About
Michael D. Higgins was born in Limerick and raised in County Clare. The first in his family to access higher education, he studied at University College Galway, the University of Manchester, and Indiana University. He was a statutory lecturer in political science and sociology at NUI Galway. A Labour Party member, he served in Dáil Éireann from 1981 to 2011 and was Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht from 1993 to 1997, establishing TG4 and reviving the Irish Film Board. Elected President of Ireland in 2011, he was re-elected in 2018, serving until 2025. A published poet, he received the Seán MacBride Peace Prize in 1992 and the Bob Hughes Lifetime Achievement Award in 2025.
* 1941-04-18
Major works
- The Betrayal (1990)poetry
- The Season of Fire (1993)poetry
- An Arid Season (2004)poetry
- New and Selected Poems (2011)poetry
- Against All Certainty (2025)poetry
Key milestones
- 1992First recipient of the Seán MacBride Peace Prize (International Peace Bureau, Helsinki)
- 2011Inaugurated as ninth President of Ireland on 11 November
- 2025Receives the Bob Hughes Lifetime Achievement Award at the Irish Book Awards
Themes
Social justiceHuman rightsCulture and artsPeaceIrish identity
Sources: president.ie · poetryinternational.com · irishbookawards.ie
