---
title: "Ireland&#8217;s humanist president"
date: "2012-02-09T15:36:46+00:00"
modified: "2012-02-09T15:36:46+00:00"
url: "https://rationalists.org.uk/articles/irelands-humanist-president/"
post_id: 5528
---

# Ireland’s humanist president

The next time someone asks you to sign a petition calling for the disestablishment of the Church of England, consider what can happen in countries that don’t have an established church: Irish people watching the inauguration of our new president, secularist-socialist-republican-sociologist-poet-activist-gaeilgeoir Michael D Higgins, were forced to sit through nine different blessings: Catholic, Church of Ireland, Methodist, Presbyterian, Quaker, Catholic again, Jewish, Muslim and finally, beaming and clearly very very glad to be there, the humanist.

The whole thing was a bit of a slog, to be honest. One tweeter watching on the web complained that she felt like she’d be conned into going to mass. But it was typical Michael D: inclusive, multicultural, poetic and about 15 minutes longer than it needed be.

Michael D (as he is known to all Irish people: we’ll struggle with “President Higgins”) is a particular type of Irish stereotype – radical, poetic-souled, given to rhetoric, intellectual without being overbearing. Short on stature, big on heart. The humanist presence at his inauguration was taken by some to be a signifier of his own beliefs, but I can’t recall Michael D ever declaring himself a non-believer. There was however, a rather telling moment during one of the critical televised debates, when the candidates were asked about the role of religion in their lives. Michael D paused, gathered his thoughts and responded that he saw himself as a “spiritual person”. A smart move in a country where atheism is seen as a bit showy.

But the curious thing is that the Irish presidency has never really been as in thrall to the church as the other branches of government may have been in the past. The first president, nationalist icon Douglas Hyde, was an Anglican. Infamously, all but one of the cabinet – the radical Noel Browne – failed to attend his state funeral in 1949, as to enter the Church of Ireland St Patrick’s Cathedral would have meant risking censure from the all-powerful Archbishop of Dublin John Charles McQuaid. Erskine Childers, a Protestant who attended Hyde’s funeral on Eamon DeValera’s behalf, later became president himself.

More significantly, the election of Mary Robinson in 1990 meant that the president was a woman who had directly challenged the church. Robinson had gained notoriety among conservatives and clerics as a reproductive rights campaigner in the 1970s, and later acted as legal adviser for gay rights campaigner David Norris (who himself stood for the presidency this year). Robinson was also married to a Protestant man.

Robinson may have been an enemy of the establishment, but in the end she was elected by women – even pious women – who could tell she cared deeply for them and stood up for them. At the risk of hagiography, Michael D exudes the same compassion. In an interesting parallel, both candidates were also elected after scandal rocked the Fianna Fail-linked frontrunner.

Will the election of this “spiritual” man mean a more secular Ireland? There is certainly opportunity. A constitutional convention meets in 2012, and Michael D has told Atheist Ireland that he thinks issues such as the presidential swearing of an oath to God should be reviewed.

He has been consistent over the years in his calls for a “true republic”, and his presidency coincides with the 100th anniversary of the 1916 Proclamation of the Irish Republic, with its promise to guarantee “religious and civil liberty” and cherish all the children of the nation equally. At a time when the church has lost authority, we may find ourselves more and more looking to the little man in the big house for ethical inspiration. And luckily, he’s a man who takes secularism very, very seriously.﻿