{"id":430568,"date":"2026-05-03T18:22:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-03T18:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/430568\/"},"modified":"2026-05-03T18:22:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-03T18:22:09","slug":"michael-d-higgins-criticises-foreign-affairs-staff-over-alleged-leaks-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/430568\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael D Higgins criticises foreign affairs staff over alleged leaks \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former president Michael D Higgins<\/a> has sharply criticised the Department of Foreign Affairs<\/a> for allegedly leaking information against him and misrepresenting him during his 14 years in \u00c1ras an Uachtar\u00e1in. <\/p>\n

Higgins was also fiercely critical of the European Commission<\/a>, saying its approach to the conflict in Gaza<\/a> had put the future of the EU in question, and said he would not go to Doonbeg to meet Donald Trump<\/a> if he were still president.<\/p>\n

The US president may visit his Irish resort in September when it hosts the Irish Open golf tournament, though no arrangements have been finalised.<\/p>\n

The comments by former president Higgins were part of a lengthy interview in the Sunday Independent. <\/p>\n

The paper said Higgins gave \u201cseveral instances\u201d of leaking against him by officials in the Department of Foreign Affairs. He cited criticism of remarks made by him in an interview in Le Monde in 2013 in advance of a visit to France, details of which were revealed afterwards<\/a> by The Irish Times. <\/p>\n

He was also stung by criticism of his refusal to attend a ceremony in Armagh in 2021 commemorating the foundation of Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n

On each occasion, Higgins suggested officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs were leaking against him or were critical of him.<\/p>\n

Because of the diplomatic aspects of the president\u2019s role, the \u00c1ras has traditionally had a strong relationship with the Department of Foreign Affairs. However, Higgins clearly feels he was traduced by its officials. He also suggested there was leaking against the current President, Catherine Connolly, and against Ministers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all very subtle,\u201d Higgins said. \u201cIt isn\u2019t just presidents, past and current, who are suffering from that leaking tendency, but the Ministers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Higgins added there were also \u201cvery fine officials\u201d in the department, naming former secretary general Noel Dorr, but the Sunday Independent said he \u201cfirmly believes the department now needs to be reined in\u201d.<\/p>\n

Dorr retired from the department in the mid-1990s. The department declined to comment on Higgins\u2019s remarks. <\/p>\n

However, one senior official familiar with interactions between the former president and the department rejected Higgins\u2019 view of them, suggesting the department had \u201cprotected\u201d Higgins over the years, \u201cmostly from himself\u201d.<\/p>\n

Higgins said it \u201cwouldn\u2019t have been on my agenda\u201d to go to Doonbeg to meet president Trump if he came for the Irish Open.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s coming to wave a golf stick around. It would have presented me with no problem,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t refused, during my 14 years, to meet different people. I don\u2019t want to create the slightest difficulty for my successor, but the point is that it wouldn\u2019t have been on my agenda to go down.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would have been a very significant waste of my time to have gone to Doonbeg.\u201d <\/p>\n

On Gaza, Higgins said the EU\u2019s response had been \u201cdisastrous\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe commission in Europe has been so bad that it has actually put the very existence of the European Union and the future in danger. It has been very, very seriously damaged,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former president Michael D Higgins has sharply criticised the Department of Foreign Affairs for allegedly leaking information against…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":430569,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[3656,1844,969,1712,3409,42,977,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-430568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-catherine-connolly","tag-department-of-foreign-affairs","tag-donald-trump","tag-european-commission","tag-gaza-strip","tag-headlines","tag-michael-d-higgins","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430568","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=430568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430568\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/430569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}