Denise Chaila on Michael D. Higgins: "I hope to continue to benefit, as we all do, from the offerings that his mind has afforded us as a culture of people"

Denise Chaila:

I met President Higgins’ family, and it was a really beautiful thing to see how they and the team around him are supportive and warm. There was a lot of kindness in that room.

It was such an incredible contradiction. The sort of gravity and impressiveness of the Áras juxtaposed with the warmth and down-to-earth nature of the people who he has in his company. I met both of his grandchildren and both of the dogs were around at that time, so I met them too.

I took a little walk with the president and met his son, who had just had a baby. We had a chat before we got down to business. We exchanged some thoughts about politics and the state of the world and discovered that we were very, very politically compatible people!

There’s something really special about getting to know a poet who has become a politician or a politician who is a poet. I’m not sure which way round was more honest and true to his identity.

I think that poetry is the art of extreme empathy. When you’re talking to somebody who has that level of responsibility on their shoulders but also has an empathetic practice, you end up with a very special human being.

The poet in him has to have been fuel for the politician to truly thrive, because in a world where empathy is being considered a new age liberal tool for I don’t know what, there are still people among us who do not believe that community is negligible, who do not believe that humanity is disposable and who are practising that and using that to inform their lives.

I don’t think he is a nice man; I think he’s a kind man. And I think that there’s a really important distinction between those two things; niceness is often a performance.

It’s often a request or a covert request for the approval of others. It is an adherence to an understanding of the social norms that are going to make you look good in the eyes of other people.

Whereas kindness, I think, is a more difficult thing to do or become because kindness will make you the right enemy!

Denise Chaila with President Michael D Higgins. Copyright Miguel Ruiz.

There are two stories that really stood out when I spoke to him.

The first one being the story he told about being a young man in the Sahara Desert, sleeping amongst a camp of refugees under the stars. And every time I think about it, my heart kind of clenches because all I can see is him lying on his back with his head in the sand, looking at his eyes just littered with stars, surrounded by people who he doesn’t even share a language with.

He then told me about how he was in Turkey for a period of time, attending the trial of people who were being treated unfairly and who he wanted to bear witness to the judicial system on their behalf in order for them to have a glimmer of justice on the horizon.

I don’t see the president as anyone with any great ego. He’s really willing to just be there for those in need, for the Turkish people and for the refugees in the Sahara and for Leonard Cohen, all the same, you know.

It’s very telling that where there’s a threat of erasure, Michael has always been at the vanguard of attempting to bring things back into the public conversation, so that we don’t forget the things that the people before us did to ensure that we have the resources and the options available to us that we do today.

We are standing on the shoulders, not of giants, but more importantly, of people who were willing to stake their lives on not being popular for the sake of truth.

He was really charming and aware of my work from a lyrical perspective. I think that the poetry is what connected to him.

We spoke a little about dual citizenship and it hadn’t been long since I released ‘Chaila’. He was very flatteringly able to discuss my work with me.

I have great respect for anyone who has managed to stay as consistent to their ethics and to their hobbies and love for life as he has.

I hope to continue to benefit, as we all do, from the offerings that his mind has afforded us as a culture of people. I think we are all very proud that he was our president. I don’t think that is a small thing to say. You look at the leadership of other nations, and it’s embarrassing to say the least.

But in Michael, we had a real force for goodness in the world and still do, in or out of office – and I really hope that he knows that.

Read our in-depth cover story interview with Michael D. Higgins – and tributes from Cillian Murphy, Bob Geldof, Niall Horan, Dermot Kennedy, Denise Chaila and more – in the current issue of Hot Press, out now: