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Michael D. Higgins has just been elected President of Ireland. Michael D. is a very well-known character in Irish political life. Before his public career he was a lecturer in Sociology and Politics at NUI Galway (UCG as was), and before that he studied at Indiana. Maybe Fabio can dig up an archival photo. (He was also a visiting faculty member at Carbondale—there used to be a little pipeline of Irish sociologists to and from there.) In its pre-election profile, the Irish Times noted that while he was “widely liked and respected within politics” and that “his bohemian tinges should sit well with the current anti-establishment mood of the electorate” (Michael D. is also a poet), his weaknesses include “a tendency to ramble and speak too long and sometimes, to resort to sociological jargon”.