Michael D. Higgins leads Irish tributes to Rock 'N' Roll President Jimmy Carter

President Michael D. Higgins was among the first world leaders to pay tribute to Jimmy Carter, the Georgia peanut farmer who in 1977 became the 39th President of America. His re-election bid was thwarted by Ronald Reagan but he remained a strident human rights activist and in 2002 was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. He was a good friend to Ireland, advocating for an end to The Troubles and working closely with politicians here including Michael D.

“The values that a global public have come to associate with former President of the United States, Jimmy Carter, for younger generations in particular, will have been through their awareness, and admiration, of the work of the Carter Center," President Higgins notes, These values were, however, ones that can be seen to have informed all of his life.

"President Carter will be remembered as a principled man who dedicated his life to seeking to advance the cause of peace across the world. His exceptional contribution was in his quest to understand the obstacles to peace.

"In his long life of public service, Jimmy Carter’s service as the 39th President of the United States was during a significant and challenging period of American history.

"Almost uniquely as a former President, his greatest legacy will however perhaps be his distinguished record and commitment to human rights in the decades following his Presidency. This is a legacy that was given international recognition when Jimmy Carter in 2002 became the only U.S. President to receive the Nobel Peace Prize after leaving office.

"Through the Carter Center, which early in its work acquired a reputation for integrity in its many election observation missions, through his work as a founding member of The Elders, and as a prolific author right up until recent years, such work by him was always expressed as a pursuit of hope. President Carter provided a constant voice of the normative in his public policy, the importance of using the resources of reconciliation, and of promoting peace and dialogue.

"This work, in the public world, was in addition to his voluntary work with charities such as Habitat for Humanity and in his privileging of the value of community work. He provided consistent support for those seeking to build a better and more just world, helped to provide greater access to healthcare to many of the most vulnerable across the planet, and drew attention to human rights abuses wherever he saw them.

"I cannot think of anyone who would be more appalled at the images on the television screens of the world of tiny children, a few weeks old or less, being buried having died from hypothermia, their mothers malnourished and the last of their working hospitals razed.

"I had the privilege of meeting President Carter on a number of occasions in Ireland, Central America and Africa. I, as President, and all of us Irish at home or abroad, will particularly recall President Carter’s significant initiative in 1977 in recognising the potential role of the United States in support for the efforts at achieving peace in Northern Ireland. I know from my conversations with President Carter, that this was an interest which he retained in the decades after he left office. Indeed, this was an emphasised theme he included during his visit to Áras an Uachtaráin in 1995 when he met President Mary Robinson.

"Jimmy Carter’s Presidency will also be remembered for his attempts to build peace through the 1978 Camp David Accords, the negotiation of the SALT II treaty with the Soviet Union, and the establishment of diplomatic relations between the United States and the People’s Republic of China. His foreign policy was one that was normatively driven, one that rejected the narrowness of exclusively interests-driven theory.

“A thoroughly decent man of great integrity” is how those who knew him will describe President Jimmy Carter, who leaves a rich legacy of public service.

"On behalf of the people of Ireland, may I express my sympathies to President Carter’s children and extended family, to President Joe Biden, to the people of the United States, and to his wide circle of colleagues and friends across the globe.

"Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dhílis.”

Like Michael D., Jimmy Carter recognised the power of the arts in helping to bring about change with 2020's Rock & Roll President film documenting his links with the likes of Bob Dylan, the Allman Brothers, Paul Simon, Charlie Daniels, Dizzy Gillespie, Herbie Hancock, Dexter Gordon, George Benson, Aretha Franklin, Nile Rodgers and Bono.

“When I first met Jimmy, first thing he did was quote my songs back to me," Dylan noted.

Renowned for his warmth and failure to follow stuffy protocol, he caused quite the diplomatic stir in 1977 by planting a kiss on the Queen Mother's lips.

Here are some of the other notable reactions to Jimmy Carter's passing yesterday at the age of a hundred.

Over six decades, Jill and I had the honor of calling Jimmy Carter a dear friend.

But, what’s extraordinary about Jimmy Carter, though, is that millions of people throughout America and the world who never met him thought of him as a dear friend as well. pic.twitter.com/irknhZ6CJY

— President Biden (@POTUS) December 29, 2024

Hillary's and my statement on the passing of President Jimmy Carter: pic.twitter.com/SOgqTZUdi6

— Bill Clinton (@BillClinton) December 29, 2024

President Jimmy Carter was a truly extraordinary man and a rare politician who always stood up and spoke out for idealism, compassion and human rights and particularly for the rights of women and those who suffered real oppression.
I feel so privileged to have been able to work… pic.twitter.com/hf9vT7sGWP

— Peter Gabriel (@itspetergabriel) December 30, 2024