President Higgins and the average-sized rugby ‘ledgebag’ Malcolm O’Kelly ( former Irish lock) at Plan Ireland’s 75th anniversary party this afternoon.
That toddler’s look: priceless.
(Jason Clarke Photography)
Yesterday I met the president of #Ireland , Mr Michael D Higgins , at least that’s who he said he was.. twitter.com/DubWeasel/stat…
— Multi talentless (@DubWeasel) March 13, 2012
No more Mr Squee guy.
EUROPEAN UNION member states will sacrifice their legitimacy if the public believes they are unable to influence economic decisions by their vote, President Michael D Higgins has declared in an interview [with David Frost on Frost Over The World] to be broadcast on Al Jazeera TV today.
Economics must be made “accountable and transparent in some way” for citizens. If not, he said, “what happens then is that you’re sacrificing legitimacy, and one is creating the ground for a naked conflict between a massive number of populations of different kinds and size who feel at the mercy of the economy”.
And the church?
“You’re probably never again going to see unaccountable structures [anymore] where you could hide or cloak misdemeanours or grave transgressions.”
.
Previously: The People’s President
(Leon Farrell/Photocall Ireland)
They still call him ‘squee’ behind his back.
The primary concern among Cabinet Ministers relates to the President’s comments about the possibility of summoning the Council of State if the Government proceeds to ratify the fiscal compact treaty by legislation rather than referendum.
There were also some raised eyebrows in the Labour Party at the President expressing opposition to privatisation in the week that the Government decided to sell off stakes in State companies worth €3 billion.
So it has begun.
Let the best knee win.
That speech including podcast here
Previously: Old Labour. New Labour
Plus: Squee And The Irish XV
(pic: Nigel stead/LSE)
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9g8ZgjVqOw
Andrew Dooley writes:
This popped up on Munster rugby fans Facebook wall today. Your favourite Michael Squee meeting the Irish rugby team with a funny voiceover. Lolz
Can you spot the real Michael Squee poetry among Ewok’s five minute doggerel?
Without using Google.
A)
And when the strangers
To whom I gave a lift
Spoke to me of the extraordinary
Light in the Western sky;
I often missed its changes.
And, later, when words were required
To intervene at the opening of Art Exhibitions,
It was not the same.
B)
He gathered himself
As he had done as a boy
And spoke
Between the clang of the hammer
Amid the sparks
A guileless, wordless question
To his mind anvil-solid.
C)
There was an old woman from Nantucket
She lived modestly
As she had originally come from Cloonrane.
Lines close at 3pm.
5.15pm UPDATE: B) and C) are the work of parody. A) is from Squee’s poem When Will The Time Come.
Earlier: ‘Lame Stale, Stilted.”
What about his poetry?
Professor Kevin Kiely (above) says that the President’s latest book is “lame, stale and stilted”, that it is “bland, imprecise and ultimately incomprehensible” and that it’s so bad that Michael D Higgins “can be accused of crimes against literature”.
Prof Kiely, a respected academic, even accuses Mr Higgins of stealing Scarlett O’Hara’s closing line in the movie ‘Gone with the Wind’ — “And tomorrow is another day” — in the poem ‘The Ebbing Tide’.
Michael D Higgins Is No Poet (Carol Rumens, Guardian, November 1, 2011)