Ireland’s President-elect Michael D Higgins has vowed to lead the country in a necessary transformation away from values based on wealth.
After securing more than 1 million votes, the Labour veteran said he will be a President for all.
Mr Higgins said his seven year term as head of state will be defined by efforts to turn inclusion into reality.
The 70-year-old’s resounding victory was formally announced in Dublin Castle marking one of the most remarkable swings in support in an election.
In an impassioned and powerful speech, he set the tone for his presidency with a pledge to lead a sea change in the values of society.
“I love our shared island, our shared Ireland and its core decency. I love it for its imagination and its celebration of the endless possibilities for our people,” he said.
“As we leave behind a narrow revisionism that valued a person for what was assumed to be their accumulated wealth but neglected the connection between the person, the social, the community and the nation. That is what we all leave behind now for which a million people have given me a mandate.
Mr Higgins success, secured after transfers from four counts, is the largest total in an Irish presidential election.
“Now we must respond collectively and co-operatively for what we all must recognise as our shared problems – be it unemployment, mortgage distress or any form of exclusion,” he said.
“We must now work to our strengths at home and abroad. Not only co-operatively and collectively but sustainably for the benefit of all our of our present generations and those to come.
“The necessary transformation of which I speak and of which my presidency will be a part is built on turning creative possibilities into living realities for all our people.”
Mr Higgins, a poet, professor and campaigner, will be inaugurated on November 11.
He said that he felt the campaign had been ageist at times.
The victory came after one of the most remarkable political comebacks ever. He seized an unprecedented 15% swing in support following the spectacular implosion of his biggest rival, independent Sean Gallagher, on live television in the final days of the campaign.
Sinn Fein’s Martin McGuinness, who finished third in the poll, said: “It’s been a real privilege and honour for me to stand for the presidency of my country.
“He is (Mr Higgins) is a man of great intellectual capacity and man of huge heart and I’ve every confidence that he will be one of Ireland’s finest presidents.”
One of his first aims is to hold presidential seminars with the first focusing on youth issues of social inclusion, employment, emigration and suicide.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny also attended the declaration and said Mr Higgins will be an outstanding President.
Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore (deputy prime minister) and Labour leader described Mr Higgins as the life, and the soul, of the party.
Mr Higgins said he has no intention of serving a second term.
He said that one of the toughest things in the campaign was questions over his physical fitness while he was deeply moved by young people’s desire for a new Republic and elder people’s wish to create a new society for the young.
Mr Higgins also said he would continue efforts of outgoing President Mary McAleese to cement the work of the peace process in Northern Ireland.
He said he would engage with people and bring sophistication to what he called a “politics of memory” as plans are made to commemorate major historical events such as the 1916 Easter Rising and World War One.
President McAleese said: “His success in the Presidential election marks the start of an exciting chapter for our country, our global Irish family and for the Higgins family.”
Two candidates who polled poorly, Gay Mitchell of the ruling coalition party Fine Gael and independent Mary Davis, broke with protocol and did not attend the formal declaration.
Mr Higgins said: “The reconnection of society, economy and ethics is a project we cannot postpone.
“I have encountered in this long campaign an enthusiasm for an Irishness that will be built on recognising again those sources from which spring the best of our reason and curiosity.
“But even more important the powerful instinct for decency which must be at the heart of a real Republic.
“The celebration of the power of the collective in pursuit of the best of ourselves and built too on the power of culture, science and technology delivered through the contemporary genius of our people.
“Ireland has made its choice for the future and it has chosen the version of Irishness it will build.
“I know, and I will work with head and heart to be part of it with all of you in creating that future one in which all of us can be part of and part of us too.”
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