Former president Michael D Higgins has sharply criticised the Department of Foreign Affairs for allegedly leaking information against him and misrepresenting him during his 14 years in Áras an Uachtaráin.
Higgins was also fiercely critical of the European Commission, saying its approach to the conflict in Gaza had put the future of the EU in question, and said he would not go to Doonbeg to meet Donald Trump if he were still president.
The US president may visit his Irish resort in September when it hosts the Irish Open golf tournament, though no arrangements have been finalised.
The comments by former president Higgins were part of a lengthy interview in the Sunday Independent.
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The paper said Higgins gave “several instances” of leaking against him by officials in the Department of Foreign Affairs. He cited criticism of remarks made by him in an interview in Le Monde in 2013 in advance of a visit to France, details of which were revealed afterwards by The Irish Times.
He was also stung by criticism of his refusal to attend a ceremony in Armagh in 2021 commemorating the foundation of Northern Ireland.
On each occasion, Higgins suggested officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs were leaking against him or were critical of him.
Because of the diplomatic aspects of the president’s role, the Áras has traditionally had a strong relationship with the Department of Foreign Affairs. However, Higgins clearly feels he was traduced by its officials. He also suggested there was leaking against the current President, Catherine Connolly, and against Ministers.
“It’s all very subtle,” Higgins said. “It isn’t just presidents, past and current, who are suffering from that leaking tendency, but the Ministers.”
Higgins added there were also “very fine officials” in the department, naming former secretary general Noel Dorr, but the Sunday Independent said he “firmly believes the department now needs to be reined in”.
Dorr retired from the department in the mid-1990s. The department declined to comment on Higgins’s remarks.
However, one senior official familiar with interactions between the former president and the department rejected Higgins’ view of them, suggesting the department had “protected” Higgins over the years, “mostly from himself”.
Higgins said it “wouldn’t have been on my agenda” to go to Doonbeg to meet president Trump if he came for the Irish Open.
“He’s coming to wave a golf stick around. It would have presented me with no problem,” he said.
“I haven’t refused, during my 14 years, to meet different people. I don’t want to create the slightest difficulty for my successor, but the point is that it wouldn’t have been on my agenda to go down.
“It would have been a very significant waste of my time to have gone to Doonbeg.”
On Gaza, Higgins said the EU’s response had been “disastrous”.
“The commission in Europe has been so bad that it has actually put the very existence of the European Union and the future in danger. It has been very, very seriously damaged,” he said.
