More than just President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins gave the refreshing impression on his recent visit to Paris that he is also very much our minister for culture. That's the post he held in Government from 1993 to 1997, and in many ways he's still doing it, only now turbo-charged and with a wider wingspan.
As soon as he landed on Monday morning he whizzed off to the Arc de Triomphe to be officially welcomed and to pay homage at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Then it was down to business, as he delivered at The Sorbonne a deep and elaborate speech for Ireland’s EU presidency on the theme of ‘defining Europe in the Year of the European Citizen’.
While discussing the nature of citizenship and the vital role of dissidence, the President noted the importance of intellectual migrants from Ireland to Paris, notably our own Oscar Wilde, James Joyce and Samuel Beckett who all found a new home in the city. This oft-celebrated trio became a quartet that same evening as Eileen Gray, visionary architect and designer, was added to the group of artistic Irish innovators at her retrospective exhibition at the Centre Pompidou.
Between these two events, President Higgins had a tête-à-tête with President Francois Hollande at the Elysée Palace. They have similar personal and political colours, and doubtlessly ‘plotted’ to combine forces on matters of mutual importance and to the benefit of our national interests and our shared European perspectives.
After engaging with Franco-Irish relations and the European context, it was now time to deal with the planet. Early next morning saw the first ever address by an Irish head of state at Unesco, an organisation that, despite its reputation for bureaucracy, is a vital organ of global democracy and shared enlightenment. Because of its ethos, it is constantly running into political difficulties. Just last year it took the courageous step to recognise Palestine as a full member, only to be confronted by the inevitable US decision to suspend its budget contribution. This creates, in the name of democratic principle, al kinds of operational difficulties.
Unesco’s director general Irina Bokova and the assembly were enthralled by the President’s passionate defence of the organisation’s key role in resolving strife and misunderstandings among peoples, and of course again the importance of culture in all its senses: artistic, sociological and political. Unesco is a place where, in the best of times, poetry and politics find synergies.
At midday, President Higgins buttressed the efforts of Irish entrepreneurs trading with France when he joined forces with Enterprise Ireland for the Franco-Irish Business networking lunch. The evening saw a more casual encounter with a broad range of the Irish diaspora where ‘confessions’ were heard individually amid laughter and repartee.
On the Wednesday, French daily Liberation titled a profile piece ‘A Breath of Fresh Eire’, describing President Michael D as a “left-wing sociologist and poet” while lauding his human rights commitment and opposition to economic policies that victimise the poor.
Before leaving the City of Light on Thursday, the President took time to visit the magnificent mausoleum that is the Pantheon to Jean Monnet, one of the founding fathers of the European Union. Conveniently, this great building is in the Quartier Latin, just down the road from the centuries-old Irish College on Rue des Irlandais, now known officially as the Centre Culturel Irlandais, a prime beacon of the renewed Irish faith in culture as a source of identity and persuasion.
There was then a final embassy lunch for political and cultural friends of Ireland in France. New converts were surely made and the faith of others was deepened. All in a day’s work for our President of letters.
Séamas McSwiney is an Irish journalist living and working in Paris.
