THERE’S huge support across the island of Ireland for our President, Michael D Higgins, who brings a dignity and gravitas to the role that other world leaders can only dream of.

But since his election in 2011, he has regularly come in for criticism from the media in Ireland – and in Dublin in particular – over his refusal to play the expected role of mute government facilitator. 

Things came to ludicrous and almost surreal pass in July 2022 when his wife, Sabrina, was savaged in the press for daring to suggest that a ceasefire in Ukraine might be worth working towards. If the President’s liberal and humane view of war and conflict can be undermined via his family, then there would be no media hesitation in going down that route. It was a telling indicator of the discomfort that warmongers and NATO fans in the coalition and its cheerleaders feel every time the President diverges from the official Western and European line on geopolitics.

President Higgins is again being slated – this time for his intervention on the war in the Middle East, and specifically his courageous decision to challenge European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on her outrageous – and unilateral – decision to offer unconditional support to Israel in its prosecution of vile war crimes in Gaza.

“I very much agree with those who have criticised the statement by the president of the Commission,” said President Higgins. “I think one is seeing this as a thoughtless and even reckless set of actions and I don’t think this is helpful.”

The usual suspects in the Fianna Fáil/Fine Gael-friendly southern media resorted to the by now familiar tactic of criticising the President for speaking outside the remit of his office, rather than offer any meaningful rebuttal of his von der Leyen takedown. But in the face of hostility from predictable sources, President Higgins has shown a sure-footed confidence, continuing to speak out against injustice to the absolute limit of his powers – and he has again come out on top. Mrs von der Leyen has come under massive pressure as other EU leaders begin to question the arrogance of her stance on Palestine and Israel and she is now in a battle to hold on to her job. President Higgins is living proof of the truth of Martin Luther King Jnr’s words when he said: “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.”

On a micro-level, those of us who are four-square behind the Palestinian people’s long and brave struggle for justice face a similar challenge from those who would argue that waving a Palestinian flag or attending justice for Palestine demos, such as the large one in the city centre on Sunday, is tantamount to a declaration of support for the war crimes committed by Hamas on October 7. 

In the wake of the horrific death toll at the Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza on Tuesday, it is incumbent on us all to step up our demand for peace with justice. And neither of those can be achieved while Israel’s brutal occupation continues.