11.11.2025
As he concludes his time in the office of Uachtarán na hÉireann, NUI celebrates a dear friend, Michael D Higgins
On behalf of the National University of Ireland, we extend our heartfelt thanks to President Higgins for his lifelong commitment to higher education, to the Irish language and Irish scholarship, and for his immense contribution to Irish society - to education, to the arts, to poetry, to politics, to human rights, and to the leadership he has so humbly displayed as President of Ireland.
President Higgins’ friendship to NUI spans a lifetime - as a student and lecturer at University College Galway, as a member of Seanad Éireann elected on the NUI panel, and as a proud recipient of an NUI Honorary Doctorate of Laws, conferred in 2012 at Dublin Castle. Speaking at that ceremony, he said:
“I have the warmest feelings towards Ollscoil Náisúnta na hÉireann – the National University of Ireland … a body which I know shares my belief in the true value of education and its capacity to deliver a creative consciousness and a participatory citizenship in a real republic.”
The feeling has, and always will be, mutual.
Throughout his presidency, President Higgins has embodied the spirit of scholarship and social justice that lies at the heart of NUI’s mission - from delivering our inaugural Douglas Hyde Lecture in 2017, to his powerful Edward Phelan Lecture on The Future of Work in 2015, to his contribution to our Decade of Centenaries publication series in 2013.
As Dr James J. Browne remarked at his conferring ceremony,
“If the presidency is the sweet branch of the tree of government, the blossoms of that sweet branch – to borrow the phrase of the poet, John Montague – are surely Michael D. and Sabina.”
We thank President Higgins for his enduring friendship to the NUI community, his advocacy for education and equality, and his lifelong example of integrity, compassion, and imagination.
We wish him every happiness in retirement - and many joyful walks with Misneach.
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