Higgins refuses to say if he will run for presidency

Labour TD Michael D. Higgins last night refused to commit himself as a candidate for November's presidential election.

Mr Higgins said the decision to contest the election was a matter in the first instance for the Labour Party.

Its national executive is expected to make a decision on September 16th.

He said yesterday:

"I have always said the public would be best served by there being a contest for the presidency, but I have not said I would be a contestant."

He said he would have to take into account his own personal circumstances and the fact that he had had two knee replacement operations in June and had been on crutches all summer.

When asked what he would do if the national executive asked him to run for election, Deputy Higgins said that was a hypothesis.

He was speaking on the occasion of the launch of his third book of poetry at the Galway Arts Centre last night.

The collection, entitled An Arid Season, was launched by Glenstal Abbey monk and author, Mark Patrick Hederman.

The collection was written over a 10-year period and is reflective of the changes that were taking place during that period, not just in the poet's life, but in the world at large.

"It was a time when I often felt that language was losing its meaning. Life was being commodified in all its aspects; values seemed out of fashion," he explained.

Launching the book, Mark Patrick Hederman said Mr Higgins had campaigned tirelessly for human rights in countries like Turkey, Nicaragua, Peru, Iraq and Somalia, and had fought against dogmatic blueprints for our future, wherever they came from.

Mr Hederman said Deputy Higgins had managed to combine two almost antagonistic lives - those of the poet and the politician.

• Published by New Island, An Arid Season follows Mr Higgins's The Betrayal and The Season of Fire.