Politics & Power Quote by Michael D. Higgins

Higgins is doing the most Irish thing imaginable: turning a constitutional office with limited executive muscle into a moral stage, then inviting the whole island and its far-flung family onto it. The line is classic inauguration rhetoric, but its craftsmanship is in the way it mixes the universal with the intimate. "All the people" is the broad civic blanket; "whether they voted for me or not" is the obligatory salve for partisan bruises. Then he narrows the camera: "young or old" and, pointedly, "particularly for the Irish abroad". That last turn isn’t a throwaway nod to expats; it’s the subtextual thesis.

In modern Ireland, the diaspora is not just sentimental mythology. It’s an economic engine (remittances, investment, tourism), a political constituency at the level of influence if not always formal voting rights, and a living archive of emigration driven by poverty and, later, opportunity. By prioritizing "the Irish abroad", Higgins signals a presidency that treats belonging as something larger than residency and citizenship paperwork. He’s also quietly positioning himself as a cultural diplomat: someone who can speak in the language of identity, memory, and return, where hard policy isn’t available.

The final flourish, "exciting and wonderful", reads almost disarmingly optimistic. It’s not naivete so much as branding: a promise that the presidency will be affective, visible, and human-scaled. In a time when politics often markets toughness, Higgins sells tenderness as a form of national confidence.