland ffs or think we are still part of Britain. What benefit is it to our security of people living in Ireland whether African countries think we are sound or not. We are living in Disneyland when it comes to global geopolitics. This is Mickey Mouse stuff the party is over. As I said the world has changed. We didn’t cause it or want it and would damn well prefer if it hadn’t. But it has . Ask a Central European or Baltic or Ukranian person. There are people being bombed in schools , hospitals and apartment blocks and children being stolen and soldiers being tortured and castrated all because of their geographical location and non alignment as we speak. Forgive us for being a little bit concerned.

I see Michael D is getting praise all round for taking Van Der Leyen to task over her comments about Israel-Gaza. Leo and Michael have also repeated what the president was brave enough to say straight away. She should consult with other leaders before shooting her mouth off on behalf of all EU states and giving Israel carte blanche to break international law.

Don't mind how he spoke just listen to his words.

Well chosen IMO.

Like his support for Castro.

Not the president's job to have opinions,for very obvious reasons.

Don't agree with a fair few of Michael D's statements but I'm inclined to say most of the Irish public would agree with his Israel comments and largely in line with the state policy.

Not the poster, but may as well comment!

I thought the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste (and I suppose the Dáil to an extent) ran foreign policy + relations with the EU institutions. IMO the first 2 should be left to pipe up, and it should not really be coming from MDH.

Also I would like a quote there, I am amazed if von der Leyen edit: suggested they could "ignore International Law". I believe she went on somewhat of a solo run, and also didn't say anything about Israeli duties, and just sympathised with them + said they could defend themselves (so was one sided), which is the problem critics had with it.

Michael D seems to be a 3rd executive leader at times in his comments rather than a figure head now as he regularly wades into sensitive stuff and tells everyone what the "Irish People" want, and what they think etc.

2nd time in a few months he laid into the EU too (other one was for "militarisation" I think), didn't think I was voting for a (sort of) Eurosceptic President.

At least I didn't believe our President may be important to our relations with the EU and Irish foreign policy in general when I voted, silly me I suppose, will have to be more careful!

edit: To add should say I don't want a govt. lapdog, it is good he voices opinions [in tradition I think kind of started by his 2 female predecessors] it's just more recently it has been stuff like this, that seems to me like entering directly into the day to day policy and politcs + hot button issues, but I admit that could be subjective as to where any "line" is.

What he said is beside the point. He has no right to comment on political matters without the approval of the Government. Says so in the big book of rules,he knows it.

Suppose he'd agreed with Van Der Leyen? You see the difficulty with allowing a president to say anything he or she likes.

I think he represented us well, and I stand behind him.

The majority of Irish people believe what Israel and Hamas are doing is wrong and that a long term agreement must be hammered out.

People would be pissed off with a president who said nothing and pissed off if he or she expressed an opinion. There's no pleasing everyone.

I’m talking about a future Irish President with right wing opinions -

because of MDH inability over the years to simply SHUT UP, the embarrassing cliched rubbish he spouts and then almost dares the government to chastise him

- you can be sure future presidents have taken note and will follow the awful example Higgins has set.

Not at all. Ask ppl - most cannot stand him and wish he was finished and retired to the nursing home.

He was reelected comfortably so the randomers that you supposedly meet are largely unrepresentative of the Irish public. Cause when it came to the vote, most people were happy to see him serve another seven years. And given the average Irish person's position on Palestine, I'm reasonably confident that most are in agreement with the stance he took.

And? If you have the right to vote and don't use that right, that's on you. If you didn't vote and are complaining about our representatives, maybe they might consider voting next time.... 😂

You clearly don't like MDH but he has done nothing wrong.

I hope we don't elect a right wing president and your theory won't be tested.

And you do this in every single thread, claiming to have a unique insight into public feeling that is entirely unverifiable. Meanwhile he got reelected and people were well aware of who they were reelecting. So I'd say that trumps your public surveys. It's also pretty in line with state policy on Palestine. Varadkar said similar yesterday and he absolutely wouldn't be saying it if he didn't think it aligned with the public view.