Michael D’s health highlights US plight

HOPEFULLY, President Michael D Higgins will recover quickly from the illness that befell him last Thursday and required him to be rushed to hospital by ambulance.

A statement yesterday evening confirmed that he will remain in hospital this week so that his blood pressure can be monitored. Better safe than sorry. Hopefully he will back at Áras an Uachtaráin in double-quick time and back at his desk and on the job too.

When President Higgins stood for re-election in 2018, he bridled at questions about his age and whether he would be able to maintain the level of engagement and activity he had shown during his first term in office.

Those who had the temerity to ask such questions were described as ‘ageist’. But he will be 83 next month, an age when many people are retired for at least a decade. And it is reality that people of that age tire more quickly than they would have in earlier stages of their lives and that they can be more prone to health scares. It would be dishonest to say otherwise.

The job is a busy one, if not necessarily a full-time one. Higgins, who has been praised by many for the work he has done and enjoys the approval of most of the public, across all ages, has been very active in performing his duties both public and private. But it must take a toll.

It also calls more attention to the situation across the Atlantic in the United States. The presidency there is an extraordinarily demanding full-time job, with enormous decisions to be made regularly. The public performances of both incumbent Joe Biden and his rival Donald Trump – rambling and often making little sense – highlight the fact that while we are living longer and better, there comes a time when the baton has to be handed on to somebody else.