The nearly 13-minute-long message saw the President speak about a wide range of topics.
Michael D. Higgins has delivered his final Christmas message of his term as President of Ireland, as a new president is set to be elected next year.
And in the nearly 13-minute-long message, President Higgins spoke about a wide range of topics, including climate change, emigration and the ongoing wars in Gaza, Sudan and Ukraine.
He began by saying: “As President of Ireland, may I offer to each and every one of you my warmest greetings and my best wishes for a peaceful and happy Christmas.
“On this occasion, as I offer you all what will be the final Christmas message of my terms as Uachtarán na hÉireann, I recall the values that I stressed in my first Christmas Message in 2011.
“The ethical values I invoked as project for all of us – building a just and inclusive society that ensures the participation of all of our citizens – are surely as valid today as they were then, retaining a capacity to go to the hearts of Irish people wherever scattered they may be as they celebrate this season.”
He continued:
“At Christmas, many families will be welcoming the homecomings of many of our Irish community abroad. But there are those of course who for different reasons are unable to travel home, but whose connection with family and friends remains so strong.
“In the same spirit, I think of all those who have moved to live with us and make a new home in Ireland, our new citizens and those who have sought asylum here – those seeking refuge, those searching for a life free from fear and persecution, or who, like so many of our Irish over the generations, simply wish for a better life.
“May they, this Christmas season, all feel both welcome and kindness while separated from their own families around the world. Their new home does not require any forgetting of their home cultures or families.
“Let us have in our thoughts too those for whom Christmas is a difficult and emotional time of the year, those who are homeless, those who have experienced recent losses, those who are ill or who have loved ones who are having difficulties, and the many others in our society who may be in need of real and practical support.”
Discussing many of the challenges facing the world currently, he also said:
“In 2024 we find ourselves in circumstances in which it is not sufficient nor morally acceptable that any passivity, evasion or silence is offered in the face of multiple, interlocking crises across our world – food insecurity, malnutrition and global hunger, the consequences of climate change and biodiversity loss, rising global poverty and deepening inequality, and the domination of preparations for war over peace in the daily discourse.
“This Christmas, we are all too aware that far too many of our global family are having inflicted upon them as part of the most horrific circumstances of war, circumstances that less and less respect civilian rights and that force endless displacement.
“At the end of this year we think of all those who will be recalling all of these horrific events of recent times – the brutal attacks on civilians, including the taking of hostages, for whom so many families continue to anxiously await word of their safety, and as I speak, so many deaths of the most vulnerable remind us of what was released by way of a response, a response that has transcended all of the boundaries of humanitarian law.
“The silence of many of those with influence in the face of gross violations of the human rights of civilians is conferring an impunity on those who are flagrantly inflicting collective punishment on civilians, including starvation which, as I speak, is affecting most of all women and children.
“For all of the people in Gaza, now a crucible of suffering for children and their families – 45,000 dead, 17,000 of them children, 11,000 perhaps under the rubble. For those in Ukraine, who have now endured over 1,000 days of war. Or Sudan, where some 25 million people — more than half of the country’s population — are facing acute hunger this year.
“Given all of these circumstances, the painful lessons of history and our hopes for the future must surely persuade us to strive, with urgency, for a world where diplomacy triumphs over endless preparation for war, where the pursuit of peace is a shared objective with far greater resonance than is present at the moment in the discourse.”
President Higgins paid tribute to the Irish Defence Forces, particularly those in Lebanon, saying their “contribution to peace-building and protecting some of the most vulnerable members of our shared global family is an example of Irishness and its values at its best”.
President Michael D. Higgins has released his Christmas Message for 2024. You can watch the President's Message at https://t.co/rXkILBA68L or read it at https://t.co/P2y1ezx8sq pic.twitter.com/pb3HUB9TMg
— President of Ireland (@PresidentIRL) December 20, 2024
The President also urged people to be grateful “to all those who work in our hospitals and emergency services, to those attending to the needs of the homeless, the vulnerable and the marginalised, and to all those who so generously give up so much of their Christmas to serve the needs of others.”
He praised the Olympians and Paralympians who represented Ireland with “such distinction” in Paris last summer and thanked the many who sent messages of good wishes for the health of him and his wife Sabina earlier this year.
On the latter, he added: “Your warmth and encouragement was deeply appreciated by us both.”
Concluding his message, President Higgins said: “In my first Christmas Message, in 2011, I said: ‘We are a country of which there is much to be proud; whose possibilities are still to be fully imagined and realised and whose people I am honoured to serve’.
“As I enter this 14th and final year as President of Ireland, it remains the greatest honour and privilege to serve you, the people of Ireland. I look forward immensely to continuing to do so over the coming year.
“During my terms in Office, both Sabina and I have experienced and valued the warmth and friendship of people both at home and abroad. We have witnessed the resilience, compassion, creativity, empathy and kindness of Irish people in so many different ways. It is something we so deeply appreciate and we will always cherish.
“And so, as we pass the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, let us look to the future with hope, recalling our shared vulnerabilities this Christmas, resolving to forge together a renewed sense of solidarity, drawing inspiration from the enduring message of hope that lies at its heart.
“During this Christmas season, may we find an opportunity to deepen our understanding and accept the responsibility of what it means to live together in harmony and to take seriously our responsibilities to each other and to the world we share.
“Sabina joins me in wishing all the people of Ireland a joyful Christmas and a peaceful New Year.”
You can watch the President’s Christmas message below:
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