The Twee man (A veteran left-wing human rights activist) steals show in Irish presidential race

[kpete]

Source: Independent UK

The Twee man steals show in Irish presidential race
He started as favourite, lost the lead to a celebrity but staged a comeback after a TV showdown

David McKittrick
Sunday, 30 October 2011
AP

Michael D Higgins is congratulated by his wife, Sabina, after his victory


A veteran left-wing human rights activist and campaigner for the arts declared himself yesterday to be "a little overwhelmed" on becoming Ireland's President in waiting after a campaign notable for mud-slinging and unprecedented volatility among voters. Michael D Higgins will be inaugurated on Armistice Day, 11 November, the day after Mary McAleese, the serving President, leaves office.

Mr Higgins, a 70-year-old poet and member of the Irish Labour Party, was elected by a handsome margin, although a few days before votes were cast on Thursday, he was trailing a previously unknown candidate.

The irony is that Irish voters, who throughout the campaign were clearly seeking a person of independence because of widespread disillusion with politics, wound up electing a figure from one of the conventional parties.

However, the new president is regarded as a fairly unconventional politician, noticeably to the left in Irish terms. He is something of an iconoclast, has a pronounced independent streak and is by no means a creature of the establishment.

Read more: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/the-twee-man-steals-show-in-irish-presidential-race-2377774.html

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a poet, a poet,
a poet.....

more links:
Michael D. Higgins, a 70-year-old poet and politician, was elected Ireland's new president on Saturday.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/29/world/europe/ireland-presidential-election/
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2055197/Irish-presidential-election-2011-Tweet-changed-course-just-bit-fun.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
http://blogs.voanews.com/breaking-news/2011/10/29/ex-culture-minister-elected-as-new-irelands-new-president/
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2011/1031/1224306806812.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/28/michael-d-higgins-ireland-president?intcmp=239

[DeSwiss]

1. Yes! A Poet!!!

- Now we're getting somewhere....

K&R

"Chaos is what we've lost touch with. This is why it is given a bad name. It is feared by the dominant archetype of our world, which is Ego, which clenches because its existence is defined in terms of control. The real truth that dare not speak itself is that no one is in control, absolutely no one. This stuff is ruled by the equations of dynamics and chaos. There may be entities seeking control, but to seek control is to take enormous aggravation upon yourself. It's like trying to control a dream."

~Terence McKenna, "Dreaming Awake at the End of Time"

Rise like Lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number,
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you-
Ye are many — they are few"

~Percy Bysshe Shelley

[Bigmack]

2. Indeed YES a poet!

Ah sure don't you know, let's hear it for the olde sod! MY IRELAND. Molly

[Hardrada]

3. W.B. Yeats was a member of the Irish Parliament in the 1920's.

We need more poets in politics. The skalds in old Norse times were poets and warriors.

[red dog 1]

4. I Wish Higgins Was Our President in waiting!

[AverageJoe90]

5. Alright. Congrats to Mr. Higgins.

Erin go bragh! :)

[pampango]

6. Good for Ireland. n/t