Rocking In The Castle With Michael D
Updated: 10:30am UK, Tuesday 08 April 2014
By David Blevins, Ireland Correspondent
"When will my time come?" is the title of one of his poems. Almost a century after Ireland secured its independence from Britain, the poetic president's time has come to pay a historic state visit to the next door neighbours.
Michael D Higgins is more than a poet. The 72-year-old head of state, who was born in Limerick and raised in County Clare, is a veteran champion of human rights, Irish arts and sport. He's affectionately known, the length and breadth of Ireland, as Michael D.
He was the first member of his family to attend university and lectured in politics in Galway and Illinois in the United States before running for office himself. He's arguably the most eclectic of the nine presidents in Ireland's history.
Don't be deceived by his grandfatherly appearance. The Irish President has fire in his bones. He's a recipient of the Sean MacBride International Peace Prize, has campaigned tirelessly for victims in Chile and Cambodia, and vigorously opposed the war in Iraq.
A former Labour government minister for arts, heritage and the Gaeltacht (Irish language), he helped to establish the country's first Irish language TV channel (TG4) and oversaw the removal of Section 31, which had censored Sinn Fein from Ireland's airwaves.
Anglo-Irish relations have changed beyond recognition since those days. Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness, now Northern Ireland's Deputy First Minister, will attend a state banquet in Windsor Castle during the president's official visit and meet the Queen for a second time.
Long before his installation as Ireland's ninth president, Michael D Higgins had been elected President of Galway Football Club. The Hollywood actor Martin Sheen, who studied in Galway University, describes the Republic's current head of state as a "dear friend".
His fan base includes the former chart-topping Saw Doctors. The band once wrote a song in his honour, entitled 'Michael D Rocking in the Dail (Parliament) Bar'. The military bands around Windsor may not be familiar with that particular track.
President Higgins and his wife Sabine have four days of engagements in the UK, four days which, according to Ireland's Foreign Minister Eamon Gilmore, "will not just write another chapter in Anglo-Irish relations but take us well into the book".
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