Michael D's seven year itch in the Aras

I voted for Michael D Higgins in the 2011 presidential election. I felt that he was the most suitable candidate out of the runners to take up residence in Aras an Uachtarain for seven years. Here was a man with a combination of political, literary and human rights campaigning experience.  A person with wisdom and a particular outlook on what direction the State should be taking following the boom and bust years. 
Some 700,000 first preference voters, 39 per cent of the electorate, were of the same view , and by the time transfers were allocated, this had risen to over 1,000,000, almost 57 per cent.
It has been a very good choice. President Higgins and his wife, Sabina, an elegant lady with an acting background, have done the country proud over his term of office, due to come to an end later this year.
He has been ‘a class act’ (to quote another west of Ireland politician, albeit in a different context), at the big set piece events, particularly the first president to take part in a formal State visit to Britain and be welcomed by Queen Elizabeth II, another step in a delicate diplomatic dance.
And it was appropriate that he was president for the centenary celebrations of the 1916 Easter Rising, as he has used his time in office to set out a vision for what he calls ‘an ethical republic’, with his views and speeches collected in a volume ‘When Ideas Matter’, published in 2016.
In an introduction, he says that simply recognising the challenges of the deep changes in our times is insufficient. “We need to create the capacity to understand, critique and offer options and alternatives to those changes, ones that will sustain and deepen democracy,” he writes.  He asks how human rights, an active and empowered citizenry, women’s equality, and the right to life free of corrosive anxiety may be achieved, he highlights the plight of refugees and criticises the way in which work has become dehumanised, creating an economy rather than a society.
His two predecessors in office, Mary Robinson and Mary McAleese, opened up the Presidency to such an extent that it has allowed Michael D to go beyond previous boundaries for presidential remarks, and express these challenging views. 
I was greatly taken aback last September, when the President was being interviewed at the Ploughing Championships, to hear him say he would decide before next September whether he would run for the presidency again or not, and let the Irish people know after the summer. “In the fullness of my time, it is just my decision, it doesn’t affect anyone else,” the President rather arrogantly said. 
He also outlined a number of foreign trips he had yet to undertake, to Australia and Canada. It was interesting to learn that Michael D is one of the most travelled Irish presidents in history. He was off to Greece a few weeks ago, and has events in Lithuania and Switzerland to attend, as well as a ‘very presidential’ trip to the United Nations in New York.
I’m not sure what his domestic schedule is like, but he seems to carry out less engagements around the country than those before him, who were credited with dragging the presidency and the Aras out of the sleepy years of the Paddy Hillery era, when it was seen as a retirement reward for Fianna Fail politicians.
We were probably spoiled with Mary McAleese and her local connections here in Meath, but without getting too parochial about it, you could almost count on one hand the number of times the president has been in Meath over his term. Michael D might have more chance of getting his ideas across to the Irish people if he actually expounded his viewpoints to them, instead of waiting till he was abroad to express his thoughts.
It has been pointed out that McAleese waited until late in the day to say whether she would seek a second seven years in the Aras, but then she hadn’t committed herself to just one term.  Recent reports say that the current president would prefer not to have to engage in what could be a gruelling election campaign. Of course, he’d need a rest after those international trips, and the eight garden parties he is hosting in the Phoenix Park over the summer!
I believe for the new challenges facing this country, a new dynamic is needed in the Aras. Going parochial again, an excellent choice, given the Brexit situation faced, would be Mairead McGuinness, current vice president of the European Parliament, but Leo Varadkar has already indicated certain support for Michael D. Besides, McGuinness may have more sway for Ireland in her current position than she would as a figurehead president here.
All the indications are that Michael D is to opt for a second term. A poll for the Sunday Business Post says that while 48 per cent of those asked believe he should keep his promise of just one term, 56 per cent would re-elect him. The current powers-that-be don’t want to have to deal with a presidential election, so while others have promised a challenge, it looks like the incumbent will walk back into the Aras. Assuming that is, that he wants to.