Ireland has probably
the most anti-American head of state in the western world.
The Irish President, Michael D. Higgins,
was for decades
the leader of anti-American
politics in the Irish parliament.
He protested against the US Presidential visit to Ireland in 1984.
He protested against the US Presidential visit to Ireland in 2004.
He was Ireland's leading anti-American
when he was elected to the (largely ceremonial) office of President (head of state).
In office, he has radically scaled back on his anti-Americanism,
but he continues to find ways to annoy us
and even disgrace us (Castro).
Instead, Michael D. supported the communist regime of
Michael D. quotes the communist dictator Castro
in the Dail, 2 February, 1999:
"I recall making a documentary in Rio during the United Nations conference on economics and development when the most moving statement was made by Fidel Castro in a short speech. He said: "Let us pay the debt to humanity before the debt to the banks." Regardless of whether one agrees with him, it explicitly put the right to life expressed internationally above the right to debts.".
Michael D. protests the awarding of an honorary Doctorate to
U.S. President Ronald Reagan at UCG.
June 4, 1984.
When Reagan visited Ireland in 1984, Michael D. spoke at an anti-US protest where the American flag was burnt.
From Irish Times, June 5, 1984.
An FMLN guerilla
spoke at this protest.
Michael D. and his colleagues later said in the Senate,
28 June 1984,
that they disapproved of the flag burning.
Prime Minister of Estonia,
who grew up under communist oppression,
gives a different view to Michael D. Higgins, who knew only freedom.
recalls how happy and uplifted the oppressed millions
of the Soviet Empire were
when US President Ronald Reagan called the Soviet Union an "Evil Empire"
It gave them all hope that some day they would be free.
It was the first time they saw their Soviet oppressors afraid of anyone.
He says it was the beginning of the end of the Soviet Union.
"General Secretary Gorbachev,
if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity
for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization:
Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" Ronald Reagan
at the Berlin Wall, 1987.
Thanks to Reagan, the wall came down in 1989,
and Europe was free.
The Soviets failed.
Truly, Reagan was the greatest of all American Presidents.
In the 1980s,
Michael D. supported
the communist regime of
Michael D. warmly welcomed to Ireland
Nicaragua's communist leader
Whereas Reagan, who liberated Europe from communism, was not welcome.
November 10, 1984,
defends Nicaragua, and says the elections that the communists won were fair.
He describes Nicaragua as "a pluralist democracy".
In the Senate,
20 March, 1985,
he describes Nicaragua as
"a small country that has recently thrown off the shackles of dictatorship
In every sphere - health, education, welfare, housing - its achievements have been enormous. It is a society which is transforming itself.".
He promotes the idea of inviolable
"In international law we have signed covenants that recognise the integrity of national territory, that accept sovereignty. Under international law the belligerence of the statements being made against Nicaragua are outrageous."
He asks for
"support for this democracy that may not exist should we ignore the challenges which are there to it now ... so that we might save people who have established democracy in the wake of the cruellest dictatorship of the century."
Michael D. hosts
Daniel Ortega in Ireland.
Quite a contrast to his reception for Reagan.
May 15, 1989.
Michael D. with
Thuggish military guys are exciting!
Michael D. with
From a fawning TG4 documentary worshipping Michael D., "Anamnocht", 25 Dec 2011.
Who is that behind them?
Tell me here.
Michael D.'s hero
is back in power in Nicaragua.
And oddly, he is not running a free country. Freedom House
only rate Nicaragua as
El Salvador, in contrast, is
Michael D.'s hero,
(on stage in white shirt)
and declared support for the Iranian revolution.
"Describing the Islamic Revolution of Iran and the revolution of Nicaragua in 1979 as 'twin revolutions',
the president said that they have similar goals of justice, freedom, sovereignty and peace." "Our struggle is similar to the campaigns of Iranian, Palestinian, African and Asian nations against imperialism."
Ortega expressed support for the Islamic terror
that Iran sponsors:
"Viva Iranian nation, Viva Islamic combatants".
right to the end in 2011.
Don't tell me Michael D. had poor judgement!
The Axis of Evil:
Michael D.'s hero
Daniel Ortega with his allies Hugo Chavez and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, Jan 2012.
Michael D., Irish Times,
September 25, 1992,
considers the 1992-93 Somali famine
that brave and selfless American troops
trying to stop.
Michael D. blames the famine not
on, say, Islam
but rather on ... Reagan and Thatcher!
He claims that the free market - not Islam or communism -
is "the most sinister violence of our times".
Michael D.'s response to 9/11 in 2001:
Beware mimicking the actions of the fanatic, Michael D. Higgins, 20 Sept 2001
After the insulting title, it gets worse.
"Rather than seeking to demonise, we have to try, however painful and difficult it may be, to seek to understand".
So "demonising" Islamists and jihadists is wrong?
Of course Higgins doesn't understand at all.
He thinks 9/11 was caused by despair,
rather than by hope and religious mania:
"The existence of pockets of despair
does not justify what has been visited upon workers and their families in the United States. Yet there are features of our world that are crucially related to the sources and threat of terrorist attack.
The despair of Palestinians, abandoned by the international community to refugee status since 1947; the continent of Africa, forced to repay debts of dictators and the puppets of colonial powers
And so on.
Michael D.'s anti-Americanism
came out in full flow with the start of the Iraq War under George W. Bush in 2003.
The Iraq War touched all the bases for leftie anti-Americans.
The US military in action again.
Under a Republican, not Democrat, President.
And against Middle-Eastern Muslims.
All the ingredients were there for offensive and myopic anti-Americanism from Michael D.
Michael D. went well beyond merely
opposing the Iraq War.
He described the brave American military as criminal.
He accused them of war crimes.
The short Iraq War that deposed the genocidal butcher Saddam Hussein in 2003:
Michael D. met Tariq Aziz
(Iraq's deputy prime minister)
on 27 January 2003 in Baghdad,
discussing how to avoid war
and hence keep him and his regime in power.
Luckily, they failed.
(In fairness, Michael D.
was part of a larger delegation from the
Irish parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee.)
by John Fay, January 31, 2003,
quotes Michael D. Higgins as saying in the Irish Voice in Jan 2003
that the US is about to "wage war on a civilian population".
Michael D. in the Dail,
12 March, 2003,
slanders the Americans by saying they are
about to slaughter the Iraqi population:
"by the time this House returns on Tuesday, 25 March it is possible that up to one million mothers may be affected by war, there may be 100,000 direct casualties and 400,000 secondary ones".
Being anti-war means never having to say you're sorry,
Anne Marie O'Connor,
New Ross Standard, Apr 17 2003
- on the liberation of Iraq.
She criticises people like Michael D.
"We all saw the scenes. The utter joy, the scenes of uncensored jubilation. Indeed, watching the euphoria
did wonders for the soul.
So you would think that the entire free world looked at the images of a liberated Baghdad with relief
and with joy. After all, we hadn't seen such a spectacle of repressive regime-bashing since the fall of the
Berlin Wall. Statues were pulled down, Saddam posters torn to shreds, and finally, people were able to
speak their minds."
Michael D. regards the liberation of Iraq as a crime,
Dail, 16 April 2003.
"It was on this population that people decided to use the instruments of war.
I look back now at all that has been said during this Dáil term regarding this awful and appalling war. To the war mongers who celebrate and suggest we were wrong because not enough people were killed to fulfil our predictions, I say that any loss of life for the kind of project being pursued was a disgrace and a blot on the morality of us all."
"revulsion at the illegal, pre-emptive attack on Iraq"
(the one that toppled Saddam).
Revulsion at the ongoing butchery of the Iraq jihad (the ones doing all the killing)
is notably absent.
He is appalled by
"the complicity of the Irish Government in the war by allowing the use of Shannon airport"
by ... the allies!
It must be great to be a jihadist.
You can kill and slaughter away, and the western left will never get angry with you.
They will get more and more angry with America.
issues a statement on 6 Jan 2006 that
"This has been one of the bloodiest weeks in the recent history of the Iraq conflict with hundreds of lives lost in bomb attacks and ongoing fighting."
And then who does he get angry with?
The Iraqi jihadist bombers are not even mentioned!
"Michael D Higgins .. said new figures showing that over 300,000 US troops passed through Shannon airport in 2005 will outrage the Irish public".
Pigs will fly before a myopic leftie
like Higgins will make a speech about the long history of violence
within Islam, and how Iraqi jihadists are responsible for their own slaughters.
Michael D. Higgins
at an anti-US protest, Mar 2006.
They stand in front of signs portraying America as demonic
and U.S. President Bush as a monster.
They are supporting Irish
Deirdre Clancy (centre),
who attacked a U.S. military plane at Shannon airport.
See large size.
Can you imagine a Tea Party Republican Presidential visit
with either of these two anti-Americans as Irish President?
Michael D. Higgins opposes the brave allied effort in Iraq, Feb 2007.
Michael D. had a spat with counterjihad hero
Mark Steyn in 2004.
Steyn was being syndicated as an "alternative" voice in the left-wing Irish Times for a while,
spoiling Michael D.'s breakfast.
For US to be 'insensitive' to certain cultures is not necessarily a bad thing
Mark Steyn, Irish Times, May 10, 2004.
Steyn considers Bush's apology for the
Abu Ghraib incident
(which killed nobody).
"to be coerced into apologizing more generally is very foolish.
What happened at Abu Ghraib
is terrible because it's an offense to American values, not Arab ones.
It's ridiculous to insist that America has to apologize to Arab thugocracies in which
what's merely simulated in those photographs is done for real every day of the week."
Why I cannot share the outrage over Abu Ghraib, Mark Steyn, Irish Times, May 17, 2004.
"I cannot share the "outrage" over Abu Ghraib of some at this paper
And, as I endeavoured to explain last week, most Americans don't share the "outrage". ...
As Senator Zell Miller, a Democrat, put it: "Why is it that there's more indignation over a photo of a prisoner with underwear on his head than over the video of a young American with no head at all?"
The best rule of politics is this: Don't make the perfect the enemy of the good."
Michael D. attacks Steyn's column
in the Dail,
20 May 2004:
"Repeatedly this column of bigotry, homophobia and racism that is presented every Monday
contains attacks on what we call the basic decencies on some principle of balance.
The editor of that newspaper would want to indicate to me what she is balancing
when she produces material like that.
In The Irish Times Mark Steyn said there had been more fuss about a man with woman's underwear
over his head than about a man who had no head at all. This is typical of the
slick, degrading, immoral rubbish which is being propounded every Monday in that newspaper."
Higgins' spluttering incoherence ("homophobia"?),
his utter inability to address Steyn's arguments,
and his thinly veiled call for censorship,
shows the intellectual poverty of the Irish left.
It was amusing watching the innocent
trying to deal with a full-on neo-con like Steyn.
It was obvious they never even heard of Steyn
before he dropped
like a bomb into the complacent, insular waters of their Irish Times.
They have probably never even heard of most of
these writers either.
To Irish lefties like Higgins,
the neo-conservatives are from another planet.
The Irish left don't read them
and don't understand them.
They only read their own - which is why their opinions are so narrow and insular.
Steyn was eventually expelled from the Irish Times, and no doubt peace returned to
Michael D.'s breakfast table.
Michael D. declares that the American President is
"not welcome in Ireland"
on his visit to Ireland in 2004.
Michael D., you don't speak for me.
25 June 2004.
See his rabid press release:
"About a thousand youngsters from the U.S. and Britain have given their lives for the George Bush, Dick Cheney and the Neo Conservative clique who dominate the White House.
... this illegal war - a war justified on a unique mountain of lies to parliaments in the U.S. and the U.K. ...
The truth we wish to declare today, on behalf of the Irish people, is that the author of this war, George Bush is not welcome.
... Your War is wrong
.. all war is wrong
and on all of these grounds George Bush, you are not welcome in Ireland."
Anti-American groups welcome Higgins as President, 10 Nov 2011.
The "Irish Anti War Movement" is
The America-bashing was drastically scaled back when Michael D. became President.
It was not as bad as I feared.
However, he did find occasions to shame Ireland
by indulging his love for leftist tyrants.
Michael D. Higgins feels free, as President, to pay tribute to anti-American thug Hugo Chavez of Venezuela on his death, Mar 2013:
"I was very sorry to hear of the death, after a long illness, of president Hugo Chávez of Venezuela.
President Chávez achieved a great deal during his term in office, particularly in the area of social development and poverty reduction.
My thoughts and best wishes are also with the people of Venezuela as they come to terms with this sad news."
Michael D. Higgins despised elected U.S. Presidents Reagan and Bush.
He declared Bush was "not welcome in Ireland".
But he is happy to meet with the unelected dictatorship of China.
Thuggish dictators are exciting!
Michael D. protested the visits of elected U.S. Presidents Reagan and Bush to Ireland.
the unelected Vice-President of China, is fine.
Here is Michael D. welcoming the Vice-President of China, Feb 2012.
From Chinese state TV (which has more images), 21 Feb 2012.
Search for more images
of this shameful event.
Chinese state propaganda, 21 Feb 2012 (click to play) uses Michael D. Higgins as he amorally welcomes the Chinese Vice-President. "Higgins, for his part, said Xi's visit is of vital significance, noting that Ireland appreciates China's achievements and values its friendship."
again meets Xi Jinping, now the (still unelected) President of China, Dec 2014.
The Irish Times calls it a
"meeting of minds and kindred spirits
when President Michael D Higgins emerged, he expressed his admiration for Chinese leader Xi Jinping's sharpness and intellectual breadth."
Michael D. lectures American presidents, not Chinese ones.
President Michael D. Higgins disgraced Ireland in Nov 2016 by praising
Cuban dictator Fidel Castro at his death.
Michael D. Higgins
expresses his condolences to the communist tyranny of Cuba in Nov 2016 on the death of Castro. His statement
"I have learned with great sadness of the death of Fidel Castro
Fidel Castro will be remembered as a giant among global leaders whose view was not only one of freedom for his people
but for all of the oppressed and excluded peoples on the planet."
How dare you, Michael D.
What a shameful day for Ireland.
What a disgrace.
Who I block:
I will debate almost anyone.
I love ideas.
I will not debate (and will block) people who:
(a) target my job,
(b) target my appearance, or:
(c) libel me (such as call me racist).
I will not debate such people.
I will block them.