Posted 30 March 2012
President Michael D Higgins honoured by UCD Law Society
The President of Ireland, Michael D Higgins has been awarded the Vice-Presidency of the UCD Law Society.
Before receiving the award, President Higgins addressed hundreds of students and invited guests who turned out to hear him speak at University College Dublin.
“The exciting people, the genuinely original people, the innovative people, are people who are able to draw the different sources of knowledge and wonderment together,” said President Higgins speaking of scholarship and discovery.
President Michael D Higgins speaking at University College
Dublin
During his address, President Higgins encouraged students to embrace “the whole world of scholarship and none of the narrowness that has brought us to our present position.”
“I wish you all the openness, the generosity of it, and you will find in that divine within yourself the inspiration to be able to handle the horror moments, the weak moments, the moments of stress and agony, and you will be able to look at the other person and see that it isn’t yourself you’re looking for a reflection of, but a fellow citizen,” he said.
| Excerpt from address by President of Ireland, Michael D Higgins' to the UCD Law Society: |
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The President discussed the idea of ‘hope’ as the ‘identification of the realisable possibility in every life’.
“A realisable possibility when one life and its prospects are placed alongside another life.”
He highlighted the importance of “thinking” and “ethics”.
In his closing remarks, President Higgins asked students to question what he called ‘false inevitabilities’ and to find the ‘inspiration’ within themselves to take their first steps in the journey of hope, and live a life of the emotions, able to think as well as to reason.
(Produced by UCD University Relations)
