Higgins appeal for country to reject ‘ridiculous’ ageism

PRESIDENT Michael D Higgins has urged the nation to reject ageism – admitting he doesn’t agree with the use of the word “cocooning”.

The 79-year-old yesterday told how his background in sociology has taught him it is “ridiculous” to categorise people by age rather than capability.

He explained: “One of the things that I’m very, very anxious about.. I did express my concern with the way that people were speaking about older people.

“It’s very, very important that we not fall into any ageism. For example, I myself wouldn’t use what I would call this word ‘cocoon’. I don’t like it personally.

“Why? Because my background is in sociology and one of the things is that it’s really ridiculous to be using chronological age for large categories of people.

“People have different circumstances, but they also differ in terms of capacities and so on.”

As we enter a third month of social distancing, the

President also encouraged the nation to try to maintain our traditional sense of warmth and kindness – but from afar.

Speaking to Woman’s Way, he said: “One of the things that would be a great pity is that if the behaviour that’s forced on us now because of circumstance – distance from each other, isolation and so on – we must make sure that isn’t and will not become the dominant behaviour into the future.

“When I was poet, I remember writing about it, under great pressure of emigration, often hard economic facts, it took us a while to shake off the coldness that had crept into our culture. It would be a great loss if we reverted in any way to that.”