In a statement, Mr Higgins said: \u201cServing as President of Ireland was a great privilege, and I would like to thank the people of Ireland for the warmth of reception which they gave to both Sabina and myself over the past 14 years.<\/p>\n
“How valuable it was to be able to join with them in engaging with the issues, projects, and ideas that will help us to achieve the best of our country and the best representation of Ireland and its values abroad \u2014 an inclusive citizenship and a creative society in a real Republic.<\/p>\n
“Gu\u00edm gach beannacht do mhuintir na h\u00c9ireann do\u2019n todhcha\u00ed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Higgins left the \u00c1ras yesterday with a guard of honour by a group from the charity Sanctuary Runners, of which he is a patron. <\/p>\n
The charity sees Irish people hosting running events alongside migrants and asylum seekers. They added that the gesture was “particularly important”, given recent tensions on the issue of migration.<\/p>\n
Monica Pumpkin, originally from Botswana, presented President Higgins and Sabina with a yellow rose each on behalf of Sanctuary Runners, symbolising friendship and joy.<\/p>\n
![\"President](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/4854669_4_articleinlinemobile_IRISH_20President_20_2019484557.jpg\" "\\"President")
President Michael D Higgins is gifted a flower whilst leaving \u00c1ras an Uachtar\u00e1n with his wife Sabina Higgins. A guard of honour was formed by the members of the Sanctuary Runners who wanted to show their appreciation for his support. Picture: Damien Eagers\/PA<\/p>\n
A former minister for arts, culture and the Gaeltacht; Mayor of Galway; senator; and TD who served a combined 25 years in Galway West, Mr Higgins’ election in a closely-fought 2011 campaign came amid the backdrop of a financial crash and an EU-IMF bailout.<\/p>\n
The crisis impacted his role as he cut short a 2013 state visit to Italy in order to sign emergency legislation to liquidate the Irish Bank Resolution Company (IBRC), the entity formed when Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide merged.<\/p>\n
He made history in 2014 when he paid the first state visit to Britain by an Irish president, where he stayed as a guest of Queen Elizabeth II and addressed both houses of parliament. In his toast during a state banquet hosted by Queen Elizabeth II at Windsor Castle, he described the trip as \u201ca very visible sign of the warmth and maturity of the relationship between our two countries\u201d.<\/p>\n
However, his foreign policy forays were not always as positive, and in late 2016, he faced criticism<\/a> for describing Fidel Castro as a \u201cgiant among global leaders\u201d in a statement marking the death of the former Cuban president.<\/p>\n Immensely popular throughout the end of what he had said would be his only term in office, Mr Higgins changed tack in 2018 and said that he would run for a second term. <\/p>\n He remains the most popular political leader in Ireland, according to polls \u2014 one in February showed 64% of people approved of his performance.<\/p>\n In the latter years of his presidency, Mr Higgins was never afraid to criticise the Government, particularly on housing.\u00a0<\/p>\n In June 2022, Mr Higgins branded the Irish housing crisis as a \u201cdisaster\u201d and our \u201cgreat, great, great failure<\/a>\u201d, adding that housing and the basic needs of society \u201cshould never have been left to the marketplace\u201d. He would become a most vocal and unrepentant critic<\/a> of Israel’s actions in Gaza, and would frequently be criticised by that country’s embassy.<\/p>\n Mr Higgins and his wife Sabina were scheduled to stay overnight in Dublin today and tomorrow for Ms Connolly\u2019s inauguration.\u00a0<\/p>\n But they were not the first resident of the Phoenix Park to head west. Their beloved Bernese mountain dog, Misneach, has already made the journey back west ahead of his owners\u2019 departure back to Rahoon, Co Galway, later this week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michael D Higgins has left \u00c1ras an Uachtar\u00e1n for the final time as President of Ireland, bringing to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":133153,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3656,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-133152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-catherine-connolly","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133152\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}